Q&A with Tyler Chin-Tanner

Which piece in your gallery is your favorite and why?

This is a tough one, but I’ll have to go with the cover to Batman Annual #8 by Trevor Von Eeden and colors by Lynn Varley. I bought this issue off the spinner rack at the age of 7. It wasn’t the first comic I ever bought, but it was the first one that really resonated with me and was highly influential in turning me into both a comic book fan and a comic art fan.

Please tell us a little about yourself.

As a lifelong reader of comics, I always had it in the back of my head that I wanted to become a creator. After a 5-year stint as a public school teacher, I finally found the courage to switch careers and later attended The Kubert School. It was about that time that I started collecting art, and I also founded my own publishing company, A Wave Blue World. Since then, I’ve been spending my days creating, publishing and collecting comic work.

How long have you been collecting comic art and what prompted you to start?

It’s been about 20 years now and it all started when I found myself seated next to David Mack on a flight out to San Diego ComicCon. He was concerned that his life had turned into “Fight Club” (my name is Tyler and the main characters meet on a plane). He drew a quick Kabuki for me and that started my sketchbook. My first piece of published art was the cover to Scion #5. Crossgen had a strong convention presence when they were around and I loved that series and Jim Cheung’s art.

How do you display/store your collection at home?

I have a few select pieces hung up around my house. Some of my more recent acquisitions are in flat files, but unfortunately, because of their value, a number of pieces are stored securely outside of my home.

What are your top five most wanted original pages or commissions?

1. Star Spangled War Stories #138 Cover (classic Enemy Ace by Joe Kubert) 2. A page from Jeffrey (Catherine) Jones’s Idyll. 3. An interior page from Batman Annual # 8 (to go with my cover). 4. Bill Sienkiewicz Mohawk Storm commission. 5. Paul Smith Mohawk Storm commission.