In celebration of the release of Annihilation: Prologue, artist Scott Kolins generously took some time to answer some questions about the cosmic event and Nova's new uniform! I'd like to thank Scott for the interview and for sharing his artwork!

Where did you train to become an artist and how did you start in comics?

I studied under Dennis Jensen, Kim Demulder, Bart Sears and went to the Kubert School for 2 years. I was first hired by Valiant comics (though nothing came of it) and then drew The Jaguar Annual #1(Impact/DC). I then was accepted to be a Romita Raider at Marvel comics (in house art corrections under John Romita Sr.) and then went full time freelance penciler after that. I've been working at drawing and comics since I was about 10.

How did you become involved in the Annihilation project?

Andy Schmidt called and asked me. I read the script and joined up. I was very excited to work with Keith Giffen.

What was the creative process that went into the designs for Xandar and the Nova Corps' uniforms?

I was told that Nova Corp had changed/updated from the Rider uniform and was asked to draw up some new versions. The second version I drew (dubbed around the office as the football version) was chosen. The rest of the ships and such (besides the few Annihilus ships designed by Giffen/Olivetti) were just me filling up the pages with the best stuff I could think of. My sci-fi tech is somewhere in between Star Wars and Star Trek.

How does the writer/artist dynamic work between Keith Giffen and yourself for this project? Does Keith's experience as a fellow artist help the process?

I asked Keith to do breakdowns to help me with this monster. There were so many characters and so much happening initially, I need some help putting it in storytelling perspective. Although I changed his layouts a lot as I went, it helped me keep everything organized. Keith's great to work with. Very straight-forward - no B.S.

Given the large amount of action sequences in the 'Annihilation: Prologue', how do you, as a storyteller, approach your layouts for those scenes?

Same as always, what's need to convey what's happening. In this case it was a lot of stuff. Tons of ships, many different locales, scads of Nova's and more ships. Oh and lots of destruction! I would needed a few more weeks to choreograph everything and keep it straight in my head -if Keith hadn't provided those breakdowns. I spent a lot of time on those pages. I wanted to get everything in there I could fit - it was such a large scale story.

What other ongoing and future projects can we be looking forward to?

My next thing is a book called "Beyond". It's a random group of Heroes and Villains thrown together to see who'll survive. Little bit of T.V.'s "Lost" and some Secret Wars to set the stage. Bucket loads of fun. I think it'll be out in June or July.