W. Chew Chan
2002 highlights
Rumblings
in the interior ...
(Or what I've been up to during the ad break)
During 2002, I teamed up once again with Sequence Productions to bring out the comic "LYREBIRD". A comic reviving an old Marvel Comics character, it started life as a proposal for an editor at Marvel comics. Due to material senstive to events in America at the time, the project itself was hardly discussed and was pretty much stillborn. Nevertheless, artistically speaking, it was one of my most satisfying moments in drawing comics. As any artist will tell you, it is very hard to actually produce on paper the image you have in your mind's eye. On this project, however, most everything that I envisioned seem to have made it on to the page.
In any case, we did manage to salvage the project and it became what it is today. Like I said, even as I've moved on artistically, it's still some of the material of which I'm proudest. Ah, job satisfaction ... even on top of the advantages of freelancing, we take our joys whenever we can.
Another highlight of 2002 was contributing a piece to POP CULTURE AND 2 MINUTE NOODLES. I've been a huge fan of Dillon's work since I first saw it years ago. Dillon, himself, was someone with whom I have always wanted to work with - and he remains more so having actually worked with him. Here's a guy who's a perfect example, going back to what I was saying in the interview, of someone who's doing good quality product for the local market. He has a consistent (and I might add, very appealing) vision and has remained publishing POP CULTURE for over a decade. Absolutely inspiring! Also, the pages were inked by Greg Gates, another personal favourite of mine.
However, most of 2002 was spent reseaching and working on a huge project with Sequence Productions. We were all set to start on the first pages when I got a delightful interuption.
I got a call to work on a movie doing storyboards. It was for the director George Miller (who brought us all the 'Mad Max' and 'Babe' films, as well as "Lorenzo's Oil' and 'Witches Of Eastwick', among other movie gems).
Actually, for all that, the main reason I took the job, was to work with Mark Sexton, who is reputed to be one of Australia's best storyboard artists. Having worked with him, I can easily see why. Mark is doing double duty as lead storyboard artist as well as Production Designer on the film. Mark is legendary here in the local market because he was one half of the team that gave us BUG & STUMP, easily one of Australia's funniest comics ever to come out. So when he called, it was a easy decision to make.
Crossing mediums can be distracting, but I think there are many benefits to be gained if you're open minded. Working in a studio environment is also new to me. Though I usually prefer the solo life, I am having a blast at Kennedy Miller. I guess it helps when there are all sorts of fun people (and personalities!) around.
I plan to
return to the Sequence project once my committment to the movie is fulfilled.
I would call myself a story teller. I do this in a variety of ways. Whether it's through a combination of pictures and words, a series of images or even a single illustration, it is always a story, that I'm trying to get across. I mainly do this through comic books; although I also dabble in advertising work, commercial illustration and storyboarding for movies.
I'm a freelancer. I work totally by contracts. (Sometimes I have to work on faith - though, needless to say, it's not my preferred option!) A project usually starts when a client and I have a chat about what they want and what I can provide and, if we're lucky, it's the same thing. If it's not, then the contract falls by the side. One of the pitfalls of freelancing is the loss of a contact after a substantial amount of work has already gone into a project.
On the other hand, there's no way you can beat the advantages of freelancing. Firstly, you get to work your own hours. Secondly, despite the obvious need for income, and beggars can't be choosers, ultimately, you get to choose your clients and the work. I can't say enough how important that last bit is to me. No matter how tempting a high paying project may be, it may not appeal to me or may not be in my career's best interests. Sometimes, having the guts to walk away from a big paycheck can be liberating, not to mention important to the well being of your soul! The thing is, when people come to me, the choice is mine, and mine alone, as to whether or not I go ahead with the project. That is a kind of freedom money just can't buy.
I always wanted to draw and was always drawing when I was a kid. And, it's basically the only thing I know how to do well - that pays, anyway. It was tough getting into comics, in particular, because there's no hard and fast rule about how you break into the industry. Basically it's a lot of practice and patience and, in the current state of the industry, getting to meet and network with the right people who can offer you a job.
I made my first photocopy comic when I was 15 and I sold it for 2 ringgit (Malaysian dollars) and I sold 30 copies to school mates and it was successful enough to spawn a sequel the following year. (At least, that's my rose-coloured memory of events, and I'm sticking to it!) It was a basic good-vs-evil tale and it starred all my mates in school and, of course, the bad guy was my evil twin. It's been a fun ride ever since.
I practiced enough to get to a point where I decided I was good enough to make a living at this. I spent the first few years drawing and perfecting my art. My first "break" was at a comic convention where I met one of America's greatest editors of comics - Archie Goodwin (who's since passed away). He was quite generous in his praise though quite honest when he told me I wasn't good enough to work in comics at the time. But he said he saw enough that I should continue trying. Because of who he was, his nature and his honesty, it turned out to be very simple yet, utterly, inspirational words to a young artist just starting out. I'm sure, years from now, I will look back upon that day as a seminal time in my life.
After that, I spent a lot of time with the local comics community and managed to start a professional relationship with a writer called Dave DeVries. He was one of Australia's most successful writers at the time. I drew a comic for him. Unfortunately, it never came out. It was a lot of fun and taught me a lot about comics and storytelling. It didn't come out mainly because it wasn't viable at the time, and still isn't, because the Australian industry is quite small. It just wasn't a good idea to bring it out at the time but I still harbour hopes that it'll come out one day.
During this time I met up with Jim Sheppard, who was the Australian publisher of The Phantom comics and started producing work for him. This was in early 95 when I was just starting out, so it helped cement my confidence in my choice of careers.
Since then I've produced work for numerous local companies - the majority of which have not seen the light of day, for any number of reason. But mainly, it's because the Australian comic industry was too smalll at the time. This, unfortunately remains a significant facet of the Australian industry.
At the moment I'm working on a comic called 'The Borderlander'. The first issue will premiere on the 8th September at the Comicfest 2001 Comic Convention, at Centrepoint Convention Centre, Sydney. (And, of course, it will be available at all good newsagents in Australia.) It was a project for which I was brought in to design and draw the character. Originally, it was only meant to be for a single issue but, over the course of doing the issue, I fell in love with the character. And have since decided to do an extended storyline which should run for a few issues.
The Borderlander is basically a mystical cop who patrols the borders between our world and countless others. He has a magic suit that obligates him to do his job, which is to ensure that creatures from one world do not cross over into another. Unfortunately, he isn't always very successful.
It's a comic for Sequence Productions and they'll be premiering 7 other books at the convention as well.
My main inspiration comes from the world around me and all the stories I see unveiling before me. It comes from looking at people going about their lives, comes from movies, comes from tales my friends tell. The urge to retell the more interesting details of life is what drives me to create, which, in my case, is to fashion a visual story out of all the wonderfully interesting threads lying about our world.
As for my artwork, I draw inspiration from comic indusrty icons such as Adam Hughes and Frank Cho, who draw the best, and most real looking, women around in comics; Mark Schultz, whose remarkable rendition of real life in a fictional future remains the benchmark to which I aspire to in my drawings; turn of the century art nouveau master, Aphonse Mucha. And, lately, I've been captivated by all the "Art Of..." Disney (and other animated movies) books. Their preproduction paintings are true windows to worlds of wonder.
As far as my comics go I usually start by coming up with a story, or have a story be given to me. Then I'll break it down into picture form which we call thumbnails. These are incredibly small mockups of the comic page, usually no more than a few square inches, hence their name. From there it goes to the art board where I'll draw the pictures in non-photographic blue pencil (which, later on, I will draw over with ordinary black graphite pencils). This gives me a skeleton, or a blueprint, if you will, of my page, which doesn't erase easily. This means if I start to lose a drawing, I can just erase the black pencil leaving my blue skeleton, from which I can begin again. This is actually an archaic and obsolete process in the current age of super technology we're in. But I can't help myself. I love the look of the blue pencil under the black pencils.
After I'm satisfied with the pencils it moves onto the inking stage. This I either do myself or I can employ another inker. Although in the Australian industry the latter option isn't always available. This is because most times it's geographically difficult to match up with an inker who lives Interstate.
Then the lettering will have to be put on - either by hand or by computer. This is where all the word balloons and sound effects get put in.
Then the book gets coloured. Again, this is done primarily by computers, although there are a few dinosaurs still painting by hand - which I actually prefer. Unfortunately, time constraints don't always allow that luxury - it's way faster by computers.
How do you market your services?
For comics work it's predominantly by networking. Of course, luck doesn't hurt - being there at the right time and the right place. Getting to know people and finding out who has work to be done - always bearing in mind that it's people you want to work with in the first place. In these cases, it's usually not as formal as meeting and presenting to clients in the commercial world (which, funnily enough, we tend to characterise as different).
So far, in terms of my commercial work it's by word of mouth. Clients usually find me through people I know, or have worked with. It's a situation which I have been extremely fortunate to have been in. I usually only take on commercial work when it's time to pay the bills and I'm short, or when a project really appeals to me.
In this industry, making a living just by producing and selling comics is rare. Most of the chaps I know have full time jobs to make a living. This ends up being quite prohibitive in terms of producing comics on any sort of a decent schedule. This really becomes a catch-22 situation. By not coming out on a regular basis, there isn't a big chance of building an audience. Without the audience, publishers won't print on a monthly basis if they don't think the units will move quick enough. One of the keys to fixing the problem is to ensure quality product on a timely basis. And that's something the local industy hasn't seen in a long time.
My aim is to do exactly that, and hope like mad that there's a market to be built!
Again, the idea is to do the best work I can. Put out a solid, quality product - hold up my end of the bargain with the readers, and hope they want to come along for the ride!
I think the next step is to build a profile in the American, and other foreign, markets. Again, this is achieved by doing good work.
At the moment, my favourite comic has to be Hellboy. He's basically a creature summoned from hell by one of Hitler's occult groups towards the end of the war, but was never put into play and, ultimately, forgotten. In the end, he was raised by a goodly professor to become an occult investigator. Another favourite is Planetary, about a group of super-powered archeologists endeavouring to uncover the secret history of the world. Other comics I enjoy are Promethea and Top Ten. Oh, and Usagi Yojimbo, a fantastic anthropomorphic series, steeped in rich culture, about a ronin samurai rabbit!
Chaos Generation, of course! To be honest, I don't have many bookmarks. I mostly just do research on the web, and will just roam (aimlessly, it seems sometimes) getting the stuff I want. I'm almost never disappointed. I guess, one reason I don't bookmark is that I want to go everywhere, and not get tied down into the same sites over and over again. Of course, it's a major pain when I forget something and want to revisit a site whose address I can't remember! One bookmark I have is www.comicbookresources.com, which is essential in keeping me updated with comics-related news.
Address:
49 Westmore Drive, West Pennant Hills NSW 2125
Phone: 9873 1961 Fax: 9871 3346 Email: chewie@zip.com.au
About CG | Editor: Kirsten Lowe | PO Box 559, Broadway 2007, Sydney, Australia
Ph: 0410 310 238 | Fax: +61 2 9555 1752 | Email: kirsten@chaosgeneration.com