Questions Answered: Part 2
Continuing on with my mini Q & A session!
Behind the cut!
What was it like to work for the one of the biggest US comic book companies way back when?
You must mean Marvel. :D Actually, I was a contract worker through Udon Entertainment - my assignment was to do background colors for a few titles. One was X-Men
How the process worked was the writers and penciler would work on the script and page break-down of each issue. Once the artist completed his job, it would be passed to the inker, then to us. One of us would do "flats" - basically coloring in all major sections - foreground objects, backgrounds, effects, and so on like a coloring book and save them to separate layers. I'd grab a copy of the file, hide the character layer and start coloring and shading the environments. I would then upload the full file for the finisher for any color fixes, adjustments, and special effects. Once the pages were approved, they would be sent off to the letterer and we would get paid once it went to print.
The workload was really intense. Because we were the last work-intensive stage, we often got the pages in with very little time to spare and often out of order. ^^; We'd often complete 25-or-so pages in about a week and a half. That equalled a lot of long late nights in a row.
The best thing about the experience was just how fast I learned in such a short period of time. I still use a lot of those techniques to this day.
(As a short aside - this photo was taken during one of our late night work sessions back in early 2004.)
How'd you come up with your pen-name "kitsy"?
This might be a little long-winded, but it all started with me looking for a new handle when I re-entered the online world back in 1998. I thought "kitsune" would be something different and unusual -- which turned out to be one of the most frequently used nicknames online at the time for those in-the-know of Japanese folklore. ^^; (This was before the coming of Naruto and other fox-related anime/games.)
To separate myself from all the other "kitsune" out there, I added "kyubi" - which refers to the 9-tails, and created an online character for myself when I joined the ArtCorner back in 1999 as a REFF.
"Kyubi Kitsune" was a bit long, and people would just call me "kitsu", which was then became "kitsy" via typos. ("u" and "y" are often mixed up when typing fast.)
So there you have it~ "kyubikitsy" all came from a typo! :D
What comics do you like to read? Any mangas?
Most of my collection is manga, to tell you the truth. I started with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
I currently am reading/collecting Pluto
It's only been in the past 5 years that I started branching out and reading other non-mainstream, non-manga titles.
(Photos shows only a very small part of the entire collection... very small.)
What is your favorite food? Do you eat a lot of spam musubi??
I love Japanese snack foods - to a fault. There was one time I spent a good portion of a paycheck on canned Calpis fruit drinks when I was working at a local wholesale Asian grocer. Not a proud moment, I must say... but at least I bought them on sale. ^^;
I love umeboshi... especially the dried variety. *_*! I also love Tim Tams with hot cocoa - although I'm not usually a big chocolate person. Macarons are also high on my list - when I can afford them (which is like, not very often.)
For non-snackish foods, I'm a fan of yakiniku, garlic chicken, korean spicy pork, soon doobu jigae, nabeyaki udon, salmon nigiri sushi, Kyushu-style tonkotsu ramen, fro-yo - of course!
I also used to eat a LOT of spam musubi when I was in high school. My school cafeteria made a pretty mean musubi, I must admit -- and for a $1-something, it was a reasonably priced snack/meal. Nowadays, not as much.
But ah~ the good ol' days!
Any other questions? Feel free to add them here~ :D I'll be answering more tomorrow!
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