Skybound Entertainment and Image Comics brought in a group of their talented comic artists during this past weekend’s Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle. I was lucky enough to chat with Tony Akins on Friday about his background as an inker and his work on Manifest Destiny.
As far as Tony’s background, he says that Manifest Destiny is his first time professionally inking something other than his own work. He was brought in by Stefano Gaudiano, who I also interviewed – check out that interview here! Largely, Tony is known as a penciller in the industry, but for the past few years he has enjoyed inking: “as a penciller you’re like the quarterback. You’re the guy who gets the script and lays it out and everyone contributes to that. But for the last few years, I’ve been kind of fine stepping away from that.”
Growing up, Tony says he wasn’t really into comic books or superheroes, but considered himself an artist like his father was. “The thing that sparked me was Star Wars and then Aliens. What I discovered was how those projects came together, the books of art for Alien and all the stuff that happened behind the scenes in films,” he said. Not being that into superheroes, Tony says Manifest Destiny is great for him because it’s right up his alley: “it’s got costumes, muskets, armored giant man-eating toads; it’s got the stuff I like!”
Below is the audio clip for the full interview!
