CSEPP gives art student a start

This story was published Tue, Apr 20, 1999

By Theresa Goffredo
Herald Oregon bureau

PENDLETON - When he was 10 years old, Alight Tsai drew cartoons with every scrap of blank paper and whatever pen, pencil or piece of chalk he could find.

His school textbooks were filled with sketches of ninja fighting warriors or wrestlers packed with hugely exaggerated muscles and super powers.

Tsai recalls how he even used the blank pages in a special math exercise book to draw cartoon strips. He admits, somewhat sheepishly, that he rarely used the exercise pages for dividing fractions or figuring square roots.

Now 22, the Taiwanese-born Blue Mountain Community College art student awaits publication of his first comic book. And with some planning and money, it may be produced nationwide.

"It's pretty cool to have my first comic book published that's widely printed," said the easygoing artist. "It really gets me excited to draw these cartoons."

The hero of this story plot, however, won't be a man of steel or a caped crusader.

But this hero does save lives.

Tsai is illustrating a cartoon coloring book called Turtle Tales with Wally Wise. Wally is the cartoon turtle mascot for the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP), who helps teach adults and kids how to shelter in place should lethal nerve agents ever escape from the Umatilla Chemical Depot near Hermiston.

The mandate for the CSEPP program is to protect lives if an accident occurs at the depot. Residents who live nearest the depot more than likely would be told to stay inside their homes and seal off a room with duct tape and plastic if a chemical spill occurred. The primary course of action for Washington residents, including those in Paterson andPlymouth in south Benton County is to evacuate if a chemical spill occurred.

And CSEPP uses Wally Wise, who retreats inside his shell to escape danger, as a simple way to get the shelter-in-place concept across. Tsai's coloring book can make that message simple enough for kids of all ages to understand.

Dan Knoll, public information officer for Morrow County's CSEPP program, came up with the idea for the coloring book. Knoll found Tsai after calling the community college's art department in Pendleton.

"I gave Alight the script, and he just went with it," Knoll said. "It's exciting to see what he can do, and this gives him the opportunity to put something in his portfolio. I just don't think I could have found anybody in the area to do a better job."

The coloring book should be ready for print today. But before it's distributed, Knoll must wait to make sure it doesn't violate any existing copyrights. And Knoll is hoping to persuade the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which funds CSEPP, to help pay to have the coloring book printed for use at six other depot sites.

Tsai earned $500 for doing the coloring book, which he believes is a handsome sum. He never imagined he could come to America and make money drawing cartoons.

Tsai said he was 5 or 6 years old growing up in Taiwan when he first began to draw. His father and a friend sold art products, so he always was surrounded by artists and art teachers.

When he got his first comic book, Tsai said, he studied it for three months, learning to appreciate the human muscle and futuristic plot. When he discovered American comics, he was hooked.

"I loved it," Tsai said. "It was more powerful, more abstract. The artist would exaggerate the action and exaggerate some part of the body, making it bigger or smaller."

Tsai began sketching his own comic book skits and produced one four-frame strip when he was in fourth grade. Later, he drew cartoons about wrestlers with super powers, based on watching pro wrestling on television with his uncle. And he penciled a ninja comic strip that wound up in the hands of some classmates.

"I overheard them one day say this was some cool comic book. I was really encouraged by that, that somebody who didn't know me liked what I did."

Tsai arrived in the states in 1997 via Houston from Belize, where his family moved after leaving Taiwan. He discovered Blue Mountain Community College through friends who live in Heppner.

"I see a lot of open spaces here," Tsai said of Eastern Oregon. "And those open spaces open my heart."

Tsai's instructor, Michael Booth, recommended Tsai for the CSEPP assignment, based on his talent and personality. "Cartooning is one of the areas Alight excels in," Booth said. "And it's not just that he's good with the drawing part. He has a quick wit, and he's very professional in that way."

Tsai graduates from Blue Mountain this summer, then transfers to Eastern Oregon State College in La Grande to finish his art degree. His ego and confidence might be bolstered by the coloring book, but he's still realistic about his future as a cartoonist.

Tsai is studying computer art graphics to become a commercial artist in Taiwan. But he said he's too young to paint himself into any corner.

"So far, I'm still developing," he said. "I'm trying to see all the different styles. All are challenges, and I'm trying a lot of different styles. None of them yet is my personal style, but I will find that later, after a few years."

 

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