Nate Doyle

Nate Doyle is a dear friend of mine. We work together at Forbidden Planet, a comic store in Manhattan. Talking with Nate about art has helped me through more insecure moments with my own work then I can count. While the artwork I make couldn't be more different then Nate's, we both love comics in the same way. My own love for all types of drawing and cartooning seems more sane when I talk about it with him...he's one of the few people that is equally excited about Dragon ball Z AND the most avant mini comic currently making the rounds. Working where we do, we're constantly surrounded by drawings. Nate really helped me appreciate this and let it seep into my art.

Nate is also an incredible artist---I hesitate to even mention our friendship in fear of obscuring my admiration for his talent. Nate, I think, is a wonderful storyteller. When i look at his work, I can't help but read it. It reads itself...and this is in spite of its often heavy brushwork. usually, the only comics that read effortlessly to me look like Tintin---thin lines. Nate's work is thick, but still reads so easily. I also get out of Nate's work what I get out of Blutch: such enthusiasm for drawing that you cant help but want to make comics yourself right away.

You can find out more about Nate's work here:

http://ndcrookedteeth.blogspot.com/

His minis are available through Sparkplug Comics Distro. The Archer was called one of the best minis of the year by Fantagraphics' Eric Reynolds.


1. can you describe your drawing routine---how often you draw, how many hour per day---how you break up the day with drawing?

Usually I'll either plan on doing some work, or spontaneously decided that I'm going to draw, paint, etc. once home from work, or finished reading or something like that, I make an attempt to draw or do a comic everyday, but realistically that never happens, so I try to at least do something in my sketchbook. I usually start with something in mind, either from what happened during the day, a song or from something I just read and then go from there. Most of the time my drawing just consists of getting out of habits and actually looking and thinking about what it is I'm actually drawing. When I really get some momentum I can draw easily for hours, I kind of lose track of time, but probably an average of two or three hours when I do get some work in. I'll wake up get some food, put on a record and go, or when I get home from work later in the day I'll just plop down in front of the desk and escape from retail jail...

2. how much revision/editing do you do in you work?

A lot of that I guess, I tend to ask for opinions or show my work while its in the process to get a better idea of how people are going to read the comic, if there are story telling issues, what doesn't work for the drawing and so on. With a longer story I usually revise the thumbnails two times, and cut or add panels where it seems like the story and panel composition will benefit. As for illustration or just sketchbook drawings, I can be pretty anal with how one line can look, or something like that, I always have a whiteout pen or some of that deleter white ink around, because most of the time I'm never satisfied or happy with how things turn out...

3. talk about your process---do you write a script or make up the drawing as you go?

Lately with a long story I've yet to really start I've outlined the whole thing, which is new for me to have completed. Most of the time if I write it all out first, I get too overwhelmed by the fact that it's all just words with no images, so I prefer to work it all out at once, sometimes having an image on the paper makes the writing process much easier and go smoother. And a lot of story ideas come from notes I find in my pocket weeks later or from simple sketchbook drawings. So, most of the time its images and words at once, that seems to work best for me.

4. do you compose the page as a whole or do you focus more on individual panel composition?
It's a little of both. I like to have some panels stand out individually, but I also really enjoy how the images can all work together on the page. I feel that's an integral part of comics, panel-page composition can emphasize elements in the story that make it more impactive to the reader, it also makes it more interesting to work on, manipulating not just an image in a frame, but several or more frames as one larger piece.

5. what tools do you use (please list all)?

mechanical pencil (for fine line stuff)
blunt 6b pencil
G-pen (small-similar to hunt 102- and large nibs)
pentel brush pen
dr martins hi carb ink
deleter white ink
muji brand white out pen
sizes 2, 6, 8 brushes
colored pencil, markers, watercolor paints (any brand, whatever looks best)

6. what kind(s) of paper do you use?
I use 12" x 9" watercolor paper, it's rougher than most bristol, so I can get some decent brush effects out of it and is what I've been working on lately I also like 14" x 17" 500 series vellum, that too has some heavy fibers and I like how it takes the ink I use, it gets really rich blacks. So I guess the rougher the paper the better it is, I hate plate or smooth bristol, I feel like I have no control over my tools.

7. do you read a lot of comics? are you someone who reads comics and then gets ectied to make more comics---or is your passion for making comics not linked to any particular love for other comics?
Yeah, I read way too many, it's sort of overwhelming when I look at the piles I have laying around of read or half read books. And I try to read a lot of different genres and whatnot. As far as foreign books go I dont hesitate to pick up untranslated books, I feel that by just studying the art and visual story can help one learn an intense amount and even encourage an almost natural sense of story telling. I definitely feed off the energy from reading a good comic, or looking at interesting/exciting drawings, sometimes I keep a pile of books handy that have been getting me thinking around my desk to light that spark and keep me motivated. It weirds me out when people who make comics don't read them...what's the point in having no interest in something you have a passion for?

8. do you make comics for a living? if not, how do you support yourself, and how does this relate to your comics making process?

No, I don't, unfortunately. I work 40+ hours a week in a comic shop, its kind of a bummer because even though I'm surrounded by books I love I come home wiped out with no interest in drawing due to late nights or bummed days...I wish I could spend less time at my job and more time at my desk or wrapped up in a sketchbook.

9/ do other artforms often seem more attractive to you?

Ehhh, I get torn between music and comics a lot. Being in three bands and stuff is pretty time consuming and makes finding time for drawing a bit difficult, its nothing I'd want to do professionally it's just for fun. But I'm always fascinated with illustration or fine art stuff, film too, but I don't think I'd really prefer it.

10. what artwork (or artists) do you feel kinship with?

A lot of artists I grew up admiring, Bill Watterson, Akira Toriyama, Nate Powell, a lot of whom (Powell and Watterson especially) I read interviews with now and find it exciting that we share similar opinions on social, political and artistic topics. But my friends who make comics and who I talk to about making them are people I have obvious kinships with and those relationships and admirations are very dear to me.

11. is a community of artists important or not important to you?

Yes, having a group of friends, teachers or peers to discuss/critique work, or just to socialize with who are doing the same thing is insanely encouraging and rewarding.

12. what is your parents/family's reaction to your work?

They're very supportive, a couple of things I've done have been published and they are so psyched to see it, buy multiple copies and funny things like that. My whole family is actually very encouraging, although they think the stories I write are too sad. They've never read Crooked Teeth though, and sometimes I think it should probably stay that way...

13, what is more important to you---style or idea?

This is a tough one. I think a story's style really depends on the idea behind it, y'know? But sometimes beautiful drawings are more than enough, especially since I don't speak French or Japanese, but the drawings are amazing.

14. is drawing a pleasure to you or a pain?

Goes both ways, sometimes its the most gratifying experience I've ever felt to draw, and other times I want to put a bullet in my head.

15. when you meet someone new, do you talk about being an artist right away? do you identify yourself as an artist or something else?

Never "artist". I dunno, its not something I say right away a lot, generally when asked "What do you do?" I'll say I play music or draw comics or something along those lines.

16. do you feel at all connected to older comic artists like steve ditko or jack kirby---or does this seem like a foreign world to you?

Not so much Kirby or Ditko, but cartoonists I know whom are older, who I look up to, seek advice from, I do sense some connection. When I had Mazzuchelli as a teacher in college I feel we bonded a lot as far as being excited about comics, old and new and talking about story ideas, techniques and not so exciting things such as paper, but still maintaining that enthusiasm for the topic. I can't say if I feel that way because of personal relationships with cartoonists or not...Its all sort of foreign in that way.

17. do you ever feel the impulse to not draw comics?

No, the idea of never drawing again makes me upset.

18. do you draw from life?

Yes, a lot actually. I like figure drawing a lot and drawing on location is something I'm quite fond of.

19. do you pencil out comics and then ink? or do you sometimes not pencil?

For more serious things I always pencil first, the tightness varies a lot on what's going on in the panel or how excited I am about it. But for diary or sketchbook comics I'll pencil very little, just things like angles or when I'm less confident in what I'm about to draw.

20. what does your drawing space look like?

Sammy Harkham

Sammy Harkham's work as a cartoonist and editor in the early 2000's remains one of the reasons that I care for comics in the way that i do. And i think a lot of cartoonists my age feel this way too. The skill and achievement of Harkhams early work was clear and easy to comprehend---it was good, thoughtful drawing---but his approach seemed pretty radical in comparison to the major figures of art cartooning at the time. It incorporated, to my eyes at least, what I admired as an artist in John Porcellino and what i admired as a reader in Roy crane. Linking those two styles of drawing was, and continues to be, a pretty powerful idea to me: new ways of drawing with an old school idea of craft.

Harkham's work as an editor is strong enough that it almost rivals his influence as a cartoonist (I think he's enough of a virtuoso in both areas that neither project is obscured). Harkham embraces clear storytellers and powerful image makers. As simple as that sounds, it's something that many people in the cartooning world remain unable to do. Often the argument in comics circles revolves around basic-cartoony-Little Lulu style work as being the only worthwhile approach vs. the notion that imaginative image making is clearly more important.

Cartoonists, I think, just by our very nature care about both things: we like images and we like stories. But the way we like both of these things isn't simple...there's a lot of degrees of mixing the two. Kramers Ergot is the articulate statement we were all waiting for.

Harkham writes and draws the series Crickets, from Drawn and Quarterly (although I think there will be a self published issue soon?).

http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/artStudio.php?artist=a43cd41abb84fc

Find out more about Kramers Ergot here:

http://buenaventurapress.com/books/bookBPB-18.php

1. can you describe your drawing routine---how often you draw, how many hour per day---how you break up the day with drawing?

I go into work around nine in the morning and stay till five. I spend anywhere from 1 to 6 hours a day drawing comics. right now my schedule is kind of nuts because of my family. In the past, I would get going later in the afternoon and work solid for about 8 hours in to the night. I have two small kids now, so for the time being, I have to make it happen during set times.

2. how much revision/editing do you do in you work?

I guess a lot. I will often redraw panels, or completely change things. right now, on the big strip I am working, each page takes awhile. so looking at a page for so long, you often get new ideas/better ideas as you work. usually I get to a better pace as I work on something, like two pages a week, and the revisions and editing, lessens somewhat. I think it has to do with getting comfortable with the world your creating and can trust your instincts better as you progress in a story.

3. talk about your process---do you write a script or make up the drawing as you go?

larger strip ideas sit around in my brain gathering material over a year or two. and when it feels like I have enough to go on, I will start. I don't usually thumbnail scenes before hand. I might work out a rough page count and figure out a set template for the strip, or a specific scene -three tiers or four tiers or whatever. again its just to set limits so as to wrap my head around how I will get the thing done.
for the strip I am working on now, I have a handful of scattered scene ideas, a setting, a basic plot, particular lines of dialogue and a handful of images (made up and found) and as I work on a scene, the idea usually changes and shifts from the initial idea, and usually leads to new ideas and new scenes. if I finish a scene, and don't know what comes next, I'll jump ahead to a part later in the story and then work backward. working like this makes the process much more fun since its discovery as I go as opposed to just executing something already worked out before hand.
but there are also comics where I will thumbnail the whole thing first. usually if its an idea that only warrants a page or 2. content will guide how long something should be-some things feel like they should only be so many pages. so it depends on what it is. I dont have a set way.

4. do you compose the page as a whole or do you focus more on individual panel composition?

More the latter, a bit of the former.

5. what tools do you use (please list all)?

4b pencil, dr. martins black star hicarb ink, tachikawa school pen nib no. 5, any eraser, 1.40 rapidograph pen, artist tape(which is bullshit stuff-all my pages have tears from removing tape), pen-o-pake, a handful of assorted sized brushes, t-square ruler.

6. what kind(s) of paper do you use?

3 or 4 ply bristol board cut to 11x15.

7. do you read a lot of comics? are you someone who reads comics and then gets ectied to make more comics---or is your passion for making comics not linked to any particular love for other comics?

I read a lot of comics. but am mostly inspired by reading older strips like gasoline alley, little orphan annie and wash tubbs because of the seemingly laid back approach of those strips and how bound up they are with the fundamentals of the craft for me. also, I still find inspiration from the books that made me want to be a cartoonist when I was fifteen. probably because it puts my consciousness in the same place it was at when I was younger: eightball, I never liked you, rubber blanket, the early jim and frank stories, tank girl, little orphan annie, thimble theatre, the jew of new york, black hole, and that big smithsonian book of newspaper comics.
the most recent comics I found inspiring on that level would be C.F.'s Lowtide #6, anders nilsen's Big Questions #3, super monster #14, Gay Nerd, Alias the Cat, and the ron rege collection Against Pain. Rege's one of the most inspiring, forward thinking cartoonists working-so much of what he has introduced to comics or expanded on, is taken for granted as a given today. I think he has shaped modern alternative cartooning as much as anyone. he has brought so much to comics, to the point that his influence is felt even in cartoonists who have never read him.

8. do you make comics for a living? if not, how do you support yourself, and how does this relate to your comics making process?

I make a bit of money from comics, but I do a lot of other stuff -help run a bookstore, and revival theatre, sell original art, do illustrations, do the odd freelance editing/curating thing, and do weird hollywood gigs that pop up for artists who live in los angeles-designing/storyboarding/writing. lots of fingers in lots of pies. they all influence my comics because I am coming into contact with so many people and work that I may not ever see if not for these assorted jobs.

9. do other artforms often seem more attractive to you?

sure! there is only so long you can toil at something and continually fail at, and still have the energy to keep trying. but so far, I am committed.

10. what artwork (or artists) do you feel kinship with?

Charles Willeford, Leonard Cohen, Will Oldham, Knut Hamsun, Shary Boyle, Emir Kustarica. Obviously I am nowhere near those people as an artist, but I feel a kinship to how they portray the world in their work. Visually, I am obsessed with Richard Scarry, Kathe Kallwitz, Tibor Gergely, Gustaf Tenggren, William Eggleston.

11. is a community of artists important or not important to you?

Well, its nice to talk to people about drawing problems and comic things. I have two people I bother regularly, one shares a studio with me, the other is in another state. That's about it as far as regular art talk communications. Like probably everyone else who makes stuff, I know assorted cartoonists and artists who I consider friends who I speak with or see once in awhile, and most of them I find inspiring in some way, but they are scattered all over the place and I don't see them regularly. Is that a community? I don't know. I would guess a community is one of locals sharing a desk, but now with the internet, maybe the definition has changed.

12. what is your parents/family's reaction to your work?

I don't really know.

13, what is more important to you---style or idea?

The style something is rendered in totally informs and effects how an idea is expressed. so both.

14. is drawing a pleasure to you or a pain?

Drawing is totally fun. Drawing comics though is mostly problem solving, which cam be fun.

15. Is there a particular line quality you enjoy in other peoples art or try to bring to your own art?

I like drawing that looks casual and somewhat dashed off. Basically any drawing of Pig Pen.

16. do you feel at all connected to older comic artists like steve ditko or jack kirby---or does this seem like a foreign world to you?

I feel connected in that they worked hard making comics and honing their crafts, just like we do today. Of older mainstream comics, I love Jesse Marsh's work very much.

17. do you ever feel the impulse to not draw comics?

Too much. But you're bound by your ideas, and if your ideas are comics, there you go. You don't really have a choice in what you do.

18. do you draw from life?

I am always making these resolutions to draw from life every day and never keep to them. I could draw plants and chairs all day. I probably do a couple life drawings a week.

19. do you pencil out comics and then ink? or do you sometimes not pencil?

there is always some penciling first, but how much shifts around depending on the panel. I tend to go back and forth-pencil a bit, ink some, pencil more, ink more, etc till its done, then I do more and ruin it. then on to the next panel.

20. what does your drawing space look like?