Richard Mercado is an Ignatz-nominated cartoonist from the Philippines, currently based in Brooklyn. He works as a production artist at Skybound (Publisher of The Walking Dead and Invincible). He is the writer/illustrator of COMING OUT PERFECT, a graphic novel under Scholastic Graphix (2025). Previously, he has published NANG MAINLOVE AKO SA ISANG SAKRISTAN (THAT TIME I FELL IN LOVE WITH AN ALTAR BOY) with Silaw Publishing.

I had the opportunity to interview Richard, which you can read below.

First of all, welcome back to Geeks OUT! For those unfamiliar, could you tell us a little about yourself?

Hi! I’m Richard Mercado, a Filipino cartoonist, currently in Brooklyn. My comics mainly focus on contemporary stories focusing on gay Filipino teens/young adults. A lot of my stuff revolves around daily life, being gay, romance, and a little autobio here and there.

What can you tell us about your project, Coming Out Perfect?  What was the inspiration for it?

I wanted to write a graphic novel about coming out. While I know it’s a topic that’s been done many times previously, I wanted to write a story from the perspective of someone who grew up in the Philippines. I feel like when I read coming out stories in western media, the outcomes of coming out sort of just focus on either A) the family just fully accepting their kid… or B) completely disowning them. 

I feel like in Asian, and especially Filipino culture, these sort of situations usually live in the grey area, so I wanted to write it thru C) where the family doesn’t properly address the situation. In Coming Out Perfect, Kevin comes out to his family over dinner, but they choose to ignore him and pretend nothing happened, which causes Kevin to go on a spiral of insecurities.

As a creative, what drew you to the art of storytelling, especially graphic novels/comics?

I definitely grew up with anime, and especially manga, so I’ve always wanted to draw as a career. In college, I read the graphic novel, This One Summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki, which really changed my perspective to the different kinds of graphic novels that are out there, and that’s when I really focused on wanting to become a graphic novelist.

My background in comic-making started with selling stapled zines and minicomics in Manila for $1-2 dollars. This was during 2015-2018. Eventually, when I moved to the United States in 2019, I decided to go for longer form stories, and eventually, I had the opportunity to work on a project like Coming Out Perfect.

How would you describe your creative process?

I follow a fairly standard process in making comics. I write a whole outline first which details the beginning-middle-end of the story. Then, I make a loose script of mostly dialogue. My brain works in a way where I have to write out the dialogue first, to really be able to imagine the scene. I then work my way to creating thumbnails, or basically a rough visual outline of the comic. After I’ve done all that is when I can finally focus on drawing the comic!

What are some of your favorite elements of writing/illustrating? What do you consider some of the most frustrating and/or difficult? 

My favorite part of the comic-making process is definitely thumbnailing. It’s the part where I believe I can be the most imaginative. Trying to figure out how to translate what you’ve written visually into a rough comic draft is really fun, especially in terms of figuring out how to pace the scenes, what the page turns are, and deciding the panels and shot calls to tell a certain scene.

I would say the most difficult for me currently, especially in making Coming Out Perfect, is the last step of the process which is actually drawing/rendering the book. It’s absolutely fun, but doing hundreds of pages of it is a first for me. For Coming Out Perfect, the actual drawing process took at least 2 years.

As a creative, who or what would you say are some of your greatest creative influences and/or sources of inspiration in general?

I mentioned them in a previous question, but definitely my inspiration in graphic novel making is Jillian and Mariko Tamaki. In particular, I’ve always been inspired by the way Jillian Tamaki does visual storytelling and is something I aspire for as a cartoonist. I also love Naoki Urusawa (Monster), Bryan Lee O’Malley (Scott Pilgrim), and Mitsuru Adachi (Cross Game).

When I was making Coming Out Perfect, I was also reading and analyzing a lot of Raina Telgemeier’s Drama, Dave Valeza’s Four Eyes, and Victoria Grace Elliott’s Please Be My Star. Love the storytelling of those books! 

Aside from your work, what are some things you would want readers to know about you?

Besides being a cartoonist, I’m also a book designer! I might’ve designed some of your favorite comic books haha.

Not related to the work I do, but I’m really into watching competitive figure skating!

What’s a question you haven’t been asked yet but that you wish you were asked (as well as the answer to that question)?

What’s your star sign – I’m an Aries haha.

Joking aside, maybe what kind of comics do you wanna make in the future? My answer to that would be making a comic/graphic novel about Filipinos in New York. I moved to Brooklyn last year, and I’ve found different Filipino immigrants like myself living very different lives that I feel like would be very fun to write a book about haha.

What advice might you have to give for aspiring storytellers out there?

Do not start with wanting to do a whole graphic novel. Start with something small, like a 4-6 page comic, and build your storytelling skills from there. Graphic novels are a huge undertaking, and the best way to get there is building your comic-making stamina from minicomics!

Are there any other projects you are working on and at liberty to speak about?

Currently working on the sequel to Coming Out Perfect! I’m really excited about this as I’m writing the sequel from Raymond’s point of view. It’s a very different tone from Coming Out Perfect.

Finally, what books/authors (LGBTQ+  or otherwise)  would you recommend to the readers of GeeksOUT? 

Kiss Number 8 – Colleen A.F. Venable & Ellen T. Crenshaw

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me – Mariko Tamaki & Rosemary Valero O’Connell

Please Be My Star – Victoria Grace Elliott

Drama – Raina Telgemeier

Fruitcake – Rex Ogle and Dave Valeza