We recently caught up with Tim Doyle, owner/operator/mastermind of Nakatomi Inc. He is definitely one of our favorites, both for his great artwork, but also for his honest answers to our hard hitting questions. So let’s find out what Mr. Doyle has been up to!
Nerdlocker (NL): Congratulations on starting Nakatomi Print Labs. Now anyone can have posters printed by Nakatomi. Has it been taking off?
Tim Doyle (TD): Thanks! It has, actually. We’re fully booked and it’s hard to get my own stuff printed with the current schedule! I would totally call the guy who owns it and let him know I’m pissed, but every time I call him, I get a busy signal. So weird.
NL: You recently purchased larger screening equipment. You also came under fire for screening new GIANT editions of older prints. I took it as you were testing out this larger format. You even gave 2 of them away for free. Can we expect to see new works in this larger format?
TD: Oh yes – I plan on doing some really large original prints next year. It was a blast doing those big prints of older stuff, but I’m excited to do something new. It’s funny – a few weirdos got angry at me online for giving away large format prints of older work. I guess some people hate free things. But hey, what can you do? Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown.
NL: Your Pop-Sub prints are really popular. The Aaron Horkey “The Ruse” is a low edition sought after gem for collectors. Is there any chance of you working with Mr. Horkey again?
TD: I would absolutely love to work with Aaron again. The Pop-Sub is run by Aye Jay, and he brings in all the talent, and I’m really just the publisher/seller of it. Aye Jay knows a TON of great artists, and has brought their work to Nakatomi, and for that, I’m eternally grateful.
NL: Is “Sweet Lime” your only piece for Bad Dads 2012?
TD: Yup! “Sweet Lime” is my only print for that show this year. Just like last year, I’m prepping for my solo show in February and only had time for that! I’d love to do a 12×24 print for his other two films (Moonrise Kingdom and The Fantastic Mr Fox) to go along with the other 5 I did for 2010. If I ever get the time!
NL: Can you tell us more about Unreal Estate 2?
TD: It’s going to be Unrealer and Estate-r. I wanted to call the show ‘Unreal Estate 2: The Quickening’ but Ken at Spoke said that I am a huge nerd and gave me a swirlie in the toilet. So it’s just UE2 now.
NL: You recently sold a coke mirror by Jon Smith. Is there any chance we can get a weed stash box?
TD: If Jon designs it, it will be so. Actually, selling drug paraphernalia would be hilarious, as I haven’t done anything in almost a decade or so at this point. Did I mention that I’m a huge nerd?
NL: I really enjoyed the James O’Barr Crow print and you followed it up with another Crow print by James Flames. Do you now have the license to produce Crow prints and can we expect any more?
TD: I’ve been really lucky to become friends with some of my childhood ‘heroes’ in comics, and James O’Barr was gracious enough to let us do pretty much whatever we wanted when it came to prints based on his comic. I do have a couple artists on tap to do at least 2 more, but we want to spread it out slowly, as the last thing we want to do is flood the market. O’Barr also has some new stuff (non-Crow) in the works, so that’s nice!
NL: Is there going to be another Quenten vs Coen series?
TD: That is totally up to Ken, but I haven’t heard anything so I guess not this year! It would be great, as there was a lot of Cohen films I wanted to do, but couldn’t get around to it. I still did, I think, 11 prints for that show last year
NL: What was the final run on the Obama timed print?
TD: Yeah- the shop is run by Glen Maxey, who is a big-time Texas DNC activist, so he’s been really busy. I had to call my contact over there and say ‘Hey dude, take the print down- the sale is over!’ He was busy getting people to register to vote and stuff, so you know…important things. We had called for about 200 of ’em and we might print a few extra just to have on hand as gifts or promos. And, just like last time Obama was elected, so it’s probably a good idea to have a few to help those Johnny-Come-Latelies.
NL: I really enjoyed the Bad Cats comic that you released earlier this year. Are you going to produce a Bad Cats 2 or any other comic book in the future?
TD: Man o man, do I love doing comic books. It’s hard to squeeze in the work between all my print work, and being a dad, though. Comics are a real labor of love, because God knows there’s no money in it. The comic is considered by a lot of my small press comic friends as a raging success as I didn’t lose any money on it. That’s great, but it doesn’t pay the bills! I do have ideas for a few more stories, though. It’ll have to happen eventually. We’ll see! If I can get a publisher interested who’ll take over a lot of the marketing and press work, we’ll see!
NL: I am a friend and fan of Craig “Tapecat” McCudden. I feel he is the most underrated artist out there. He recently showed me a collaboration between the 2 of you. Can you tell us more about it?
TD: I’m a big fan of Tapecat as a person and an artist. He showed me a drawing he did and wanted to know if I’d want to color it and release it as a collaboration, and I said YUP! We’ll see how it goes. He’s such a great artist, makes my scribbles look sad…
Supreme thanks to Tim for taking the time to sit down with us. We have previously interviewed Mr. Doyle. You can read that interview here. Please keep up to date with his work by visiting his website, liking his Facebook page and following him on Twitter.
As always, stayed tuned to Nerdlocker for more exciting artist interviews!
