While Kael Ngu may not physically be in San Diego this year, his art will be making it’s exclusive debut.  The artist from Malaysia is relatively new to the business but his amazing talent has already taken him far. Let’s find out more about this extraordinary artist.

You won’t be attending SDCC this year, but can you tell us what you’ll be sending there?

My exclusive variant cover for Vampirella #1 will be debuting at SDCC! Big thanks to Spencer from Comic Kingdom of Canada for the opportunity. It will be available at their booth so look out for that!

Being from Malaysia is SDCC a big deal there? 

It is! We have smaller conventions that focused on western comics in Malaysia. Most are more manga oriented, so SDCC is like a dream to attend for us western comic lovers. The closest thing we have is from our neighbor country; Singapore Comic Con hah!

How did you get into superheroes and all things geeky?

I didn’t start until I gained some attention from a Star Wars fan art exhibition, and I got more commission requests. It was then I started venturing into superheroes. I always felt like I got into this hobby too late, because I’ve been missing out on so many good art and stories. Before this, I worked on the gaming industry so these superheroes stuff are super new and exciting to me.

Any advice for young artists out there?

Never stop drawing and never stop dreaming! You will fail, you will ask questions, you will get discouraged. But please keep going because that’s just part of the journey. We’ve all been there!

What were your early influences?

I grew up reading local comics and a lot of manga, so I guess my works are more manga-influenced. It’s still a struggle for me to bring a balance drawing superheroes with a manga style, but I believe I will get there!

You work in traditional and digital mediums, do you prefer one over the other and why?

I definitely prefer traditional, because I can feel it physically and it’s more “real” to me. Working digitally is purely for commercial purposes. It’s fast and solves the problem easily. But exclusivity…definitely traditional.

Are there any characters you love drawing over others? 

Spawn! Because Spawn is one of the characters that I’ve actually read the story from issue #1, and able to connect to. I haven’t finished reading yet, but already loving it so far!

What’s next for you? 

I’m very very new in this industry, so at the moment I’m actually trying my best to finish an interior for a secret project, with a big publisher to be announced when it’s ready. Haha, meanwhile I’m hoping that I can continue to draw variant covers for more titles!