We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Han Hampy. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Han below.

Han, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I was recently laid off from my regular hour creative job, and have been doing the hard work of continuing in the industry when everything is so unsure. Now that I’ve had a taste of what it is like to be in a creative position, I do not think I could give it up. Being artistic is so important to me in my daily life, and now im at a crossroads. Am I content working on my craft on the side, and getting a regular job for a steady income (and benefits!!)? At the end of the day, to be happy, I will always be creating art no matter what. My mind has also recently fallen into “this is what I’m good at” standpoint, and it turns out, for most well-paying jobs, doing something at least a little creative is the main thing I’m qualified for. So at this point, it feels like it’s creative or nothing, and that is an exciting prospect. If that may be a graphic design position, rather than an illustration or cartooning position, so be it.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am Han Hampy, a cartoonist from Columbus, Ohio. I have over 10 self-published works under my belt, including “Whatever Happened to Grimace?”, and a series called Billie and Charlie, which has 3 issues and growing. Not only that, but I worked for American Girl as a visual merchandiser, creating artwork and displays for the American Girl doll store. I got started in comics when I attended the Columbus College of Art & Design, where I created my first long-term comic titled “Catfish”, a comic about a shape-shifting goblin who uses the internet to catfish and lure in victims. Even though I got my professional start in comics in college, I got my true, passionate start at age 10 making a fan comic about Kirby, and then Tails from the Sonic franchise. I fell head over heels for comics, and have been working toward creating sequential art ever since. Even though I started my professional career with a goal to create horror comics, that shifted when I found that I enjoy making people laugh way more than I like scaring them. Now, my goal for my work is to be a little bit weird, engaging, and lighthearted.
Recently, I’ve been trying hard to get back in touch with my childhood, instilling a feeling of nostalgia in my work. This resulted in my best-selling comic, “Whatever Happened to Grimace?”, where I cover the entire history of the famous McDonald’s mascot. Alongside this comic, I created the series “Billie and Charlie” which is a set of mini-comics about a wolf and monkey experiencing girlhood in the early 2010s. Each comic is themed around a specific part of the era, including: VHS rental shops (like Block Buster), Valentine’s Day traditions, and Pokémon cards. Since each comic is themed, I place the physical comic into representations of the theme, meaning, I put the VHS comic in a recycled VHS box, the Valentine’s Day comic in a Valentine, and I use fake Pokémon cards to place the Pokémon comic in. Upcycling old media is so much fun, and I love implementing it into my work.
Overall, I’d say, I want to give people warm, fuzzy feelings when they read my work, or at least be amused. Creating things that are fun for me to draw has been key to continually creating. If you end up drawing something you dont care about, it is going to show-plus you’ll be miserable. Have fun, always!!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When coming into college, I knew off the bat I wanted to get into this comic class that only specific students were chosen to get into, im talking like 10 students tops. These students would get paired with professional writers to create a comic that would get placed into an anthology. So a VERY special and amazing opportunity if I ever got in, and I wanted to get in so badly. Every year I was in college I applied, but I never got in, even when I had tried my hardest to build up a portfolio that was good enough. No hate to any of the teachers who decided who got in, or to any of the students who got in over me. All of those students were very deserving of the spots, however, that didn’t help the intense feeling of discouragement I felt, especially when I was a senior with the best work I could have possibly done. Every artist at some point has that feeling of “Why am I not good enough? Why NOT me?” and I never felt that as hard as I did senior year. I tried so hard for a goal that I realized I would never achieve. Not only that but my thesis comic, one I had spent so many hours creating and toiling over, I didn’t end up liking. The combo of the two made me feel more discouraged than I’d ever felt.
During this hard time, I decided to just make comics that made ME happy. I think I had my mind set that the club, or this big thesis comic, was going to be “it”. The thing that projected me into the industry, but It wasn’t. It was very hard, but once I realized that door was closed, another opened. I made the first issue of “Billie and Charlie” and my comic “Whatever Happened to Grimace” was taking off. I posted it to TikTok, and it was amazingly received. People were connecting to my work, they saw value. When I would table at shows, people would smile, and engage with my comics, and that was so incredibly inspiring to me. It made me realize that if you put so much pressure on why you aren’t good enough, or why certain people aren’t noticing you, you’re going to miss all the people that DO notice you, and the joy that comes from creating work that you personally love. I’ve felt more empowered than ever to never stop creating art and finding my own path.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

One of the most rewarding things about being a grown-up artist and creative is being able to create exactly what little me would have loved. Not only that, but I can touch people’s lives while doing it. I was a very passionate kid, who always had her head in the clouds, with so many large, let’s admit, unachievable dreams, for my skills at the time. But now, those dreams are a lot more doable. I can create that epic story about cats with human hair running around fighting shadow monsters, and get it right into the hands of kids and other adults who would have loved the same thing. There are lots of kids with the same dreams I had back then, and moving forward, Id love nothing more than to make work little me, and those like me, will love. You can truly draw ANYTHING, and that is so much fun. I still have my head in the clouds most of the time, so coming home and being able to sit and draw is still my favorite thing to do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hanhampy.myportfolio.com/work
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hanhampy/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/han-hampy-b10160240/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Han_Hampy
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@hanhampy

Image Credits
All art is mine!