Queen for a Day: The Queenie Chan Interview

Queenie Chan was barely an adult when she began drawing, but in a short amount of time, she was able to make a successful manga career out of it. Launching her career with The Dreaming, she expanded her work with TokyoPop by working as an illustrator on some of the graphic novels based on Dean Koontz’s Odd Thomas books. Chan talked to GraphicNovelReporter about how she got started, what her work process is like, and what advice she has for people interested in making their own comics professionally.

How did you get started drawing? Was it self-taught or did you learn from classes or books?

I actually didn't start drawing until I was 18—before that, I only ever drew for school projects, which makes me entirely self-taught. Back then, my motivation was to develop a hobby that I could enjoy while I studied for my Information Systems degree. I wasn't enjoying my stint at university, and so I spent my spare time skipping lectures and writing/drawing instead. Drawing became a way for me to cope with my studies.

Gradually, the writing and drawing got so enjoyable that I wished I could do it for a full-time job! Looking back, I think I would have seriously benefited from taking art classes or reading books about drawing, because that would have made some aspects of it (especially anatomy) a lot easier. However, because I didn't have any art instruction, I had to learn things the long way around, and so I developed some bad habits that took a while to undo. It all worked out at the end, though, because having to draw professionally meant that I had to do research and expose myself to a much wider range of art than an Information Systems degree person would otherwise be exposed to, and that opened my eyes to the possibilities out there.

Why did you choose to draw manga?

Because that was all I knew when I first started drawing. I grew up in Hong Kong and moved to Australia, and in that time I have never been exposed to any Western comics except for Archie. Everything comics-related I read was manga, which I had read as a child in Hong Kong. I was vaguely aware that there were such things called "superhero comics" out there, but it sounded very gosh-darn American, and as a Chinese-Australian, I just wasn't interested in it. I didn't know that alternative comics existed either. In my world, comics = manga. So naturally, when I first started to draw comics, I did it in manga-style.

It wasn't until I started drawing The Dreaming for TokyoPop that I started to educate myself about the other kinds of comics out there. I picked up the Vertigo line (Transmetropolitan, The Sandman, Fables, etc.) and other Western comics like The Watchmen and enjoyed them greatly, but I still prefer manga-style storytelling.

How did you get involved with TokyoPop?

I was living in Hong Kong when I saw TokyoPop advertise online for international manga artists. It was sometime in 2003, after their Rising Stars of Manga competition, and it was a huge shock because I had no idea manga was being published in English in America. I saw the RSOM online completely by accident, and since non-Americans cannot enter, I decided to keep an eye on this company to see if they were looking to hire people. Sure enough, they soon did, but it was only much later that I realized this kind of open call for artists is very rare.

So I threw a bunch of story art together in an envelope and sent it off to TokyoPop, with no idea that I was supposed to send a proper submission. They were kind enough to write back to tell me that I was supposed to write a submission, but they liked my art a lot. This was in the early days of their Original Works program, and they weren't yet getting mountains of submissions, so I was able to begin pitching stories to them. I pitched an action-adventure, a horror story, and a high-school romance. In the end, they asked me to combine the horror story and the high-school romance and make a Haunted School story. That became The Dreaming.

What was the biggest challenge with The Dreaming?

I don't remember anything that was substantially difficult with the process—I think it was rather the speed that I had to come up with the concept and storyline. Artwise, the story was born fully with its look intact, so I didn't have to work on that too much. Once that was settled (and the script written), it was the process of having to grind out the art, just like every other graphic novel out there. I guess that is the biggest challenge of any graphic novel out there.

I enjoyed drawing the dresses. Seriously, as nice to look at as the school was, it was a pain to draw. It was the same environment for the whole three books, and the novelty wore off pretty quickly for me. It's a rare story that manages to be set in the same place for three books and still be compelling, though, so perhaps I should give myself a pat on the back!

How did you get involved with Dean Koontz’s graphic novels?

I think it was after book two of The Dreaming that Dallas Middaugh, then of Del Rey, contacted me and asked me if I was interested in a book by Dean Koontz called Odd Thomas. I'd heard from Dallas before—he enjoyed volume one of The Dreaming and had emailed me to ask about another project, which I had to turn down due to volume two of The Dreaming. I read Dean's books as a teen, so I was immediately intrigued, and after Dallas sent me the book, I decided I'd be happy to work on a prequel to Odd Thomas. The end result was working on In Odd We Trust and volume three of The Dreaming at the same time (overlapping schedules for a few months), so I tell you, I was totally addled by these two books, and my memories of them have actually merged together in my head. Yowza.

So I guess it was being in the right place at the right time. And Dallas (and Dean) for taking an interest in my work (many thanks to them!).

Did you work with Dean Koontz while making them? What was the process like?

There were a few back-and-forth emails, but back in those days, no one had a clear idea of what the whole thing would end up looking like, so my contact with Dean was pretty minimal. Basically, I wrote the script, then Dean rewrote the dialogue to fit his vision of his characters. It was a tad awkward, and the whole thing was an experiment, but it seemed to have worked out well enough (judging by the sales figures of In Odd We Trust). For my part, I concentrated on making the characters likeable and interpreting them as close as possible to the way they were in the books. After reading the emails I received from fans of the book telling me they liked my interpretation of the characters, I think I succeeded there.

The second book, Odd Is on Our Side,was a lot different, since I was just doing the art while Fred Van Lente worked on the script with Dean. This time, Dean had a much clearer idea of the final product, so he provided a story summary, while Fred took this summary and wrote a comics script. Fred and Dean then worked on the script until it was the final version, and I have to say, the two of them gelled really well and produced a very good script. It was a pleasure doing the art for Odd Is on Our Side. I'm currently working on book three, called House of Odd, and the process is the same.

What tips do you have for people interested in making comics professionally?

It's a difficult time to break into comics due to the recession, but I feel that if you want to do comics professionally, it's best to first have at least a few short stories under your belt. That way, you can figure out how fast you can draw and pace yourself accordingly. Believe it or not, drawing comics is really about grind a lot of the time—you have to draw whether you want to or not, and you draw a lot of things you don't find interesting. So unless you can work under those circumstances, you're better off sticking to drawing comics as a hobby. I would also advise getting a new hobby when you're drawing professionally. You need some kind of distraction in order to keep to deadlines!

Do you have any favorite manga or graphic novels?

I really like the Vertigo line, mostly the original titles like The Sandman, Transmetropolitan, and Fables. I also like Harvey Pekar's work a lot, which I picked up after watching the movie. In terms of manga, I still enjoy One Piece immensely—it's definitely my favorite comic of all time. I still read a lot of Tezuka stories, especially Black Jack,since they are still his best short stories.

Is there anything else you'd like people to know about you?

I like to make felted cakes! No, really I do!

I also have a lot of short comic stories that I've drawn over the years (and I’m still drawing more) on my website. I always put my short stories online, since it shows a progression of my art and writing over the years. It's also an online résumé of sorts. I'm always happy when people read and enjoy these stories, because while they're all of different genres, they're all about me learning to draw, write, or tell stories better.

 

-- Danica Davidson