Pencil Pusher

“I could be perfectly happy with that as the highlight of my career," Michael Choi says about becoming a penciller on upcoming issue 76 of “Witchblade,” the fantasy saga about a police detective and an ancient gauntlet that empowers her. This assignment will be the first in which Mike stops sketching backgrounds and forays into delineating characters. “The goal now is to do it on an ongoing basis,” he hopes.

A little over a year ago, the possibility of sketching comic books was as distant as Madison, Wisconsin where Mike maintained security systems as an IBM computer analyst. Fate lurked auspiciously on eBay as a $2,000 foosball table auctioned by Top Cow Productions, Inc., a Santa Monica-based comics publisher. Mike, who had drawn recreationally during college, made the eBay bid under the condition that Top Cow founder Marc Silvestri would consider his portfolio.

Fast forward. The 25-year-old Korean American not only has the foosball table, but also a job penciling backgrounds for Top Cow. Note to aspiring artists: play more foosball.

The “Witchblade” promotion follows his recent contribution to the “New X-Men” issues 151-154. “It was a chance to work with a great penciller and some cool people and characters I grew up reading as a kid.” When Marvel Comics commissioned former “Uncanny X-Men” artist Silvestri for a four-issue run, Silvestri called upon Mike for background compositions - a task he doesn't mind while apprenticing. “The good thing is nobody ever gives a sh*t about the background. I would rather have a strong foreground artist work with me, than to have me do the whole cover and have the result be fifty-fifty [percent of quality].” “X-Men” and “Ghost Rider” are the titles he read growing up in Hong Kong, where comic books were an expensive luxury and not at the forefront of his career interests.

While we talk shop at his Los Angeles apartment, Mike almost melts on the living room futon. “Last week I was working 27-hour days,” he confesses. Despite the fatigue, he delivers well-thought-out responses, sometimes illustrated by specific examples, always unarmored by sincerity. Humility exudes naturally when he speaks, but the tranquility rattles when I snap an unflattering photograph. “I'm going to kill you if you print that,” he deadpans (so I assume).

The story begins as simply as why. “It's a famous question: would you rather be rich or famous? I think everybody would rather be famous at the studio. I think that has a lot to do with it. There's not that much money involved unless you're really big or you own a popular property.”

Mike will be the first to tell you that instant ramen is a staple in his diet. For him, it's more a question of fame than of personal fulfillment that IBM didn't offer. A portion of his online bio reads: “When you're doing something that you don't love just to earn the money, there comes a time when you look up from your lobster bisque and say, ‘Damn it, this can‘t be my life. It just can‘t!' and tear out of there sobbing into your Armani suit sleeve. So now I'm broke, but I go into work with a smile on my face every day, even on Sundays, because I get to draw for a living.”

The film Chasing Amy points out the misconception that comic book pencillers draw everything and that inkers trace. Mike clarifies the distinction without prejudice: “The penciller draws all the elements on the page. He's the choreographer, the production manager, and the director. A good inker will magnify everything good you've done [and] make a good artist look great. Depending on how clean your style is, maybe you don't need an inker. I know Marc definitely does.

“What's cool is that an inker, in a best case scenario, tries to mimic you, tries to accommodate you--same with a colorist. That's why pencillers have more control of the art direction.” With this last corollary to the definition of a penciller, Mike's propensity is a no-brainer for his talent (besides his partial colorblindness): “There's something about the whole creation process that I like. I think most people start off [in comic book art] wanting to draw.”

Prior to employment at Top Cow, Mike's style started out like Gary Frank (“The Incredible Hulk”) whose “relatively realistic” quality he still holds in esteem. Since he's been in L.A., Mike pencils in accordance with the Top Cow house style, a requisite modeled after Silvestri's artwork. But conformity is not an issue. It's a logical step for development: “Marvel, DC, and any other company except for, possibly, Wildstorm - I don't think any of those companies have a studio environment. Everyone pretty much freelances and that way, you can never really learn. And this place is perfect for learning. Because of that, I'm so happy I'm here.

“Any penciller worth his salt starts out as a clone of somebody else. [I think that] Jim Lee was a John Byrne-clone and Marc Silvestri was a John Buscema-clone. I overestimate myself when I call myself a bad-Marc Silvestri-Jim Lee-David Finch-clone. That's who I'm trying to be right now. Trying to learn the lessons that they learned and be good at the things that they're good at and then hopefully develop my own style.”

As Mike refines his craft, he reveres Marc Silvestri as a mentor and respects him as a friend.  “We play ‘Halo.' It's one of those cool relationships. I mooned my boss' wife and half the company and I still have my job. That's very rare in today's society.” How Mike sees himself compared to Silvestri verifies the modesty I've suspected all along. “In terms of what [Marc] has done professionally, there's no f*cking comparison. He's way up there. History will remember him. There are good guys now, but fifty years from now, he will be remembered.”

How history will remember Mike jumps the gun, but the next best thing to shoot for is how comic book fans will recognize him. “The artist is faceless in comic books. You just see his name. It's not like an actor on television who you instantly see is Asian. There are a lot of Asian Americans in the comic book industry.” In terms of equal opportunity employment, Mike invalidates the thought of racial discrimination. Schmoozing is another story. “One of my heroes is Jim Lee. He's Korean and probably the best known one [in the industry]. When I met him at a convention, his first two questions were: Do you speak Korean and do you turn red when you drink?”

The art of comic books, however, is anything but faceless and owes much to the demands of pop culture. Recently, American artists have tried their pen strokes at emulating Japanese comics or Manga, but the successes have been fewer than the number of women at a comic book store. “What's bad is that one guy who did it very well - Joe Madureira who did ‘X-Men'- he did it so well that anyone who tries to mimic Manga-type sh*t will automatically be compared to him.”

Rather than demonize those who draw eyes as big as Taiko drums, Mike equates the behavior to cloning a style, but on a broader scale: “…and in that sense, you're just getting your influence from somebody across the globe. That's it.”

If Asia inspires style in comic book titles, its representation in characters is stereotypical at best. “You will very rarely find an Asian man or a black woman; Asian men are even rarer than black women. For some reason, if you're going to stick a minority in--it's almost like a quota--there's always a black man or an Asian woman. Top Cow is guilty of [stereotyping], too. We have theYakuza [characters] and the mafia in ‘Darkness.' Hollywood and comic books--they rely on stereotypes.”

He isn't suggesting affirmative action for characters either. Contrivances are more egregious than oversimplifications. “Let's say you have an Asian star or protagonist. I think the first thing people would wonder is why is he Asian? What's the significance of him being Asian? [The character] Spawn is a black man. No one actually asks why he's black. It's weird. Hispanics are not represented either.

“When you see a white person in comic books, it's the norm. You don't have to explain it. If it's not a white person that you see, you wonder what the significance is. Minorities are more comfortable with seeing white people on TV or in comic books. Friends is a popular show but there aren't any Asians on it. When there is an Asian character, there's a specific reason for it like [Rick Yune's character] in The Fast and the Furious.”

Weighing the gravity of this observation with the purist school of storytelling, consider alumnus Henry James who postulates, “What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?” Since character and plot share a yin and yang balance that comprises the story, an Asian character should drive the plot only if the story demands it. It's organic. It's honest. And Mike would agree. A question then lingers about why Asian American stories aren't included in the comic book medium. Something about panels of word balloons and illustrations hasn't yet appealed to writers of that arena.

The “New X-Men” issue 154 graces newsstands on March 17 and “Witchblade” issue 76 will be published in the months to follow. Yet Mike regards his time learning from Silvesti and Top Cow as enough of an achievement. No need for bingeing on overnight successes if they entail occupational hangovers. The level of restraint and patience despite his youth still amazes this interviewer: “You know how they say every person has a good book in them? I think every comic book artist does. If I've only got one good book in me, I'd rather do it at the peak of my career.” The climb to that peak may be sooner than he thinks--perhaps quicker than a transaction on eBay.

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