Dark Horse Comics: As an artist who often creates pieces that reflect nerd culture, you must have a long history with much of it. What started you down the dark path of nerddom?
Megan Lara: I think it all started when I was about five years old. I lived on a farm, and we didn’t have cable or anything like that. Whenever my parents took me to rent videos, I would always beg them for an SNES so I could play the games I saw there. My dad finally bought me one with Super Mario All-Stars, and I was pretty addicted. He and I would play that every day, and eventually we moved on to Donkey Kong and some other now-obscure games like Boogerman, Bubsy, etc.
After that, I got heavily into Pokémon from about third to sixth grade. Around this time is when I got a computer and started building websites (fan sites for things like Pokémon and an old game called Petz) at eleven years old. My love of Pokémon led me to become friends with some of the guys at school who were into it, and later on they were the ones who introduced me to things like Star Wars, Halo, Final Fantasy, etc. I got myself a PS2 and a Wacom tablet at thirteen, and that’s when I really delved into the nerd/art world. I was pretty obsessed with Final Fantasy and Star Wars for most of my teen years.
DHC: I think a lot of folks have a favorite Final Fantasy game. Which of the many tops your list?
ML: My favorite Final Fantasy, as far as story and everything, has to be Final Fantasy III. I’m a huge fan of Yoshitaka Amano’s artwork, as well; his drawings of Celes and Terra are some of my favorites. Final Fantasy IX also holds a special place in my heart, as it was the first one to which I was introduced.
DHC: You did a lot of work in the Whedonverse before your work on the Willow series, specifically your pieces for Serenity. What drew you to working on those pieces?
ML: I was very lucky to be contacted by Quantum Mechanix about doing some Firefly nouveau prints. They had seen my Nintendo-inspired nouveau work and reached out to me to see if I’d be interested in working with them. I’m a huuuuuge fan of Firefly, Serenity, and Joss Whedon. I mean, it borders on creepy fangirl sometimes. I jumped at the chance.
It was also my first real experience doing art for someone other than myself. I was incredibly intimidated; however, since it was for a show I loved, I put on my big-girl pants and got to work. It’s been a year since I completed them, but I’m still proud of how they turned out.
DHC: Speaking of nouveau, you seem to use that style a lot and it adds something completely unique to nerd characters we all know and love. What inspired you to try that? What was the first nouveau piece you created?
ML: I’ve been a big fan of art nouveau and Alphonse Mucha since I discovered it about two and a half years ago. Combining it with nerd culture was really a crazy, random happenstance. I’d spent some of my wedding money on a few coffee table art books, one of which was a compilation of art nouveau pieces by Alphonse Mucha. My husband was sick, so while I was nursing him back to health, I was browsing through the book off and on.
I remember lying down before bed and thinking, “It’d be really cool to do a drawing of Princess Peach in that style.” I wrote it down, and when I woke up the next morning, I got to work. It was really the first time I’d tried anything like that before, and it was HARD! At the time, I was working forty-plus hours at a pizza place for minimum wage and going to school full time. I didn’t have much extra time for personal work. But I made it my goal to actually finish that drawing, and I’m extremely glad I did. My husband posted it on Reddit (stealing all my sweet karma), and I experienced the first widespread positive response to my work. It really boosted my confidence and encouraged me to keep on truckin’, so to speak.
DHC: Nerd culture is definitely glad you finished that piece and all the others as well. What’s your process for creating those pieces? Do you sketch one, then re-create it digitally?
ML: I do a rough sketch of the layout I want, mostly using blocks and rudimentary shapes. Then I create a photo collage with various references and screenshots to help me get everything down. I draw it using the collage as reference. Usually I do a rough sketch, refine it, and then do the final line art. After that, I do a color mockup and then start the actual coloring. I haven’t sketched anything out on paper in ages! I started drawing with a tablet at such a young age that sketching on paper just feels weird to me now!
DHC: So you’ve done work for Quantum Mechanix and Dark Horse Comics, and you’ve had some pretty successful T-shirts and accessories on places like RedBubble.com and TeeFury.com. What triumphs on your bucket list would you still love to achieve with your art?
ML: It’s kind of crazy to think that I knocked so much awesome stuff off my bucket list already! I’d say probably my biggest dream would be to do character portraits for a new Baldur’s Gate game or something of the sort. That’s always been my dream! That, or doing work for Wizards of the Coast and a cover for a Stephen King book would be amazing as well. If I got to do any of those things, I could die happy. The Dark Tower is my absolute favorite book series ever, and I would love a chance to do a cover or work on the comic or basically anything to do with it. :)
DHC: You also have a portfolio of beautiful pieces that are very original and don’t play into nerd culture, like Laura, Lilly, Liz, and Cassie, and the new one you’ve been working on with the jellyfish. These pieces seem more personal, somehow. What inspires them?
ML: Thank you! The pieces like Laura, Liz, etc., are all original artwork that is closer to what I was trying to do before I started delving into pop culture–related art. I’m hoping that some of the exposure for my pop culture stuff will maybe garner some interest in my original work, as that’s where my heart truly lies. It’s extremely hard to get original art to sell, compared to things that already have a fan base.
DHC: Your personal pieces, along with a lot of your other pieces, display a character facing the viewer. What about this pose intrigues you?
ML: Generally, I gravitate toward straightforward portraits because I’m fascinated by female faces. There really isn’t a huge amount of thought that goes into the pose. I go with whatever is aesthetically pleasing to me at the time. I’m still trying to find my footing, so I’m trying different things to see what appeals to me the most. Right now, that’s pretty portraits of ladies.
DHC: Have you ever thought of putting an art book together of a lot of your pieces, talking about process, etc?
ML: I’d love to put an art book together at some point—especially one with explanations of process, as I get asked about that all the time—but currently my work is kind of all over the place in terms of style and subject matter. And there’s not a whole lot of it, since I’ve only been doing this for close to two years. I’d like to wait until I’ve found more consistency, stylewise, with my original art.
DHC: If you had a superpower, what would it be?
ML: If I had a superpower…jeez. I think the ability to manipulate time would be the best superpower ever. I’d love to be able to speed it up and slow it down at will. Making travel go by in the blink of an eye, or making vacations feel like they last two months instead of a week. I haven’t worked out the logistics yet, but that’s what I want!
DHC: Thank You, Megan!
Don't forget to pick up her covers of Willow as each issue arrives at your local comic shop. And take a moment to check out all of her original art on her website.