A career in drawing and inking

Comic nerds and anime geeks are in for a big treat today, as Bitec Bangna plays host to Bangkok Comic-Con and the Anime Festival Asia.

Packed with characters from TV and film, the event offers fans the chance to get up close and personal with dragons Rhaegal and Viserion from “Game of Thrones”, “Batman” movie producer Michael Uslan as well as characters from “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and “Ben 10”.’

The Mockingjay Landmark from “The Hunger Games” will also be there, sharing space with the Emperor’s Throne from “Star Wars”, plus rare collectibles from comics and animation powerhouses.

Comics fans will also get to meet with Kochakorn Mhanaojyakorn, or Pop Mhan, as he signs his work. The only Thai comic-book artist at DC Comics, he’ll be hosting a demonstration of live drawing, as well as a portfolio review session for those dreaming of a career in comic books.

We had a chat with him the other day about his passion for comics.

 

HOW DID IT ALL START?

When I was younger I liked to draw, though not very seriously. That changed when I was at high school and got my hands on a comic book of the X-Men by my idol, Jim Lee, who was the No 1 artist in America at the time. It was so dynamic and full of energy that it blew me away. From then on, I set my sights on becoming a comic-book artist. It took me about two years and then I actually got to meet Jim Lee at a Comic-Con during a portfolio review.

 

WAS THAT HOW YOU TURNED PROFESSIONAL?

Jim basically hired me on the spot. This was in 1994 or ’95, way before YouTube or anything like that, and I started with the basics, the foundation of drawing and inking. No matter what art form you choose, it’s all about foundation. I worked really, really hard by myself.

 

YOU MUST BE REALLY GOOD. 

Jim is a good judge of ability. I was not good at all when I first started, but I think he saw that I could be much better. He trained me and taught me how to draw, but I only stayed with him for one year before breaking out on my own because I really lacked self-confidence. It was a big setback in my career at the time too because I never really believed in myself. It took me a while to mature and grow as a person.

 

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR STYLE?

When I was working with Jim, I was drawing more in his style but when I broke out I took a 180-degree turn and went for more of an urban, hip-hop, graffiti style. Then I went to Japanese style. Put all that together and that’s about my style now. 

 

HOW DOES IT WORK IN A COMIC BOOK PRODUCTION?

With American comic books there’s a very specialised process. You have a writer who comes up with the whole story, the plots and the characters. Then there are the people known as “pencillers” who basically sketch the story out frame by frame. The inkers then come in and refine the sketch into pictures. Then there are colourists and letterers who put colour and dialogues in the pictures. I worked as a penciller, which is quite hard to do because you have to translate story into pictures. 

 

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN DOING THIS NOW? 

Twenty years! The average lifespan of a comic book artist is about five years, because the work is so tough and rigorous. Sometimes you end up 14 hours at the drawing table, non-stop. If there’s anything anyone can take away from my career, it’s that you can be so bad and still survive in the industry as long as you try really hard to get better. I wasn’t very good at all when I started. 

 

WHAT DID YOUR PARENTS SAY WHEN YOU SAID YOU’D BE DRAWING CARTOONS FOR A LIVING?

They hated the idea! With my major in psychology I was trying to do what they wanted me to do, but it just wasn’t for me. It doesn’t matter what you want to do in life as long as you do it well. And if you have passion for it, you will go very far. 

 

HOW HAVE YOU MANAGED TO STAY IN THE BUSINESS FOR SO LONG?

I’m on a permanent quest to make myself better. Whatever script I get, I try to pick up on one thing I really, really want to work on, take the weakness I have and work on that issue. I always want to fix my weakness.

I’m really bad at drawing feet, and because of that I used to draw a lot of feet to improve my skills. It’s a never-ending fight because you don’t want to doubt yourself too much, and at the same time you don’t want to get too proud. You have to be fully aware of what your weaknesses are. A lot of people run away from their weaknesses. I prefer to attack them.

WILL TECHNOLOGY ONE DAY REPLACE ARTISTS?

People are worried that technology will take over. Comics is a niche industry, it’s a collectable market. I don’t think technology will replace people in the comic industry, because once it does, it becomes a different industry. Technology does help though.. I could never do what I do, at the rate that I do it, without computers. If I were to do everything by hand, it would take three times as long. Layouts can now be done digitally on a computer and it allows you to make revisions very easily, and you can send them back and forth by email. Before that with paper you would have to draw, scan and send them over again. The work is now done 50/50 by hand and computer. Some people do produce their works entirely from computer, but I like my work to be more organic. Computerised works, to me, are emotionless. 

 

WHY AREN’T THERE A LOT OF THAIS IN THE COMIC BOOK INDUSTRY?

Thai people haven’t been really interested in drawing Western comic books. Their exposure to comic books is mostly from Japan. And that’s quite unfortunate because the Japanese market is generally closed off to foreigners. They only want Japanese people drawing, usually, whereas Westerners will just grab anyone from anywhere as long as they’re good. 

My intention is to form a studio here in Thailand, to make DC Comic books for the Western market. I want to pass along what Jim Lee was doing for me. Thai kids are so talented. They are naturally artistic and the talent pool here is outrageous. They just need a little push, and confidence. I’m here to tell them that they too, can do it. 

 

 COSTUMED HEROES