Post #182778 by Kamapua'a on Mon, Aug 29, 2005 1:01 PM

Interview with Chongolio

*… Action and suspense are once again on display in the second book, on display being the operative phrase. Because this time around we decided to catch up with Chris’s partner, Randy Bain, the illustrator of the series.

The amazing thing about this collaboration is that it reaches far beyond the triCities. As of our interview with Chris back in April, the two hadn’t even met in person. In fact, Randy has never even been to the state of New Jersey!

Instead, he’s happy getting stoked in Santa Cruz, California, where we caught up with him for an interview … via email, of course …

So, have you met Chris in person yet?*

No not yet, just lots of emails and hours on the phone talking about all kinds of stuff. We have become really good friends and have cultivated a fantastic working relationship.

Where do you draw your artistic inspiration from?

That is a long list, but here are a few things that have been with me since I was a pup: music, monsters and strange creatures, Saturday morning cartoons, the art and culture of Polynesia and the south Pacific, Ma nature and all of her flora and fauna, jungle wildlife, science fiction and outer space, 60's and 70's surf culture, underground comics, old movies, etc ... As I said, the list could go on for days.

A cool thing about the art in Volume Two is that most of the sketches were done during my last trip to Hawaii. It was really neat to actually be in Kamapua'a's stomping grounds while creating the images for his book. There were some wild roosters and chickens that lived outside the condo that we stayed in so I had live models for the chicken drawings. It was very inspirational and I felt like Kamapua'a could of been right there drooling on me as he looked over my shoulder.

Is Kamapua’a based on a person in your life?

I did not base him on anybody in particular, but Kamapua'a reminds me of a lot of people myself included. In a way, he represents humanities ability to be noble, caring and beautiful, however, we can also be a self centered, cruel and grotesque bunch as well. I think everybody has this trait in them. To some degree, it's human nature.

What tools and media do you use when creating the artwork?

I always start with a pencil and sketchpad. I will create a rough idea on paper, then scan it into my computer. Once in my computer, I will clean it up and start fooling around with colors and textures. I use mostly Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator on a Macintosh G4.

How long does it take you to illustrate an edition?

We have been taking about 3 month between each volume. I am usually working on ideas and images during that entire time.

Does Chris send you the complete script, or a few pages at a time?

Chris will send me the whole story as one big text file. I then take it into Adobe Pagemaker to see how many pages we are going to have and how everything is going to fit. While doing this, Chris and I will start thinking about which parts of his story that would make for good illustrations. It's sometimes uncanny how we both choose the same parts of the story that we think would make for powerful imagery. Chris and I have connected on so many levels it really is amazing to me how well we work together for a couple of dudes that never met.

Have you ever been to New Jersey?

Nope not yet, I have some family out there that live fairly close to Chris, so I am pretty sure that one day him I will share a cocktail in his zip code. I have an opportunity to go to New Jersey this month, but I am really swamped with projects right now and would have to do some serious flaking to pull it off, so it will have to be another time.

from "West Long Branch's Pig God is Back," triCityNews, Asbury Park, Thursday August 18, 2005, Pages 20 and 40.

[ Edited by: Kamapua'a 2005-08-29 13:05 ]