The city as a canvas
The comic character “Duncan” sports a distinctive look of his own—a bowl cut, black-framed glasses, pronounced smile lines, and a habit of always dressing in red, black, and white—one which accurately reflects the personality of his creator, Duncan. The 30-something Duncan recently earned the top spot in an online poll on Taiwan’s ten most popular comic illustrators. Never an art major, he created his eponymous character by drawing on skills he acquired through two years spent studying sketching at his aunt’s studio while still very young.
Duncan loved drawing and dreamed of becoming an artist or an animator for Pixar Studios when he grew up, but his father worried he would have trouble earning a living through drawing and barred him from attending an arts-oriented high school. In spite of this setback, Duncan considered majoring in design at university. Unfortunately, he had no portfolio to support his application and ended up studying foreign languages and literature instead.
After completing his military service, Duncan worked a series of uninteresting jobs, including as a hostel clerk and a street vendor, all the while continuing to dream of making his living by drawing. “You have to pay your dues in life. I didn’t want to give up on doing anything and end up with regrets.” So he packed up samples of his work, left his hometown of Hualien, and headed for Taipei. He says that when he went looking for work, he was willing to accept any salary and work any hours. He didn’t care so long as the job enabled him to improve his drawing skills. But for all his determination, he never heard back from any of the design companies he spoke to.
A passion for drawing
Then opportunity came knocking. His uncle, who ran a computer company, asked Duncan if he were interested in doing graphics for him. Not knowing anything about computer graphics, he hesitated a bit. But with his uncle determined to give him a chance and happy to let him learn on the job, Duncan bought a couple of books and began to learn. After burying himself in them for three months, he had developed a good handle on the field.
Interestingly, prior to creating his own Facebook fan page, Duncan rarely went online and was largely unfamiliar with Facebook. But then a friend happened to share the Miss Undine fan page with him, and he came away impressed that someone was doing something so entertaining on social media. The experience aroused his own deeply rooted desire to share funny thoughts, and got him started drawing his own comics after work. He went on to create the “Duncan Design” fan page in June 2013.
Duncan worked hard on the comic, uploading new posts to Facebook daily even though he initially had only two or three hundred followers. But with his friends sharing his work and social media working its magic, his page has since attracted more than 2.4 million fans.
This increasing popularity brought with it offers to take on new projects. He turned down those early offers, however, choosing instead to focus on improving his skills and doing good work for his uncle. In fact, he kept his computer graphics job until February 2014, when he finally accepted his first freelance project, a Mother’s Day ad for TVBS.
Inspired by the little things
Duncan excels at making life’s ever-so-mundane minutiae funny. He also likes to twist everyday expressions by changing one or two of the last few characters in them, then spoofing the results in drawings. For example, his “Johnny Walker” (Yuehan zoulu) series of comics includes “Johnny Fashion Show” (Yuehan zouxiu), “Johnny Off-Key” (Yuehan zouyin), and “Johnny Legs It” (Yuehan paolu).
Text and image are equally important to Duncan’s work, and fans often can’t help but read the text aloud. His series on the accent of his Hualien hometown is a case in point. He also excels at transforming close observations and creative interpretations of the mundanities of everyday life, things that most of us ignore, into entertaining comics that resonate with readers.
Duncan is an upbeat guy, the kind of person who takes online readers’ criticism of his art and other minor frustrations as opportunities for personal growth. Speaking about his work, he says that each piece has its own story, and that those stories are far more important to him than products. He is committed to doing his work in a way that he personally finds interesting, and refuses to do ads just for the money. When negotiating advertising jobs, he always asks the client to let him present the product in his own way. “I’ve turned down many lucrative projects because the client wouldn’t accept that condition.”
Duncan likes to work quietly at night and has tried to retain a degree of anonymity. To that end, he refuses to show his face to the media, wearing a mask for interviews, photos, and even TV appearances. He says that he likes to take walks during the day, and his relative anonymity provides him with space to observe people.
He is currently looking forward to trying out new ways to bring his work to new audiences. “As long as I’m enjoying the process, I’ll be satisfied with the results,” says Duncan, whose greatest joy is drawing.
Taiwan’s young comic illustrators take inspiration from their pleasure in sharing and their skill at observing life. By bringing their own personal styles to bear on their ideas, they have managed to leaven life’s painful moments with humor.
Cartoonists like Duncan and Old Undine are defying the stereotype of the starving artist. They are earning a living doing what they love, and their talents are being revealed for all to see.