This A-Profiler we bring you comic artist David Nakayama. We interviewed Nakayama at the 2008 San Diego Comic Con and find out how he got started, who his inspiration was, and how he put aside a career in medicine in order to follow his love for comics. Look for his Asian inspired five-issue mini series called Big Hero 6 which debuts in September 2008 on Marvel.

Your site URL:
www.davidnakayama.com

You are so young, how did you get started in the comic industry?
I'm not as young as I look. I'm actually 29 and turning 30 in August. It's those Japanese genes that keeps you looking younger, I guess.

Are you full Japanese?
My dad is Japanese so I'm only half.

I got started in comics back when I was 13 and decided that this was what I wanted to do after seeing some Jim Lee and seeing some Uncanny X-Men art. I was like "wow, comics can look like that?" and I instantly decided that was what I wanted to do. But the real trick was getting the skills to do it and I spent all of high school drawing my own comics on the side. Then I went to illustration school, college 4 year degree. Still wasn't good enough. So, I went to the Joe Kubert school for 2 years and eventually interned at Top Cow which is how I got steady work.

Would you consider the Top Cow internship your big break?
Yeah, the way I got started with Top Cow was sort of through a Wizard contest. It was a penciler/inker/colorist contest. You did a sample script of 5 pages, they liked what they saw, and I came in as an intern along with an inker and colorist. I think all three of us are all still working in the business.

What would you be doing if you weren't doing this?
The reason I went to a 4 year university was so I had the chance to say art wasn't working out I could quickly jump over to pre-med or something. I had my alternate plan to have a real job in case this thing didn't work out.

That's sort of very Asian?
Isn't it though? That's definitely a dad and grandma influence for sure.

Were they pushing you into the pre-med?
Not really, they were really supportive about me doing art but they wanted to make sure I had a fallback. Even up until sophomore year I was still taking the pre-reqs for medicine if I had to do that.

You did some of the issues for City of Heroes as well?
That's right, I worked on City of Heroes for Top Cow for about 2 years and I did about half the issues in the 20 issue series. It was really where I cut my teeth. If you look at the difference between the first issue and the last, it really got a lot better after that.

Did you actually play the game?
I did. I didn't originally but I took the assignment really seriously and I felt that one of the weaknesses of the old comic was that they obviously didn't pay any attention at all to what the game looked like. I got a copy of the game and the company was nice enough to give me a subscription to the game so I could play as much as I wanted. And I did "research." At some point it kinda turned into fun.

What was your character name on CoH?
I was a dark scrapper called Steel Riot in Heroes and a corrupter with radiation powers in Villians called Ms. Panic.

Do you still play?
I haven't played in awhile. There is just not enough time in a day. Even my Wii is gathering dust right now, unfortunately.

What is your favorite Wii game?
I had to buy the Wii just to play through the new Metroid because I'm a diehard Medtoid fan. Doesn't matter what the game is, I'll play it if it is a Metroid game. Likewise for Zelda, I had to pick up the new Zelda. I didn't get very far but one of these days I'll get back to it.

Did you finish the Metroid?
I did. I dominated. 100% completion.

What are you doing now?
I am working on a really exciting new series for Marvel. It's a five-issue mini writing by Chris Claremont who is one of my all-time heroes. Like I said, I got into comics based on Jim Lee's art well Chris was writing those issues so that was a big deal for me to get this assignment. It's called Big Hero 6. It's based on some characters that were created by Scott Lobdell and Duncan Rouleau in the 90's. It's a Japanese team of superheroes in the Marvel universe. Our take on it is interesting and different in the sense that it has two new characters but moreso in the sense that we're drawing it in an anime style. It's a Japanese team, it makes complete sense, you know? And it's something new that we are bringing to it. Before it sort of looked like Alpha Flight, nothing very Japanese about that. So, we're going the opposite way. We're going to use a Japanese style, montage cool Japanese things like brush painting and themes like geishas and samurais and bamboo forests and stuff on the covers. Even on top of that there are easter eggs in it like a Dharma alarm clock in the first issue. There is a Boys Day carp hanging on the main character hero's wall. In issue two we've got some characters dressed gothic lolita style. Anything we can throw in there that is Japanese is in the book.

When does the series come out?
First issue is going to be on the stands September 10th. We're about two issues into the production of it and we should be right on time for all five issues. It's going to be great.

Finally, what do you do in your spare time?
My wife and I are big movie buffs so we've had a great summer so far with things like Iron Man and The Dark Knight. She's also into a lot of art house movies so we've seen things like Mongol which was amazing. That was a great movie with a Japanese actor as Ghengis Khan. Interesting choice but he was really good. We also have a kid on the way, due in December, so you can imagine that there are lot of preparations around the house to get ready for our little bundle of joy.

Are you ready?
I hope so. I think so. I don't think anyone can really be ready for their first kid. I'm real excited about it. I'm not nervous about it. I'm really looking forward to it.

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This issue of A-Profiler is brought to you by Nelson Wong.
Special thanks to David Nakayama.

Photos used with permission.
Copyright retained by original copyright holder(s).