Multiversity Comics Presents: Yuko Shimizu

The Unwritten is one of Multiversity’s favorite books, as it finished as one of our ten favorite books of 2011. It’s started out the new year incredibly well, releasing two superb issues a month so far with a new one dropping today.

A big reason for all of that love, at least for me, are the incredibly unique and beautiful covers that come with each and every issue. Those come from one of our favorite cover artists – Yuko Shimizu. Besides being a brilliant cover artist, she also is an award winning illustrator for all kinds of notable names like TIME, the New York Times, Pepsi and The Gap. She’s sort of a big deal.

Today, we talk with Yuko about her work, how she got involved with The Unwritten, what inspires her, her connection with a slew of top comic talents and a whole lot more. Thanks to Yuko for chatting with us, and check out the interview after the jump. To check out an art process for one of her covers, click here.

I’m not sure if you caught this, but I’m a pretty big fan of your covers for The Unwritten. I haven’t met anyone yet who doesn’t adore them.

Yuko Shimizu: Thank you!!!

You grew up with comics and dreamt of working on them, and you’d previously worked a little on them before — like on Paul Pope’s 100% and a Sandman cover — but this is your first consistent comic job. How did you come into this project, and what was it about this one that made you want to be involved?

YS: Paul’s regular colorist and our mutual friend José Villarrubia was not available that week to color his wrap around cover for 100%. Paul called me and asked if I could help him out. So, that was this one time thing that just happened. Paul and I had met previously through our mutual friend and my former roommate James Jean. People used to tell me my work looked like Paul’s, but I had no idea who he was, and he (didn’t know) me. So we decided to meet and become friends.

Anyway, James used to tell me that I should get into mainstream comics as a cover artist as it opens up a whole new audience to my work, which he said it did to him (which everyone knows). But really, no cover job happened years after I worked on that one time gig of coloring 100%.

Yuko’s portrait of Neil Gaiman for the New York Times

Then one day, New York Times Book Review art director Nicholas Blechman called and asked me to draw a portrait of Neil Gaiman. He said he read the review article, and that it was about surreal dreams, and he thought my work would be a perfect match. The day the NY Times came out, I got a call to my studio from a stranger…well, that was Neil Gaiman. He said he really liked the portrait I did, and asked me if I would be interested in working on a project sometime in the future.

I got a call from Karen Berger of DC/Vertigo soon after which ended up becoming Sandman: the Dream Hunters mini-series cover. I worked with Karen and Pornsak Pchetshote.

I really had a great time working on those covers. I usually work with magazine and newspaper articles. It was completely different. I would read scripts and come up with my own twist into the story and theme in each issue. I had so much fun, and it was a bit sad when the series ended.

So, long story short, I got a call from Karen and Pornsak again about a new project that was starting out. They wanted to work with me again, and I really didn’t know Mike Carey or Peter Gross or what was the story about at that point, but I was just up to experience the fun again.

Nobody knew if the series were going to be a hit (which means, it runs for a long time, like it is now) or not at first. But the script from the start was really gripping. I guess we kind of had a feeling, without high expectations, that it was going to be a long term project.

In the fall of 2010, the British International Comic Show in Birmingham invited Mike, Peter, Pornsak and me, so we ended up having a lot of time together. Mike is in London, and Peter is in Minneapolis, so we don’t see each other often although we work together constantly. Those few days in the UK really bonded us, and working with them has become a lot easier since then. Mike drove me from London, so it was like three hours of the two of us stuck in a car together. We ended up talking about every topic you could think of, starting with work and going to family and everything else. We even know we both share a huge addiction to good but cheap milk chocolate.

I read that you were roommates with James Jean when he was given the job to create the covers for Fables. Which, in my mind, is about as good as you can get when it comes to comic covers. Was that an inspiration to try a project of this variety, or had you already developed an interest in doing so?

YS: Oh, I guess I answered some of this earlier. So, yes, it was James who initially told me to get a comic cover job. But then again, when James got the Fables cover job, nobody knew how it was going to go. He was right out of college and not getting much work yet. More than ten years later when you look back, you know how it ended up, but in the summer of 2001 in a loft in a remote part of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, before Greenpoint became hip, we were just aspiring artists, both of us.

I have to say, though, James was the most focused and hardworking young painter I have ever known, before or after. It is not just talent that made him who he is now, it was all the work he had put into it. Totally deserved and I’m really happy for him.

So, by the way, now the new editor is Shelly Bond (and assistant editor Joe Hughes), and we just started working together from issue 36. We had spoke on the phone last week, but we haven’t met yet. We were supposed to have lunch last week, then I got sick. On the phone, I told her that I was the one who answered the phone when she called to give James his first cover job. That was kind of fun.

Yuko’s cover to The Unwritten #16

I’ve read through the process work you have on your site for these covers, but one thing I’m curious about is how the initial ideas for them are conceived. Do you read through the issue and interpret the cover idea yourself, or does it start with a conversation with Mike, Peter and Pornsak?

YS: It varies in each issue (sometimes the script is ready, sometimes not). Usually the editorial team, Mike and Peter discuss the general direction, then they contact me with a few possibilities. And I give my comment or directions at that point. And we discuss some more. So it is really a group effort. Sometimes specific ideas they come up with are great and I just say, “cool,” and start and finish. Sometimes, I say, “hey wait, what about this?” and that becomes the cover. This way of working makes the covers diverse. Diverse makes it fun for me. So, it is win win.

Do you find that working on this project has developed an entirely new audience for your work?

YS: Oh totally. And it is nice, because I mostly, before this, worked with US based magazines and newspapers. But comics have a worldwide audience. That is fantastic.

James Jean managed to get all of his Fables work collected into a beautiful book. Who do we have to bribe to get your covers into a similar book when we’re all said and done?

YS: Be REALLY nice to Karen and Shelly, and tell them really good things about me! 😉

Yuko’s recently released monograph

You recently released a hardcover collection of your work, with it receiving a stellar response everywhere (sold out at Gestalten!). How did that project come together, and what would you say your goal was with it?

YS: Ha ha, I don’t think it was ‘sold out’, but it went out of stock for a while. Although, it is nice to know that the book is selling.

I had worked with Gestalten in the past. They are a design and illustration friendly publisher, and I was in a few of their books in the past.

Actually, James gave me two important pieces of advice, and the second one was to get your own monograph published. So…that was obviously in my mind for a while. I had a dream publisher list in my head. But it was a really short list of like three names. I thought about approaching them, then I always thought that the book would be really great if a publisher ‘wants to’ make a book with me.

It was a real surprise when Gestalten contacted me for the book project. They were, in fact, one of the names in my very short list. I am lucky.

I read that you’re working on a kids book as well, and as of last month you weren’t able to talk about it. What can you tell us about it?

YS: I am STILL working on it! It’s been a long journey. It is almost done, and I am just starting to feel really good about it.

Since the book is not announced yet, I can’t talk much about it, but it will come out from Abrams and it is a rather serious historic topic about Japanese Americans.

Because of the topic, I know the book is not going to be the next Olivia, but I hope young students at schools and libraries can learn more about importance of the past, and how to use history to make a better future.

You’re not big into the word “style” when it comes to an individual and art. What is it about that word that causes such a hang up for your average young artist?

YS: It is natural that young artists want style. But most of them are mixing up gimmick and style. You need to have your ‘own voice’ in your work to be noticed, at the same time, you have to just let that voice naturally come out in your work. Not by sticking onto superficial shticks.

One thing I became curious about while reading your FAQ and beyond was your deep interest in humanity and individuality. Whether it’s expressed through interviews (either by you or others) or through the ways people create their art or through your expansive travels, it seems that a theme for you is to draw inspiration from the world around you and within you. How does that turn into what you put into a piece? What about it do you find so fascinating?

YS: Influences from art around you and art in history is definitely important to build one’s work and be better. Everyone has to do it, of course. But at the point when you become pro, you cannot be influenced by other artists around you anymore. You have to be your own individual self.

At the end of the day, what makes you different from others is your experience. At least, that is what I think.

Because I have been working for less than last ten years, people tend to think I am young, but I had a whole another career (worked longer at it than I have been working in art) before this. I cannot be a young artist even if I wanted. At least, I can use my life experience that not many other people have, and use that in my work.

Besides, I LOVE to travel.

Speaking of interviews, you’ve recently been interviewing artists throughout the world and introducing them to a Japanese audience through an interview series for Illustration Magazine. To me, art has always felt like an International language, with pieces that play well in, say, New York City, playing well in Tokyo, Paris, Melbourne, wherever. Do you find that to be true? Is art, for you, ultimately something that translates across the world well, or do you find the world to be segmented into different visual vocabularies?

YS: Every culture has certain taste in visual art that is different from others. Having said that, what I love about visual art is its immediacy. I have known people who are aspiring writers. I love reading and books, but I also often think it would be much harder for their industry. You have to read the whole book to know if the book was good or not. That takes time. You cannot share your favorite book with all your friends around the world. But for visual art, you don’t need much time, you don’t need to translate, it’s here.

Traveling is a big thing for you, it seems. What is it about getting out and exploring that isn’t just a joy for you, but almost a compulsion?

YS: For me, it is mostly to make my senses sharp. As you get older, time flies faster. And faster, and faster. I believe it comes from accumulation of experiences that you are so used to that your senses get dull.

When I am in a place I have never been, preferably abroad, I can get surprised and fascinated by everything. Even how public transportation function in each country/city. I am constantly stimulated and never feel dull, never bored, and one day is filled with stuff which makes a day feel much longer and richer.

Besides, what do you know about yourself or your country if you don’t have anything to compare?

Also, I am fascinated by languages. Unfortunately I am only fluent in two languages (Japanese and English), but I had also studied Cantonese for three years and took Spanish in middle school and college (neither of them are anywhere near good, but I have some knowledge). What is great about knowing different languages is not just knowing how to smoothly communicate, but about knowing where their culture and customs come from.

I am always fascinated that in Chinese they only have the word ‘live’ and they have no concept of “stay” (meaning living in one place for a short period of time). English have both, and Japanese have both. None of my Chinese friends understand the differences between those two concepts. I’m fascinated by it. It may explain a bit why Chinese people are not hesitant to migrate all around the world.

I have to ask this, because I cannot pass up the opportunity to do so. Do people ever ask you about Hello Kitty?

YS: Oh my god, all the time! And I absolutely hate it.

If I was the Yuko Shimizu who had first designed Hello Kitty in the early 1970s, I would be in my 60s, at least. And I am not. I cannot understand how some people, looking at the work I do, could think I used to draw Hello Kitty.

Besides, I am not into anything ‘cute’.