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Vicki Nguyen article

Vicky Nguyen is an undergraduate student majoring in Journalism. Previously dabbling in game development, she realized this was not her passion and switched over to Media & Communication, while pursuing comics on the side. Her interests mainly have to do with the grey side of humanity, especially in regards to the court cases and how they function, as well as Norse mythology.

Vicki Nguyen at Squishface Studio.

A person of many interests, Vicky Nguyen has always had an interest in comics, but it was not until she finished her degree in Game Design, where she discovered her dissatisfaction with the Game Industry, did she resume doing it.

Vicky Nguyen’s interest in comics began by doing a fan-comic of the Mass Effect series when she was younger, exploring an alternative ending to the original saga. Eventually Nguyen realized that comics was a medium that she could explore further. Considering herself a visual thinker, as well as a storyteller, she thought that comics would be an interesting medium to explore, and thus she continued to delve deeper into it.

At first Nguyen worked fully digital doing her fan-comic of Mass Effect 3, but soon discovered that although the advancements of technology made comic-making more effective, for her workflow she sensed it was hindering her artistic abilities. She found out that her digital techniques are seen as a crutch, this led her to change her work style to traditional. She still uses digital technology for the sketching process, which she then prints out, before inking her comic page traditionally. Nguyen finds that with drawing traditionally, she is able to fix most of her bad drawing habits, and thus is able to improve more as an artist.

Nguyen’s art is characterized by soft-transient flows of watercolour, bordered by soft sepia lines on watercolour paper. Thus, her drawings have a historic undertone to them almost as if they are from an archive from the past.

An example of what Nguyen is working on from the Goldfire series.

When asked about the projects she is working on, Nguyen answers that she is working on the 1st book of the Goldfire Quartet series, Moonlight City. Goldfire is a crime, urban-fantasy series that explores the relationship between the Gods from Greek mythology and humans, as well as the darker sides of humanity that are involved. Magic is used in the setting of the story, while the narrative explores the theme of authority and how one opposes such authority.

In addition to such themes, Nguyen aims to challenge standard conventions that are prevalent in fantasy and fiction today. Conventions that she will challenge include: a female protagonist who is a family woman, and a more diverse cast (including LGBTQ characters, and characters of different ethnicities).

In addition to the Goldfire Quartet series, Nguyen aims to complete another graphic novel project known as Duality of Ideas. A historical-based series that she has currently put on-hold, which is about the mentor-student relationship between the founder of MIT and a student, due to unsettling recent historical discovery.

This article was written by Sabine Kwan, an intern at Squishface Studio. To see more of Vicki’s work, feel free to view more of her work on her website.

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David Blumenstein Interview

David Blumenstein is a man who wears many hats. A husband and father, as well as a cartoonist, comics-artist, service designer and visual communicator, he juggles many things at once. When I ask how he manages to do this this in addition to being the deputy president of the Australian Cartoonist Association, he answers he does not. His work and personal life are perfectly integrated, he says, with comics and art.

Blumenstein’s drawing style is distinct. Simple, and “edited down” to a fault, his comics are informative and engaging, mixed in with a dash of philosophy, and a sense of humour. His comics are mostly autobiographical, and tend to one of the following: stuff he is curious about or stuff he is pissed off about. 

A simplified version of David as shown on his website.

His comics are represented by a drawing of himself as an avatar, with squiggly lines of hair on a round head with a beard. In his comics, as the narrator, he takes the reader on a journey about pickup artists in #takedown: My evening on a pier with pick-up artists and protestors. Inspired by a protest he attended about a pickup artist named Julien Blanc, David documents his thoughts about him, how the protestors stopped Julian Blanc from giving a speech about berating women, and how Julian Blanc had to change venues to continue giving his talk (which failed because of the protestors gathering up the police.)

A panel from David’s website taken from the comic #takedown: My evening on a pier with pick-up artists and protestors.

Another comic that David has worked on is called Free Money, Please, an investigative enquiry into the concept of money and an artist’s relationship with money. For this project, David interviewed a bitcoin mogul, and asked him questions on how to save up on money, as well as his personal opinion on the concept of money himself. For this project, David paid an audio-transcriber to transcribe the interview for him. After viewing the audio transcript, and doing his research, he then starts the editing process. This involves choosing which segments to include and not to include. He then shows it to friends for feedback, and after revises his thumbnails until he comes up with a completed product. He says in the future, after gathering more interviews, he hopes he could make Free, Money, Please into a printed book for future publication. 

In Free, Money, Please, David interviews a bit-coin mogul, who is represented here as a robot of grand stature. 

Other than working on his comics, David also works on freelancing projects that are related to service-design. Service-design defined as delivering a product to show how a concept works. He tends to work on projects that he has a personal connection with, such as promoting mental health, and homelessness. Although he has not ever experienced any of those things, he mentions he knows friends who have been in these situations, thus this motivates him to work on these projects.  

It was by choosing service-design and comics, David believes, he was saving himself out of a dire situation in the animation industry. David, previously, in the animation industry, believed that he needed to find a way out, as the state of the animation industry was changing. Companies were starting to export their animation to places where it could be produced cheaply such as China, and for David the way out for him—was comics.

Ironically, as the deputy president of the Australian Cartoonists Association it seemed to David that many cartoonists needed to find other outlets, other than comics in order to sustain their income. Some using storyboarding (through the animation industry, or commissions (for example fanart) in order to do so. He found this through an investigative survey he sent surveying cartoonists about their career, and how they made their income. 

Other than finding other markets for cartoonists to make a living, when I talked to David about other interesting trends that seem to be happening in the cartooning industry, he mentions that people are redefining the word cartoonist. This is because people, especially the younger generation, are not using this term anymore. Rather, he says, people are using the term “comic-artist.”

In regards to advice for younger artists he recommends to form or join a professional group (a union or even the Australian Cartoonists Association), so that way artists know (especially when freelancing) whether they are paid fairly or not. 

This article was written by Sabine Kwan, an intern at Squishface Studio. To see more of David’s work, visit his website.