Exclusive Interview: Nathan Hamill Talks New Toy Line, Creative Process, And Star Wars
Image Source: CultureSlate
At C2E2, celebrities, artists, and cosplayers all come together for a weekend in Chicago that is filled with fun and excitement, bringing with it many sights to see and people to meet. Among these people stood a face that may have seemed familiar at first glance, but perhaps not known on as large of a scale as his father. Prior to attending the event, I received an email to interview Nathan Hamill, son of Mark Hamill. While I did not know what to expect prior to our first meeting, Nathan proved to be highly intelligent, passionate about his work, and an all-around delight to talk to.
So, Nathan, you’ve got quite the past in graphic design as an artist working with Tenacious D on their documentary as well doing some Star Wars trading cards and some animated series. Was there a moment that really cemented for you, “This is what I want to do”?
Well, I’ve been drawing for a long time. I think with the toys it was kind of a cool thing to be able to take the 2D stuff I had been doing and my love of toys from growing up and combine them in a nice marriage of the two things. And to be able to collect my own stuff of course.
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As we were just discussing a little bit ago, You’ve worked with Eric Filipkowski on projects such as Weasel Town and your current comic strip 2 Dumb Dinos. How did this partnership first come about?
I met Eric a long time ago, but we started on a cartoon called Weasel Town. We both had a love for the Chris Elliot show Get A Life. I don’t know if you know that one, but we both grew up around the same time and it was one of our favorite shows. It’s kind of a niche show, but we bonded over that and it was kind of like a secondhand language where we both could reference it. We realized that was a good fit. So we did a show called Weasel Town, you can find it on YouTube, and years later we decided “Let’s do this comic strip,” and we’ve been doing it for the last five years or so.
What does your combined creative process look like and how does it differ from you working on solo projects?
Well, I guess the solo stuff would be the 2D thing where I have the vinyl and everything where I have a sculptor. I can sculpt but not very well. I have to get those fingerprints off and everything like that (makes sculpting motions). But that’s a really interesting process of giving the sculptor a turnaround, and then they work on it a bit, they get it back to me or take photos, or do some Photoshop. We’ve found that we’ve done it enough to where it takes fewer revisions now. Then we get it ready, it goes overseas, and we make limited runs. They’re all limited runs. The main vinyl are 500 to maybe 750 pieces. I’m doing a signing at Rotofugi tomorrow. Which has these Japanese vinyl Sofubi, which means “soft vinyl.” We can do 10 to 100 pieces. It’s much more flexible in how you can produce them.
Your Kaiju Frankenstein figure was recently featured in the movie M3GAN. What was your reaction to finding out, and, more importantly, where can we all get one?
(Laughs) Well, it was a total surprise! My friend Gerina texted me and said “Hey! Kaiju Frankenstein is in this movie!” So, we went to check it out. We loved the movie, by the way, but we were especially there because I was like “If it’s in there, I’ve got to go see this movie!” And, yeah, it had this really prominent scene where the doll scans it and it has our names. It was a collaboration with an artist named Touma. It had his name, and my name, and 3D Retro, the manufacturer. It goes by quickly so we’re like “Woah, woah, woah! Okay! Gotta buy the Blu-Ray now!” But, yeah, the toy you can find in the shop on nathanhamill.com.
Who are your biggest inspirations in art, as well as life in general?
Growing up I was really into Carl Barks, Scrooge McDuck, and Duck Tales stuff. So, I’d read those comics as a kid. Later on, I started getting into Frank Kozik who did silk screens and stuff and now he, well, he’s done it all. He’s one of my idols. He made the transition from doing silk screen to making toys, so I kind of followed his career and when he started making toys I was kind of like “Well, maybe that’s something I could try out or delve into.”
How does it feel to be cemented in the Star Wars Universe, not only as an actor, which I gotta say you kinda one-upped your dad a little bit by playing a character and later on the character’s grandfather, but also as an artist and being able to put your imprint on the brand?
I realized timeline-wise that it would work out that because I’d be in the prequel era and the sequel era. The trick is, if I’m going to play the grandfather and the grandson, now I could get into that middle area and be in one of the new shows. But, it was great. It was like a big playground. I just got to run around and play a space commando.
I’m from a small town, I can’t even walk into a Wal Mart without someone walking up and saying, “Hey, I know your dad!” What is that like on a global level?
I don’t really know anything else, so it’s hard to say. But for me, I think the weirdest thing, personally, was when the special editions came out. I went to the bathroom, and when walking down the aisle back to my seat, he was walking up and getting his medal in the movie. That was a little surreal there.
Do you have any other big projects coming up that we should keep an eye out for?
Yeah. Nothing I can talk about now. Probably at Comic-Con in San Diego or Designer Con in Anaheim which is in the Fall. But stay tuned, if you would. (chuckles)
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