Today we’d like to introduce you to Mervyn McKoy.
Thanks for sharing your story with us, Mervyn. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My journey began eons ago in a place called St. Andrew, Jamaica, during a flashy time called “the 80s”. One of my fondest activities during that colorful time involved tracing the artwork from my massive collection of Conan comic books: all two of them. This pastime was cut short by my older sister, who would chastise me on occasion for being lazy and tracing. Naturally, this forced me to prove her wrong by learning how to draw from scratch, and I have continued learning ever since.
In the intervening years, art had become a powerful tool throughout my schooling. It helped me make valuable friends, crush fearsome foes, and, most importantly, mitigate my lack of career focus during my early education. In Jamaica, you can graduate high school at the age of 15 and have the option of pursuing a two-year post-graduate program known as sixth form. It was there I decided to pursue law, and art no longer had a place in my heart other than as a simple hobby. On a whim in my final year of sixth form, I attended a school trip with some classmates and received my first, professional critique from a prominent Jamaican animator who used the term ‘derogatory’ to describe my comic book-inspired scrawling. This turn of events was notably overwhelming, especially since it was my first negative review ever. The weekend after the critique, my older sister pointed out yet another simple truth by posing the question, “Why is a negative art critique so bothersome to someone who is becoming a future law student?”
The perspective my sister offered was probably what shifted my path toward Paper Lab. Perhaps I could have made a great lawyer, but essentially, that remains irrelevant. My family was a family of artists, whether they knew it or not, and I had been unknowingly immersed in it my whole life. My father was an engineer and while he lived in a world of technicality, he would sketch technical drawings with care I tried to mimic. My mother was a pharmacist, but in her personal time would make beautiful drapes and other tactile accouterments for friends and family alike. On the other hand, my younger brother was more of a jock but would draw just as feverishly as his big brother and constantly pit his creations against mine as we fought to outdo each other. All of this was happening while my sister, the ‘queen of doodles’, would graffiti her notebooks top to bottom with strange, beautiful calligraphy and little bald men peeking over brick walls to perfection. I still don’t think she realizes that this presumably prompted my early tracing habit, and thus I grew as an artist in my family household through osmosis.
Graduating sixth form meant refocusing on art, and I saw a great opportunity to study graphic design in the state of Florida. I had since learned that graphic design was a great tool in strengthening sequential storytelling skills, which would later be used for comic book art. Thus, with the full support of my family, I attended The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale or AI (RIP) as a Graphic Design major. In reality, it was during the first month of the Graphic Design curriculum that I promptly changed majors to Computer Animation as soon as I had caught wind about a game design course. This was a costly decision, but my family was still on board with me.
Unfortunately, I discovered after the official changes had been made that the game design class I had completely switched majors for was indefinitely canceled by next quarter. I remained in the Computer Animation major, which changed names a few times while I was there, but it afforded me an opportunity to learn how to pivot while constantly being exposed to a plethora of disciplines like sculpting, life drawing, design, sequential art, 2D and 3D animation, etc. Most importantly, it was at AI that I encountered the most essential element of the Paper Lab journey: the people.
Four years passed before I knew it and during graduation time, I applied for a work permit through the school. Unfortunately, the permit arrived six months late and ruined an opportunity to work on a ‘Classics Illustrated’ project my professor had lined up. I went home to Jamaica due to a lack of incoming prospects, and that particular permit was not renewable after the remaining six months period. During this time, I figured if I didn’t have a job, I would make one. So, between 2003 to 2005, I teamed up with some fellow AI alumni and began working on an original comic titled ‘Speeders’ which I co-created with Nate Hill and two internet games with Damon Pidhajecky. These two had extremely brilliant minds, and I was excited to collaborate with them on our passion projects.
One of the games was called ‘Jungle Jumper,’ and it was a more ambitious cell phone game than ‘Snake’ at the time. It was practically finished and in the play-testing phase. Of course, our makeshift ‘company’ site got hacked, and that was that. Our other game, which I liked to affectionately refer to as ‘the Mario-Kart of bowling,’ had a long road to travel but had so much artwork and coding already invested in it that its loss was still enough to be a tragedy and a sign for us to move on. While that debacle unfolded, another AI alumni entered my purview. Rubin Myles founded a promotional design company and introduced me to architectural rendering.
The work was effortless, and I found myself using 3D animation skills and tools, which were advanced for the field at the time. It was working with Rubin that made me realize just how important the spirit of entrepreneurship really is. It was around this time that I met a client who wanted to sponsor me to work on a comic book project for them. This allowed me to expand my horizons once more and work more directly in south Florida again. I also reconnected with another close alumnus named Joel Estrada on projects for clients located in the Caribbean. I still worked on freelance comics such as projects for Atlanta based Terminus media and various characters such as Paula Peril, but comics remained as an occasional side project.
During this time, a mutual friend introduced me to Mike Broder, the former owner of South Florida’s largest pop-culture convention, Florida Supercon (aka FSC). We hit it off, and the next thing I knew, he invited me to exhibit at his 2008 convention. In addition he enlisted Joel and I to create the program cover as well as assorted promo art for FSC 08’ and subsequent years. Things escalated further when I created a character for Mike (initially dubbed by him as ‘Lil Herc’), who quickly became the iconic mascot character for FSC. At this point, Joel and I began to focus more on the illustration side of things and slowly left a lot of the miscellaneous creative duties behind.
In 2010, we made Paper Lab an official business, and the convention scene afforded a way to simultaneously advertise and generate supplemental income. Manning the booth at conventions introduced us to amazing clients and talents along the way, such as Winji Mezadieux of OtakuFest, Daniel Singer of Filthy Food, Kevin Wasielewski of Origin PC and so many other local gems. Joel and I focused on gaming and pop culture parody art, which caught the attention of outlets like Destructoid, IGN and Gamespy, where we were happily praised and lampooned. If you say Paper Lab three times in the mirror on a full moon, you might even see one of our old pieces pop up on a random forum somewhere.
Eventually, Joel left to pursue other goals, while I re-teamed once again with Nate Hill. Together, we launched the comic book ‘Giant Robot Warrior Maintenance Crew’ and planned a successful crowdfunding campaign in the early days of Kickstarter. This was not without the significant help from new team members like Nick Allen, who operated out-of-state from Baltimore. Nick was not an AI alumnus but was an extremely creative force. We would work on many projects together in the future, but our fondest was creating the comic book ‘The C-Listers’. There was more to come in 2011 when I collaborated with another artist, Manny Cartoon, on a parody art piece that was featured in Conan O’Brien’s ‘Flaming C Art Gallery’ at the world famous San Diego Comic-Con.
Despite all this, the most significant event of 2010 was when I first met the love of my life, Nicole Mucher. She too had met the love of her life but stubbornly insisted on having nothing to do with me, and this was what would set Paper Lab on its true path. In 2013, Nicole and I began the ultimate collaboration project and married each other that May. We joined forces in both love and career while developing an even clearer vision for Paper Lab by focusing on custom art. On her own, she created fast, personalized artwork at events, and sales came easily with her outgoing attitude and attentive customer service. Nicole helped simplify things for Paper Lab even more, and we became a two-person convention team that focused its energy on curating our convention attendance.
Meanwhile, Nick had been pleading with us to do Baltimore Comic-Con, but we didn’t have the interest. The furthest we had traveled was MegaCon in Orlando, which was already more than a handful. So, Nick took a gamble and pretty much bought us plane tickets, a convention booth and demanded we show up. Logically, we went, and we never looked back. Our company now has lucrative convention experiences and a devoted customer base around the nation. Things are set to grow even further since our colleague Mike Broder has started new shows around the country under the GalaxyCon banner, and we’re along for the ride.
As a result of Nicole’s tweaking here and there, it’s allowed us more flexibility and provided me more time to focus on projects very dear to me. Nick discovered a team able to finalize ‘Speeders,’ the project I had co-created with Nate when I graduated AI. ‘Child of the Sun’ was another project I collaborated on with author Michael Van Cleve, which centers on Samson and Heracles’ meeting and their turbulent adventures.
I’m also remastering ‘The C-Listers’ for a release in graphic novel form, and that along with everything else will be another product soon to be available at shows. Currently, my most challenging project is my favorite, ‘Me Din De Nanny’ based on the Jamaican national hero, Nanny of the Maroons. It’s taken a lot of time and resources, but thankfully, Nicole and I are constantly working to streamline Paper Lab so everything can run concurrently. Paper Lab is about lateral thinking and learning on the job, but only made possible through a web of collaboration.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The challenge of balancing scalability and collaboration while constantly streamlining is a daily affair. It is essential that we grow our talent pool so we can learn new things and do more things as creatives. The trick is ensuring that we don’t erase our personal touch just for efficiency’s sake. Transparency is essential to our business because it’s about more than just an art style: it’s about the interaction with the customer. That seemingly simple interaction changes how someone responds to their commissioned piece. Even the smallest amounts of care and detail can turn a ‘thank you’ into tears of joy.
Ballooning to a larger size doesn’t indicate success for us and serves well in taking new and bolder creative risks. A perfect example is our current ‘Nanny’ project, which requires a massive amount of my time and focus. We’re always looking for new people to collaborate with, but it’s finding the right fit that truly proves to be the most challenging aspect rather than the actual project we collaborate on.
It’s never been a smooth road, but most of those bumps have been touchstones. Whether it’s negative critiques, late permits or disappearing projects, everything leads to this same place. These bumps add texture to the road, and while they may not look pretty, they certainly make things more interesting.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Paper Lab Studios story. Tell us more about your art.
Paper Lab is an illustration and design company. We specialize in providing custom art ranging from mascots to concept art, children’s books to toy design, family portraits to pets, comic conventions to smaller events such as birthday parties and corporate events. The Florida Supercon Mascot and our custom art at conventions is always a crowd-pleaser. Our most popular style of art is the ‘chibi-style,’ a style of cartooning meant to look small and cute.
We are most proud of our loyal customers and friends. Whether they are regulars or new people, there’s an opportunity to meet them just around the corner. It’s always wonderful when you’re lucky enough to get a look of wonder on someone’s face when they pick up their artwork. We create fast, fresh art for people on the go and have a wide variety of pre-made and custom packages to accommodate those with discerning tastes.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
This experience has pretty much been a luck soup. Both good and bad, it’s been an adventure, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. After all, I couldn’t be here today writing this answer, and to that, I say bring on the broth.
Despite all the soup talk, I’m extremely lucky my family was so supportive. It’s really fascinating that they even saw any value in what I was pursuing since they were all attracted to more traditional professions. I would be lying if I said that my path was clear while I was negotiating about going abroad for school. My sister definitely had my back in helping get me on the right path, despite whatever ups and downs may have occurred along the way. My family’s foresight helped propel me forward in life and my career because in the lean times, it became apparent that they clearly saw and knew something I definitely did not.
This isn’t to forget all the wonderful cross-sections of people who helped or hindered along the way. Every collaboration, whether it was a success or a failure, has swirled together into a very distinct vision for how we do things at Paper Lab. Paper Lab is a soup of circumstances, but if you don’t like soup, this has probably been an unfortunate analogy!
Contact Info:
- Website: paperlabstudios.com
- Email: design@paperlabstudios.com
- Instagram: Paperlabstudios
- Facebook: Paperlabstudios, Mervyn McKoy
- Twitter: Paperlab
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