Review Fix chats with Eric Messinger about his highly-anticipated new fantasy coloring book, “Dominion of Giants: Behemoths of the Fantasy World.”
Review Fix: Why do a coloring book?
Eric Messinger: DMG is our personal project. When Fox Chapel Publishing expressed interest, I thought that a coloring book would be a great interactive way to introduce people to some of my characters that live in the Dominion.
Review Fix: What makes yours different from the slew of Marvel and DC ones out over the past year?
Messinger: First of all it is not a superhero coloring book. This is an original concept and character base.
Review Fix: How did your work for Image over the years prepare you for this?
Messinger: It gave me a strong sense of story, graphic design and line quality. Image taught me how to go from the first beginnings of an idea and bring that through to a strong final presentation, both through the story line and the images that support the story.
Review Fix: Any unexpected challenges?
Messinger: It took longer than expected. There was quite the learning curve to take my finished paintings and work backward to create varied, interesting and clear linework. What I mean, is that I wanted things to be simplified but not simple. I wanted to make sure that each image still carried the story of the piece, it was simply translated into line.
Review Fix: Who do you think will enjoy it the most?
Messinger: Anyone who enjoys fantasy or comics. If you like Game of Thrones, Vikings or Dungeons and Dragons, these are your types of characters. When we do our public coloring classes we have had people from four to 74 participate. The characters are accessible to all ages. The question is, where will you allow your imagination to take you?
Review Fix: How do you want this book to be remembered?
Messinger: The first hard to find book out of the world of the Dominion of Giants.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Messinger: We are working on a second book called “The Dominion of Giants Summoning.” This book will give more background and story and focus on a particular period of time within the world called the Summoning. I also want to put together a DMG sketch book so that people can see more of my process on how I create the characters.
Review Fix: Anything else you would like to add?
Messinger: Yes, I would like to give a hat’s off to my silent partner in all of this, Tricia Messinger, my wife. She is an accomplished artist in her own right and has been my inker for many of the pieces in DMG coloring book. She is also my muse when it comes to getting the ideas for the DMG from my head and onto paper, while also contributing her own ideas to the world as well.
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