ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

Most of you know her work by sight, and if you don’t yet, then by this time next year you will. Well on her way to being the hardest working woman in the art biz, Camilla d’Errico doesn’t stop at a couple toy designs and a comic book. She’s working on a graphic novel for an upcoming Hollywood movie, another with Joshua Dysart, and a mini series with Grant Morrison. Video game designs, multiple clothing lines, and toys, art and more toys everywhere you look. Camilla sat down with me to talk about her all new Helmet Girls, childhood traumas, and my issues with Canadians.

ToyCyte: You’ve got so many things to mention. I’d like to talk about the bags with Oso, the Bax Bears, and tell me about the project with MindStyle.

Camilla d’Errico: With MindStyle they’re going to put [my designs] in production but they haven’t yet. They’re the kind of company that’s serious when they say “we’re going to do a line with you.” And even Mimobot, I met them in Taipei, and they want me to do some designs for them. No contract has been signed but I did get the template…

TC: So they’re pretty serious about it too! You have a lot of toys in the works then.

Camilla's Bax Bear

CD: Oh yeah! I love toys. Even Oso Design House, the company that did the bags, they offered to do a toy line for me, so basically what they need is for me to sculpt a figure since I do sculpting…

TC: You sculpt also?

CD: I do but I don’t have time! So I want to work with a friend who’s a sculpter. Actually drawing a 360 image of the character, or even worse than that: up above underneath…is really difficult. It’s easier for me to give a sketch and an example of a toy I’ve done before with someone who’s close by me. If you give it to someone all the way in China it’s hard to control how it works. So you really need to work with someone you trust and who’s there and who’s good about collaborating. So hopefully with Oso I’ll end up doing a figure for Tanpopo which is this book I did.

TC: Oh I’m not familiar with it.

CD: Yeah we only did 100 copies.

TC: Oh got it! Is it the one on your postcards also? That’s where I’ve seen it. Tanpopo?

CD: Yeah That means “dandelion” in Japanese. Tanpopo is a graphic adaptation of Faust. Basically a little girl meets the Devil, and he comes to take her soul. I did that, and Oso loved it. So what they did was they made a bag of Tanpopo. It’s so cool. There’s actually a second version of the bags, because they also loved my paintings a lot so they took one with the Waiting Princess which is this girl with a crazy Malaysian death mask on her head and she’s sitting on top of a crane. So that’s what we launched in Taipei. Hopefully we’ll be doing a toy line very soon. I’ve always wanted figures. My whole apartment is like a toy room. It’s like an anime con blew up.

Tanpopo Plush Design

TC: Really! What do you collect?

CD: I love Kotobukiya. I got to meet them in New York.

TC: They do amazing work. Was there any talk or anything?

CD: There was talk of doing an art book, but we just talked.

TC: Yeah, I haven’t seen an art book by you, which is a disappointment.

CD: You won’t be disappointed because I’m coming out with a couple. I have my work in Swallow with Ashley [Wood], and he actually wanted to do a Sparrow book with me! So I’m doing Sparrow with IDW, and then there’s a company called DMF and I’m doing an art book with them. They’re SUCH a great company. And a small company is nice.

TC: Probably more control for you and freedom.

CD: WAY more control. And they’re so much more excited to just work with the artist, and it’s about the art, so I’m going to do an art book with them.

TC: That’s insane! You’ve got so much stuff coming out!

Design for an upcoming NDS game

CD: Which is why I’m lucky my sister works with me. She helps with the business end of things and the contracts, which no artist ever wants to deal with.

TC: That’s great you can keep that in the family. It’s someone you trust and someone who obviously wants your best interest.

CD: And we’re such a close family. I’m very lucky to have my sister. My sister doesn’t get paid for it yet. She still has her daytime job. But soon she’ll quit her job. That’s her goal. To just do this full time which is why she’s getting the fashion line going…

TC: So tell me about the fashion line. It’s a high fashion line for women…?

CD: Yeah and it’s with a designer named Camilla. We don’t know what it’s called yet, but we’ll probably just call it “Camilla.” She’s from Milan, and moved to LA last year and she was really excited about my art as well. I’ve seen her designs, and they’re beautiful. It’s basically like wearing a painting of mine. Like, the fabric is an entire screen of my work.

TC: I was curious how your art would be incorporated into high fashion.

CD: Me too, and she also wants to really collaborate, so it’s going to be something that emphasizes my style. I love style and clothing, and with my paintings and drawings, I’m basically designing clothes myself. She’s more simplistic and I’m more frilly…

TC: Yeah I was thinking “umm…your style is NOT simplistic!”

Piece for Beasts of Burden show

CD: Oh yeah. Harajuku. That’s me! So now we’re going to twist that with European sensibility which is calm, and simple. I’ve seen the designs and they’re fantastic. It’s only going to be a dress line for the first series, and then second series will be something different. I really want to do a fashion show where we’ll do the actual helmets on the girls and have them walk down the runway like that. That’s really exciting. I do a lot of T-shirts with designers in Vancouver and LA. I do very limited runs of my shirts, but I’m not a warehouse. I can’t store all that stuff! I’ve worked with a lot of designers. Devotion 4 and Damaged. With Damage I did a fashion show for Vancouver fashion week. So Vancouver is lucky because I’ll produce stuff you can only get in Vancouver.

TC: Damn you Canadians.

CD: I know! You have to live in the city I’m in to get all the stuff I do. But even then…! And also Oso is doing T-shirts. It’s in conjucnction with the purses.

TC: Have you written any comics? I picked up something else by you, The Fallen…

CD: Actually for Fallen, I took Mark Twains story, the Mysterious Stranger, and reconstituted it. So it’s Mark Twain. Same thing with Tanpopo and all the writing from Faust. I think I have this weird state of mind where I think I can’t write, put into me from a very horrible professor. She said I couldn’t write at all!

TC: Wait when was this? She didn’t really say you couldn’t write at all?

CD: She did! And it traumatized me! That’s why I never say anything bad about people’s work. I never say “WOW. You can’t draw.” I just try to give helpful criticism. I mean I’m not saying everyone’s going to be the next…um…

TC: Frank Quietly?

CD: I was going to say Michael Turner. Actually he’s who I started emulating when I started. He’s why I got into comics. Him and Joe Benitez. I LOVE his work on the Darkness.

TC: Those two artists have a similar style. You know what you like.

CD: Yeah back about 10 years ago everyone started copying their style. I think when that’s what people did, I launched into anime.

TC: So what anime and manga are you into?

CD: I love Tsutomu Nihei. He’s the guy who did Snikt.

TC: Yes! His art is amazing! Blame is unbelievable! I could see why you would like that! Your style is also very gritty and very rough. It’s very much your style.

CD: I know! And to see that I was so inspired by his work. And I really like Naruto the manga. My favorite manga is Clover by Clamp. Clover I think inspired me because it was so well designed and so well drawn. I think that was the first time I saw a book, other than Ashley Wood, really change it up. It wasn’t just a standard panel layout. It was so strange. It was unbelievable. I have a degree in illustration and design and so that appealed. That’s what I try to do with my work. That’s probably why I’m sort of all over the place. I can’t help it. And I’m very prolific. I really have no other hobbies other than art. I hate that question “what are your hobbies!?” “Um…I sculpt…for Oso…”

TC: And it sounds like you also have an interest in other’s art. Especially with your insane toy collection. So what toys do you collect?

CD: I love Strangeco. They do amazing toys. And Kid Robot and MindStyle. I love Kathie Olivias’ new line!

TC: Interesting. They’re all Western designers.

CD: I love Western vinyl toys. They’re just so cute! Oh and Treeson! And Devil Robot. And Baseman. And Tim Biskup.

TC: And what other toys do you have coming out?

CD: MindStyle is coming out with a series, and Oso is launching the Bax Bears. I’m in series two already, and then they’re going to do a series of Bax Bears just of me and then also another line of toys for Oso.

TC: Well anything else you have to say about toys?

CD: They’re really cool…? And hopefully I’ll get to go to Hong Kong for Toy Fair and then the Singapore one, and then APE in San Francisco.

TC: That sounds good!

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