ChaosVak

My name is Spiros Karkavelas, though, fortunately all my friends call me Vak and spare me the pain of hearing that hideous name :P

I was born in 1984, Thessaloniki, Greece. I started out studying architecture but quickly got tired of it and ran off to study art. I started with some basic fine arts studies, and eventually found myself in an arts school at Athens.

Even as a kid in school, I seemed to like making manga-ish representations of my teachers being torn apart by tentacle monsters on my desk. I found out that I very much enjoyed the smile my doodles brought to my school friends. I enjoyed the indignation from my teachers considerably less :D

Drawing quickly turned into the main way through which I expressed myself, forfeiting music, which was what I originally thought I wanted to do with my life. I finished art school in 2007, and have since been trying to improve my skills with digital forms of art, as well as bring my own webcomic up. Since then, I've had some experience with greek advertisement companies through storyboards or image-editing jobs, but I'm hoping I'll be able to move out of greece soon, and work as an illustrator abroad.

As for what inspires me, and what really moved me towards the fine arts, I would have to say video games and anime/manga of the 90's. Final Fantasy, Dragonball, Ghost in the Shell, Robotech, Captain harlock Ninja boy and Area 88, just to name a few off the top of my head.

Presently, I am trying to find a style I can call my own, both in comics, and in illustrations.

Here is a list of my sources of inspiration, that I would like to thank, and you might like to check, if you enjoy my work.

> Shirow Masamune - Artist of Ghost in the Shell, Appleseed and other such great works

> Hayao Miyazaki - Nausicaa of the valley of the wind, and the rest. Amazing.

> Yukito Kishiro - Artist of battle angel alita, or Gally - depending on where you're from.

> Katsuhiro Otomo - Akira. Endless source of inspiration

> Hiroaki Samura - Blade of the immortal. I grew up with this comic! (well kinda)

> Brian Lumley - Writer of the Necroscope.

> The FASA team - For making Shadowrun, the greatest RPG for my gaming tastes.

> William Gibson - Writer of 'The Neuromancer'

> Tetsuya Nomura - For the concept art of maybe the greatest fiction characters ever.

> Akira Toriyama - Because I will really never get over the awesomeness of KAME HAME HA

> The Squaresoft team - For making all the wonderful Final fantasy games.

> The Squaresoft team again - For Chrono trigger, but maybe not so much for cross :P

> Nobuo Uematsu - Without his music, FF would just not be what it is.

> Vasilis Lolos - Greek artist who helped me realize its possible to be greek and a fantasy artist

> Helm - See above

> Masakazu Katsura - Shadow lady, DNA².. The man can really make you fall for his girls.

> J.R.R. Tolkien - The lord of the rings

> Hideo Kojima - Metal gear

> Jason Chan - Source of both reference and inspiration.

> Min-Woo Hyung - The manga 'Priest'.

And a few more anime/manga sources of inspiration:

Fantastic Children

Full Metal Alchemist

Toward the Terra (new and older version)

FLCL - It might just be as insane as I.

Code Geass

Berserk

Black Lagoon

Lock the superman

There's more, but I'll add them up at some later point.