But I always go back to two styles in particular--American comic book art and Japanese anime. Which isn't uncommon obviously, but in my case, it probably has a lot to do with the way I grew up. I guess when you have a Japanese dad and a Caucasian mom, and you grow up in Hawaii surrounded by Japanese influences on the one hand and American on the other, you inevitably end up with tastes like mine. When I was a kid, I loved Starblazers and Robotech just as much as the X-men and Spider-man, and that's still true today.
And it really comes into play when I'm drawing. I don't know if you can tell just by looking, but there's always a back-and-forth pull between Eastern and Western influences that ultimately ends up as my 'style.'
In recent years, I've been working in the American comic book market, and to get work, it seemed like a good idea to tamp down the Asian side of things and push a more mainstream, Western style.
But things just took an interesting turn.
Turns out that I'll be drawing a new Marvel comic called BIG HERO 6, and it's about a team of superpowered operatives... from Japan. Which means all the Eastern influence I've been holding back for years can finally come out and do some good! We're just a few pages into the first issue, but everyone on the art team's pretty excited about the East-meets-West style we're using on the book.
My partner in crime on this is Emily Warren, one of the best digital painters I've ever seen and (going back to my opening thoughts) an artist I first encountered here on DA. It's a real privilege to team up with an artist of her caliber.
Chris Claremont's writing the book, and Marvel just released the first preview images today on Joe Quesada's MYCUP O' JOE Blog:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=92159514&blogID=395144551
Anyway, more news on this later, but I hope people enjoy BIG HERO 6 half as much as we're enjoying working on it. :)
Pencils and Inks: Me
Colors: Emily Warren
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