This interview was conducted by Chris Doucher, Editor-in-Chief, Writer and Comic Panel Moderator for GeekNerdNet. (Image credits to: Yanick Paquette and GeekNerdNet) - *If you would like to use any clips, screenshots, or images from the interview and/or written post below, you must have permission from GeekNerdNet.com to do so.
Artist Yanick Paquette at Calgary Expo 2023. (Image credit: Chris Doucher/GeekNerdNet)
I first met le fantastique et talentueux French-Canadian artist Yanick Paquette at the inaugural Fan Expo San Francisco in November 2022, however, it wasn’t until Calgary Expo 2023 when I finally got the chance to sit down with this absolutely talented Canadian artist. It is a massive understatement to say Paquette has been busy travelling to conventions all over the world to meet fans via this “Interweb of nerds” as he lovingly refers to them—myself included. Haha! I asked if his extensive travels—bouncing between timezones so often—has had any impact on him creatively when it comes to getting his work done. For instance in a four-month span he was in Brazil, India and Singapore, just to name a few. Paquette says with a smile on his face: “To me, when I started doing comics I had no idea I would travel because I draw well. I thought my life would be in a basement, in the dark, maybe talking to a human once a week…an editor by phone, at most.”
A lot of the start to our conversation is talking about the importance of fans worldwide who love Paquette’s work—whether with DC or Marvel—the work means something to people, and that feeling is noticed and respected by him. “I’m doing something that matters to people,” says Paquette.
Yet, between his convention hopping Paquette gets the work done and delivers every damn time, and we are all the more lucky for it. I mean, just look over his breadth of work over the years and you’ll be wowed at every piece of his you view. If you get a chance to meet him, bring up entomology (the study of insects), he loves them and talks a bit about that, too: In his younger years, he put his passion for insects this way:“I’m travelling some places often just because it’s cool jungles, I can live my Indiana Jones dream.”
Okay, okay, I have rambled on so long. Hit play on the interview below and make sure you stick around to the end for an absolutely awesome story of when he first started working on Wonder Woman, and his view on the gruelling experience that was his monthly work in comics.