Log in member
We caught up with the renowned Japanese artist Momoko-san at the SDCCM to talk about her delicate watercolour style, her evolution from cover artist to full author, and the creation of her so-called “Momokoverse.”
"Hi friends, I'm at the San Diego Comic-Con in Málaga, this is day two, and I'm so honored to be joined by Monoko-san, who just enjoyed a panel about cover artists, and you are one of the very best cover artists there are, you won two Eisner Awards, so how does it feel to be at the San Diego Comic-Con in Málaga, because the Eisner Awards are given in the San Diego Comic-Con in San Diego, how does it feel to be here in Málaga, sharing your art with others?
So it's just a great honor to be involved in the inaugural, very first San Diego Comic-Con Málaga, and the question with the Eisner is just, for Peach, it's just great to be able to draw whatever I want to do for covers now, it's just the greatest feeling."
"How was the process for you to come from cover artist to become a full author with the Ultimate X-Men?
From cover artist to doing author's interior art, for Peach, just given the opportunity to tell a story of X-Men alone was a very nervous situation for Peach, but at the same time it was a huge honor and a big responsibility, but the actual transition between being a cover artist to an interior artist and storyteller, Peach didn't really feel that much of a big difference, same thing as covers, just like I said, Marvel just kind of lets me tell my own story, do my own covers, do my own themes, I just keep doing as much as possible as what I love to do."
"Fantastic, and what can you tell me about your personal style?
Marvel lets you do whatever you want, your style with watercolors, almost like ukiyo-e, it looks beautiful, it's more delicate to the eye, it's visually pleasing, it's beautiful, so what can you tell me about what you want to convey with that very specific style of yours?
So I like to, as best as possible, I focus mainly on just doing traditional medium, I'm not really good at doing digital, I don't understand the digital processes too well, so I just use watercolor and anything traditional, and want to focus purely on as pure as traditional as possible forever, and with the ukiyo-e soft touch watercolor, I actually don't really think consciously to do something beautiful, or something soft or ukiyo-e style, so whenever someone tells me how they see my cover, it kind of shines a light to me that, oh, that's what I'm doing, that's interesting, so it's kind of funny to add to that, so it's kind of funny to add to that, when I show my art to the western fans, the Americans, Europeans, anyone, they see my art style has this anime, this manga touch, but interesting is when I show it to the Japanese fans, they actually don't see that, they see more like a realistic or something different that's not anime or manga, so Peach feels that her style is a very unique blend, that kind of translates differently to who sees it."
"Exactly, and talking a little bit more about your style, we do also love how you use black and white, perhaps to evoke the past, and your female figures, what can you tell me about these two specific things?
It's a very interesting question, but at the same time I really honestly don't have an answer for that, I just kind of draw what I want to at that moment, so I'm sorry but I don't really have a good answer for it."
"Perhaps you have a good answer for the last one, tell me a little bit about the Momokoverse, and how you interpret others' heroes, and how you choose the traits you want to change and portray in your own style."
"For the Momokoverse, I try to mainly focus on the characters, the stories, that's a comfortable place for Peach, what Peach understands, what Peach knows, what Peach sees, what she's experienced in the past, and honestly doing interiors, Momokoverse or not, doing interiors is actually painful for Peach a little bit, it's stressful, there's a lot of hard work, very new work for Peach every single time, but that stress, that pain is actually very, it feels good at the same time."
"But yes, just like the covers, as long as I can do, I can tell my story, my side of the stories, with the Momokoverse, I would like to be as honest as possible."
"I think you've been very honest during this interview, so thank you so much for your time.
Thank you very much.
Enjoy the San Diego Comic-Con Malaga."
