Meet Liam Coballes | Localization Producer & Comic Creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Liam Coballes and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Liam, why did you pursue a creative career?
Oddly enough I don’t really think I have a real reason for why I did pursue art, it just happened that way. I think it was something that would have naturally happened to some capacity in my life. Having attempted to go through various career, such as engineering and architecture, I’ve always found drawn back towards art. Whether it was writing short stories, sculpting clay figures, making sticky note flipbooks, or just drawing, I was making something in my spare time. Despite the hardships that come with this career path, it’s sort of a necessary evil in my mind. It’s the trials that I face that make me feel that I’m growing as a person, and my hope is that at the end of the day that my interpretation of my thoughts and feelings makes it way to a wider audience.

There is this manga called Blue Period by Tsubasa Yamaguchi, which is a really good manga in my opinion, that has helped me explain the concept a bit better. It was in volume 16 near the end where the main character, Yatora, asks his instructor, Choya-sensei, how he got into art. The professor accurately voiced what I have felt my whole life when it comes to my career path as an artist. If I was going to be in a working hellscape until the day I die, I might as well be in a hell I can agree with. This might be an extreme reasoning, but it’s something that I guess resonates with me in an odd sense. I live to create, it’s all I know what to do. Even if I find myself working a 9 to 5 desk job, I still find a way to make art.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Like many other artists would say is that they base their art on their experiences and their identity, I think for me it’s because of art I’m allowed to explore more of my identity and experiences. Growing up, most media focused on white cisgender heterosexual characters, over time we would see a shift in more inclusivity in identities and now I have the means and words to voice my own contribution to this shift. It can be hard, mostly because you do have to look at a lot of ugliness in the world and how to interpret it in words, descriptions and visuals. It’s something I find myself struggling a lot with mentally because the world already is such a grime place. But I know that if I stop here, can I be confident that someone else will pick up the slack for me? Do I want to live in a world where I had the means to do something and choose silence? Am I ashamed of my views and believe that I don’t need to put in a bit of extra effort to have it be noticed? These are the kind of things that race around my head, and I often land to the decision of ‘well this is the hell you chose so I better do something’.

Even now as I’m working on my comic series, Shifter’s Protocol, I look at the characters I’m making, the world that’s being built and Right now, I’ve been working on making this vigilante comic about a transmasc hero called Shifter, who’s goal is to intercept his former clan, the Tambal, from their plans on taking over the world. Shifter’s story has a lot of action, but I also want it to be grounded in his development as a character. After all, we all want to be the hero, we all want to make a difference, but we are still human in the end. We have to acknowledge our limits and through that find community within one another. Art has helped me find community, understanding myself more, and tell that story. But I don’t want to be the only one to do it, I want someone to look at my art and comment on it. Whether they relate to it or do something better, I want them to react and do something about it themselves.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I feel like when I have friends or family come visit, I use that as an excuse to spend as much time in Little Tokyo as possible. There are so many fun little stores like Neko Stop (a blind box store), Happibara Station (a small artist alley area), the Sanrio store, and many others! There also have a lot of amazing foods and sweets there, a must go to for me is Fugetsu-Do which is the oldest family-owned Japanese confectionary store. There are many must eat places to go to, I honestly recommend just walking around and going into any store that suits your fancy.
Places that closer to me in Burbank that I would take folks that I know that love boardgames, cats, and nerdy things would be Geeky Teas! In all the year I’ve lived here, Geeky Teas has been a place I go to for fun boardgames, seeing kitties, and doing some DnD shopping. It’s a very chill space that they moved to and have expanded to become a second home for many folks in the area. Would definitely take my friends down the Magnolia strip for some thrifting or do karaoke at The Good Nite. Downtown Burbank has places like the RoundOne in the mall, Mama Hong’s for some good pho noodles, bars like Finney’s and Story Tavern for some nice hangouts and drinks.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I have to give a huge shout out to those Mark Nazal and Diwata Komiks for giving me the platform and space to fully flesh out my comic Shifter’s Protocol to its full potential. I also have to give much love and appreciation to Arthur Riel Cabezas, who’s skills as an artist are unmatched and breath life to Shifter and his world.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natural_nin/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-coballes/

Other: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/naturalnin.bsky.social
Shifter’s Protocol Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/shifter-komiks.bsky.social
Shifter’s Protocol Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shifterkomiks/

Image Credits
Credits: Diwata Komiks, Diwata Adornments, Lyn Pacificar, Mark AJ Nazal, Joe A Arciaga, Robert Rodriguez, Jesse Miranda, Lorran Garrison, RJ Palisoc, Erica Juliet, and Sina San.