With the release of Trakovi #1; on the 26th of July from Scout Comics, we are delighted to be joined by writer/artist and creator Adriean Koleric.
Hi Adriean, It’s so wonderful to have you here with us today.
Thanks so much for having me! I really appreciate this.
Could you please introduce yourself?
Sure! My name is Adriean Koleric. I am the Creator of the upcoming comic book series, TRAKOVI (The Slav With No Remorse). I’m also the Artist and Letterer on this.
Scout Comics is releasing Trakovi #1 on the 26th of July; can you tell us about the history of Trakovi?
Trakovi originally started off as a side character in a series of prints that I was making for local markets. I was making fan art of known superheroes doing everyday things. Like ‘Dr. Doom Makes a Sandwich’ or ‘Steve Rogers pours a Cup of Coffee’. Stuff like that. I then started drawing my own characters like Boris The Mint, Singh International and Peter Petrovic. The latter being this out of shape, Slavic due with a large moustache and a Spiderman mask that was just pulled down to his nose. I did a few panels with him against my take on a Hydra Agent. That character was Trakovi. I planned on making a comic with Petrovic, until I came across the online comedy series of ‘Italian Spiderman’. The lead in that was way too close to Petrovic, so I opted to focus on the side character, Trakovi. From there I made a couple of ‘fake’ comic book covers for a potential book, along with stickers and prints. Then in 2019 I had a table at the Edmonton Expo, in the Artist Alley. It was a pretty slow weekend in terms of sales, so I used the time to start scripting out the book. Met a few other Indy Creators there and kept bouncing ideas off them. I then worked away on Issue 1 and 2 over the next year or so and eventually launched a Kickstarter in the Fall of 2021. The campaign was successful, the books were printed and the response was great!
How did Scout Comics get involved with Trakovi?
I actually had zero interest in submitting to a Publisher! I always thought my stuff was more underground and for a niche market of maybe 8 people, tops. I was intent on self-publishing these books. But then after the Kickstarter ended, I came across the Scout release for Mullet Cop by Tom Lintern. The drawing style was so different from the usual and it felt like it was something that Trakovi could sit next to on a shelf. Plus this was a book that was done by one person as well. So that was pretty inspiring to see. I then hit up Scout’s submission page as well as a few other Publishers. That was in October 2021. December came and I just assumed that there would be no response. But I sent a follow-up email anyway to Scout. The next day I received a reply from Brendan Dineen (Scout CEO), basically saying “Still being discussed. Will get back soon”. So it wasn’t a “No”! We went back and forth till early January, when he sent the message “OK, let’s do this!” Contracts were signed, I was assigned an Editor (Andrea Molinari) and away we went on 5 issues! At the end of the day, Brendan fought for the book and is the biggest reason that I’m talking about this today. I owe that guy.
Who is Trakovi?
Trakovi is a Slovenian thug taking on light contract work in the Canadian City of Edmonton. Which is my hometown. I based him on a few people I grew up with in the Slovenian/Yugoslavian community. Mostly my Grandfather.
How would you describe Trakovi #1?
I basically tried to mimic the feeling you get when listening to a 29 minute punk album for the first time. Just a ‘smash and grab’ story that ends before it even starts. The story is simple, the dialogue isn’t heavy and I made sure there was a cliff-hanger. In all honesty, I was trying to make a Guy Ritchie movie the whole time and ended up with this.
You are creating all of the art for the comic. What part of that process do you enjoy the most, pencils, inking or colouring?
Colouring. My ink work is sub-pedestrian and nothing to pass onto anyone to study. But I feel confident with colouring. I have a background as an Artist in different mediums as well as Furniture/Interior Design. So I’ve always been comfortable with that end of things. Also I really enjoyed lettering for the first time. I spent a bit of time looking into how to do that proper and am pretty happy on how that turned out.
How long, on average, does it take for you to create an issue of Trakovi?
Issues 1-2 took over a year. After that I whittled it down to about 6 months per issue.
Dave Thomas has created the cover for Trakovi #1; how did the collaboration with Dave Thomas come about?
Dave is also here in Edmonton and I had been following his Instagram well before the book started. Never met him. So when starting to think about covers, I came across this one painting of his that just hit me and instantly gave me the idea of using him for the cover. Dave is a classically trained painter and is museum quality. So I knew I had no chance of a reply. But I got a reply. He was so down for it and had been following my work as well! He hand painted the covers for the two self-published covers and then did the digital paintings for the Scout release of Issues 1-5. He’s an absolute dream to work with and I’m looking forward to seeing his work on someone else’s book.
What has it been like working with Scout Comics?
It’s been really great so far! What I like the most is how they let Creators just do their thing. My Scout Editor, Andrea Molinari, has been an absolute gift. He helped steer the plot into a direction that I never considered, but was always there in front of my face in Issue 1! He asked the right questions, cleaned up my dialogue and offered a lot of encouragement during the process. You can tell he was proud of the books he worked on. As a first time Creator, it was a learning experience that helped set me up for the next book and the one after that. I really hope to do another book with them at some point down the road.
Do you have a favourite character from the Trakovi universe?
I love them all, but tops for me has to be ULA. You won’t meet her till Issue #3. That’s when the true story kicks-in and you know exactly what the point of all this is. She’s out to hurt people in an awful way. But you eventually find out her reasons why and can almost see her point in why she’s doing what she’s doing. Plus I love drawing her with those big red glasses.
For any readers that want to get their hands on Trakovi #1, what is the best way for them to do that?
Apart from finding it on the shelves of your local Comic Book Shop, you can order directly from Scout at this link…
https://www.scoutcomics.com/collections/trakovi
Any message for the ComicBuzz readers?
Please stick it out for all 5 issues! I promise you, the story you think is happening in Issue #1 is nowhere near the direction this heads to. TRAKOVI is a tragic story about how different people deal with loss and the effects it has on Family dynamics. I always refer to Issue #3 as my ‘Empire Strikes Back’. This is when things take off and I really hope you guys are along for the entire ride.
A big; thank you to Adriean for sitting and chatting with us. We would like to wish him the best of luck with Trakovi.
