Interview with Bernard Chang Pt. 1
This is an ongoing series where I interview API comic writers and artists with questions that dig a little deeper into who they are, how they got into comics, and what their thoughts are on API identity in the comic book industry.
Quick Bio: Bernard Chang is an Asian American artist/designer, best known for his work in the comic book industry and entertainment design. Bernard has been tied to iconic comics such as Wonder Woman, X-Men, and Superman, and is currently at the helm of the Batman Beyond comic series. Back in 1992, Bernard successfully pushed to have a mainstream comic with an Asian American lead superhero character (more about this below).
You were at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York on a full scholarship for architecture. What was the transition to a career in comics like? Have you found architecture making its way in to your comic work?
I’ve always drawn since I can remember as a kid. In high school, I attended New World School of the Arts (in Miami) majoring in visual arts (w/ a double in music), which really helped establish my foundation. My senior year at New World, I won first place in Pratt’s National Talent Search, which was a full scholarship, and as a good Asian kid, I chose to major in architecture, thinking that I would at least get a degree in something my mother would recognize as me not goofing off for four or five years. But it was during the first year of architecture school that I rediscovered my childhood love for comics, stumbling upon some copies at a corner bodega across campus.
From the constant finger cuts from making balsa wood and cardboard models for classes, living in New York City — the mecca for American comics, I thought it might be a cool idea to find some part-time work drawing comics, which would help satisfy my urge to draw, especially since the curriculum didn’t allow me to take electives my first two years, and make a few bucks since being a starving college students w/ limited funds was somewhat challenging. So I networked around campus, met another student named Mike Thomas, who was interning at Marvel comics, and he got me some tryout scripts to work from.
One of my best friends from high school, John Paul Leon, was attending School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, and he introduced me to Michael Davis, who was running his Bad Boys Studio (pre-Puff Daddy), mentoring a group of a dozen or so young aspiring college students. Michael encouraged us to attend 1992 San Diego Comic Con that next summer and brought John Paul and me around to all his contacts. On the last day, before John Paul and I left for the airport, I stopped by a corner booth for a small company called, Valiant Comics, and showed my portfolio to the legendary Bob Layton (Iron Man, Ant Man). Bob took a liking to my art and told me to call him when I got back to NYC in the fall for classes. Upon returning in the fall, I followed thru with Bob, and the rest is history.
Drawing buildings is a simple skill, but architecture is a way of thinking and approach, which I implement throughout my work.
Before finishing my first ever professional book at Valiant, Bob offered me a regular monthly book. This was a full-time job, so of course I accepted, but also decided that since I was in my third year of a five-year program — and I had a full ride, that I should also finish my studies and get my degree. When people find out that I have a bachelors in architecture, they often assume it helps in drawing buildings and such, but for me, architecture has played more of a design role in both the composition and storytelling. Drawing buildings is a simple skill, but architecture is a way of thinking and approach, which I implement throughout my work.
Sometimes Asian American parents may be naysayers about a career in comics. Besides not understanding what that career actually looks like, there’s that undercurrent of our parents wanting us to be fiscally alright. For those aspiring to be comics person like you, what advice would you have to persuade their parents?
I feel that one of my biggest struggles, aside from my own inner artistic angst and outside obstacles, was from my own mother. It was mostly in the form of her wanting her son to live a “comfortable” life, especially since she’s endured hardships in her life and doesn’t want me to go thru similar struggles. She was also adamant about continuing my academic pursuits, because you know, Asian parents all want their kids to have at least a masters degree.
Asian American parents can be naysayers when it comes to careers in any of the arts or non-medical/law/science/math/business fields, but part of that also helps prepare you for the resistance that you will face in the fields themselves
After my first year working professionally, I saved up enough earnings and bought her a house. even after that, she would continue to ask me about plans for graduate school. It took many, many years of convincing her that:
- This is my career that I am choosing to pursue, a luxury that is part of the reason for immigrating to America;
- I am doing fairly well in it financially and able to support myself; and
- In the arts, a degree, whether it is a bachelors and especially a masters, is meaningless, that even if I were to pursue a teaching gig later that my current work experience/portfolio as a professional would make me more qualified (I ended up teaching at art center college in Pasadena some years ago).
With all that said, my mother was also my main inspiration and support for a career in the arts. as a kid, she helped foster a creative sensibility in me, taking me to private art tutors, forcing me to play the violin, encouraging my love for sports. She was also a fairly skilled artist herself (as was my father, who was a college professor in chemistry), drawing Spiderman on my first ever homemade bed sheet Halloween costume in first grade.
Yes, Asian American parents can be naysayers when it comes to careers in any of the arts or non-medical/law/science/math/business fields, but part of that also helps prepare you for the resistance that you will face in the fields themselves. I would ask my mother what she wanted to do when she was a kid, and she would tell me she wanted to be a ballerina, but that her parents pushed her from that and into nursing school. I then ask her why we were here in America, if not to pursue the “American dream” and the notion that we would be free to pave our own paths. For hundreds of years, the Asian nations led the world in creativity, the arts, culture, food. We still do so today in many ways, but without the current generation contributing to that effort, it will disappear for good.
But I do also understand that as an aspiring person pursuing a career in the arts, you also need to be objective about your current talent/skill levels. You have to be actually good in that field, willing to put in the hours and sacrifice, to succeed. It’s not easy.
One of your early works in comics was The Second Life of Doctor Mirage, a story about a doctor/engineer married couple who travel the world investigating and fighting paranormal activity. OH the doctor, Hwen Fong, is Chinese American, and his wife, Carmen Ruiz, is Brazilian American! OH and Carmen isn’t just a background character and instead KICKS SERIOUS ASS using her capoeira skills! The story of this comic barely seems feasible today; can you share the story of how you made this comic happen?
Halfway into my first professional assignment, Bob Layton asked me if I was up for working on a full-time monthly book. Valiant was looking to launch a brand new title, and he wanted me to draw it. I was shocked but also excited, so much so that I told Bob I would draw this new book only if they made the main character specifically an Asian American male, who didn’t know kung fu, and was a lover not a fighter. Later that night back in my dorm room, I was shitting bricks, wondering if I had just torpedoed my new career. A week later, I met up with Bob again to go over the current round of work and he greeted me with a “congratulations, you got your book!”
My mom helped me come up with the lead character’s name, Hwen Dong Fong, which translated to “ghost eastern”. The ghost eluding to his eventual ghost form as a superhero, and eastern as the sun rises in the east for his eventual return due to the love from his wife, Carmen. I also got to help craft some of the specifics of the character to make him American, without the stereotypical accents and such, and Bob set their base of operations in Miami, which was my hometown. He crafted the story as a superhero romantic comedy, which was extremely rare in its day.
The Second Life of Doctor Mirage debuted in 1993 on the top ten charts and I would go on to draw twelve issues, before moving on to another new title. The original doctor mirage would last thru 18 issues total.
