Today we’d like to introduce you to Paul Komoda.
So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Both my parents were illustrators, so I was lucky to grow up in an encouraging environment. I was a 70’s Monster Kid, immersed in science fiction and horror movies, comic books, rubber Halloween masks, and Aurora glow-in-the-dark model kits, and it all informs my artwork to this day. I’ve never been satisfied with working in one medium, so I’ve been sculpting (more accurately, squishing clay around) for as long as I’ve been drawing. Everything I do originates with my love of monsters and the stranger, darker aspects of nature, whether it’s insects, bioluminescent deep sea creatures, or microscopic organisms.
A former New York resident, I’ve been working in the film FX business on creature design, as well as in the toy and collectibles fields. I’ve designed my own jewelry and have done artwork for bands in the various scenes I’ve been intertwined with over the years. Behind it, all is the desire to flesh out the lives of the creatures and characters that have been writhing around in my imagination since I was a child. I’ve filled up many sketchbooks with imagery that I eventually hope to flesh out through fine art or illustrated volumes. Some of those sketchbooks will see publication soon, and my intention is that they’ll lay the groundwork for further explorations into the worlds inspired by my most luminous dreams and most visceral nightmares.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My continual goal has been to get to a point where I’m focusing solely on my personal work, whether it’s fine art or storytelling. Having the skill set that I do, I’ve spent a good deal of my career working for other people and visualizing their ideas, and it’s never been very fulfilling., regardless of how much imaginative overlap there might be.
Of course, having said that, one can have all the artistic inspiration imaginable, but if the technical ability to realize that vision isn’t continually evolving through dedicated work and practice, one can quickly find themselves in a cage formed from doubt and the disfiguring opinions of others, and seriously, fuck that.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Whether it’s a “favorite” memory is subjective, but it’s a vivid one I like to recount if just to exorcise the trauma.
My dad, in the name of strict personal hygiene, told me one day that if I didn’t thoroughly wash my hands, I’d get bodily occupied by something called a tapeworm. I’d never heard of such a creature, so he brought out a telephone book-sized volume on zoology and turned to the chapter on parasitic worms. He pointed to a full-page black and white photo of a coiled, segmented thing of an obscene, impossible length and described it thusly:
“You see Paul, an egg gets into your body and hatches into this thing. It grows very quickly, and winds itself around and around the inside of your ribcage, and sticks it’s head up into your throat. Whenever you try to eat anything, the tapeworm in your throat eats it instead. The worm inside you grows larger and larger, while you get sicker and skinnier, and wither away.”
Silently horrified, I acknowledged the warning and went to bed.
It might have been a month later, but one morning I woke up early before the sun rose. I thought I felt some convulsive movement in my esophagus, an insistent pressure, and I was instantly convinced that I had one of those horrendous creatures living inside of me. It had actually happened. Why didn’t I wash my hands?
I worked up the courage to scamper to my parent’s room and went up to my slumbering dad, saying, “I’ve got a tapeworm living in me!” Without even opening his eyes, my dad grumbled, “You don’t have a tapeworm, Paul. Go back to sleep.”
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulkomoda/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paul.komoda/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/paulkomoda
Image Credit:
Personal photo by Shikhee D’iordna; “Carmen Beneath the Sea” illustration for the game, HoloVista produced by Aconite 2020
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