C“The journey in creating art is the most important, meditative, self reflective, process that I think anybody can go through, and I think anybody who’s tried to make art can understand that to a certain degree. It’s therapeutic.”
CAMMRY LAPKA
ammry Lapka, the mastermind behind Chroncruik, is a non-binary comic book artist and storyteller, known for their unwavering dedication to their craft and their community.
Hailing from the vibrant town of Port Angeles, on the Olympic Peninsula, in the beautiful state of Washington, Cammry has made an impact on the local art scene through their involvement with the super fun Squatchcon event.
During this POPcast, we’ll dive into Cammry’s art projects, including the paranormal adventures of George Smith, and discuss their thoughts on the intersection of art and technology.
Sit back, relax, grab a drink, and get ready to be inspired.
Cammry: Hey, thanks for having me. I super appreciate it.
Cammry: I don’t know about the hardest working comic book artist, but I definitely do work hard. Comic books are my life. I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else, which I suppose works out for me in the freelance department. Other than drawing, I like to go mermaiding during the summers. I like to pick up trash and find weird things. I enjoy riding my motorcycle when it’s warm. I like to read. I like to hike. I’ve got three animals. Two are dogs, one is a cat. Their names are Nacho Libre, Jack Black, and Ostara. Yeah, I really love where I live. I’ve always wanted to live by the ocean and in the woods, and here I am doing that. And that’s really going to reflect in some of my comics that I’ll be writing and drawing myself here soon. But, yeah, I mean, that’s basically me.
Cammry: Well, considering I grew up in the midwest, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota. In that area where, I mean, there’s arts, but it was mostly a focus on wildlife and landscape art. And the nerd communities were there, but they were really small. And like the places where I lived, it was relatively remote. And especially growing up in those spaces. I mean, I was the weirdo for liking anime and manga when I was a kid. So moving to Port Angeles and experiencing the art and amazing culture out here. I mean, I feel like, you know, Seattle is a whole different world, but we get a little bit of it out here. Like, I’ve just met so many incredible people. We have a little local anime store run by Drew Schwab, who also helps fund Squatchcon, which is an event that I organize with my friends Purity and Jess. It’s mostly Jess who organizes everything. But, yeah, I mean, I’ve made a whole bunch of friends here. Really awesome community of people all interested in the same stuff and coming together to celebrate that. So, I mean, I’d say Port Angeles is an amazing place to be an artist, and I’m very grateful that I can be here.
Cammry: Yeah, absolutely. I usually just throw money at Jess. She’s the one who does all the heavy lifting, like organizing and getting into contact with sponsors, and putting events together. Like, she’s doing the hard stuff. But, yeah, I mean, I met you guys there. You had seen, for the most part, what Squatchcon is all about. I mean, it’s really small, but I think that gives an opportunity for young artists to get into the scene and see what it’s all about and try out selling as an artist. Like, I, for example, met a young artist at Squatchcon, and they had all these little dragons and all kinds of cute artwork and stuff. And they were super excited about being here, and they were telling me about how it was their first con. And that’s such an important thing, I think, because, I mean, as somebody who never really had those opportunities, it’s really great to see young artists get excited about their stuff, and feel like they can do what they love, and give opportunities for them to do so. We also give sponsorships to high school students to table, which I am super excited about because I would have absolutely adored to have that opportunity when I was in high school. Yeah. Otherwise, you know, I’m just involved to the degree that I am. I try to be available to Jess at any point in time, but I know it is her baby as well. So, yeah, for those of you listening, you should come out. It’s a great time, and it’s an opportunity for an awesome vacation because Port Angeles is absolutely gorgeous. So, yeah, mark it on your calendars. Come out.
Cammry: Do I believe in Sasquatch? Hmm. I really enjoy the iconography of Sasquatch and the cultural and mythical phenomenon that it’s become. Do I actually believe in a flesh and blood hairy monster running around in the woods? No, but I do think it’s a really real phenomena that we celebrate as Pacific Northwest, our mascot, if you will. So I do have a very special place for Sasquatch in my heart, which is why I am also making a comic book about them, him, or whatever you would like to call the entity. So, yeah, I guess that’s… those are my thoughts on the good old big guy of the woods.
Cammry: So, George Smith takes place kind of in Port Angeles. It’s a facsimile of Port Angeles, but, yeah, he’s supposed to just be like a normal guy who moves up to Port Angeles, and is just working real hard for his daughter, who is very upset about moving away from her mother, and has some resentment towards her dad. So that kind of creates some drama. There’s the main antagonist of the book, who’s like this tycoon guy who’s been going and cutting up trees. And there’s the deuteragonist, Hank, who is a S’Klallam native, and his brother had gone missing years ago, and he’s been kind of low key searching for him, but is kind of a tragic character in which he just kind of lives alone in the woods. But he meets George, and George’s daughter goes missing. And so the two have this, like, bond of trying to find their loved ones, and perhaps unraveling the mystery as to why these people are disappearing. And, yeah, there’s a Sasquatch/Bigfoot in there. There’s all kinds of cryptids. I am really proud of how the story is turning out. It’s almost finished. Currently I have about 26 pages done. I think I’m aiming for 32 pages, but we’ll see how this goes. Yeah, it’s been about five, six years in the making. I’ve been redoing the story over and over again, and I think I’ve got it just right now. So, yeah, it’s my love letter to the Olympic Peninsula for sure.
Cammry: I worked on USA bestseller Russell Nohelty’s “Black Market Heroine” graphic novel. I also have been working on “Cat Trails” for four years now, which is a Webtoon written by Enrique Rosado. I also do an NSFW series through Bad Bug, in West Virginia, called Death Nell. Yeah, I do work on a whole bunch of, like, smaller indie projects with writers around the world. Otherwise, some projects that I, because, I mean, I’m trying to pivot towards working towards myself, because as much as I enjoy working for other people, I really would like to get my own stories out there. I would like to start creating my, my comic book legacy out there, however that goes. So I have a few ideas for stories. Obviously, George Smith is my big one right now. I do have, like, a semi-autobiographical novel that I’ve been working on called “FOS”, which is kind of a heavy one because it goes through some really sad stuff that has happened in my life, but it’s super personal, and I think it’s an important story to tell. I also have some other fun stuff that I’ve been thinking about writing. I really like the “Wings of Fire” series, and I’ve kind of had my own little spin off series that I’ve just been writing on and off for fun, which I won’t get into too much detail, but I really love dragons. So that’s another avenue that I would like to take is maybe work on a project where I can just draw dragons all the time.
Cammry: My favorite things to draw… I like to draw a lot of things. I suppose my favorite things to draw are like monsters, and dragons, and creatures. I mean, I really like drawing people too. Other than that, I mean, I have a hard. I think my least favorite thing to draw is probably buildings and, like, man-made stuff. I really like the organic stuff to draw, like trees, and plants, and… Yeah, a lot of those things. But I mean, I try to practice and make sure I expand my horizons. Cause being a comic book artist, you have to be super flexible about that.
Cammry: So I think every day is a little different for me. I kind of like it that way. I like being flexible because not every day is the same. And if I lived every day in a routine, I feel like I would go insane. But I usually like to stay up late. Most of my really good artwork comes during the nighttime, so I’m usually up until like 02:00 am, 03:00 am. drawing or working on my own stuff. But when I do get up in the morning, it’s usually about 10, 10:30. And then I make some coffee, sit down, and I’ll draw for as long as I can. And then I’ll stop for a lunch break, and then get back on to drawing for a little bit longer. Sometimes I’ll go for a walk midday, or my walk will take place in the afternoon, or, you know, like closer to five or six, then dinner. And then I’ll play some video games or, you know, just some recreational activities, which sometimes is also drawing, but it just depends on how I’m feeling. And then, yeah, then when I lay down for bed, I… like I said, I’ll be up until pretty late working on stuff that I want to work on. So that’s usually what a typical day looks like for me. I enjoy, and am grateful for the fact that I can freelance because it really gives me the flexibility I need to do things. Usually my weekends are filled with chores and cleaning my house because those are my “days off.” But yeah, I enjoy having a chill life out here in the woods. It’s very nice.
Cammry: The first one that comes to mind is definitely Hayao Miyazaki. Obviously. The other ones that I can think of is Bryan Lee O’Malley with Scott Pilgrim. Then there’s a Seattle based artist named Corey Lewis who really inspired me when I was in high school. I also have another artist named J. NeonDragon Peffer. They did all the artwork for “Flight Rising,” which is like a browser-based dragon game, like breeding game, and I really liked their drawings. I have a variety of Tumblr and Instagram artists that I really like too. But if I sat here and tried to name all of them, we might be here for a while. Other than that, yeah, I mean, those are definitely the big ones. Yeah.
Cammry: So, I have two options for this. You can reach out to me via any social media platform that you can find me on, or you can go directly to my website, cammrylapkaart.com, and hit the contact, and just email me. Get an email through there. And then, yeah, usually we’ll go back and forth. I usually ask for half up front, and then we can do half after the artwork is complete. But, yeah, I mean, my suggestion is just visit my website, and scroll through and see what I got available and we can talk about it. Thank you.
Cammry: Yeah, I do have very strong opinions about AI stuff. Most importantly, AI image generation. Like, don’t get me wrong, I think AI images are fun and can be cool and potentially be used as a tool. Sure. I mean, I personally don’t want to use AI in my workflow, only because I like the process of making my artwork. My distinction, where I feel it’s gross, is when people just straight up generate AI images, and then start calling it their artwork, quote, unquote, and then start selling it, because you’re stealing money from hardworking people who have spent their lives developing a craft. And I just, I just think that feels a little scummy. And I don’t know. You know, that’s just my opinion, and some people would disagree with me, but, you know, for example, when AI image generation was first emerging, I was at Emerald City Comic Con with a few of my friends, and we had an author friend who wrote baby dragon books, and they had somebody next to them who had an AI image generation booth. I. I didn’t actually go and look at it, but I did hear secondhand, from my friends, that this guy started generating baby dragon images once he had seen that she was selling these books. So, I mean, he started to take revenue from her. And luckily, my friends were pretty cool and went down and confronted him about it, and he took his stuff down. But that’s just one example of, like, how scrummy that can be. So, yeah, I mean, artwork is definitely being commodified, and that’s a tragedy, because as humans, like, artwork is our way of expressing our experiences. It’s a meditation. It’s an exploration of the soul. And, I mean, I think some… some people are skipping over that. I just think that the journey in learning how to do artwork is so important. Like, I have sketchbooks upon sketchbooks of art pieces that I’ve done over my entire life. And a lot of people will argue, well, “AI learns just like humans.” You take artwork, and copy it, and develop a style. No! it doesn’t learn the same way. The AI doesn’t have sketchbooks upon sketchbooks, marking points in their lives, telling stories, giving windows into the past of how I was feeling, and why did I like these things? Why did I copy these images? There’s intention behind it. And with AI image generation, it’s just not the same. And people who want to call it artwork, it’s not the same as human artwork. And that’s just my opinion, but it’s a very firm opinion that I stand next to. The journey in creating art is the most important, meditative, self reflective, process that I think anybody can go through, and I think anybody who’s tried to make art can understand that to a certain degree. It’s therapeutic. But, yeah, I mean, I could go on for a whole long time about this, so I’ll stop rambling now.
Cammry: Oh, yeah, absolutely. I won’t pretend to know a whole bunch about them, but I do think that they’re great tools to protect your work. I do think that there are some social media sites that already kind of integrate something like that. I’ve tried to watermark everything, but, I mean, that may not work. So I do… I do think that they’re super important tools to have.
Cammry: I mean, I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure. I don’t have the answers. I just work hard and try to provide good services to people. I mean, I’m human. You can talk to me. I can do special things in your artwork by you just telling me. I mean, I don’t know. I just am doing my best and trying to survive. And I guess when, and if, that work dries up, I’m gonna have to find alternatives. I mean, we’ll see how things go.
Cammry: Well, some artists that I enjoy who are local artists and really cool people is Rita, who goes by the username Panty Witch. She uses recycled materials to make really awesome underwear. Then my friend Jaiden Dokken, who is the poet laureate of Sequim, they are also an awesome ceramicist. I suppose I have some friends in Seattle… trying to remember their name right now. Kelly Bjork is another one. They’re super awesome and do really awesome, cute, queer artwork. Yeah, I mean, there’s so many. I have a bunch of artists on Facebook who are all in the independent comic book community. I would just, you know, encourage everybody to go check out artists and explore your local art community and get to know those people, because they’re super passionate, and I’ve only ever had really good experiences with local art stuff. Yeah, so those are… those are some of my people.
Cammry: So, I think last year I had done upwards of 15 to 20 shows. And, I mean, some of those were, like, live painting in my local town. I’ve been kind of cutting back on shows, especially this year. My brother is graduating from high school, and to be honest, I am not a super huge fan of traveling. I have nightmares about losing all my stuff. So, yeah, I think this year I have about ten shows total, throughout the year. I might change, because sometimes I do apply to shows here and there if they pop up. Usually my biggest sellers are stickers and prints, but I also do original artwork. I do live sketch commissions. And, yeah, sometimes there’s some good conversation as well.
Cammry: I would have to say some of my early comic book people, like my friend Braiden Cox, who really got me into the independent comic book scene and helped me kind of develop my confidence in comics and my art style. I have to say all of my people who I see at conventions, like my friends Caleb Palmquist and Miles Greb, who are, like, super accommodating and really awesome in Spokane. They both have some really awesome comic books. I suppose, like my people, my clients, like Enrique and Mike Tanner, and Russell, and all of those guys, thanks for being patient with me. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to work with you. Yeah, just, and everybody who’s been supportive of me, I just appreciate it. I wouldn’t be where I’m at without them.
Cammry: So you can find me, and anywhere, I’m on social media and cammrylapkaart.com. That will have all the links that you’ll need to find me and any information about commissions or my portfolio. So, yeah, cammrylapkaart.com.
Cammry: Just keep making artwork. That’s my simplest answer.
Cammry: Thanks for having me on, guys. I really appreciate you giving me this opportunity, and I hope to see you guys around cons, and have a good one. Thanks for listening.
Discover Cammry at https://cammrylapkaart.com or find her on:
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