Thien Pham
I wasn’t familiar with Thien or his work until Raina Telgemeier gave Family Style a shoutout on Instagram. I bought a copy and absolutely loved it. It’s the story of his family’s move from Vietnam to America in the early 80’s.
Each chapter revolves around food, whether Vietnamese or American, it anchors the experience of that given moment. From their harrowing journey to get here, through their struggle to integrate, to starting from nothing in a completely foreign environment. It is a fascinating peek into one family’s immigrant experience.
Thien Pham is based in Oakland, CA. He is also the author and illustrator of the graphic novel Sumo and did the art for the middle-grade graphic novel Level Up, written by Gene Luen Yang. He is working on his next graphic novel, teaching, and eating. A lot.
And now 3 Questions With Thien Pham (and a bonus question)!
Why comics? (What compels you to create in this medium?)
For me, comics are the ultimate art form. I love the symbiotic relationship between the words, pictures, and the reader. I feel like it’s the most effective and resonating way of telling a story, better than prose, better than movies, better than anything.
What is it that you want people to take away from your work?
I want the readers of my comics to be immersed in the characters and world I’m creating, I want them to feel like they know the characters, lived in the environment, and have opinions and thoughts about the situations. That is always my goal.
What is your favorite part/step of the process?
My favorite part of the process is when it all clicks. When all the ideas I have swimming in my head, all the thoughts on composition, color, dialog, drawing, it all comes together, and I can literally like feel it fitting into place, and then drawing a comic feels effortless like it is an extension of my arm. It’s the best feeling in the world.
What has (pleasantly) surprised you about creating comics that you didn’t anticipate when you first started out?
Finding such a supportive and loving community. When I started drawing comics nobody was interested in the type of comics we were creating, but we still made them and printed them ourselves because we loved it, because it felt like we had to put out these stories, to find a supportive group of people that felt the same way.
You can find Thien and links to his work at the following:
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