Comics, Character Design and Creativity with Cathy Le

Through the masterful use of color and innate understanding of character design, CSULB alumna Cathy Le has brought to life the thrilling stories of renowned franchises like WEBTOON's "Archie Comics: Big Ethel Energy," "Adventure Time," "The Mighty Nein Origins," and more.

Pages colored by Cathy Le. “Archie Comics: Big Ethel Energy” updates every Wednesday on the WEBTOON app. Courtesy of Cathy Le.

Le was always interested in video games, animations, and comic books such as "Final Fantasy" and "Pokemon" as a child, which further propelled her interest in drawing. 

During high school, she took extracurricular art classes, making her continued pursuit of it in college a natural choice.

Le graduated from CSULB in 2016 for her undergraduate degree, then in 2020 for her Masters in Fine Arts. 
Through the undergraduate program, she was able to develop her skills and nurture her artistic strengths. However, it wasn't until graduate school that she pushed her work further and out of her comfort zone with the help of retired Illustration professor Mark Michelon.

Cathy Le poses for a photo as the graphic novel “The Mighty Nein Origins: Mollymauk Tealeaf” lies on the table. Courtesy of Cathy Le.

"In undergrad, my projects tended to be kind of surface-level illustrations, like just following assignments. But in grad school, my mentors helped me figure out my own path and challenged me creatively,” Le said. “I could dig deeper, like, ‘Why am I making the choices that I do in my artwork?’, ‘What parts of my background influence me?’”

During college, Le began to post on social media more regularly, building an online art community under the alias Diastrons on her Twitter and Instagram, which have now both reached over 23 thousand followers.

Cathy Le illustrated a cover art for the 60th “Adventure Time” comic issue for Boom Studios. Courtesy of Cathy Le.

In her senior year of undergraduate studies, BOOM! Studios reached out to Le after seeing her art online and asked her to illustrate a cover for an "Adventure Time" comic. 

Le could only describe the experience as surreal, given her love for the cartoon since high school.

“I didn't think I could be published in that way., I just never expected that [by] me drawing what I liked and putting it online—not necessarily for likes or anything like that— people just saw what I was passionate about and how I drew my characters. They kind of resonated with that,” Le added.
Today, her portfolio is adorned with original character designs for the gaming company Nix Hydra, colorist work for a "Jem and The Holograms" comic and the graphic novel "The Mighty Nein Origins," among others.

Cathy Le was a colorist for “The Mighty Nein Origins” books on characters Mollymauk Tealeaf and Jester Lavorre, whose backstories are revealed through the graphic novels. Courtesy of Cathy Le.

Most recently, she served as a colorist for both characters and backgrounds in the digital WEBTOON Comics for "Archie Comics: Big Ethel Energy," an opportunity Le was very excited about given the "Archie Comics" series’ long-time legacy in the comic world.

Working primarily online, Le found that dedicating Monday through Friday to completing a weekly episode (equivalent to an issue) allows her to focus on creation. 

The writers provided scripts and a general guideline of what they wanted, but after that, Le could choose how to move forward with the art.

“It was really exciting to have full creative control of what colors I use, and how to style each panel. I created color palettes and did the shading and rendering to bring each panel and character to life,” Le said.

“Big Ethel Energy” focuses on the Archie Comics character Ethel Muggs and the future when she entangles with old classmates from Riverdale High School. Courtesy of Cathy Le.

Despite being from a widely-known franchise, characters in "Big Ethel Energy" still heavily involve the aspect of character design. 

Le mentioned that in this process, as an artist, she needs to think of the character's personality, their story, and how they go about their life, and then take that into account when styling their outward appearance.

“For example, with the character Jughead in 'Archie,' I'm not going to put him in bright colors. He's more like the self-described ‘weird’ character, so I’ll style his clothes in more emo-ish colors that are darker and more muted, but still make it look interesting so that it's not all black and monochrome,” Le added.

Cathy Le colored the webcomic pages, keeping in mind each character's different personalities and quirks when making stylistic choices. Courtesy of Cathy Le.

Le's interests extend beyond art, as she also seeks fashion and clothing as forms of self-expression, following TikTok videos to discover new fashion, makeup and clothing trends. 

This knowledge also enhances her character designs with informed choices regarding fabrics and sub-styles.

Playing Dungeons and Dragons also sparked Le's passion for creating original fantasy characters with elaborate, role-specific outfit designs. Her character Sarsenbi, for instance, is a half-elf whose design is intricately tied to the backstory Le created.

Through her interest in fantasy animations and games, Cathy Le designed and created stories for her original characters. Courtesy of Cathy Le.

“He is a follower of the goddess of fate and her holy symbol is Threads of Fate. So I designed him to be covered in multiple fabrics and clothing because it's integral to his faith,” Le said.

The emphasis on diverse stories in art, especially as a Vietnamese-American woman, is also important to Le’s creations. 

Her MFA thesis entitled “Tidewaters” explored themes of mental health and forgiveness through fantasy imagery and symbolism, with stories pulled from her personal experience with mental health, on top of some cultural elements.

“I tend to lean more my of my character designs towards Asian influences, and I try and create fantasy elements from that. I think it's important to show the beauty in different designs we create,” Le mused. “I still love those Eurocentric, medieval fantasy kinds of designs, but I like to lean very into my Asian heritage and how that would look like in my style.”

As a Vietnamese artist, her MFA thesis “Tidewaters” showcases Southeast Asian influences in its clothing, food, design and story. Courtesy of Cathy Le.

Since Le has been working freelance for a couple of years, she hopes to dip her feet into studio work and animation in the future. 

For now, she is working on a comic to be released during the Anime Expo convention in July, where she will also be selling her art prints and merchandise.

“I think it's always important to be open to learning and improving. I think that really helps maintain the love for your craft. From the media I enjoy, I try to emulate what I like and it's all very self-indulgent for me, and I just hope that resonates with other people as well,” Le said.