20 Questions with Cartoonists

Brandon Graham

2010-08-16T02:38:00.000-07:00

Brandon Graham's King City often gives me little Krazy Kat like thrills, which is probably the highest compliment I can give a comic. Both strips have these details drawn in at the last second (or maybe they were the first thing set down on the page...we'll never know) for thrilling effect. Your eye gets to read these details as it moves along the page, but only if it puts in the time to really read that page. You can't skim this stuff.

Graham's cartooning has been a slow burn for me...I remember staring at 'Escalator' for years on the comic shelves,intrigued by it but never forcing myself to enter into it. Now I wish I had. I think, as I get older, the kind of work I'm drawn to is the kind that doesn't win you over with a moments glance...and that's not to say that King City isn't visually seductive. But it's strength is in how things move and how landscapes reveal themselves to the readers as Graham moves you along the page...little landmarks that you'll only hit if you're working with Graham in concert.

In December, when I picked King City as one of my favorite comics of 2009 for The Daily Crosshatch, it seemed liked the 'art-comics' corner of comicopia wasn't gung-ho about King-City...or if they were, they weren't talking about it. But, working at a comic store at the time, King-City felt like the freshest thing on the racks, regardless of what corner you were coming from. It's gratifying, as a fan of the book, to see it being embraced by people who have very different feelings and agendas about comics...King-City is the kind of thing that takes more work to deny yourself than it does to let in your world and enjoy.

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

It changes a fair amount for me. I draw at least a couple hours every day and sometimes most of the day is drawing.
My ideal schedule is when I can wake up with a penciled page from the night before and ink that and pencil the next page.
I don't do a page a day every day though the writing and thinking takes longer some times.

A lot of days I'll pencil a page and then go over to a friends house or a coffee shop and slowly ink it while watching a movie or talking to people.
4 pages a week is a good speed for me.

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

I do lots of layouts and repencil pages a fair amount before I ink them.
I rarely go with my first idea without tweaking it a lot.

I did a one page comic about how ideas are like raw iron ore that have to be beaten into something before they're any good.

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

I start with a rough idea of scenes I want to draw and make notes for how any pages I think it will take up,
what I want in the scene. ideas for panels and text but leave it pretty open and then when I get to the scene I do lots of layouts to
tighten up the idea before I draw it.

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

A little of both I guess. I like that in comics you can have different focus depending on the mood you're
in, some days it can be all about lettering and others weird panel ideas, or facial expressions.
the possibilities really make for a difficult and rewarding art form.

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

I pencil with mechanical pencil and any eraser. I like the ones that look like white cubes.
Micron Pigma pens #3 and #5 for inking
(5 for lettering also)
I have a refillable brush pen with a cap that I dip in a bottle of ink to fill in big chunks of black.

These days I color my stuff in photoshop since its easy to control how it'll look in print.

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

For comics I use 11 by 17 80 pound vellum bristol. I get it in 250 sheet packages from office supply stores.
sometimes 11 by 17 typing paper.

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

I am really really into reading comics. A lot of the work I do is a reaction to books I've read.
And when I put out books I try to remember and put into them what really has gotten me excited in the past in other books.

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 spend most of my time doing comics but a chunk of my income is from side jobs that I don't show anyone.
the money i do need from comics is a nice nudge to get the stuff done in a timely fashion.

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

I feel like most other art forms I have any interest in can be worked into comics.
Even something like sculpture or photography--you can use as a cover of a book.

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

there's a ton of contemporaries that I feel connected to. I feel like I can identify with anyone trying hard to make fun and personal work.

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

Yeah, It's a big deal to me. I don't really know many people that don't do art.
My lady, Marian Churchland and most of my closest friends make comics.

It's really nice to have people to bounce ideas off of and who are doing work that gets you excited to try harder.

12. Is there a particular line quality you like---thick/thin/clean/etc?

I like my own work to be on the clean side but I think any line quality can work in the right hands.

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

I'm a fan of ideas and then style is like throwing some stank on the idea to make it look good.

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

At it's best it's possibly my favorite thing I've ever done but I do find it hard and frustrating some days.
That's part of what makes it worth it.

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?

I grew up with such an identity of being a comic artist it took me years to not just obnoxiously talk about comics with everyone I met.
For awhile when I was living in NYC I tried to see what it was like to not mention comics when I met people new I'd tell them that I
lived off a trust fund as an inside joke to my pals who knew how deeply broke I was.

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?

More Kirby than Ditko, some artists whose work I read I can really see why they do what they do.

There's a lot of older artists who I look up to and try to learn from,
Guys like Moebius and Krs-one whose work is choked full of good tips on living as an artist.

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

No, I've wanted to make comics as long as I can remember. It's a huge thrill and my art therapy and entertainment.

18. do you draw from life?

Yeah, I like to go outside and draw, I draw people around me a lot. But I've never gone to any sitting around a naked person, life drawing.
it's not my scene.

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

If I'm going to print it I usually pencil stuff first but or myself I draw with whatever.

20. what does your drawing space look like?

Rina Ayuyang

2010-02-15T02:29:00.000-08:00

What's great about Rina's work is hard to pin down. Two or her recent comics, Doodle Daze and Overwhelming What Not, are some of the best minis around: her storytelling loops around and pulls you by the hand, pointing out exactly where your eye should go. It's skillful cartooning that, on the surface, looks familiar. The drawing could be that of an accomplished New Yorker gag artists doing their 'respectable' longer form work. But once you're pulled into Rina's stories, they move and look back at you in ways that most cartoonists can only hint at. I guess what I always think is best in Rina's work is how she arranges the story...how comics about working, struggling to make art and home life are told in a unique order that makes the voice of the work belong to no one but Rina.

She has an excellent new book out from Sparkplug Comicbooks/Tugboat Press called Whirlwind Wonderland

http://sparkplugcomicbooks.com/

And here is her blog

http://rinadoodle.blogspot.com/

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 wake up early in the morning, around 5am, and spend about an hour or two before I go to work, trying to draw in my sketchbook for my drawing blog or for work on a comics project. I've been doing that routine for about 3 years now, and it has become pretty automatic that way. Then, I try to draw on the bus to and from my fulltime job. I try to draw again when I come home from work, but this hasn’t worked out ever since I had a baby.

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

I do A LOT. I am never ever satisfied with how things look, never. I have to redo a page about 10 times before I like it. I usually have everything in place but then I wake up in the middle of the night and change everything last minute and usually the results come out a lot better for me. I guess less thinking and more spontaneity helps when I work. Even after my work is published and everything is printed, I’m still not happy with what I’ve done.

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

I hate writing scripts, but yes, lately, I have found that writing scripts makes the process go a whole lot faster and way more organized. So, yay for scripts! For the most part though, I come up with a basic theme and kind of make it up as I go along. Sometimes I draw sketches of random things or objects and try to weave a story from them.

My answer to this question also goes hand in hand with the revision question, because as I said, I do a lot of revision till the very end. It also doesn't help that I hate thumb-nailing or penciling. I think everything before inking is a step that puts a weird distance between me and the page. It feels too much like an assembly-line process rather than a true creative experience for me. I don't know if that comes from my painting background where I am used to looking at a blank canvas and just slapping paint down and putting a little color here or there to refine things -- or just plain laziness... or perhaps some ridiculous idealistic notion that drawing a page only in ink and getting it right the first time, or at least all in one time, is the only way to do it.

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

When I’m drawing a longer story, I find myself focusing more on individual panel composition. I'm not sure why that is because I tend to feel more at home and confident composing the page as a whole, which I tend to do moreso on the daily doodles/strips for my blog. I guess there is less pressure for me to get it right with the doodles, you know, less thinking about tangents and pacing. Drawing the doodles, for me, is like playing in a huge sandbox, or standing in front of a huge blank canvas for me. I feel like I can’t make a mistake with those.

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

I like pens that I can take with me wherever I go so primarily I use a Papermate flair felt tip pen. I also love to use other felt tips like the Pentel Sigma Sign pen, it's very smooth and creates a nice bold, thick line. I use my Pilot pocket brush pen or the Pentel brush pen for broader strokes or to color bigger spaces of black. Lately, I've gone gaga over this Uni-ball (Mitsubishi) 3-brush pen set, I found at the Kinokinuya stationery store in Japantown. It has a very fine tipped brush pen and a large brush pen with black ink, as well as a gray brush pen. Because I like the portability of those pens, I don't find myself using dip pens a whole lot. However, I've recently been dabbling with a nib pump pen that has a Gillotte 303 nib attached which is fun. So we'll see, maybe I'll start using nibs again. I use Staedler colored pencils and Japanese Sakura crayons for color work. I have started using blue pencil, only because I hate using an eraser. Although, I just found a cute little Pentel mechanical pencil from the Daiso superstore. So I've been using that recently. Basically, if it looks cute, I use it.

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

I've been experimenting with so many different kinds of paper to get the right feel with the felt tip pen. Bristol board was too stiff for that.. Then Brian Ralph suggested some paper that was great for felt tip pens or gel pens called Borden & Riley #234 Paris Bleedproof. It's glossier and thinner than bristol, and the felt tip draws smoother and slicker on the page. However, I was using charcoal paper when I drew pages for “Whirlwind Wonderland” to get that nice textured feel that I get from sketchbook paper. For my current project, I'm just using my Fabriano Artist Journal sketchbook and a Gel Pen.

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

I do read a lot of comics and yes, comics totally inspire and motivate me to start work on making my own comics. I'm pretty open to different kind of comics, be it superhero, Sunday funnies, Autobio comics -- even the zombie comics. But I have a special place in my heart for compelling, personal stories like what Lynda Barry, John Porcellino or Chester Brown' draw and write about. Last week, I was taken aback by this touching story by Martin Cendreda in a recent mini-comic that he published. It was just about a walk through his neighborhood with his wife, but it totally took my breath away. I love it when writers make what seems to be the most ordinary event into this wonderful, unforgettable experience. I am also a big fan of the visual goings-on found in Warren Craghead, Marc Bell, Souther Salazar’s comics/artwork. Looking at their stuff is like looking at a detailed treasure map. Other things besides comics of course inspire me, like looking at an amazing work of art on display, reading an interesting article in a magazine, listening to music, watching a great sports game on TV, or having a great conversation or experience can inspire me to get creative.

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 do not at the moment make comics for a living. I work full-time in web design and marketing. However a lot of what I do in my fulltime job, I integrate in my comics-making. It gives me a better understanding of the marketing and promotional side of comics, as well as the production/design aspect of creating minicomics - dealing with layouts, electronic files, and print production. Sometimes, it also inspires some of the storytelling I do. HA.

9. do other artforms often seem more attractive to you?
oh totally -- music, dance, theater, painting, you name it -- I am in love with the creative process!

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

Well, it's really all over the map for me. For example, I love the passion of Italian Renaissance artists, and the energy of Dadaist and the Abstract Expressionist artists. I also love the independence of Mission school artists like Barry McGee. But for a long time, especially when I was starting to paint again, I've had an affinity for the Bay Area Figurative school of artists like David Park, Wayne Thiebault, Diebenkorn. The way they use color, and how they dollop all that paint on a canvas – It just really makes me happy. Also, I’m really moved by the quiet side of photo-realist work, like that of Bob Bechtle and Edward Hopper.

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

As much as I like to work independently, and even though being in large groups kind of makes me nervous and self-conscious, I do think it is important to be around a community of artists that is nurturing, motivating and honest, even if it’s just one other person than yourself. I have found with time, however, that you really should not sell yourself or your time short. I mean, you should really spend time with people who inspire you and keep you motivated, rather than put you down all the time.

12. is their a particular line quality/tone that you enjoy seeing in art?
I am really loving the loose style that I see in a lot from French comic artists’stuff like Philippe Dupuy, Johann Sfar, Blutch, especially in their carnets, and Aude Picault, but I also love the seemingly simple but perfect line of John Porcellino or Charles Schulz, and I am always in awe of the monochromatic line art of Jaime Hernandez. When Thien Pham and I interviewed him for our comics podcast, he had told us that sometimes his line changes when his ink nib is starting to get dull and wear down. I can see that in some pages and it actually starts to look like it was done in felt tip! And then I think "Wow, this is the only way my art could come remotely close to Jaime Hernandez's -- looking like it was done in felt tip pen!

13, what is more important to you---style or idea?
I think an idea is more important to me. I think there has to be a reason behind how or why I draw things on the page, why I drew that panel that way or why I wrote this particular story. Sometimes style without substance is just a gimmick, it's just seems like graphic design. Oh, but I guess you mean, having your own "personal style," like how your drawing style is distinguished from another's? I guess, I still say the "idea" is important to me, because I don't think I have a real personal style, but neither did Bruce Connor and he seemed to do okay. But what do I know?

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

It's always a pleasure, especially if there is no pressure to meet a deadline.

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?

Hmm, well I never think of myself as an artist, because I never think I'm good enough to be called a real "artist". Maybe you should just call me Ziggy.

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 do feel some sort of connection. I mean, if you showed me a certain comic issue, and asked me if Steve Ditko or Jack Kirby drew the pages, I wouldn't know at all, but I do respect their places in the history of comics-making. I liked how they were still able to bring their own personal brand of storytelling to established superhero characters. When I was a kid, I read a few Marvel and DC comics that my brother had. I wasn’t in love with all the characters (not a Thor fan), but I admired the fantastical storytelling. I really get a thrill hearing comic book fans energetically talk about a certain issue of Marvel or DC, or a Captain America or Spiderman storyline. The enthusiasm when they talk about those things is addictive, just as addictive as seeing a new Eightball issue or a new Love and Rockets. I also love hearing the back-story of the relationship between those two guys and Stan Lee. I mean, who doesn't love that story (gossip)?!?

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

Yes, there are many times when I think taking a break is a great idea for me, especially because I work fulltime and my "free" time is devoted to comics making. Sometimes I wonder if I would be a lot less stressed out if I spent my time relaxing, like watching TV or roller-skating or something, rather than agonizing over the composition of a certain panel or planning on when I’m going to get the next issue done. However each time I decide to quit comics, I can't help but pick up a pen and start drawing again. I guess I can't stop it!

18. do you draw from life?

I do draw from life especially for the daily doodles on my blog. It's also a huge part of the stories that I write and draw about. However, I find myself drawing from memory a lot more because I don't have my sketchbook with me all of the time, and I'm not a big fan of taking pictures for photo-referencing. I think that guessing how something should look like rather than being so pristinely accurate about it adds an interesting point of view to a story too.

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

As I said before, I really don't like penciling. I just like to dive in and just ink which is probably a mistake. When I feel a page is overwhelming, I do have to strategize and map it out with pencil. I think my problem with this though is that I tend to mark the page very dark which makes it harder to erase later on. So then I end up using the blue pencil which is fun because it reminds me of chalk for some reason. However, by the time I’ve drawn everything out in blue pencil, I start to realize that the pages look a lot better in just the blue pencil rather than in ink. But of course, the blue pencil won't reproduce, so I'm screwed.

20. what does your drawing space look like?

It used to be a drawing table, but now it's this:

Nate Doyle

2009-05-04T23:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-02T22:02:00.000-07:00

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?

Theo Ellsworth

2009-02-09T21:35:00.000-08:00

I saw very happy to see The Village Voice pick Theo Ellsworth's Capacity as one of its top comics of the year---it makes Ellsworth story (a self taught artist who pushed himself to focus and make his art the central thing in his life) all the more enjoyable. I first came across Ellsworth self published issues of Capacity and was told that he somehow supported himself by making zines and selling them at art fairs. Whether this is true or not, it's interesting to think how it very well MIGHT be true for someone like Ellsworth. Ellsworth deserves the often batted around term "dedicated." He's also that rare artist whose work instantly appeals to an average passerby a a book store, and the most seasoned, critical aesthetic vet.

Here is Theo's publishers website:

http://www.secretacres.com/

and theo's website:

http://www.artcapacity.com/home.html

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 try to spend as much time as possible drawing everyday. It's a constant battle. There's always a list of other things I should be doing, but drawing comics is what I want to be doing. I try to get up in the morning and get right to work. On good days, I'll work maybe 10-13 hours. I have periods of time each day where I have to make myself completely unavailable (no phones or computers) just so I can sink into my own world and live there for periods of time with no interruption. If I didn't live with my girlfriend, there'd be a lot of days where I just don't see anyone. Other days, I'm running all over town doing chores, trying to get my left brain to help me keep my life in check. Other days, I'll draw all day with friends, which helps me feel less isolated and strange. The goal is to make art whenever and wherever I can.

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

It's all just based on feeling. Some stories will feel like they flow right away, so I won't mess with them. Other ones, during the drawing process, I'll realize how awkward the story reads and start revising it as I go. I don't do preliminary sketches. I do it all right on the page, drawing lightly at first, them more boldly as I gain confidence in what I'm doing. Once a panel is inked, I very rarely go back and change anything, unless there is a spelling mistake.

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

Stories come to me in flashes. I go on a lot of long walks and bike rides looking for these flashes. When something comes along that feels like it has potential, I'll replay it in my head and try to look at the scene from different angles, figure out it's rhythm and flow. Then I'll just sit down and draw it. With longer stories, I'll sometimes write down some dialogue or notes, but details always end up changing a bit once I'm drawing the actual page. I've never done thumbnails of the pages first. It works better for me just to get right to the actual page.

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

It's a little of both at the same time. When I'm starting on a story, I try to picture the way the story should flow, where I want the reader to have to turn a page to see the next scene, how a full spread of two pages will look. This is all done during the beginning, scribbly stage. Once I'm drawing more carefully, I focus in on each panel and try to make them individually satisfying.

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

Mechanical pencils, Rapidograph pens with india ink, magic rub eraser.

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

I've been using bristol board for comics. Anything that takes the ink well and doesn't bleed is great. I use to just draw on whatever I had on hand, but I've spent hours working on pages only to find that the paper doesn't take the ink very well, but by then there's no going back. I'd just have to go ahead with it.

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

I love reading comics. Reading good comics definitely gets me thinking and gets me excited to get to work. I feel the same way about reading a good novel, seeing an inspiring film, work of art, or architecture. Comics seem to be a place where all the stuff I love can merge into one creative focus. So yes, I read a lot of comics, but I try to take in other kinds of work just as much or more.

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 would love to make a living making comics. That's my goal. Right now I'm getting by on just my art, which feels like a good start. I sell my work (prints, zines, comics, original art) at an outdoor art market on the weekends, here in Portland, OR. I also teach drawing workshops a couple times a year. I contribute to a lot of gallery shows. I do some random illustration work sometimes. Making comics is the most challenging and satisfying aspect of my art for me. It's also the most time consuming, and takes the longest to make money, so it's always in danger of being put on the backburner while I try to make my rent.

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

I do a lot of other art forms. Print making is fun. I've dabbled in music. I'm really interested in animation, especially stop motion animation, and miniature set building. But there's something about the freedom I have in comics, and how many of my interests and passions comics seem to be able to encompass, that I really do see it as the central art form for me.

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

I feel a huge kinship with Outsider Art. Adolf Wolfli is one of my favorite artists of all time. Artists like Ferdinand Cheval, Martin Ramirez, Augustin Lesage, Johann Fischer, and Henry Darger keep me going. I'm also in love with a lot of ancient and tribal art. I love Hopi Kachina dolls, the northwestern indian ceremonial costumes, Thai art, ancient Indian art, Mayan art. I could go on and on. I think the common link between all this is the concept of making art as a necessity. Art as a vital function of being alive. That, and the sense of care and intricacy in the works.

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

It's very important. I've never felt like I really belonged to any big group, and usually get uncomfortable and disappointed when I try. But a lot of my close friends are artists, and I love getting together and drawing with other artists. I've been collaborating a lot more with friends lately, and it's really expanded my horizons. It's always reassuring to be around other people to think about the same kind of stuff from different angles than me.

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

My family has been pretty wonderful. They've been encouraging and supportive for a long time now. I'll probably never really know if what I do is really there thing or not, but they know it's what I need to do.

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

I guess that would bring me back to one of the things I love about ancient art. Style and idea seemed to serve the same function. Every color and line was part of the original intent and reason behind the work. The idea gives meaning to the style and the style gives life to the idea.

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

It's a huge pleasure. my brain just seems to start overflowing and consuming me if I don't draw. Drawing slows me down and gives my mind a place to focus. I love the state of mind I get into when I draw. The act of drawing seems to help me in every other aspect of my life. If I didn't have this outlet, I'd probably be a miserable, retched person.

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?

For the lack of a better term, an artist is what I am. When people ask, I usually say that I write and draw comics. A lot of the time when I meet new people, I find myself trying to remain a mystery for as long as I can and just learn more about them. It's not that I don't want to share, I just learn a lot more by listening to other people. I spend all day off in my own world, so I often find myself trying to steer conversations away from myself and get other people talking.

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 love Jack Kirby. I've been picking up a lot of collections of his work lately. His character designs and the worlds he created were so endlessly inventive and weird. The stories themselves can be hard to get through, but his work gets me more excited than just about any other cartoonist. I'm still not super familiar with Steve Ditko, but I've been wanting to check out the work he did on Doctor Strange way back when. I think there's a lot to learn from the older pioneers of comics. And a lot to be unlearned.

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

No, I want to draw comics more and more. When a page is feeling too challenging, I'll just sit and doodle for awhile, but I couldn't imagine a better job for myself, really. I just need to find a way to make it my full time job.

18. do you draw from life?

When I'm out in the world, I find myself taking note of things: a interesting windo on a building, someone's posture, a certain face. But for the most part, when I sit down to draw, it all just comes from my imagination. Every once in awhile I'll use a reference, but the drawing never looks much like the reference. Mostly, I'm really interested in drawing things from memory. If you try to draw a tiger, relying only on the image you can conjure in your head, you'll end up with something a bit distorted, but far more interesting than if you try to reproduce something from a photo. It depends on what you're going for though.

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

With comics, I almost always pencil first. The pencils are the thinking stage of the work. But when I ink, I always end up elaborating a bit. I never end up following my pencils exactly. it's more fun that way.

20. what does your drawing space look like?

Aaron Renier

2009-02-05T22:26:00.000-08:00

Aaron Renier is the Eisner Award winning author of Spiral Bound. He's also a dear friend of mine. I've always loved Aaron's art, from the minute I saw it. he's like the guy you would sit next to in elementary school that could draw anything---only he's followed through on being that guy and ended up as a consumate illustrator and first rate storyteller. When I look at Aaron's art, I see all the manic interest of a precocious kid---knights, weird animal characters, impossibly involved story lines---turned into highly elegant artwork. I am eagerly awaiting his first book of a projected trilogy, The Unsinkable Walker Bean, coming soon(ish) from first Second.

Here is Aaron's website:
http://aaronrenier.com/

Above art from the forthcoming Walker Bean book. Colors by Alec Longstreth.

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

The first thing I do in the morning is turn on NPR in my studio. I'll let it run in the background as I make breakfast, and while I'm gone walking Beluga (my dog). As long as it's going I have this calling to get to work. When I sit down at my table... around 10:00 I set my alarm for 4 hours. I try to get as much penciling as I can get done in that time. I always have a cup of coffee next to me, or a glass of water. I have signs on my door telling me I cannot bring in my laptop... because it gets way too distracting, and... for the MOST part I listen. About 3 days a week I go and do this at a coffee shop. Sometimes just being in my house is too distracting. Around 2:00 I stop for a late lunch. I can check my email... watch the Daily Show or if there is a new Office or 30 Rock on Hulu.com . At 3 I set my alarm for 3 hours and I try to tighten my pencils and start to ink. Sometimes I can finish a page at the end of this time. I usually ink to a book on tape... or I have listentoamovie.com playing in the background or Pandora.com (Yes my laptop has made it into my studio if this is going on) At around 6 I stop to walk Beluga and go to the park and have dinner. If I'm done with my work I go see what people are up to, but if I'm not around 8:00 I usually try to finish my page... maybe watching a Netflixed movie, or listening to a book on tape. This time I'm usually replacing my coffee or water with something... stiffer. This is a bastardized version of Alec Longstreth's schedule http://makecomicsforever.blogspot.com/2005/10/schedule.html

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

I do very little editing with my art. I have come to really like the mistakes I make, and only white things out if I really made a mess. With text I edit quite a bit. I'm always looking back and thinking somebody doesn't sound right. My portfolio books are filled with post-it notes trying to remember all the changes I want. But sometimes I look back and want to throw away the notes because my idea to change it was dumb... but I leave them so I can think about it longer... because future Aaron will be a wiser Aaron.

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

I work on a rough draft... and usually a second rough draft. But before I even start a draft I keep these recipe cards with ideas on them. Just single random thoughts I have... like... "Monster in pond" and plot ideas like "stucky is better sculptor than turnip." And eventually as I get more and more of these ideas on cards I can lay them out and shuffle them around and decide what goes and what I need to come up with and then eventually the entire idea comes to me.

When I get the story stuck in my head I draw it out with stick characters just focused on my pacing and my story. I go through it once in a composition notebook. Then I wait a few days and reread it. Then I go through it with a fine tooth comb looking for ways to make it better, and become more focused on my layouts. I also work this way when I go to my final art. I look at what I originally wrote, see the problems with it, and try to correct the problems.

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

I try to compose the two page spread as a whole. I usually have both pages from a spread on my desk at one time. I am very interested in how each page flip looks.

5. what tools do you use?

I draw with regular #2 leaded pencils, although I should probably draw with a harder lead. I've inked most of the book I'm working on now with a Pentel Pocketbrush pen. I love it so much. All of Spiral-Bound was inked with Superblack Speedball ink, with a #2 watercolor synthetic brush. I letter with 08 Microns, and I do odds and ends with my Rapidographs and my Rotring art pen. I need to get a new fountain pen. I also have been using a razor blade to scratch up my drawings. http://drawman.blogspot.com/2008/01/razor-blade-inking-technique.html very fun and makes my drawings even more organic ... and I use white out to make white lines. I love the foam chisel tip.

6. what kind of paper do you use?

I draw on 500 series Strathmore Vellum, but sometimes art supplies don't have it... so I sometimes use whatever I can get. (14x17)

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

I love comics so much! I haven't been reading a lot lately, but I'm always excited to go get more. When I'm really into my own work I don't read many others. My reading has usually something to do with what I'm working on. Nonfiction and nonfiction used coffee table books are what get me interested in drawing. Books about boats, and animals and bugs. Children's encyclopedias. Big photo books on single topics.

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 money with my comics, but I really pay my rent doing illustration work.

9. do other art forms often seem more attractive to you?

More attractive that I would leave comics for them? No. I very much feel like this is what I want to do.

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

With my friends who are creative. Most of them are cartoonists, but I have many friends from college who do fine art painting, sculpture, conceptual work, printmaking, photography, music... and I'm very interested in what they do. I was the cartoonist in my school... and they in turn are interested in what I do.

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

Very important. I've moved five times in the last 10 years and every time I move I strongly consider what kind of artist community is there. I love being challenged by the people I know.

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

Very supportive, but I always think they would have been happier if I would have gone into advertising. My mother thinks I have a good mind for thinking of... advertisements. She is wrong. But everybody really loves what I do, and when I get jobs with things they've heard of ... like Nickelodeon... they really think I've made it.

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

Idea. I think my style comes along with idea... it's along for the ride. My work keeps growing, but I don't think much about what cool new way I can draw eyeballs or something. I sincerely try to draw as best I can. What comes out of me is what I am capable of. The more elaborate my ideas the more I challenge myself to draw different things.

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

Both. But there is nothing more pleasurable than being happy with a drawing. It makes my feel unbelievably amazing.

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?

I don't tell people what I do unless it comes up. I never say "artist" because I think that sounds pompous. I love saying I'm a cartoonist. I don't need to us a more vague word to describe what I do. "Artist" describes everything from basket weaver to naked bungee jumping. I'm a cartoonist.

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 very connected to the artists I grew up loving. John Severin, Bill Watterson, Herge. I feel very connected to them.

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

No. I'm frightened by the idea of not doing them. Terrified.

18. do you draw from life?

I used to more. I need to start going to figure drawing again.

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

Always pencil. The only thing I don't really pencil are repetitive things like a pile of rocks, or water. If it's a texture type of thing I go at it straight with ink.

20. what does your drawing space look like?

Lisa Hanawalt

2009-01-28T22:19:00.000-08:00

Everyone is talking about Lisa Hanawalt's comics these days. I didn't know anything about her until seeing her mini "Stay Away from other People" which was an instant hit for me. Her drawing is, obviously, amazing. Her comics also appear in Arthur and I hear that she will have a comic coming out from Buenaventura Press soon. ...here is her INTENSE website:

http://lisahanawalt.com/blog/

more comics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lobsterrags/sets/72157611338823732/

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

On a good day I'll draw for 7 hours or more with short breaks and lots of coffee. But I’m easily distracted by books, the internet, hangnails, piano, and chatting with other creative friends who have the same problem.

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

I do some editing, mostly with the text, but I'm impatient when rushing to the inking phase (the FUN part) and make a lot of dumb mistakes that could probably be avoided with further revisions. On the plus side, I've gotten better at making excellent mistakes.

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

Usually: funny images or words will pop into my head while I’m driving, walking or waiting to fall asleep. Then I’ll storyboard them in my sketchbook, and if they still seem like sharp ideas a week or month later, I’ll do a tighter rough and light box them into presentable drawings. But sometimes I just wing it, sketchbook style.

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

It completely varies from comic to comic. I’m trying to get better at composing images within delineated panels, but sometimes it feels unnatural or forced... like I’m trying to follow some arbitrary comic-making rules instead of just drawing the way I want to. It’s a good challenge though.

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

Ubiquitous Pentel Pocket Brush, just switched from Microns to Copic Multiliners, waterproof ink + crappy nibs, an old Altoid box converted into a portable watercolor kit by my friend Rob…the best is trying out tools that other people recommend.

6. what kind(s) of paper do you use?
Bristol or watercolor paper. Sometimes I experiment with marker paper, get disastrous results, and avoid it for a year until I forget how awful it is and try it again.

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

I definitely love comics, but I think my passion for making them developed more as a way to combine all of my other interests: illustration, fiction, comedy, creepiness, etc. I just mush all those things together, and I get to magically define the result as “comics.” It’s such an inclusive category.

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?

Right now I'm living off savings from my last secretary job and doing occasional pet portraits, but I'll definitely need to get another crappy job soon. Or be more aggressive about getting illustration gigs. My parents are also incredibly supportive - thanks Mom & Dad, I would be totally screwed without you.

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

I’m happy to dip my paws into many different areas of interest without achieving expertise in any of them...but I wish I had time to be a better musician.

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

I’ve felt a kinship with Renee French since reading “Marbles in My Underpants” in high school. That’s when I realized that you can tell any story, no matter how disgusting or perverted, and it’s valid as long as it titillates you...or something like that. Also gross ideas can be illustrated in incredibly elegant ways.

Lately I've been feeling kinship with anybody who can tell a really good dick joke.

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

A warm and fuzzy sense of community is extremely important to me. Making art can be so solitary, it’s a joy to talk to people at conventions and art shows, or break up the routine with drawing parties.

Actually, I’m painfully shy when meeting other cartoonists, but everyone I’ve met so far has been friendly and encouraging so I should probably get over that and stop being such a wiener.

12. is there a particular line quality you like---thick/thin/clean/etc?

Crazy thin, outlined with thick, super clean. I also enjoy drawing with a looser, sketchier style, but I don’t think I can pull that off as well.

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

Ideas are the most important, but they have to be executed well. I have to admit that almost every time I draw, a voice in my head is going, "This idea is completely retarded, but if you draw with enough flair and technical skill, nobody will notice! SO MAKE IT PRETTY,” and then that voice goes on to call me a bunch of awful, derisive names, which I enjoy.

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

Pleasurable core wrapped in some painful layers of self-doubt and responsibility.

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?

Yes, because sometimes people react oddly to that information, and that’s entertaining for me. I told a chatty, kooky Trader Joe’s cashier (aren’t they all) and he stood there and made me draw his face on a grocery bag while all of his other customers waited in the checkout line. So...sometimes it backfires.

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?

Foreign. The artwork is awesome to look at, but I've never been into the stories of those superhero comics...I grew up with Sunday funnies like Gary Larson and Bill Watterson, plus perverted doodlers like B. Kliban and R.Crumb.

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

Sometimes I want to stop trying to make it work as a career, but I would never stop drawing. It’s like a compulsive disorder that happens to be charming…luckily.

18. do you draw from life?

Whenever possible, because it makes for a more lively drawing and I lean too heavily on those danged reference photos for sure!

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

Anything I feel nervous about has to be penciled, but I like to keep the roughs loose and jump in with ink as much as possible. I get a kick out of improvising anything super-structured and visually complex, like cars or electronics. Like, I’ve drawn them elegantly, but they still come out completely wrong or wonky in some way… I don’t know why that tickles me so much.

20. what does your drawing space look like?

Aidan Koch

2008-12-27T21:59:00.000-08:00

Aidan Koch is the artist behind the mini comic Warmer, which I thought was one of the strongest minis of the year. Koch, for me at least, sort of come out of nowhere...but that seems to be happening a lot these days: people producing their first or second mini and already having a great degree of authority to their art. Find out more about koch and her work at her website:

http://www.aidankoch.com/index.php?/project/news/

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

It depends on my projects, but I draw between 20minutes and 8 hours a day. When I'm working towards a show or do a drawing lesson over coffee, it adds up. I'm in art school also, so I usually divide my work up just between projects. Work on homework, work on a big painting, work on sketches of people, work on comic pages. It's a good variety between sizes and mediums to keep me going for a long long time. It often requires some drinking though.

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

Extremely little. The more I edit, the more I regret. There's a sincerity in the original lines that I hate to fiddle with. If I do change something, I often draw right over it or use one of my crappy erasers that smudges the page. That way at least there's a history built into the drawing. I can remember why I did what I did.

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

I took a break from comics for a while and ended up making some zines instead. I got into the process of just writing for documentation's sake. I found that I navigated towards lists and statements. By pairing these with images that made sense to me, I kind of found my voice. From there I think I was able to go back into sequential work maintaining that voice pretty fluidly.

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

I panel off the page first and let the first couple drawings inform the composition of the rest. I think it's really important to consider the pacing and quality of each page.

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

Cheap mechanical pencils....color pencil and gouache

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

Moleskin notebooks. I have like four going at once all the time. I try to divide them into being different things, but then I just go crazy and get them confused. I like the creaminess of the paper though and it's cheap enough that I'm not scared to mess up on anything. That's important.

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 never read comics until I started making them. My friend BT Livermore started a comics collective called Robopocalypse which I joined two years ago, right when I started doing comics. It made me a lot more aware of what people are doing and got me going to conventions and events. I like reading them a lot now, although I'm still extremely undereducated in that world. I think what made me most excited about doing them is just the ability to create something artistic that is so accessible. It's fun to make copies and go around to the local shops and mail them to friends and be part of such a funny little community.

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've done some calculations and I think I make some profit from them...but that amount is probably gone after an hour at a bar. Right now, I am living off of some savings, assisting a fashion designer, selling art, and pedicabbing (bicycle taxi). The variety of tasks relates to how I approach art I guess. I like doing as much as possible all the time, going back and forth between different things. I do whatever suits my emotional state at the time.

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

I think it would be beautiful to work in a print shop in the Alps grinding stones and printing lithographs.

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

My favorite artist (to varying degrees at various times) is Odilon Redon. He fills my heart with magic.

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

I guess I probably don't realize how much importance it's had on me because I've always had such a community. Both my parents and sister are artists and crafters and I'm in my last year at art school. I've always had an incredible amount of support and influence. Sometimes I feel like I just want to talk to someone who's a lawyer or model or dermatologist or whatever just to feel more sane. And then I do (pedicabbing is great for that), and I feel okay again to sink into my world for a while.

12. is ther a particular line quality you like---thick/thin/clean/etc?

I guess I like using the least amount of lines to describe a shape or form, usually thin.

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

When I buy comics and zines, I pretty much do it based off of style. I have a lot of anxiety as a reader. I'd rather have something I can look through quickly and appreciate whenever than something I am forced to delve into before I can enjoy it. I freak out if I have to do that, unless I'm on vacation.

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

It's the most redeeming quality of my existence.

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?

Avoid. This is Portland, Oregon though. Everyone does art or music. It's more fun though to try and just exist as a personality and see how I hold up.

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?

Like I said I never read comics growing up, so it's hard for me to think about what they did. I haven't read many older comics and I'm pretty positive the way that I work is not reflective of them either. I appreciate knowing how they've influenced other people that I like though. It always trickles down in one way or another.

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

I stopped when I was going through a big stylistic shift. It was a very introspective time and I couldn't figure out how comics could possibly fit in. I just did tons of big paintings and abstract drawings. As that settled down though, I think a niche just kind of opened itself back up. Now I think about comics all the time.

18. do you draw from life?

Almost exclusively.

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

I just like pencil or colored pencil.

20. what does your drawing space look like?

Zak Sally

2008-12-14T22:36:00.000-08:00

Zak Sally is drawing my favorite comic on the stands today: Sammy the Mouse. I picked it as my #1 comic of 2008 when the Daily Crosshatch asked for a top five list. Here's the blurb I wrote for them:

"Some people mentioned to me that they were initially put off by Zak Sally switching his drawing style for this comic. And it's hard not to miss that ultra precise style. But there's just something about this series. This is the comic that proves the "drawing in comics is writing" idea better then anything else. There's a certain sacrifice of visual aesthetics for storytellings sake...but the storytelling is so good and the story is so rich (one of the richest in ideas comic I've ever read) that the aesthetic of the drawing BECOMES beautiful. It's really something. Sometimes I can't get over characters in novels...I really think about and care for certain literary creations in the same way I think about close friends. Rarely can I say that about a comic...except this one."

Sally is also the publisher behind La Mano, which is the best small press comics line around. Currently, they are batting a thousand, since every book Sally puts out is pretty much perfect. Dead Ringer is one of the strongest comics to come out in a while, and Sally's choice to publish it in a very distinctive way is a rare case of bold design enriching a comic instead of calling attention to itself.

Find out more about La Mano and Sally here: http://www.lamano21.com/

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

in those ugly days when i was trying/ hoping to eke out an existence drawing comics full-time i was...well, come to think of it, there was so much hustle and busywork involved that i probably only ended up DRAWING a bit more than i do these days (when i am gainfully employed as a teacher 30-odd hours a week...).
how it seems to work now is that...at least on Sammy, i finish an issue and then a couple months go by where i dont have a thought in my head. then i panic because i have no earthly idea what's going to go in the next issue, and i walk around thinking "you're FUCKED, you're TOTALLY FUCKED" for a couple of weeks until i somehow force myself to sit down with my notes and put pencil to paper and then i realize that i've got more material than i know what to do with, and start banging it out...
usually the end of the process, inking/ finalizing the issue, requires 6-8 hours a day (or more likely, whatever i can get in...) for a few months.
for everything else, i just commit to something i can't weasel out of, thereby creating an externally imposed deadline. neat, huh?
long way of saying that there's very little rhyme or reason; i spend my life trying to make more time in which i get to draw comics.

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

it feels like i do more revision and editing than i do drawing; and i think that's actually the most important part of the whole thing...anyone can come up with "ideas"; it's roping those ideas into something that makes sense (aesthetically and otherwise) where the rubber hits the road, and i'm editing and revising at every and all stages of the work.

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

Feels like during my (over)long "learning curve" years (soon to be collected by Fantagraphics...) i was kind of unconciously trying to make comics every damn way-- starting from just...single images or drawings in my sketchbook, some piece of crappy writing i'd done while drunk, whatever. in some cases i'd even write the words out and then just constantly "edit" the thing as the storytelling (such as it was...) came along, seeing how the words and pictures came together (or didn't, depending...) and in the end the original words would have all but disappeared.
it just started out from an image or an idea or...something, and just crawled into completion in whatever way seemed most difficult or stupid. it never felt that i ever landed on an actual PROCESS, which is maybe good and maybe bad, who knows.
i'm really happy with the way i work now, which is, to me, a sort of pure COMICS writing. i start with some crappy 14 X 17 marker paper and just...start the thing. i have my notes and my general idea of where it needs to go and acouple things i've GOT TO hit plot- wise, but there's no script, no pre-drawing thumbnails or anything: i'm just "writing" it in comics form, words and pictures all at the same time, on the page in no particular order-- sort of working the beginning, middle and end of the issue at the same time, and then i put them all up on the wall so i can see the whole thing as i'm working on it.
anders nilsen came over to my studio once when he was in town and saw the set-up and said "wow, you put up all your pages too? i thought i was the only guy who did that...", and i was like "really? i just assumed EVERY cartoonist worked this way." maybe it's just cartoonists who grew up in minnesota, i don't know.
anyway, i'm constantly looking up and referring to it, and the whole thing gets worked pretty organically; sometimes i'll start hitting inks on a scene that i'm real sure about while maybe...i'm still in rough doodles on other parts. i just keep working the whole thing until until it gets to this point where...it's this odd thing where all of a sudden an issue turns from a collection of scenes that i HOPE will come together into what almost feels like an...algebraic equation. it just clicks into focus, it all makes sense.
i cant finish an issue until i get that thing. and god help me if i fake it.

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

well, with the bass ackwards way i'm working now, it seems like i end up spending a LOT of time on just...composing the actual panel BORDERS, as weird as that sounds; i'm thinking about what's gonna go IN them, of course, but it seems to me like that's this skeleton of how i'm attempting to lead the reader (and myself) through the page and the story...seems like i spend a lot of time making slight shifts and balances, a little bigger, a litle smaller, to the left, etc etc.
and then there's always all this tweaking of the compositions within the panels as you go, and...i'm sure any cartoonist will say they try to work the overall page as a design while they work, but... it's always a balance: try to "design" your pages TOO MUCH, and the storytelling can suffer at the design's expense. don't pay enough attenton to the overall design of your page and it can look like unbalanced crud.
i just realized that i should be cartooning instead of writing about it.
too late now; it appears that i'm on a roll.
>
>
> 5. what tools do you use (please list all)?
let's see: i somehow ended up using these 01 02 "Liner" brushes, where the brush fibers are about twice as long as the normal length. i have no idea how i landed on this, i guess i just picked some out of the "sale" barrel and came to to like the way they feel.
then i do my horrible lettering with a...well, issue 1 of Sammy was a standard Hunt 102 nib (but the japanese version, because the standard Hunts are FUCKING GARBAGE oh it makes me so mad...), on #2 i switched to a rapidograph, but nothing i do keeps it from looking shitty, so i'm semi-resigned to that (and totally opposed to computer lettering, so i'm screwed. and so are YOU, dear reader.). i keep switching ink, too; get it, let it sit on the radiator for 3 weeks, cry. get more. hear about different, better ink. cry.
i recently got one of those Pentel brush pens-- the P-10, and i love it so much i'm seriously considering doing the next issue with that. i love the way the thing feels, but i'm concerned about the ink; not dark enough, and can't get a good word on how archival the stuff in the cartridges is.
aside from that, the regular: .05 mechanical pencil, pentel stick erasers, pro white, an exacto for cutting out bad drawings, etc.
i used to use beer, as well.
and tears. buckets of tears.
(UPDATE: since i started writing this thing out-- about 2 MONTHS AGO now-- i've decided i'm gonna do the next issue with the Kaimei brush pen; the $30 version, not the $60. also, am trying out this Ph Martin's Pen White, which is about twice as expensive as the regular stuff, but seems to flow real well through a nib or whathaveyou, so i'm gonna give that a shot as well...)

6. what kind(s) of paper do you use?
the "process' i've developed is just so retarded: there's so many problems with it, but every time i try to change it, i just go back to the same thing...i suppose the things i like about it must outweigh the significant drawbacks, but...anyway.
like i said, lay it out and work it over on rag 14 x 17" marker paper, then i ink on transparent Vellum so i can shift and change composition on the fly or mess with my underdrawings.
i like the way the Vellum takes ink, but the ink does wrinkle and shrink it a bit, which sucks. i'd do this same process but substitute Bristol for the Vellum to avoid this problem, but the idea of lightboarding the whole thing makes my skull hurt.
so, that's my "black" or my line art on the Sammy stuff (which is actually just 100% opacity of the 2 Pantones i chose for the series...); then i make copy reductions of the pages to print size and do pencil/ graphite overlays for both my Blue and Brown plates (which gets all those in-between gradations)....convert them to duotone and comp it all together, and there's a finished page.
every time i describe it, it seems more absurd; i basically draw each page 3 times.

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

i'm almost embarrassed by my love of reading comics.
not embarrased so much as...i'll go to the library and read crappy superhero comics (or, i'll try to, unless they're just TOO BAD to finish...) before i'll, you know, watch some dumb TV show. it used to be a very...serious thing for me, reading a comic, but now i find that... i guess it's really just an enjoyable way for me to take in information, whether it be high art or mindless junk culture (in either case, i'm glad society has "progressed" to the point where i no longer have to look at those ugly ADS glaring in my face in the middle of a story....LOST? i netflix it. comics, i wait til the book collection--with the junk, anyway. i know, it's heresy.).
ok i take some of that back. some stuff is still pretty irredemably bad, and i cant read it. but really that goes for comics of any stripe: some "indy" art- comics these days are as guilty as any other genre.
but All-Star Superman? in a HEARTBEAT, sir.

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?

comics: nope.
maybe someday. it's better now than when i first sort of... really threw my hat in the ring, so to speak, but nothing near a liveable wage.
i was a musician for a living for many years, and i remember going through seattle on tour when i was thinking real hard about leaving my then-band, and having lunch with my pal (Fantagraphics books') Eric Reynolds, and saying to him "ok, tell me the truth: is it possible to make a living doing the kind of comics i do?", and his immediate and unequivocal response was "No."
it's one thing to hear that and another to find it out yourself.
being shit broke and working on your art when you're 25 is one thing: doing that while having a wife, kid, dog, car, and mortgage payments is a whole 'nother can of worms; you can kiss your freewheeling bohemian days goodbye for good, and welcome the pure terror of not having health insurance into your world. anyway, was barely, BARELY scraping out a bare minimum month to month, while slowly sliding into credit card debt.
this year i got offered (and took) a full-time job teaching comics at a college here in mpls, so i've got a salary, benefits, all that stuff at least temporarily ( and strangely, i'm getting comics projects done as well...).
and no; the irony of the situation is NOT lost on me.

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

no.
hell no.
for the first time in my life, i ENJOY making comics. there's nothing i'd rather do (art-wise).
i don't want to make movies (sorry, "Films"...), or make "Fine Art" (gggggrrrhh...). when comics are good, there's nothing better. nothing.
(...i made a record a while back, all by myself, which was...strangely enjoyable, but...maybe i spent too much time in that "industry"...)

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

johnny p.
dylan williams and sparkplug. a lot of folks, really; some of whom i've know through 'zines or comics for... coming up on 20 years now i guess. but i don't think of it as "comics" or "'zines" per se, more like anything that comes down the pike that's got a certain... thing to it, be it comics or zines or art or music or whatever. the older i get the less specific it gets. johnny p. just emailed me an interview with Ian Mackaye, and i still just... think that guy and his take on the way to make your stuff and move through the world with it in an honest and sustainable, no- bullshit manner is still incredibly inspiring to me. same as when i was 16, and 22, and 28 and 35.
i still get horribly excited whenever i run into a... 'zine, or a comic, or a band or anything really that seems... like it's own thing, out of nowhere.
i'm not explaining this right; i feel that kinship with a lot of different folks, for a lot of different reasons.

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

it is. and it isn't.
there's really a lot of cartoonists here in minneapolis; it's kind of amazing. and for the most part, i really like seeing those folks. same with when i go to conventions like SPX or MOCCA or whatever, i feel the same way-- here's this group of folks, and some of 'em i've known in some capacity for almost 2 decades now; i'd be lying if i said there wasn't some snark and whathaveyou (seems to happen in any extended group...), but by and large it's great to see folks and see what they've been up to. REALLY great. even at San Diego Comic Con (and this year was my first), i have to say that despite the raw INSANITY of the thing i somehow had this inexplicable warm and fuzzy feeling about it all (even though that's a much more, uh...let's call it "varied" group than, say SPX or APE...).
with that said, the only cartoonist i talk to on a real regular basis is John P, and... we talk about comics sometimes, not all the time.
but when it comes to CREATING the stuff, it's just... deeply rooted in me that this is something you/ i do ALONE; the idea of sitting around drawing with other cartoonists is like...i can't get my head around it. for me, it's akin to trying to take a dump while someone's standing next to you; you could DO IT, i guess, but it doesn't sound like fun. for me.
knowing that stuff is out there, that people are in their rooms all over the world, scratching away... that IS important to me. very. it's like a shared experience of, uh, solitude. i see or talk to kevin huizenga once every 3 years, but...i know he's busting his tail, probably at this very moment, you know?
and, of course, i feel that with every single person who has done something with me on La Mano, on an extraordinarily deep level.

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

hard to say.
we should ask them.

13, what is more important to you---style or idea?
how about "STYLEdea"?

you know, i really...don't care, generally: what's important to me is that whatever it is has a considered and consistent internal logic and integrity to it, whether it's...you know, "naive" or beautifully rendered or cartoony or whatever. as long as it works. and something "working" is pretty non-quantifiable, really; if we could put a name on it, everybody would do it, right (and obviously, THAT'S not happening.).
i will say the one thing that brings out a real ugly side of me is my reaction to works that... are ALL STYLE; stuff that i feel are purposefully working in a "cool" trend or "movement" or whathaveyou. where, rather than searching out thier own thing, an artist consciously apes some current "trend". working through your influences is one thing, but that insincere, halfassed bullshit just makes me want to tear flesh.
maybe that's harsh...i guess i just think of bellbottoms or those outfits Duran Duran wore.
sure you look "cool" now, but eat too much of a trend and be prepared to get shit out the other end a decade later, clowny.
see? this is a bad side of me. we should move on.

14. is drawing a pleasure to you or a pain?
these days, it's mostly...pretty great.
there's not a lot of room in my life for hand-wringing about it anymore... i just don't have the time.
so, even when it's a pain, it's... a pain that i'm CHOOSING, right? it's something that i GET TO DO, and that makes me a lucky guy, as cheeseball as that may sound...

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?

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'm gonna answer both of these at once: i say i'm a cartoonist.
i think it's a lot easier to say that now than it was, say, 10 years ago; there's a lot more understanding of what a cartoonist is these days...it doesn't require a half-hour preamble of "NO, not like in the papers, and...no, not like superheroes either, and...not pornography, really...maybe...uh...". to be honest, my love and appreciation and AMAZEMENT re: Kirby seems to grow every year...i just read that "Strange And Stranger" book about Ditko, and his stuff too, is just...pretty fascinating, even when it's...um. unreadable.
obviously, what they do is so different from what i do that it's beyond description, but at the same time...i'm doing EXACTLY the same thing they did, somehow. i mean, King- Cat and...Devil Dinosaur. laugh all you want, but it's still comics, and i'd say there's way more in common between Johnny p and Kirby than Kirby and... Rob Liefield or whomever, you know?
it's this strange feeling of "belonging" to this thing that... i can't explain: like this club that chose YOU, not the other way around, and that nobody is quite comfortable yelling "HEY!! i'm a CARTOONIST!!!", because we all know it's a pack of weirdos. but at the same time, i'm real proud of it. it just takes a very specific type of wingnut to persevere in the seriously debased and pissed-upon form of comics, to continue at it when there's always a million reasons (...better money, recognition, fame, the respect of-- well, ANYONE....and just the semi- insane amount of consisitent EFFORT it takes to get a comic done...) to quit.
there's also this tradition of invisible people in an "industry" that's measured in its relative worth to, you know, kiddie porn or juvenilia or just plain old trash culture that i find insanely rich and fascinating (and also crushing and brutal): it's a history that encompasses everything from Schulz to Crumb to Kirby, to Herriman and Dirty Plotte and 'zine culture and punk and hippies and Al Capp yelling at John Lennon, and...well; rampant alcoholism.
it's like co-habiting the isle of misfit toys, but i'm honored to be part of that.
in no way am i putting myself in with any of the aforementioned geniuses in terms of my COMICS, but i do... i feel like a cartoonist; like, at the end of the day, i'm part of that.
when you describe yourself as a "Cartoonist", it means not just you but Segar and McCay and Deitch and Los Bros and Ware and Hankiewicz and Herb Trimpe and Briefer and Chris Cilla and...you get the picture, even if the person you are SAYING IT TO doesn't.
it's kind of a big deal, to me.

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

for most of my life, i had that impulse every 30 seconds.
now, it's never. ok not never; there's always some moments of debilitating horror and panic, but now that i'm 200 years old, it feels like i can work with some confidence that i'm going to come out the other side.
turns out the trick is that you just KEEP WORKING.

18. do you draw from life?
not nearly as much as i should, but yes.
i keep a sketchbook that turns over every couple years.
i wish i drew in it more.

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

i think i covered that pretty well earlier, but...
no, i never just go straight to ink. there's always something there, underneath.

20. what does your drawing space look like?

as if i haven't rattled on long enough already, a word about my "drawing space"; i rent a space that also holds the La Mano offices, print shop, warehouse, and shipping area. it's about the size of a garage, and i've got a small space in back cordoned off for drawing.
i'd always thought that having a "studio" away from home was a frivolous waste of $ (i.e. "if you can't do it at home, you're a SISSY!"), but found that, at least for me, working at home was just a world of distractions (and this was BEFORE i had a son running around like a maniac...) and excuses. i found that when i was actually paying $ to have a space devoted to this thing i called my "work", 2 things happened: 1) there was no longer any excuses or distractions and 2) the fact of paying $ for this space filled me with such guilt that i HAD TO use the space wisely to justify that expense. it might just be a psychological distinction, but my studio is now the place i go to WORK, and it's made a world of difference in my productivity.
so there.
i had to write that all out because everyone else's drawing spaces are, like, on their beds or the floor and it makes me feel like a ....maharajah, or the secretary of funnybook defense or something.

Tom Neely

2008-12-02T15:15:00.000-08:00

Tom Neely has been doing comics for quite sometime, but most people know him from his comic the Blot. Neely refined the best parts of his cartooning for that book, and it was appropriately well received. He's also an accomplished illustrator and painter. Find more of his work here:
www.iwilldestroyyou.com

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

It varies. I try to draw a little bit every day, but sometimes "real" work gets in the way. On a good day I go to the studio around 9 am and I spend 3 or 4 hours drawing or writing. Morning is always better for my creative brain and usually the phone doesn't start ringing with freelance work until after noon. After lunch I go do my freelance animation work. Most of the animation work is done on the computer, so it doesn't satisfy my drawing needs. Some days I have to much animation work and I don't draw at all. Those are usually bad days.

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

I spend a lot of time thinking about my art before I execute it. I make lots of loose notes and ideas in sketchbooks and my brain. My sketchbooks have more notes than drawing in them. I think I do all the editing in that thinking phase. Then when I start to create I turn off the editor brain and try to draw in a free and spontaneous way. I like to keep the drawing part more stream of conscious and without too much critical thought. After the drawing, my editor brain turns back on and I'll spend a lot of time looking at it and thinking about it and figuring out what I did and if it's any good.

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

It's different with every thing I do. With The Blot, it grew out of a random series of paintings. I then started to see a story forming and I spent a lot of time working on a thumb-nail outline for the book. I then spent the next several months reading and editing that. Then I did the full size pencils as a final edit and finally inked it all.

I'm currently working on three very different books and all of them are using completely different writing methods. The first is completely free-form. It's loosely based on a series of paintings I did, but I'm writing it as I draw it. I'm drawing pages that may not make it into the book. Drawing whatever idea seems to work and when it's all drawn I'll edit it into something that makes sense. For the next book, I've been working on a heavily detailed outline for over a year. I'm almost ready to start the "thumb-nail" sketches for it, but I keep revising my outline. It's a very complicated story and has taken many different incarnations over time, but it's finally starting to feel like the right story and I'm excited to draw it. The third book is a series of short auto-bio stories that are completely different from anything I've done. I'm actually scripting them and doing more detailed pencil drafts. I think this series is probably the most "traditional" approach to making comics. It's interesting to try different methods for different ideas.

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

I think about the entire book as a composition. I think about how every panel falls on the page and how every page falls in the book. I want to plan how the timing works for every page turn to reveal something new. I think about how pages will look next to each other and where space is needed between pages. It's like the whole book is one continuous painting and the whole thing has to work harmoniously together.

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

Isabey series 62272 #3 watercolor brush is my favorite brush. Sometimes I use the fancy Winsor Newton Series 7 brushes, but I always end up preferring the Isabey. I've been experimenting with some synthetic brushes because I have vegan-guilt over the sable brushes, but I've yet to find a synthetic that works as well for me.
Dr. Ph. Martin's Black Star "Matte" India ink is my favorite ink. I also use Bombay colored inks for different things (like the red guys in The Blot). I've recently started using Rotring Rapidograph technical pens for some detail stuff, but normally everything is inked with a brush. I'll pencil with any old pencil that's laying around, but lately I've enjoyed some cheap Staedtler mechanical pencils for when I'm feeling too lazy to sharpen a regular one. I love Sanford Magic Rub erasers. I have a weird thing with other erasers- they give me an unpleasant tingly feeling when I rub them on paper. But the Magic Rubs don't do that to me. Holbein and Old Holland watercolors. Watercolor masking fluid. And one of my favorite tools is a big soft brush for dusting the eraser crumbs off the page because I hate doing that with my hand.

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

I usually use Strathmore 300 series Cold Press watercolor paper for my comics. It's fairly inexpensive and I like the tooth of that paper. For painting I use Arches watercolor paper. I really like the thick 400 lb rough paper, but it's expensive, so I only use that for art that will be in a gallery show. I use various sizes of moleskin sketchbooks and usually have 3 or 4 of them going at a time for different projects.

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

I read comics all the time. All kinds of comics. Today I bought some X-Men comics and that big Krazy Kat volume. I look forward to every Wednesday when I'll meet some friends for lunch and a trip to the comic shop to see what's new. And every time I go to a comic convention I come home with a suitcase full of new comics that I'm excited about. I usually come home from a convention inspired by all the cartoonists I have been hanging out with. But I don't necessarily find inspiration within comics to make my own comics. Making my comics is a more personal, isolated experience. When I'm writing my own comics, I usually stop reading any other comics and focus on my own ideas. Or I'll read some mindless super-hero stuff that I know won't influence me. So, I'm inspired by other comics, but they don't directly inspire my work.

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?

Sometimes I wish that I made comics for a living. But most of the time I'm glad that I don't. I'm glad that I have a "day-job" that is not totally related to my artistic pursuits. My day-job is doing a lot of freelance animation work for Disney and Nickelodeon and other clients. I spend half the day making 30 second animation clips of Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse that will appear on Japanese cell phones. It's a soul-sucking grind sometimes, but it is different enough from my personal work that it doesn't use the same creative energy. Freelancing allows me lots of time to make my own art, and I'm very grateful for that. Sometimes I'm tempted to try to make it as a full time "Artist" but I know that that will come with a lot of sacrifices and compromises that I'm not willing to make. But wouldn't it be nice to just do what you wanna do all the time and not have to worry about a job? I dream of that happening someday, but I can't complain about my current situation to much.

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

Yeah... I'm often distracted by the allure of the "Fine Arts" and I try to do gallery shows with paintings and stuff. But every time I go down that road, I end up realizing that I prefer the world of comics. I've had a couple of brief peaks in my gallery career, but I'm always more satisfied with what I do in comics. Last year was an interesting year- I had my first graphic novel and my first solo gallery show around the same time. Both were personal successes, but to compare the two I'd say I enjoyed the graphic novel experience way more than the gallery experience. That seems to be a pattern with me. I went to art school for painting and ended up doing comics. I have a few art shows and I end up happier with comics. I'm beginning to think I should give up the painting stuff and just do comics... but the paintings often end up being the inspiration for the comics. Dealing with galleries is a big head-ache and I really hate the way that system works. When you make comics, you're in control of everything. It's much better. I'm also obsessed with music and I wish that I had more talent for that. But my brother got all the musical talent and I got the visual art talent.

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

"Kinship" is a weird thing because it implies some kind of mutual relationship. But the following artists are a constant inspiration and I only hope that one day I'll be as great as they are. Off the top of my head: Rene Magritte, Lucien Freud, Philip Guston, George Grosz, Egon Schielle, James Ensor, Herman Melville, Albert Camus, Kurt Vonnegut, Franz Kafka, George Herriman, Floyd Gottfredson, Otto Nuckel, Lynd Ward, Renee French, Anders Nilsen, Zack Sally, John Hankiewicz, David King and many, many more.

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

That's a tough one. It's weird living in L.A. where there are so many great cartoonists, but we are so far apart and I never see any of them. The only local cartoonist I have regular contact with is Levon Jihanian. A few years ago we started an "art fraternity" called The Igloo Tornado. It was a lot of fun to meet regularly to critique, support and drink beer with each other. We also had a couple of art shows together. I think it is good to be around other artists because they understand you better than non-artists. But it can also be frustrating because all artists think differently. Every time I go to a comic convention and I get to hang out with other cartoonists, it's so inspiring and exciting. But sometimes I don't know whether a local community of cartoonists would inspire me to do more work or distract me from doing that work. I think about moving to Portland all the time. I'd love to be a part of that cartoonist community.

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

My parents have always been a great support of my interest in art for as long as I can remember. My dad is an English/Lit Professor and he always encouraged me to read interesting books. My mother was always encouraging creative activities like drawing and making puppets or costumes when I was a kid. She always encouraged any creative idea I had and I'm so grateful that they encouraged my love of art. Today they are still very supportive of what I do artistically. I'm not sure if they completely understand what I'm doing, but they are always behind me 100%. I love talking to my dad about books. I think he's read everything. A few weeks ago my dad was helping me cut up some boxes for the recycling bin and we discussed the anti-church themes of Moby Dick and whether or not Herman Melville was gay. How cool is that? For the past several years I've been giving them graphic novels for x-mas so they have a better understanding of what I do. My dad is now a huge fan of Joe Sacco, but my mom thinks I can draw better than any of today's cartoonists (even better than Chris Ware!).

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

I'll usually take idea over style. I have known many artists who have great style but no ideas and they bore me. Ideas, even without style, can be inspiring. I can read a poorly drawn comic with good writing and be happy. But a poorly written comic with great art can be very disappointing. Sometimes I think people give style more credit than it deserves. It's like fashion. It might look great, but that doesn't mean it has any substance. Style gives you a more immediate reaction, so people tend to be more attracted to that. I think the best art and comics have an integrated use of style and idea. I strive for both in my own work.

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

When I'm not drawing it's a pain. I will spend days avoiding it. Making art is a really hard process for me because I think about it so much. I often find myself very intimidated by the act of drawing. I'll agonize over every reason not to do it. I sometimes have weeks go by with no drawing and I start to get really depressed and listless. The longer I go without drawing, the harder it is to start, and the more depressed I get. When I start getting stressed or depressed I'll forget why I feel that way. Then my wife will tell me "Go out to your studio and draw!" And as soon as I pick up a pencil or dip the brush in ink, I'm the happiest I've ever been. I love the feel of dragging a brush full of ink across a toothy sheet of paper. That's pure pleasure.

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?

I don't usually offer it up right away. For my whole life I was always uncomfortable defining myself as an "artist" or "cartoonist." I didn't know which term to use or if I was worthy enough to call myself by such a title. But lately, when I'm at a random social event full of "normal" people who have "normal"careers like marketing or computers, I often find myself anxious for someone to ask me "What do you do?" After years of uncertainty, now that I have a couple of books out, I find it very satisfying to answer "I'm a cartoonist."

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 love everything they did. I grew up on that stuff and I will always think of that as "real" comics. But I don't feel any connection to it artistically. One thing I get from them is the inspiration to work really hard at what you love to do. I always have this vision of Jack Kirby being this insane, steam-roller of a cartoonist who never stopped drawing. I like to think this constant output lead to his more insane concepts like The Tomorrow People and Teen Turbo (the Saturday morning cartoon about a kid who turns into a car when he gets hot and bothered). I'm always inspired by the quantity and the quality of the work these guys were able to accomplish. But knowing what it's like to work for a studio makes me sad to think that such immense talents were exploited for corporate schlock. How different would the world of comics be today if Kirby and Ditko had been completely untethered? But they were a different kind of artist with different goals and ideas. So, I don't feel much of a connection.

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

NO. I've wanted to draw comics since the first time I saw a comic book. I made my first comic book when I was 6 yrs old. I've made side trips into painting and animation, but I always come back to comics. COMICS!!!

18. do you draw from life?

Yes. I think life-drawing is an important fundamental to everything. I draw from life all the time. I also look at a lot of anatomy books and study how the body works. Even though I draw cartoony characters, I like to think about how their muscles and bones would work. But life-drawing is part of a process. I'll draw something from life, then draw something from that drawing. And on and on... By the time it becomes a finished piece, it is very far removed from the original source, but it is still informed by the original life drawing.

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

I always pencil, but my pencils are really, really loose. Sometimes my pencils are just stick figures to lay out the composition of the page. I like to reserve a lot of spontaneity for the inking.

20. what does your drawing space look like?

Delay

2008-11-25T00:26:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone. Sorry I haven't posted anything here in a little bit. I have a bunch of interviews ready to go and they are all really good. But I have just been so busy lately with a million little things---working on deadlines for my own comics! But don't worry. More interviews by the end of the week.

Jesse Reklaw

2008-11-14T13:08:00.000-08:00

Jesse Reklaw was one of the first cartoonsits I ever met, and I often think of him as one of the most underrated cartoonsits working today (although, with a recent Ignatz win and appearences in Best American Comics, this will hopefully soon change). His work is amazingly consistent in its exection...but, more importantly, Reklaw is a first rate storyteller. He's probably best known for his online dream comic strip Slow Wave: www.slowwave.com. A collection of the strip, entitled The Night of Your Life, was recently published by Dark Horse.

Above is a work in progress page by Jesse.

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 wish I could draw every day--it does make me feel better. But too
often office work (email, publicity, accounting, mailing, and various
business arrangements) prevent that. I also spend a lot of time fussing
over the writing portion of my comics, sometimes doing a lot of
research and outlining before I actually do the thumbnailing/drawing.
But once I have the material written/thumbnailed, I can put myself on a
drawing schedule and work 8-12 hours a day for weeks. I just started a
daily diary comic that I've been posting on Flickr, so that's made me
draw for at least an hour every day, which is cool.

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

I think I'm in the mid-high range. I don't have as much of a process
as Charles Burns or Peter Bagge, with all the transparencies and
stages. But I do flip my drawings and rotate them to "see with fresh
eyes." I'm jealous of people like Jaime Hernandez and Hellen Jo who
seem to have a natural harmony and integrity to their forms. I guess
I should allow myself to draw looser and sloppier, but I haven't
found the right style yet that works for me. As for the writing, it's
mostly the same...

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

I've been trying to write in thumbnails lately, so that I can start
thinking about panel transitions and layouts from the beginning.
Because of that, it forces me to hit the page with immediate text
that often survives the final edit. But I do sometimes switch to
longhand and work some stuff out. I'm no T. Edward Bak though--I've
seen him generate reams of text that end up in the recycle bin.

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

I think I'm more interested in 2- and 3-panel transitions lately, and
I focus mostly on the rhythm of rows (or tiers). Sometimes I get an
idea that's just a couple panels in length and later I need to fit
them into overall pages. I try to stick to a three tier structure in
my pages, so I can add in a row if necessary. I do like to use overall
page designs, but I often sacrifice design for rhythm/timing. Full-page
timing is importlant too!

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

Canson sketchbook for thumbnails, sketches, and ideas;
Mechanical pencil (0.5mm 2H) on typing paper for layouts;
Speedball 5A (lettering) nib for inking, in Higgins Black Magic;
Strathmore drawing paper and a light table (that I stole from my
dad in 1989 when I moved out) for inking;
Various erasers (pink pearl, Sakura & Staedtler white plastic);
Corrections with a Sakura white gel pen and a pigment pen.
I try out different materials sometimes... spray paint, acrylic,
collage, rubber stamps, watercolor, printing out pencils in
blueline on Bristol with Andrice's inkjet printer, brushes,
sharpened sticks... but mostly I stick to what I'm comfortable
with.

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

Besides what's above, I sometimes use hot press watercolor paper
for my color comics. I don't know the brand... I buy big sheets
at an art store and cut them down myself.

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

I went through a phase in my early twenties where I didn't read
many comics, and I definitely regret it. The older I get the more
I'm able to dedicate my life to reading comics, watching movies,
and reading books; this has been great for me as an artist. I guess
sometimes I get excited when I'm reading a comic, but this tells me
I should put the comic down and start making my own, otherwise I'll
ruin the experience of reading.

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?

You call this a living?! I had a day job 2001-2002, and since then
I've done a fair amount of illustration and painting to supplement
my income, but mostly it's been comics. I'm also $30k in debt
though.

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

When I was 22 I felt the need to focus, and I decided I could juggle
three things: comics, acrylic painting, and bass guitar. It's been
mostly the same ever since, though I kind of switched to watercolor,
and I like singing and playing guitar now too. Comics is the main deal
though.

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

I felt a deep connection with the Dadaists when I was a young man,
but a lot of that surrealistic stuff seems like a cop out to me
now, partly since absurdism is acceptable and doesn't inspire
audiences to hurl chairs at you anymore. I like a little surrealism
(and humor) in comics, movies, books, painting, and music though.
Dan Clowes, Jim Woodring, Julie Doucet, and Gilbert Hernandez have
been some of my biggest influences, but as far as kinship I feel a
great affinity for David Lasky and Dylan Williams -- two people who
spent some time in the SF Bay Area comics scene in the early 90s
and for whatever reasons have yet to really "hit it big." No offense
to them of course... maybe they're both on the cusp, what with
David's new book deal and Sparkplug growing by leaps and bounds.

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

Very important. I have this embarrassing list in my sketchbook from
1996 where I wrote down names of all the cartoonists roughly my age
and where they lived, trying to get an idea of cartoonist communities,
trying to see where I fit in...? I think I wanted to start some
multi-state jam comic project as a way of connecting myself to everyone.
When I moved back to Berkeley/San Francisco in 2000, I finally found
the community I had been craving (after living in Connecticut for five
years).

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

My hippie parents have always been supportive, though my mom
definitely doesn't get my work. Dad usually has some compliment
about the formal aspect of the design/layout, but rarely the
story/meaning. Unless it's a story about him being a jerk when
I was a kid, in which case he's got some wounded monologue about
how he suffered, had no choice, etc.

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

The very existence of this question makes me suspicious of my own
convictions. I want to immediately answer "idea," but maybe you
know something I don't know about style... is the style actually
the relevant attribute, since "all stories have already been told"?
I don't know. It seems to me comics are, fundamentally, a narrative
art form. And what is narrative but ideas in the fourth dimension?

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

I love drawing! It can be trying sometimes though, when things don't
look on paper as they do in my imagination. I think at that point
though it's just the result of creative laziness and excessive ego.

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?

I guess I admit to being a cartoonist but it still feels awkward
most of the time. I don't bring it up and usually try to change
the subject.

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 often feel like I shouldn't be a cartoonist because I don't love
all the artists other people love, whether it's Silver Age champions
like Kirby and Ditko, or early 20th century masters like McCay and
Herriman. I can look at that stuff and glean some technical tricks,
but I don't feel a connection like I do with underground comics in
the late 60s and 70s, like those by Crumb and Spiegelman. Comics
from that era onward have a mature sensibility and elevated
consciousness that I can relate to.

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

Sadly, no. Comics will be the death of me.

18. do you draw from life?

If I'm having trouble with something or I feel my drawings from
memory are getting stale, I'll do some sketching from life. But
then I try to regularize things and adapt them to comics.

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

Rarely I've tried not forgo penciling (and planning), and I've
always been frustrated with the result. I think I'm a better
penciler than an inker.

20. what does your drawing space look like?

Trevor Alixopulos

2008-11-14T13:04:00.001-08:00

Trevor Alixopulos is the Santa Rosa based cartoonist behind the books Mine Tonight and the recent Ignatz nominated graphic novel The Hot Breath of War. I love Trevors drawing style...his self published mini Nil from the late 90s was an early favorite of mine when I started reading mini comics. I've always thought of him as one of the most stylistically disctinctive cartoonists around.

You can get his books from Sparkplug comic books:
www.sparkplugcomicbooks.com

Here is his blog:
http://www.hautejunk.blogspot.com/

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

On my way to work, mid-morning, I usually get coffee and draw
somewhere for an hour, I tend to be more creative when I'm just waking
up or before I go to sleep, to that end I'll sometimes draw at home
late at night. Weekends I'll ride out to some place to work, I had a
good spot in a bookstore cafe for awhile that was private and had some
magic coffee that always gave me good ideas, but now it's closed and I
have to make do with other places. I think it's good to be a little
superstitious as an artist, to go with what works even if isn't
rational. I usually work for three or four hours a day on weekends,
more if I'm in the middle of a project.

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

Mostly I try to edit in the thumbnails, before I've committed ink to
paper, because it's much more painful to make changes afterwards. I
will still sometimes tweak lines of dialogue or ruthlessly shitcan
whole pages if they're not working out in the final draft.

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

With THBOW I diagrammed out what I wanted the book to look like
beforehand, sort an exploded visual Cliff's Notes. That's the concept
stage, then I thumbnail out the pages on scrap paper, I can't write
prose separate from the images, they come together. Then I draw what
will be the final pages in my sketchbook.

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

I focus mostly on the quality of line and the rhythm of story, page
composition is sort of an afterthought, a gloss, frippery. To my way
of thinking, the reader and I are following one unbroken line
throughout a book. I can appreciate thoughtful page composition, but
it's not a major concern in my own work.

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

I work in pen and ink, usually an Esterbrook 369 Maritime, 788 Oval Point or a Nikko
N-G nib. Ink: Speedball Superblack or PH Martins. Micron pens for
lettering. Mechanical pencils. Pentel White Out Pen. China marker for greys. I feel like I wasted a lot of time trying to use the wrong
tools and thinking I had less talent then I did merely because I was
using tools that weren't right for me. I'd recommend beginning artists
experiment with different tools, it's true that you can get good with
any tool but it's also possible to invest too much skill in the the
wrong one.

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

I draw in a Watson-Guptill sketchbook, it has nice paper. Pretty much
any paper that's smooth, lets the pen glide, and takes ink well works
for me. I used to draw on Bristol but it didn't feel as natural as
working in my sketchbook, the art looked stiff, and I got performance
anxiety because it was expensive and I didn't want to screw up and
have to buy more paper.

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 don't read as much comics as I used to, for pure entertainment value
I'm more likely to pick up a nonfiction book than a comic. But I do
find myself reading comics in this "professional capacity." Either for
inspirational purposes, like "I love how this person draws, I want to
be inspired and maybe pick up some of that." Or for aspirational or
competitive purposes, "I know what this person is trying to do and I
bet I can do it at least as good or better." I don't read much comics
while I'm working on something but in the times inbetween it can be
very helpful, to give me a jolt of energy.

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 don't make money in comics really, I have a part-time day job in the
periodicals department of a library. I live pretty cheaply, I can't
afford cable tv or fancy electronic I-doodads, which at least
eliminates distractions. But it in turn makes me a bit alienated from
mass culture, which shows up in my art, for good or ill. As part of my
job I read lots of different magazines, from many disparate fields,
and I think that maybe helps give me some perspective beyond my lifes
station.

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

I have this desperate, visceral connection with music, probably more
than any other art. But I've never had any talent in it, which I
sometimes regret because it has so much more value to people than
comics. Maybe someday I'll have some breakthrough in it, it's almost
like those dreams where you dream you can fly and when you wake up you
almost think you remember how. That's how music feels for me. I much
prefer the company of cartoonists to musicians, however. Cartoonists
are pretty much the best.

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

Very few I guess, but there's much art that I can love and admire
without relating very personally to. I guess I'm less likely to feel a
kinship with an artist than I am with some stranger buying a roll of
brawny in Walgreens at 1am. The work of expressionists like Grosz and
Beckmann feels very familiar to me. I can relate to the restless,
searching qualities of Kevin Huizenga's and Eddie Campbell's comics,
the play of line and form in Dylan Horrock's and Vaness Davis's pages.
This might not be a kinship exactly, but Lynda Barry is one of those
artists who will produce a turn of phrase or an idea that seems like
it's been always laying in wait inside me, but never vocalized.

11. is a community of artists important or not important to you?
It's really nice to be around other cartoonists, it's helpful to be
around people of the same temperament. Just being able to talk about
artistic concerns that were private and seemingly shameful was a real
revelation. I think having spent periods with a lot of feedback and
bolstering from other cartoonists was really beneficial for me. Not
having that so much today might be a detriment, but at some point you
do have to rise or fall on your own.

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

My parents and family are very supportive , I can't say I've hashed
out any thorough reactions from them. People in general have such
hectic lives and complicated pasts that I'm surprised when anyone can
engage with my work, regardless if they're related to me.

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

Of course there's plenty of ideas within style, but it's more
important to have the right idea than the right style.

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

Drawing is usually fun, it varies from a cheerful lark when I'm
doodling to serious pleasure when I'm in the middle of a story and on
a roll. When it's good, it's amazing, exhilarating and relaxing at the
same time.

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?

I think there's other interesting things about me besides being an
artist, so I don't necessarily lead off with that. If someone asks I
say i'm a cartoonist, unless they've already made such a bad
impression on me that I want the conversation to be brief and
painless. I think it's good for people to be told you're a cartoonist,
because whenever someone asks if I am one it's in this wary, skittish
way. Like I'm going to be offended! "Um, so what do I call what you
do...is it ok to say cartoonist?" So I think it's cool to reassure
people.

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 grew up reading them, and I love both Ditko and Kirby's profligacy,
they both were capable of drawing from the mundane to the surreal. But
that admiration is tempered by their isolation into what at this point
to me is a depressing, tedious genre. It's hard to see the great work
those men produced through this patina of phony nostalgia that's built
up since. I also find inspiration in the strange newspaper strips
earlier in the 20th Century, Feininger, Herriman, McManus, Messmer are
all inspiring to me.

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

I love to draw and I can't imagine ever stopping. Having said that,
there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of never drawing
comics again.

18. do you draw from life?

My casual doodling is a mix of drawing from observation and from
memory/imagination. I took figure drawing classes every semester in
school. It's hard to estimate how important that is, even if
you're not drawing realistic comics it helps to discipline your eyes.

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

Sometimes it's direct to ink and others I'll lightly block in the
image with a mechanical pencil beforehand. I like the free,
spontaneous feeling of attacking the page directly with ink, that
dynamic war between black and white. Even when I'm pencilling before,
I try to leave myself room to improvise. The art I've that done that I
find most compelling is work that gives up control and then can
casually reassert it. There's a grace to it that is very satisfying.

20. what does your drawing space look like?

Julia Wertz

2008-11-12T18:21:00.000-08:00

Julia Wertz is the cartoonist behind The Fart Party, the only online comic I read. Not only is her strip really funny, but she has a really under appreciated talent for creating a real "character" in the strip. The comic is, for all intents and purposes, auto-bio but I like it because it's such a saga. Anyone interested should pick it up in print form, since it's more fun that way.

Julia always tells me to format the links on this blog so that you dont have to cut and paste them, but here I am, ignoring her in her very own entry:

www.fartparty.org

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 probably end up drawing about every other day and doing computer work and real work on the days in between. Some weeks I won't draw at all, sometimes I'll draw all day. I break up the day with the internet, which is the biggest time waster ever. I'm so relieved that scrabulous was killed. It existed solely to taunt us procrastinators.

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

Not nearly enough.

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

I don't write scripts to the extent that they look like scripts or thumbnails. I mostly scribble a few lines on the back of the paper and it forms in my head. Most of the time I make up the drawings as I go, but sometimes a whole comic will be inspired by a singular image I thought up randomly.

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

Mostly as a whole, if I'm working on Fart Party. If I'm working on one of my San Francisco mini comics, I work on each panel individually as a separate piece.

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

Mechanical pencils and Pitt pens.. Rotring Art Pens look like shit but I love the way it feels to write with them. When I'm ink washing I use those portable watercolor brushes filled with basic non-waterproof fountain pen India ink and water. I'm still on the hunt for the perfect pen, but I suspect most people always are.

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

I really like the Strathmore windpower paper, but I usually just end up using regular crappy paper from the dollar store. For ink washes I use Bristol.

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 more "real" books than comics. The ratio is probably 10 to 1. I'm often more inspired by literature, but I think that's just because I read it more than comics. I love comics and find them often inspiring, but until they create the dollar racks for comics at the Strand, I will always read more literature.

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 enough that I can work part time and do comic projects part time, but right now I'm unemployed and because I have to do so much traveling, I can't get another job until after the new year, so things are looking a little grim. However, when I am working (usually some crappy coffee shop/server/bartender gig) I find that I'm more inspired to draw daily comics because I'm out there in the "real" world, not sitting at home staring at the computer. But sitting at home has it's merits too. I find it easier to reflect on the past and draw material from it since there isn't much in the present going on to stimulate the "must get this on paper now" feeling.

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

Hm…I tried to think of an art form besides music that I found more attractive (not aesthetically) but I really can't think of one. I'm just so drawn to the combination of art and literature that it's hard to think of a medium that I like more.

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

This is going to sound so junior high, but I often feel a (one way) kinship with music. Music is one of those things that is always there, especially if you're an ipod/walkman junkie, and nothing can transport you so quickly back to another time in your life as can one specific song. When I latch onto certain tones and lyrics of a musician or band, it's hard to not feel connected to them. I have an almost obsessive love for Okkervil River. I don't even know if they're good or not, I can't tell anymore, I just listened to them a lot during difficult times over the last few years.
As for artists, I tend to feel a kinship with every lonely, frustrated cartoonist. Even though my first book is all about a relationship and it has disgustingly cutsey moments, I don't feel a kinship to other relationship comics at all. I didn't even feel connected to them when I was in a relationship, I've always liked the solo thing. But that lonely, frustrated cartoonist bit can get really fucking tiring, so I always love a good gag joke or humorous strips.
I also feel a kinship with photography. I think it's absolutely amazing to take one split second and freeze it on paper forever. I think I try to do that with some of my comics, but it's not nearly as inspiring as seeing it in a spontaneous form that is often more or less of a beautiful accident.

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

While I absolutely love the comics people I've met over the past few years, I don't think they are important to my comic. In fact I think that my (fart party) comics often suffer due to that because I'll get hung up on some technical art thing or comic rules that aren't really relevant to my style, but there are other projects I'm working on now where cartoonists friends have definitely helped in terms of artistic advice. However I've always worked very independently so I tend to just enjoy a community of artists for the down time, for grabbing beers or drawing at cafes. This whole 20 questions thing kind of boils that right down, as in there's no way my non-artists friends will have any interest in reading this, but my artists friends will, so they're both important in different ways.

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

My mom HATED it at first, now she understands what I'm trying to do with it. I can't blame her though, for example, one comic people often cite as their favorite is the "Diarrhea Mask" where I'm at my first dinner with my mom's husband's kids and I inappropriately explain to everyone what a diarrhea mask is. Of course my mom was appalled, so to see it in comic form was even worse for her. To her, that comic was just another disgusting poop joke. To me, it represented the way I was struggling to connect this new family at a time in my life when I was a little too old to be dealing with that, but not old enough that I was able to think before I spoke and embarrassed my mom. But she eventually came around and now she emails to tell me what strips she likes.
My extended family is really religious and they all think I'm going to hell. Seriously, they send me emails telling me that and try to get me back into religion. They corner me at family gatherings and preach at me. At one point it was so bad that my mom even confronted them and told them to back off. Because their kids are all safely married, having babies and working in the church, they think me and my brothers are all "lost lambs of Christ." hahaha I'm laughing as I type this.

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

Idea. Without a solid idea, the style is irrelevant, it's just a pretty thing to look at. I love pretty things to look at, but those aren't the things that I connect with or that I find inspiring. That's the main issue I have with "art comics." I don't connect to them at all besides being pleased aesthetically. They don't have substance to me, they don't have an idea I can work with or mull over in my head.

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

A pleasure. I love drawing. However, I despise doing things like laying out my drawings in Adobe to make a mini comic. That's five different kinds of pain in the ass.

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?

I don't really see myself as an artist, I see myself more as a jack of many trades and a master of none, so to present myself as an artist would be a fallacy. I wrote a lot before I found my calling to comics, so I often consider myself more of a writer. But then again, I don't write as much as real writers, so that's kind of a fallacy too. Fuck, um, I don't know. I'm a bum.

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?

It definitely feels foreign to me. I know a lot of cartoonists would judge me for that, but I'm still fairly unschooled in the comics world. I tend to draw more inspiration from contemporary, alternative comics. I'm not into superhero comics, art comics, abstract comics and I attribute that to my reading more literature than comics. I'm fascinated by the past, but I want to work with the material at hand, with what is going on right now. Although that said, I do feel a connection to a lot of older and/or dead writers.

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

Absolutely. I'm always threatening (to myself) to quit Fart Party. But then as soon as something happens, I'm right back at the drawing board. And I have a feeling that someday I might get too frustrated with comics and go back to writing. But then I'll get tired of that and go back to comics. it's a cycle and I feel impulses to go in all different directions.

18. do you draw from life?

Yeah. I hate drawing people but I love drawing cities. I love drawing buildings and cafes and store fronts and houses, sidewalks and trashcans and garbage. I love drawing people's kitchens and workspaces and bookshelves. Periodically I try to force myself to draw people, but I get frustrated really fast and give up. I find THINGS to be more fascinating that PEOPLE, but that is probably just a reflection of my artistic insecurity and failures.

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

I pencil when it's a "real" comic, but when I do my traveling stick figure comics I don't pencil.

20. what does your drawing space look like?

Sarah Glidden

2008-11-10T14:32:00.000-08:00

Sarah Glidden is the breakout talent of 2008. Her mini comic, How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or less, won an Ignatz award for promising new talent. She is currently turning the mini into a novel for Vertigo. Sarah is relatively new to comics, but you wouldn't know it from her work. In terms of storytelling and composition, her work is sharp and smart.

Here is her website: http://www.smallnoises.com/

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

My schedule has changed because I'm working on this book now and have been writing the script for the past few months. I suppose when its time to start drawing it my drawing routine will look a lot like my writing routine: get up, eat breakfast and read some news, then start working by around ten. I take a break for lunch or when I hit a wall, whichever comes first. Then I try to get back to work again. Of course, there are always errands to do or blog posts that really need to be read, email to answer, or general procrastination which I struggle with and then feel guilty about. I do my best.

And then a few nights a week I stay up really late playing music and drawing things unrelated to the book. I have a lot of things I need to get better at doing like drawing clothes, anatomy and architecture so I try to find time to practicing those things.

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

I spend a lot of time working on a script and that includes a lot of revision, but then of course when you get to the point where you actually put it down on paper things need to get changed a little.

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

I would always write some sort of script before drawing, even for little journal comics, but now that I have to write the entire script for my book before I start drawing a single panel its become a more intense process. I actually thought I would really dislike writing the whole script first, that I would miss drawing too much and that typing a script on the computer would feel wrong, but now I love it. I start with a general outline and then from there make chapter outlines and sometimes scene outlines and then finally start writing the script (it ends up looking like a screenplay with panel directions etc). Sometimes I get stuck on a certain section of a chapter, so recently when that happens I've tried writing the scene as if I were working on a prose version of the story, letting myself ramble. Then I can read it over and adapt it back to comics form. Writing can be hellishly frustrating but I'm really going to miss it when I start drawing again.

After I'm done with the script I make rough thumbnails and take it from there.

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

I'm using a nine panel grid (with some variation) so the page's composition doesn't matter as much to me. I'm more concerned about the rhythm of the story. Panel composition is important to me though.

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

I love Prismacolor's Col-Erase blue pencils. They're not photo safe or anything, but the weight of the lead is perfect for me. I've been using the Rotring rapidograph for inking up until now, but I've been thinking about maybe switching to a nib pen for the book. I'm not sure. When I draw for fun I really like the Rotring Art Pen. I have two of them, one with the regular Penguin ink and one with a converter and Noodler's waterproof black ink.

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

That Strathmore bristol board that has the photo of blocks on the cover. For sketchbooks I'm addicted to the Hand-book brand. I also like lined, spiral-bound cheap pads from the dollar store for sketching in because it keeps me from being too precious with the drawings.

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

I don't read that many comics, but I look at them a lot. I've never gotten through reading that big Locas book, but I've studied every page of it just going nuts over how Jaime Hernandez draws. If there were more French comics translated into English I would read a lot of those. A friend of mine got me this untranslated album from Florent Rupppert and Jerome Mulot which I look at all the time because it's so gorgeous but I can't read it. I'm trying to learn French so I can read these comics. There are definitely a lot of comics that I WANT to read but I get stressed out because I don't have enough time to read in the first place and I have weekly periodicals and other books that have to take priority. Those magazines and books end up motivating me to work harder at comics more than looking at other comics do, honestly.

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'm extremely, extremely lucky to be making comics for a living right now, but there's no guarantee I'll be making a living off comics two years from now. I suppose if my book turns out to be interesting for people then I'll get an opportunity to make another one. When I start thinking about that, though, I get really paralyzed by the pressure so I try not to think about it too much other than having a reminder to do the best job I can with it.

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

Sometimes I really wish I was a writer or a journalist because writing a piece takes less time than writing and then drawing, which means you can work on more projects in the same amount of time. Maybe I'll try that out someday. Maybe I'll just have to learn how to draw faster. There's a lot of interesting stuff going on out there. Making a documentary would be fun as well.

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

The world is really flipping out right now. One could say "well, yes, but the world was always flipping out," but I think its happening in much more complex and absurd ways than ever before. The amount of information that's hurled at us every day is astronomical and everything seems to be shifting under our feet. When I see someone trying to translate all this bullshit into something that almost makes sense and can even make me laugh, I feel like I'm more comfortable being in the world. In comics I see that in artists like Marjane Satrapi, but its even more pronounced in the non-fiction work of Matt Taibbi and George Saunders. I like people who aren't afraid to express their anger or excitement or bewilderment over the outside world, who are really into sincerity. I would never dare say that I feel a "kinship" to David Foster Wallace, because he was just above and beyond everyone, ever, as far as I'm concerned, but his writing makes me feel like everything is going to be OK.

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

So important! And I owe so much to the community of cartoonists I found in New York. I was absolutely shocked by how warm and helpful everyone was to me before they even saw any of my work and when I was just starting out there were so many people who helped me develop. When I started going to conventions I was so excited because I thought to myself "there's MORE of these people?" I've gotten so much encouragement from the community. Just as important, though, is being able to see at close range what kind of amazing work everyone else is doing and with such intensity, and it really keeps me from slacking off.

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

My parents are awesome and have always been supportive of whatever ridiculous idea I wanted to try out, but I think they're happy that this particular ridiculous idea of being a cartoonist seems to be working out.

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

They're both important, but I suppose for me the style follows the idea. I have something I want to communicate so I need to find the best way to get that across. Plus, at this stage in my career I think I'm pretty limited stylistically. Anyone can have an idea, but finding the right way to communicate it is difficult. Hopefully, the longer I do this, the better I'll get at getting ideas across.

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

It's a pleasure because it's a pain. Well, not painful so much as difficult. I think you can compare a lifetime of drawing to playing a video game. Any well designed video game is just difficult enough to be a challenge, but not too difficult that it gets frustrating and you give up forever. The balance of those things makes it "fun." Then as you keep advancing in the game, you get better at a similar rate as to the increasing complexity of the tasks. So this is how drawing is for me. I always feel like I'm getting better but I certainly have a really long way to go. If it all goes according to plan, I can remain in that fun zone with drawing forever and never feel like I've mastered it.

The very best part of drawing is that its less of a learning curve than it is a punctuated equilibrium. I'll be at a plateau for a while and then suddenly just GET how to do something. It's really exciting when that happens. And addictive.

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?

If someone asks me what I do I will tell them that I'm a cartoonist. I'm really happy to identify as that. But I wouldn't volunteer that information, just as I wouldn't launch into talking about myself when I first meet someone. That's just bad manners.

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?

It's a foreign world. I appreciate what they did for the medium but I'm not really interested in reading their work. Will I be shunned if I publicly admit that that's the way I feel about Sonic Youth as well? I really admire them for being innovators in the history of pop music and I know their work is brilliant, I just never feel like listening to it. Generally, I do wish I was more well versed in comics history in the way that I think its important for any visual artist to keep a copy of Gardner's around from their Art History survey class in college. Hopefully I'll have some more time to read up on those guys in the near future.

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

Only when I daydream about being a journalist.

18. do you draw from life?

I went to a pretty traditional art school and spent four years drawing and painting the figure so I got used to the idea that drawing from life is really important. I usually always have a sketchbook with me and try to draw people as often as I can. I love drawing faces. The problem is that drawing from life is really different than cartooning. I was always pretty satisfied with my own ability to draw from life, so when I decided to try cartooning I thought it would be a piece of cake. It was not cake. It's a completely different skill set involving visual memory, spacial reasoning and imagination. Cartooning makes life drawing feel like finger painting. Really difficult finger painting.

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

For my big projects and the book I pencil then ink. I used to pencil and then ink for every drawing I ever did, sketches and life drawing included, but recently I started drawing without penciling and its so much fun! A lot of the times I mess up the drawing that way, but it doesn't matter. That was your recommendation by the way, so thanks.

20. what does your drawing space look like?

Alex Holden

2008-11-06T08:13:00.000-08:00

Alex Holden is a cartoonist and illustrator. He has produced 3 issues of his mini comic series "The Magic Hour" and he will have a story in the forthcoming anthology Syncopated, to be published by Random House. Holden's work on "The Magic Hour" is something of an anomaly in comics today: a serialized, character driven story, full of inky figures. Here is his website: http://www.alexholden.com/

Here is a page from Holden's Syncopated story.

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 do best if I wake up and start working immediately. If I have something substantial done before 11AM, it really changes my attitude about the day. On really solid days, I will work from 9:30/10AM to 1PM or so. Then I try and go outside, then get some more work done in the afternoon. I'm not a real night owl anymore. There are many days where I get nothing done, or only work a couple hours in the afternoon. But if more than a few days go by without doing anything, a subtle, crushing depression sets in. Keeping momentum going is very important, and very difficult.

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

If I do a rough, a lot will change when I'm pencilling the real page. After it's inked, I'll replace panels sometimes. I use white gouache.

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

It depends what I'm doing. I just did a piece for a non-fiction anthology called SYNCOPATED. I went around 5-6 drafts of mostly text because there was so much to fit into 12 pages (4 hours of interview, plus a lot of other research). After getting it all the information in, I had to hack it apart and re-arrange it again before it worked as an interesting narrative.

Magic Hour is fiction, and I've found that the best way to generate ideas is with a combination of drawing and text from the beginning. I don't like using screenplay style scripting for fictional comics anymore.

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

I think the panel, the page and the double page spread are all important. I usually know if I am drawing a left or right sided page. But I would tend to sacrifice a little page unity to make sure that a panel contains all the information I want to impart.

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

I've had the same Pentel .05 mechanical pencil for around 10 years. I use HB lead.
I also use a Pentel Click Eraser. I go through a zillion of the little crack vial replacement erasers for the pencil too. I use the Pentel Pocket Brush a lot. I guess I like Pentel.

Sakura Micron pens, mostly 03 and 05, sometimes 08. I like real nibs, but I hate dipping and the portable pens I've gotten always dry out and clog. I don't like wasting time worrying about equipment, so I usually just use a Micron. I've been trying to use thicker pens to force myself to simplify things. Also, I really like these colored pencils made by LYRA.

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

I got a big stack of Strathmore 500 Bristol (vellum finish) years ago, because I read that Dan Clowes used it. I did a pretty terrible comic on big 15"X20" pages of that, so now I've chopped them all in half and use the backs. I think that I am settling on 10"X14" as a pretty perfect size. I like the Strathmore 500 because you can erase it forever without the paper degrading. It has a great texture.

I'm pretty picky about sketchbooks, and I can never ever use two of the same kind in a row. I don't know why. I use the little Moleskine books to draw on the train. I like to have something on the paper, like the music one, or a planner. All the Magic Hour work so far has been in various sized sketchbooks.

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

I like reading some comics. Some artists inspire me to draw comics immediately. David Mazzucchelli, Blutch, Gilbert Hernandez, Tim Hensley, Peter Arno, Alex Toth, Paul Pope, Christophe Blain and C.F. are some people in that category.

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 have lost a lot of money making comics. I bartend for a living, and I get the occasional illustration job. Bartending affords me a lot of time to not make money drawing comics.

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

Yes. Music. I spend a lot of time playing guitar. Sometimes I wish that I either played music or drew comics, because I think that I would be more successful at one of them by now, but I've come to accept that I need to do both. After my last band split up, I took a break from music for 4 years to focus on comics, but the last year has been pretty guitar oriented.

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

Whenever I go to the Met, I spend a long time staring at "The Mountain" by Balthus.

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

I like having friends to bounce ideas off of, or to be inspired by. I drew with Aaron Renier a fair amount for a couple years, and that was very educational.

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

My parents are very supportive. I think my mom tends to like the comics/art more, and my dad tends to be more excited about music. They have a copy of everything I do, and the walls of their house are covered with extremely embarrassing high school and college works.

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

There has to be some idea. Even someone like Alex Toth, where the story might be terrible, there are enough ideas in his compositions to make it a satisfying experience.

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

Drawing is a pleasant struggle.

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?

Absolutely not.

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 don't know anything about Ditko. I'm just starting to learn about Kirby. I've been searching out a lot of Jesse Marsh, John Stanley and Alex Toth stories. I love Garrett Price's "White Boy". I have a "White Boy" page framed in my studio.

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

As I mentioned previously, I can get distracted by music, to the detriment of my comics.

18. do you draw from life?

Yes. I draw on the train all the time, and I draw constantly when traveling. I try to get it in whenever I can.

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

When making a comic, I always pencil first. I like to change things around. When I am drawing in my sketchbooks (for something other than a finished page) I almost always draw directly in ink.

20. what does your drawing space look like?

John Porcellino

2008-10-31T09:02:00.000-07:00

John Porcellino is a favorite cartoonist to many. He has published over 60 issues of his comic King Cat. Porcellino would be important simply for his self publishing efforts, but it's his actual comics that have been important to me and many others. There are currently 3 collections available of his work available. Find all about them at his website:

www.king-cat.net

John was unable to provide photos of his studio but his interview is so good that I'm sure no one will mind.

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

It really varies. Sometimes I’ll go weeks or even months without drawing much at all. But all that time I’m working on King-Cat. I spend a lot of time writing, and revising, before I sit down to start drawing. I keep notebooks and scraps of paper everywhere with little ideas or phrases jotted down on them. Sometimes I start to wonder if I’m ever gonna get a new issue out. Then somehow it starts to gel and I can “see” the issue in my head-- where all this stuff has been leading. Then, once I sit down to begin drawing the new issue, I might work 12 hours a day until it’s done.

Usually I try to draw/work in the mornings, cuz the later the day gets the worse I feel physically and mentally, so it helps to do my comics when things are smoother in my brain/body.

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

A good bulk of my creative time is spent revising. It’s hit or miss. Sometimes you get it on the first try, sometimes I agonize for weeks over little words choices etc. One reason I spend so much time on the writing is I like to have a clear idea where the comic is going before I start drawing. It’s hard to edit the pages after they’re drawn, and I try not to do too much Photoshopping.

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

At this point I almost always have a completed script before I start drawing. Every once in a while though I do just sit down with a blank piece of paper and start writing/drawing off the top of my head. It’s interesting to see what comes out that way.

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

I tend to concentrate on the panels and the rest works itself out. Sometimes I’ll compose with the idea of the end of the page, or the start-- meaning I take into consideration that slight pause that happens when the reader turns the page, or their eyes move to the top of the next facing page. When you can work something like that in, I think it adds something to the reading experience.

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

I use various non-photo blue pencils to draw with. I ink with Microns, or sometimes a soft-lead pencil or black colored pencil. I use brushes only rarely nowadays. Using the pencil to “ink” gives me some of the flexibility and surprise of using a brush, but a little more control, which I like.

I used Rapidographs till the late nineties, but I always had problems with them splattering and clogging; and the ink took so long to dry, I’d smear things sometimes. I like Microns cuz they’re easier in that way, but I think they’re a little inconsistent-- the line quality really varies as the pen gets broken in. And with my artwork being so simple, and typically drawn at 100%, that kind of thing can really bother me. So when I’m drawing I often have a stack of Microns on the table, not only varying line weights, but in various states of decay. At first Microns give me a scraggy, thin line, then they flatten out into a nice smooth line, then they start to dry up and thin out, then they mysteriously start making a thick, wet line, then they start to erode and give a scratchy unpredictable line… so I have all these pens on the table with identifying marks on them so I know which one is in which state, and I plow ahead.

Other than that, just the usual-- a Staedtler Mars plastic eraser, X-Acto knife, misc. black and colored inks, rubber cement, white-out tape, old typewriter correction sheets (the best for whiting out tight or detailed areas), miscellaneous white-out bottles, a ruler (for cutting paper), various brushes for whiting out or filling in with ink, scraps of paper, a small light box for tracing.

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

For years I’ve just used some kind of inexpensive smooth laser paper. I fold it in half and it’s King-Cat sized, but sometimes the quality and smoothness varies from batch to batch. The nice thing is I can buy a ream for not too much money, and get like 3 or 4 years worth of comics pages out of that.

Recently I have been using nicer paper, bristols, for doing commissioned artwork on. It’s great-- using a good paper like that-- it kind of made drawing fun again-- that delicious tactile sense of putting this ink down on paper. So I may start experimenting with using better paper for my actual comics. We’ll see… For the first 5 or 6 years of King-Cat I just used these cheapo notepads I got from my Dad, that read “From the Desk of Charles Porcellino”, and had like a clip art image of a pen and bottle of ink. I’d just use the back side to draw on… and sometimes you could see where the printed ink bled through onto the comic side, but I always thought that was funny.

One thing I like about comics is, if you need to, you can really get away with just the basics in terms of materials.

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

Sometimes reading comics inspires me directly to sit down and draw, but mostly it’s like a kind of psychological boost I get.

I have a lot of hang-ups about comics, and for years I never really read too many. I used to pretty much just read whatever I happened to get in the mail from creators. As that scene kind of got smaller, I found I was seeing a lot less comics. It helps me to read people’s comics, because I think: “See, other people do this and it’s fine…” Nowadays it’s hard to afford comics, but I try. I check them out of the library sometimes. I think it’s helpful for me. It kind of reminds me: “Oh yeah-- I like comics!”

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?

For the last few years, and off and on in the past, I’ve really tried to make a living doing just my art. To be honest, I don’t know how I feel about it. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with doing that, but it sure is hard, and the stress it creates kind of messes me up.

When I work dayjobs sometimes it’s actually kind of inspiring to me-- like I have this secret life of comics outside this, and it kind of keeps me going and strengthens my faith in my art.

As I mentioned I have a lot of hang-ups about art, and comics. I struggle with it all the time. It might be that trying to make a living 100% off my comics brings out too many of those bad feelings-- the doubt and insecurity. I don’t know.

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

Well for years I made music too, and that was nice balance. It’s a different part of the brain that gets exercised. Same is true for painting. I miss getting messy, and the unpredictability of painting-- not knowing where things are going and being surprised and making mistakes that turn out to help the work. I bought some paints this summer with the idea of getting back into it, but I haven’t really had time to do so yet.

Sometimes I think music is the best medium, cuz it has words, but also that non-intellectual aspect of SOUND, where emotions are translated without words or ideas. It adds to the power. Then I think movies are the best because they can be closer to real life. And formally, they’re visual, literary, and musical. So they cover a lot of those bases.

But the fact is, I’m a cartoonist. It’s what I do.

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

I draw inspiration from just about everything. And I can find a connection with just about any creative person. That said, a short list of people and things that have had a strong impact on me would be: The Chicago Imagists, Lynda Barry, Matt Groening, Jenny Zervakis, Jeff Zenick, Eric Bag-O-Donuts, Max Beckmann, Matisse, Warhol, Duchamp, Joe Chips, Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Punk Rock, Han Shan, Ryokan, Kosho Uchiyama Roshi, Dogen Zenji, the Arts and Crafts movement, Kerouac, Kobayashi Issa, Thoreau, John Lennon, and the Zine movement. To name just a few.

One time I was in Chicago with Kevin Huizenga. We were at the Art Institute, it was a few days after 9/11. I was wandering around looking at all this great art, and I just couldn’t relate to it-- not only the imagery, but even the process-- I was wondering how did people make these pictures, and why? I couldn’t connect-- it was this weird state of mind. Then, from down a long hallway, I saw a large black and white print by Un’ichi Hiratsuka, of the Buddhist monk Nichiren, and I practically fell over-- it was so bold and simple and lovely -- and I could intimately relate to it-- it was an astounding experience. Learning about Hiratsuka really added something to my thinking, about art, and being an artist.

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

I used to think “I could be anywhere and do what I do.” And that’s still true. However, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve begun to really see the benefit of having artists around that you can relate to, that you can talk to about stuff. To me, making art is a pretty private thing. I squirrel myself away and make it. But then it’s nice to emerge from that mindset, and have people around to share with.

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

My Dad used to read King-Cat, and we would talk about it. He surprised me once-- we were having a conversation about art and DIY, etc, and I saw that he really understood where I was coming from. I’m not sure he necessarily thought it was the best thing for me, but he understood it.

Now, my Mom reads King-Cat sometimes, but I have to go through each new issue and make sure there’s nothing in there that’ll bother her. So she doesn’t read every issue. And she doesn’t really talk about it when she does.

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

I guess you need both-- an idea, and a way to express it that makes the thing whole.

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

Well it’s been a particularly bad time for me lately, so my answer might reflect that… but-- when I’m not drawing it seems like the hardest thing in the world. I’d rather do just about anything than draw. And for that reason I procrastinate a lot. Then when I finally sit down and start drawing, the instant the pencil hits the page, I realize “This is what I was born to do.” Then the second I stand up, that feeling of confidence is so distant, it’s almost like it never existed, and the despair and fear sets in again. It must be something weird in my brain. I don’t understand it.

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?

For a long time I would never bring it up. I was afraid of being an artist. So to fight back I started trying to come out and say it when the situation warranted. Now I’ll say I’m an artist, or sometimes a cartoonist. Why not? It’s the truth.

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?

Yes, I feel connected to those guys, though I should say I never really read much of that stuff growing up. I love to look at it though. You get a sense of the paths cartooning has taken and is taking. Anyone who sits at a drawing table and digs away at comics I can relate to in one way or another. These guys dedicated their lives to this artform. It’s inspiring.

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

All the time. Practically every issue of King-Cat I’ve released over the last 8 or so years, I’ve wondered whether it will be the last. The process is so painful to me. I know people don’t like to hear that. And I know it’s not like that for everyone. But in my case it’s true. I have OCD, and it makes a lot of things really difficult. When I’m focused on comics, the OCD focuses on comics, and it can be brutal.

I often think of trying to lead a normal life. It seems really inviting at times. The bottom line is I know that as crazy as comics makes me, I get crazier if I don’t do ‘em. So I do ‘em, and hope for the best.

18. do you draw from life?

Yes. I like to draw alleyscapes in particular. I’ve sometimes thought if I quit comics maybe I would become a landscape painter. It took me a long time to understand landscape painting. But once I did, it seemed like the purest, most beautiful thing.

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

I almost always pencil first. Then I dread inking, cuz I like how the pencils look-- they have a looseness and an organic quality to them. Then I start inking, and I like how the ink looks, so… The only times I don’t pencil first are sketching, or those comics I mentioned above where I just let loose on the page as therapy.

20. what does your drawing space look like?

A mess.

Dash Shaw

2008-10-29T19:59:00.001-07:00

Dash Shaw has been making great comics for as long as I can remember. Recently, he's risen to higher prominence for his wonderful book Bottomless Bellybutton. He's now hard at work on Bodyworld, which one prominent cartoonist recently described to me as "basically, a perfect comic."

Read all about both works here:

http://www.dashshaw.com/

Above is a work in progress page by Dash.

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 draw every day for most of the time, over ten hours. I used to take breaks to smoke cigarettes and that was all I would do. Smoke, draw, smoke, draw. I’ve since quit smoking and now I don’t know what to do. I walk to a place to get a cup of coffee and walk back, but I can’t do that ten times a day. Finding some small activity to replace smoking has been hard. But, of course, I’m happy I quit.

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

Because of the quality of the Bottomless Belly Button drawings, if I had an idea for a scene I could just draw it and then decide later whether or not to put it into the book, or where to put it. The idea for that book was to do a lot of editing. With BodyWorld, my webcomic, I haven’t done any editing. I’m slowly executing something that’s planned before in sketches and notes.

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

With BodyWorld I divided the whole story into sections, and then divided those sections further. The outline for it looks sort of like a map or grid. So I know what’s going to change about when, but how I get there is only drawn in sketches right before I draw on the Bristol. It was difficult when I started but now it just writes itself. If you know the characters well enough you can just imagine what they’re doing and it’s easy and super fun.

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

I used to compose something as a whole book, or whole facing page spreads. Everything had to look the same on a spread. You can tell I was doing that, if you look at The Mother’s Mouth or some of the GoddessHead short stories.
I wanted to just focus on individual panels with BodyWorld. I wanted to not think about a page at all. But I cheat sometimes and I think about the tier or the whole page if it was printed.

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

For BodyWorld I use black India ink with rapidograph pens and microns and markers and the largest crowquill nib. It’s the 513EF crowquill nib. It’s huge and weird, because the line looks sort of like a cross between a brush and a crowquill, because people usually think of crowquills as smaller and scratchier. It’s more like a fat calligraphy pen. And then I color it using a lot of different things, but I usually go back to gouache paint on acetate sheets or construction paper or color cards with colored pencil and sometimes watercolor. In chapter nine I wanted a part of it to be gold foil, but the scanner didn’t read the foil correctly so I took photos of the foil in the sun and then cut it to be the shape of the smoke (in the comic) and pasted it in. I’m playing around. Recently in my sketchbook I’ve been trying things with combining pencil and ballpoint pen, drawing large, and then reducing it on a photocopier so that they blend together. I’m annoyingly a formalist so I’m always screwing around with different things to see what it looks like.

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

BodyWorld is drawn on Bristol paper.

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

When I was in Richmond I lived close to a comic shop, Velocity Comics, and so I would read a lot more comics. I lived a block and a half away from it for 8 months, and there was a great used bookstore that carried a ton of older comics close to me too. But now a comic shop is like an hour away, so I hardly read anything. I’ve always read comics, and I’ve read all kinds of comics, so I have a weird backlog of everything in my mind. I’m trying to flush it out. Sometimes I think everything I draw is just a combination of all of the millions and millions of drawings I’ve seen. For the past year I’ve been trying to move back to some natural reaction. How would I draw something if I didn’t know what a drawing is supposed to look like? How can I try to put my mind in that place? It’s impossible- But I feel like I have to try, at least, as hard as I can. Working in color is helping. It’s hard, too, with comics because comics naturally have an invented/borrowed language- like, I didn’t invent the word balloon, right? I didn’t invent the thought balloon. Is drawing the eyes larger a natural reaction to a face? Uggh. I could ramble about this for pages and pages, so I’ll stop there.

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?

Yes. I used to work as a figure drawing model for Virginia Commonwealth University, but now I just do comics and comic-related things.

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

I like to do animations and will be doing that more next year.

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

I feel a kinship with Oyvind Fahlstrom. He did a lot of different things, wrote, made board games, etc. I’ve been reading his writing about art/life lately and I’m responding to it. Also I’ve committed the social faux pas of ripping off of my friends Tom Herpich and, more recently, Frank Santoro, who I both feel a kinship with. Those are both probably one-sided (“unrequited”?) kinships. But I’ve been influenced by a lot of people who I don’t necessarily feel so close to. The backgrounds for BodyWorld come from animation (“Yogi Bear”) style backgrounds, but I don’t feel a deep kinship with Yogi Bear background artists. “Bottomless” is a family fiction story, but I’ve never felt a kinship with any other family fiction storyteller. What I’m saying is that I define “kinship” as kind of a felt, deeper sensibility about everything, rather than just someone/something I like.

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

I would like a community that actually felt like an artists’ commune, where everyone lives in the same farm house and sleeps together. What happened to that? I don’t want to talk about nibs over the phone. I’m born in the wrong time maybe. I think about this a lot and it’s really frustrating. This is another answer where I could ramble on and on.

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

There was a time when they didn’t like it, but they are enjoying it nowadays. I think that BodyWorld and Bottomless having more of a sense of humor is important. My sense of humor is very personal/unique to me, and since they know me they can see how the comic comes from me, more than other (less humorous) comics.

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

When something’s good they’re inseparable.

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

It’s extremely pleasurable. Over the years I’ve tried to weed out all of the painful parts. “Why am I drawing this annoying fucking thing? Wait… I don’t have to! I’m in control!” Really, I don’t have to draw anything I don’t want to. Nobody’s paying me enough. The only painful parts left are scanning and computer work (piecing together pages, layers, etc.) but even that can be enjoyable if you get a new CD and listen to it, zone out, by the computer. If it was painful I’d be a lot less prolific and more tortured. All of the pain is when I’m not drawing, in society! Ha! I’m half-joking I guess.

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?

I identify myself as a cartoonist or artist. The other day I was at a party and someone asked me what I do and I said I do a webcomic and my girlfriend overheard that and got really mad at me. She said I was misrepresenting myself and we talked about it later. Personally, if someone told me they did a webcomic I would be intrigued. But, of course, I like webcomics.

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 got into Jack Kirby early because I was into the Batman animated series and Bruce Timm would talk about Kirby. So I looked up Kirby and started reading him. Also my Dad is in his sixties now, so he’s the age where he read all that and then the underground comics. He still had a lot of those comics in storage or around the house. I saw Ditko too but I didn’t get it. I only got into him in college. Then, for a while, I liked Ditko more than Kirby and would tell people that. Now I’m swinging back and Kirby’s my man. But I do like the recent Ditko comics. Not the essays, which I just skim through. I read “The Fountainhead,” just because of Ditko. Maybe I’m crazy, but I think that the lineage of Kirby and Ditko is being carried through both in some of the contemporary “alternative” cartoonists and some of the current Marvel/DC artists, without favoring either camp especially. It’s really a sensibility of an individual artist, rather than a tie to a particular genre. Kirby and Ditko worked in a million different genres anyway.

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

I’ve tried to quit a few times before. That was years ago. Now I’m in it pretty hard-core so I don’t think I’m going to quit anytime soon.

18. do you draw from life?

I do figure drawing and observational drawing, but my comics aren’t drawn from life.

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

Currently, I’m penciling and inking.

20. what does your drawing space look like?

Steve Lafler

2008-10-28T14:04:00.000-07:00

Steve Lafler is the artist behind the classic series bughouse (available in trades from top shelf).

http://lambiek.net/artists/l/lafler_steve.htm

He is also the publisher of manx media.

http://www.bohoworker.blogspot.com/

Above is artwork by Lafler.

1. can you describe your drawing routine---how often you draw, how many hour per day---how you break up the day with drawing?
My work day runs 8 - 2, and if my kids go to sleep OK from 8:30 - 10:30 pm. IF I'm hot on the trail, I'll get drawing by nine a.m. and go for four hours, then another 1 - 2 at night. This being said, I'm also running a freelance shop so I gotta break for commercial stuff a lot. Then there is the business of publishing which is also fun, and it eats up time & energy.

2. how much revision/editing do you do in you work?
For next book El Vocho, I wrote the script in one week, a great experience. ONce I got inside the story, it was like taking dictation. I edit as I go, penciling and lettering and working out the final form of the dialog. Once in awhile I'll start a page and it sucks, so I turn the paper over and start again. On rare occasions, I'll ditch a whole page or two or three, usually because it takes the story on an unproductive tangent.

3. talk about your process---do you write a script or make up the drawing as you go?
IN the 80s, with Dog Boy, I was just shootin' from the hip, making it up as I went. It honed certain skills. I learned to write a more cohesive narrative with Bughouse. The whole idea there was to create distinct characters and illuminate their attributes via dialogue, which naturally moved the story forward.

I''m a strong believer in improvisation, in coaxing the muse out of the cave of ideation! These days, I'm more in the writing mode when that happens. With Dog Boy, the whole package was improvised. When you connect with the muse, you're at the center of life, there is nothing like it. It frankly can't be put into words right here, with luck it comes through in my comics.
I freely admit I'm part goddamn hippy and I love reefer. Sometimes I take a couple hits and start drawing. You can get some cool surprises. You bounce in this matrix of story and idea. If you overuse weed as a tool, it flattens your stuff, and I suffered from this sometimes with Dog Boy.

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

5. what tools do you use (please list all)?
An HB drawing pencil, smooth or vellum heavy bristol, Winsor Newton #7 brush (#2) or equivalent, various micron pens, Dr. Martins white, eraser. Sometimes I use computer image or life drawing reference to draw stuff like cars. I cheat with a light table on occasion, but it's more fun to draw directly on the bristol of course, no tracing.

My drawing table and light table are "new", I just bought them from Peter Kuper when he moved back to NYC from Oaxaca a couple months back. I'd had the same drafting table since '84 and I'd sold it when I moved to Mexico last year. It was heart wrenching to let go of it, it was a goddamn magic object to me, the muse delivered incredible riches to me sitting at that table!

6. what kind(s) of paper do you use? Any decent quality bristol, 2 ply at least in weight. Smooth or vellum, I like both for their distinct way of grabbing ink off a brush.

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 love comics, somehow have not read as much in recent years. Could have a lot to do with time and becoming a dad. It's frustrating as a part of me wants to immerse myself in lots of comics. I just ordered Jesse Reklaw's new book, and Carrie McNinch is about to visit Oaxaca, I'll ask her to bring some comics down.
Of course I love the work of the generation I came in with, the Hernandez Brothers, J.R. Williams, Lloyd Dangle, Mary Fleener, Krystine Kryttre, Joe Sacco, Clowes, and I love Roy Tompkins. Steven Weissman is in his own catagory too. Phoebe Gloeckner is a singular artist. Watching the development of Austin English (hey, that's you) is really exciting and entertaining. Jordon Crane is a great narrative stylist, just immensely talented.

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 have an income from comics but I depend on my commercial illustration and wholesale TShirt printing work to make a living. Owning a successful TShirt biz takes a lot of time from making art, but it also frees me to make any comics I want, straight from my heart and guy, with no thought of pandering to an assumed market. Product is product, art is art. The two rarely meet, says I.

When I was 29, I was full time comics until I was almost 31. Again, at 40 I spent half a year in Mexico and went full time. Now it's maybe 15 - 20 hours per week. When the kids are a bit older, I'll get closer to full time. I like being an involved dad.

9/ do other artforms often seem more attractive to you?
I've finally dug into playing guitar in earnest after 28 years of fucking around with it in the margins of my life. I've fallen in with a group of ex-pat musicians. My mentor, Todd, is a punky rockabilly guy, and the others are sort of old timey/Bluegrass/Dylan/Dead hippy burn outs.Me, I dig the combo. Todd thinks that he and I will start the first Oaxacabilly band! It's hard to explain just how much fun this is.

Also, as I am a trans person (transgendered) I enjoy acting on the impulse to be a girl. I guess you'd call me a crossdresser. It has aspects of an art form, as it's very visual. It's also similar to any addiction, it exerts a pull on you and you come to terms with how far you will go into it. It's very creative and a hell of a lot of fun. For those of us who come with this software, it's not a choice, just a fact of being, so I accept it and honor it's place in my life. I recently went months without dressing up and it was no big deal, and now in Halloween season I'm dipping a toe back in. It's sort of self regulating. I should probably mention that my latest book Tranny is in stores right now...

10. what artwork (or artists) do you feel kinship with?
I like a well told story in comics form that is the singular vision of the artist. It's been said before, but look at Jaime Hernandez. Fuck. I also was thrilled, as a kid, with Kirby, Ditko, Eisner, Crumb and many others. I love painting, and paint a bit too. Cezanne dissembled the world and put it back together in such a gorgeous way, although I prefer his landscapes to still life. I love going to galleries and museums and looking at painting. We've made friends with a couple of outstanding Oaxacan painters, who are parents at the kids school, it's a sort of boho artsy school.

11. is a community of artists important or not important to you?
Of paramount importance. I've cycled through many scenes. Living in Portland '05 - '07 was fantastic, you could see stuff coming together so beautifully. I credit Jesse and Dylan, and of course Greg (Tugboat) and many others. Brett Warnock and J.R. Williams had told me before I moved up that the scene was diffuse. True enough I thought upon arrival, but then it really came together. I miss it big time living here in Oaxaca. Peter Kuper was here last year, and he is a great guy and a kindred soul, but his family had to split for NYC after a 2 year stay.

The mid - late 80s in the BAy Area was ssuper fun too, with Kryttre and Dori Seda, Bob Crabb and Mario Hernandez moving up, and J.R. coming down from PDX all the time. Dangle moved in and blew us away with his talent and bravado, I love Lloyd like a brother, Don Donahue was sort of the godfather of the scene too, and even the Crumbs were around the edges of what was then the young group of cartoonists. My then girlfriend Shirin had a Halloween party in '88. Kryttre and Aline showed up. NOw, Krystine Kryttre is over 6 feet tall, She was wearing a nurses dress two sizes too small. Aline Crumb was wearing a red leather mini dress and was Devil Girl. She said, "Not bad for forty, huh?" Well, Shirin told me to put my eyes back in my head.
Anyway, maybe some more cartoonists will visit Oaxaca, and when El Vocho comes out, I gotta tour behind it.

12. what is your parents/family's reaction to your work?
My wife Serena is super supportive, and is a writer herself. I learned a lot about writing from her when we hooked up in the 90s. My son Max, age 7, thinks I'm a little boring, but he likes to draw comics too. My mom and dad are fine folks, but they have no fucking idea what I am up to, they just do not get it and don't have a clue about art comics. The division between art and money making is incomprehensible there. Anyway, after years of trying to get the idea across, I simply accept their stance and don't worry about it.

13, what is more important to you---style or idea?
idea -- I let the drawing evolve of it's own accord, it's packed with changing dynamics that I ponder over, but it always serves the narrative for me.
14. is drawing a pleasure to you or a pain?
starting can be tough, but it's pleasure. When it's really rolling, it's the most fun goddamn thing in the universe. It's what I came to the planet to do.

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?
Depends on the person. I try to listen first and see what they have to say. Sometimes I can't help but pull people's legs a little bit, as the preconceived ideas about artists or comics are pretty narrow. I saw crazy shit with a straight face and people believe me. Sometimes I'm surprised, as I think I'm making this great joke, and they will take it on the level.

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 was ten in 1967. You get the picture. Marvel Geek. I had Spiderman #3, #7, #20 - 120. Jack was my god, still is. Well, along with Lux Interior and Jerry Garcia, of course.

17. do you ever feel the impulse to not draw comics?
Ha ha. Due to the combination of economic frustration, getting dumped by girls, and beer addiction, I musta "quit" several times. All of these factors have been fixed, I'm happy to say. Full steam ahead.

18. do you draw from life?
Sometimes. Did lots of life drawing in college. Life drawing pulls a version of the truth through your hands and eyes. Again, think of masters like Jaime or Crumb. Those chops come from life drawing.

19. do you pencil out comics and then ink? or do you sometimes not pencil?
Pencil, yes. I like to pencil stacks of pages, lettering as I go, before inking with a brush, then doing some details in micron pen.

20. what does your drawing space look like?
My drawing space looks like my garage with drawing equipment in it. Our place in Mexico has a beautiful tile floor in the garage. Go figure, I'm no way gonna put my beat to shit VW bug in here!

Renee French

2008-10-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

Renee french is the acclaimed cartoonist behind the books The Ticking and Edison Steelhead's Lost Portfolio. Her website is http://reneefrench.blogspot.com

Above is a work in progress by Renee.

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

typically, i guess 4 to 5 hours a day, 6 days a week ...7 days if i can get away with it. i do errands, try to wake up, take a walk, and don't start drawing full on until after around 4pm, and then i go for a couple hours, then dinner, then more drawing, maybe a movie, and then drawing until bed.

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

oh a lot, depending on the project. i like to edit while i'm drawing. it's one of the more interesting aspects of putting a story together i think. moving things around, deciding something doesn't work the way it is, etc.

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

it changes over time but mostly i write the story in words in a notebook, like a short story, then mark up the story with notes where i think an image would be important to the atmosphere of the story, or where there would be something that would be great to draw. if there's a car in the story i cross it out. then i'll thumbnail the story, then shuffle them around, and then make the final drawings, where i still make changes as i go.

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

i focus on individual panel composition. like if they were just stand alone drawings. i don't think much about the whole page anymore though when i worked with a 6 panel grid i did.

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

mechanical pencil GRAPHGEAR 500 pentel .3 mm with a B lead (it's hard to find softer than B in .3 in stores) or a staedtler 925 .3mm. tuff stuff eraser stick (thanks vanessa) awesome eraser. or a clicky eraser stick thingie.

black or sepia prismacolor pencil, boston standard, model 41 heavy duty electric sharpener (i've been off the colored pencils lately though and on the graphite). use an old hardcover copy of RATTELSCHNECK as a drawing board so i can stick my originals inside and tape the book closed for mobility. and my cotton drawing glove with the thumb, pointer and bird finger cut off.

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

for the new drawings, i've been using graphite on canson 55 lb vidalon translucent vellum.

for the prismacolor drawings i use a canson drawing paper called DESSIN which i know is not helpful because dessin means drawing but that's what the watermark says on the paper. it's a cold press, hard drawing paper, sort of like the paper in a spiral sketch pad.

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?

making comics and reading comics aren't that connected for me. i do love comics though.

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 do not make comics for a living, no. does anyone? i'm not sure it's possible to make comics for a living. is it?. even if there's a rush of money from one project, the stress of the next big pay off must screw with your head. it's like making a living doing illustration. too much stress.

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

sometimes i just want to make stand alone images -- drawings, etchings (painting seems attractive to me but i'm not sure how to do it) without having to connect them to another image, but always come back to telling a story. i end up doing a drawing series or something and it tells a story anyway.

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

Vija Celmins, Peter Greenaway, Ivan Albright, Red Grooms, LS Lowry, Roman Polanski, Harry Morey Callahan, Anke Feuchtenberger, David Lynch, David Cronenberg, Robert Bresson, Yasujiro Ozu, Jean-Pierre Melville and William Wegman.

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

there are a few artists i communicate with a LOT, almost on a daily basis and that's important to me.

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

split. my mom is really supportive though she sees the sweetest things in my work all the time even when they're not there. my dad doesn't look my work much and when he does i don't think he approves of the subject matter.

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

style or idea? that's confusing. style or idea. are they the same? they can be the same. neither? what's style? people don't choose their style, do they?

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

pleasure. even when it's about something painful, even if it makes me sad or if it's scary, it's still really pleasurable. i'd rather draw than do anything else.

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?

no way. i avoid it. but if someone brings it up, or if someone asks, "what do you do?" i go into the awkward explanation that leads to the awkward q&a, that leads to the blank stare and the pause, and nod and turn away to talk about something else with someone else.

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?

foreign world.

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

i do feel the impulse to tell stories with pictures and words that aren't in the standard comics form. and i have sort of, kind of quit doing comics a couple times to do kids books but keep coming back to comics.

18. do you draw from life?

sometimes but not often. in sydney there's a nice life drawing group that gets together once a week.

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

i don't use ink anymore. i stopped using ink around 2000 but i do sort of pencil and ink with the pencil. rough sketch (way rough) and then my fished pencil textures on top of that would be the inking i suppose.

20. what does your drawing space look like?

a freaking mess.

David King

2008-10-22T20:58:00.000-07:00

David King is the ignatz nominated cartoonist behind the online strip Danny Dutch.

http://reliablecomics.com/

A print collection of the strip will be debuting at APE (or so i've heard?).

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

I draw maybe two or three hours a day, four or five days a week or much less than that if I'm doing good. It's all in the evenings. Once I get a strip done for the week I'll take off whatever days are left until Sunday. I've been watching Leave it to Beaver on Netflix while I draw lately and I think that slows me down a little, but I'd get bored and lazy if I were only drawing. If I'm unfortunate and have a deadline I'll have to hunker down on the weekend or something, but I try to avoid that kind of pressure. I don't keep much of a sketchbook and I'm not someone who compulsively draws; I pretty much only draw if it's for a comic strip or if I get conned somehow.

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

Not much. Sometimes I'll change the dialogue on the fly while I'm drawing. After I finish inking I always do some white-out clean up, never any all out revisions. Occasionally if I think something is getting really sloppy and bad while I'm drawing I'll start over on a panel.

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

Typically I come up with a strip idea just going through the day, or more often in the middle of the night, and jot it down in my sketchbook, dialogue only in a four panel grid. I might have an idea for the visual, but mostly I only decide which characters I'm going to use and don't bother with situations/backgrounds until I get started with the real drawing. Sometimes I come up with a funny strip and to get the timing right I have to have the whole thing planned out in advance, but I don't think of funny strips too often.

When I get to the full drawing part I'll pencil in the dialogue on the paper and then come up with the visual scenario, sometimes literally related to the words, or sometimes not related at all, then get busy with the drawing.

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

Individual panels, but since I'm mainly doing one page strips I guess the composition of the whole page comes into play a little bit, as it is dictated by the grid.

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

Pentel Pocket Brush, Speedball nibs (B-3, B-5, B-6, 512), 2H pencil lead, photoshop, pro-white, lapboard, t-square, six-inch metal ruler, 17-in corkback metal ruler, 17-inch no corkback metal ruler, gray chewing gum eraser, Dr Ph Martin Bombay black ink, slop rag. Not too long ago I gave up on Micron pens, but I'd been using those for lettering, and just a few years ago for everything else. I keep one around for sentimental reasons.

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

14x17 Strathmore series 300 Vellum Finish Bristol is what it says. I have a small coil bound book of grid paper that I made so it would be easier to quickly draw comics panels, but it hasn't gotten much use.

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

I really like reading comics, but I don't read as many as I used to. The last couple of years I'll buy a bunch of stuff at Comicon and work on that for the rest of the year, maybe go to a comic shop a couple times. Reading comics, though, doesn't get me too hot to make my own stuff, I think I would make comics regardless. Once in a while I'll read something that's really good and inspires me, but usually I read them so fast that I forget everything right away and there's no impact. I wish I would see more stuff that really blows me away--where is it? I just finished reading two years of Gasoline Alley and while it was pretty great, it didn't ever get my gears turning intellectually or anything; something like Polly and Her Pals Sunday strips may have neat concepts and beautiful drawings but I need more than that, but I can't really put my finger on what "that" is. And naturally my own comics are in the same predicament; I can see that they don't have the depth that, as a reader, I'd like to see, and I don't know how to give more (yet?).

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 don't make comics for a living, I work in a blueprint shop (it's really just oversized photocopying, nobody really does real blueprinting anymore). Work is close to home, so I'm not so tired after a commute to go home and start drawing. Sometimes I bring my comic to work and draw during my downtime, but I can't do any inking because it's not comfortable enough there and I'll make a mess. It's a pretty nice place to work so I guess "spiritually" it keeps me relaxed enough to get good comics done. If I hated the job and came home grouchy or zombied everyday it would have a sour effect on the comics and everything else.

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

No, all I like and know how to do is comics. Well, I have a MIB* sewing machine and keep toying with the idea of designing and making stuffed animal versions of my comic characters, but I don't know any girls who will teach me to sew. I'd also like to take up the violin again maybe--but for now comics is the only thing that interests me.

*Mint in Box

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

Well, generally, I like other cartoonists who are trying not to do the same old stuff and not trying to emulate somebody else. I don't like it when people become complacent in what they do, I want to see change and improvement. It's interesting and thrilling to see other people using the standard cartooning craft technology/techniques to make stuff that hasn't been done before. I also like cartoonists who have a dirty sense of humor. Sorry, I didn't name any names...I like all kinds of cartoonists, but I don't know much about any other visual art. I feel kinship with Cat Stevens music.

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

It's nice but unnecessary. I don't know any other cartoonists where I live, there's no "scene" that I know of. So, outside of Facebook or whatever I couldn't be more isolated but I'm still getting stuff done. If there was a bunch of fun-loving cartoonists to hang out with I'd probably never do any work.

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

I don't know, I never talk to them about it or show it to them. They think only pussies draw comics and I'm not about to prove them right.

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

The visual experience is just as important and the conceptual experience, they go hand in hand. I don't go in for comics that are just drawing exercises, or flashy storyboards. Sometimes I make something that comes out like that and it's really disappointing, feels like a waste of time. I guess I'm assuming you mean visual style? I mean, even if a cartoonist has a standard method for getting his ideas across, the idea is primary. Of course, his method still has to work.

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

I like doing it, but it's not easy or anything. I don't really love it, if I had a robot that could do the drawings the way I want that would be great. But it feels pretty nice to draw something that looks good and works. It's better than digging ditches!

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?

I never talk to anybody about comics or art. I identify myself as a "regular person" or "just a dude".

16. do you feel at all connected to older comic artists like Seve Ditko or Jack Kirby---or does this seem like a foreign world to you?

In a way, craft-wise, I feel connected to those old guys. I learned how to draw from old comics, and older comics that I read now probably still sink in a little, too. The output of earlier generations' cartoonists is pretty otherworldly. Kirby did like 5 books a month; There were newspaper strips guys without assistants who did daily strips for years and years--how? I'm pretty sure I'll never be at the same level as those guys, and I don't imagine myself doing similar material, but I still maybe aspire a little bit to do a comic as well as Kamandi

However, since just about my only inspiration for drawing has come from early comic strips and 60's-80's superhero comics I'll have some trouble doing it another way; meanwhile there are newer cartoonists who haven't read any of that stuff, they're going to figure out some wild ways to make comics as time goes on. Sometimes I wish I knew more people like that to leech ideas from.

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

Yeah sometimes I'll get lazy, or if a drawing isn't going my way I'll feel like quitting, but really all I'd need is a week off or so, and to eat more vegetables. But when I'm really cooking at it, comics is all I think about.

18. do you draw from life?

Like as in drawing from life like you used to do with a model in school? No, but sometimes I think I ought to. Other times I think it might be better to just keep using my imagination to draw big headed midget people.

If you mean, "do your comics draw from your own life?", the answer is still no, because my life is boring and dumb and my comics are merely boring. Well, I guess they're dumb, too.

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

I've done some mini-comics where it's all drawn immediately with a pen, but that's all just stick fiqure type stuff. Almost always I pencil first.

20. what does your drawing space look like?

Lately I've just been sitting on the floor, but I also have a table set up back there.

Dylan Williams

2008-10-22T00:33:00.000-07:00

Dylan williams is the cartoonist behind the beloved series Reporter.

http://lambiek.net/artists/w/williams_dylan.htm

He is also the publisher of Sparkplug Comicbooks.

www.sparkplugcomicbooks.com

Dylan's way of thinking about comics is a big influence on how I think about them---deep respect and love for older comics, coupled with an embrace of more experimental work.

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 draw in stretches (usually of weeks), and take breaks. Some weeks I draw 8-12 hrs every day and others I don’t draw at all. I don’t like having a schedule for it. I am very slow. Some days it is just an hour here and there. I’m thinking about my comics almost all the time so there are lots and lots of scraps of paper and notebooks.

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

Sometimes I do it all in one take and then other times I redraw pages 3 or 4 times. I just did that on a page and each time was great fun and new and different. I use a lot of white out sometimes. I’m editing the writing and art till the end, sometimes even on a computer. I like really spending a lot of time with the artwork and writing while I’m doing it.

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

I think I do both, kind of in between. I don’t really worry about doing it one way. Sometimes I plan out a whole comic in detail and other times it is as I’m drawing the final pages. I don’t write classical movie style scripts though. Lately, I write sort of one or two sentence descriptions and then do a thumbnail at close to size. I write the brief descriptions out till the end and then work about 5 pages ahead of my finished pages in thumbnails. Before all that I spend years getting to know the ideas and characters and places. Then once I feel like I’ve got a sort of focus I start doing the brief descriptions. I am always trying to make sure I enjoy the work and so I try to keep it fresh and exciting. Doing something I haven’t done before or doing something I really enjoy doing.

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

Both and neither. I’m not stuck on any kind of classical composition ideas. I love the ideas or philosophies of composition but drawing is like opening a door into another world for me. I look at the pages as I’m doing them and think “What would look nice, here?” but I hate living by ideas like avoiding tangents or 50% or that kind of stuff in my own art. I like thinking about them after the fact and figuring out how other people use them though

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

I swear by the Uniball pen but I use everything that comes along. I try all different kinds of black ink and brushes and nibs and technical pens. I’d say the only thing I don’t like are fiber tips or felt tips. They make my skin crawl. Mostly it is about the feeling of the way the ink or pencil or whatever gets onto the paper. I love pastels. I draw with them for myself mostly. I use lead pencils and all that. I always feel like artists should spend the first couple years drawing with sticks and some shitty water color ink so they develop drawing that isn’t based on a classical tool. Noel Sickles (one of my idols) used to take Milton Canniff’s brushes after he was done with them, chop of the tips and then use them himself.

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

Strathmore Bristol board, Smooth. Like, 2 ply I think. I get all my supplies in bulk on sale or for free when I can. I think I’d like to draw on less precious paper but I just have never gotten around to it. When I did a pastel story, I did it on pastel paper.

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

I love comics and I read them all day long but I never get particularly inspired to do comics by modern comics. I love reading them though. I love reading old classical comics and get REALLY inspired by them, but no more so than books, music, movies or about a million other things in life. New comics I usually just read for fun.

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?

Well, I guess I kind of do. I think worrying about making money off of my art is one of the most ridiculous things I could do for me or my art so I basically plan to never make money off of my own comics. If I do, it is like pennies from heaven. I did try to do it for years and that is how I found out it wasn’t for me. I discovered I like working at Goodwill, a movie theater or as a small publisher more than I like changing my art to make money.

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

I always think about being a writer. That is the only one that seems even a bit attractive. But I love doing comics so much that I don’t think it’d ever keep me happy to just write prose. I don’t really do any art that isn’t comics related. I am split about spending my time on Tai chi though. I wish I could do it more.

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

Oh brother. I feel a kinship with almost every piece of art ever made. I love the idea that people make art and I draw immense strength from the tradition of art and stories. I am obsessed with books, film, painting, theater, music, poetry, philosophy and honestly even performance art and more physical arts. I’m not a big fan of a lot of sculpture or animation but I love some of it as much as the best of any art. My biggest one-way bonds are with Charles Williford, Paul Bowles, H.L. Mencken, Robert Bresson, the Symbolists, the Decadents, Edgar Allen Poe, Jules Feiffer, Edward Gorey, Carl Dreyer, Yasujiru Ozu, Monte Hellman, Teenage Fanclub, Davey von Bohlen, Franz Joseph Haydn, Silkworm, Badfinger, Emily Dickinson, the Nabis, the Ashcan School, Noel Sickles, Roy Crane, Herge, Osamu Tezuka, Francis Yates, Mort Meskin, CHiPs, the Secret Agent tv show, Dick Van Dyke, Islamic and Persian art…I mean, really I could go on for hours and nobody wants that. Those are some of the biggest kinships. It always is a kinship as much as an inspiration.

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

Community is important to me. I think everyone has some art in them so yeah, in a way. But I don’t think a community of comics artists is any more or less valuable to me than a community of philosophers or organic gardners.

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

They are rarely interested but often supportive.

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

Both, sometimes. Other times, neither. I don’t guide the way I’m interested so it just depends. I think they can both work together. I am in love with Antonioni and Bresson for that reason.

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

Always a wonderful experience. It is a gateway. When I was younger it was hard and I actually used to think of it as a struggle. Now, it just flows and I sort of treasure every minute of it. But, you know, when I think about it sometimes it can be a physical pain, with cramped fingers and sore arms and stuff.

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?

No. I don’t bring it up unless I’m talking about something else. I talk about stuff I like so it inevitably will come up.

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?

Both. I’m in the debt of those folks but I feel like somehow I would never rate in their eyes and so they are disconnected. I feel like I’m carrying on my idea of what I see as the tradition though.

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

No. In fact there is never a moment when I think I don’t want to. Sometimes I think I may end up not being considered a comic artist because I get distracted by so many things but I always feel like I’m working on my comics.

18. do you draw from life?

Yeah, all the time. It is part of drawing, for me.

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

I pencil out comics and then ink them. Sometimes I’ve just done them in ink or whatever but lately I’m sort of liking the idea of penciling, at least on the new Reporter. The last one was more sort of blocked out and then drawn in ink and whiteout.

20. what does your drawing space look like?

I draw on a rug in my living room or I travel with my art box and lapboard. A friend of mine made a snide comment about it, but the truth is I want to always have the fun feeling of drawing I had when I was 6 so it ends up being a compliment. Thought it sort of speaks to my whole approach to doing my comics.

Jason Overby

2008-10-21T14:25:00.000-07:00

Jason Overby is the author of (in my opinion) one of the stand out mini-comics of 2008. It's called "Jessica." This is his website: http://www.discretefunk.com/

Above image is an in progress work from overby.

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 draw in my studio very nearly every day for at least two hours. I'm rarely there more than four hours at a time. I used to only work in coffee shops, and this established the two hour time frame (you feel like a jerk nursing a $1 cup of coffee for longer than that). On days I go to my job I'll either draw immediately before or after work (depending on how early I have to be there.). On my off days I try to get there as early as I can.

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

For my minicomic, "Jessica," I revised a whole bunch. It took about three years to make the thing, and I was constantly fussing with the overall conceptual framework. It ended up being 28 pages, but I drew well over a hundred (including redrawing some pages). I didn't ink the letters until the very last so I would often "rewrite" pages (lots of times having them relate to completely different aspects of the "story."). I changed the order of the pages a lot, also, trying to find the best sequence for clarity/rhythm. I went through maybe five different versions before cutting and restructuring it from around 60 pages to the final 28.

I've been trying to make strips lately without editing so much lately, but I'm not sure it's gonna work.

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

Individual pages I'll sometimes script/thumbnail out, but I mainly draw/write at the same time with some idea in mind about the overall story I'm telling. I like for the drawings/text to work together organically, creating a context for the meaning/story as opposed to using pictures as discrete linguistic chunks or hieroglyphs that operate inside the panels like words within sentences.

See previous question for the process of "Jessica."

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

As a whole.

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

Mechanical pencils (.3, .5, .7). Hunt 102, 107. Lame brushes. Magic Rub, Tuff Stuff erasers. T-square, twelve inch metal ruler. Dr. Martin's Black Star Matte India ink, various colored Higgins inks.

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

Strathmore 400 series 2-ply smooth surface bristol

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

I cycle through periods of reading comics/hating comics. Seeing great comics (like recently a Hankiewicz piece reprinted in Brunetti's first "Anthology of..." about Bellow's "Adventures of Augie March" and a colored Frank King Sunday in the same volume) totally gets me excited about making them.

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've yet to make any money from comics (lost a lot printing and distributing minis, though), which might be good because it allows me to be fairly self-indulgent. I work a day job (barista for Stumptown Coffee Roasters, which I really love) four to five days a week, but I always make time to draw.

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

maybe writing or music. I get frustrated with how conservative 99% of cartoonists seem to be, but I grew up with comics and love them.

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

Lots. The people who've meant the most to me over the years have been Crumb, Philip Dick, Rauschenberg, Duchamp, Jim Thompson, Frank Black, Donald Barthelme, Will Oldham, Gary Panter, Somerset Maugham, Paper Rad, Kevin Huizenga, Dan Clowes, various Ft. Thunder dudes, Art Spiegelman, Lou Reed, Charlie Kaufman, William Gibson, Sammy Harkham, Julie Doucet, Tolstoy, Dylan Horrocks, Scott McCloud, Alan Moore, Kirby, Ron Rege, J.G. Ballard, Herriman, etc.

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

kinda important in that it's nice to not be working in a vaccuum, but not essential to making work.

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

not interested

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

I think that maybe the two are inextricably linked.

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

While it can be maddening and frustrating, nothing is more satisfying and spiritually fulfilling.

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?

I almost never mention it.

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 love both of these guys. While the subjects and stories they pursue(d) aren't always to my taste, they are both visionaries which is much more interesting than anything else.

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

My wife's about to have a baby, and for the first time in eight years comics have been seeming relatively meaningless.

18. do you draw from life?

Very rarely - usually only if I'm either making a particular conceptual point or if I can't make something look right otherwise. I like to use imagery in comics that expresses an idea or thing in an interesting way, and it doesn't necessarily matter to me whether I'm accurately simulating the way anything looks (whatever that means).

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

I pencil the pages and then ink directly over the pencils. I'm really just tracing

20. what does your drawing space look like?

Vanessa Davis

2008-10-19T23:58:00.000-07:00

Vanessa Davis is a cartoonist living in Santa Rosa. Her first book, Spaniel Rage, is available from Buenaventura press. http://www.buenaventurapress.com/

She is currently hard at work on a book from Drawn and Quarterly.

http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/artStudio.php?artist=a45ad10e572685

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 don't draw every day. I get the most done when I have the day off and I go to a coffee shop, usually if I have a specific project or deadline. Then I will listen to music and work until I'm done, usually a couple of hours. If something is there to distract me--dirty dishes, laundry, or sometimes a social event, I will often put those before drawing.

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

Hardly any, and it's usually as I'm working. Like I'll erase something a bunch of times until I decide to just draw it more cartoony and move on. Often after I've inked something or watercolored over it, I'll see something obvious that I should have fixed.

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

I will have a basic script or talking points that I will sketch an outline around. I need to do more scriptwriting. It's hard because I have a tendency to write tons of text if I'm not thinking about the images, or not write enough text if I AM thinking about the images.

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

I usually think about both, I want each panel to "do" a lot, and I want to fit everything in. I also want things to be readable, and since I don't use panels sometimes I don't succeed in that. I also am afraid of having a "talking heads" thing, so I will change the perspective of a scene panel-by-panel to keep things visually interesting. Sometimes I'm afraid that that's a cheap trick but if it results in a nice-looking page I don't worry about it too much.

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

Mechanical pencils, usually with a 2B .5 lead. I am lost without my Tuff Stuff eraser. I don't have a particular ink or nib I love that much. I use a Hunt 102 probably, but I also have some larger, fountain-pen style ones too. I don't like anything too thick or thin, and not too springy or rigid. I think my biggest secret tool is this bunch of Reeves black tempera cakes that my aunt gave me back in highschool, in a plastic palette that held them. They are a lot easier to use than ink for inkwash. I also use a couple of different sets of pan watercolors that I got as presents--one big Winsor Newton set my parents got me when I was 16, one small travel W+N set that was my dad's back in the 60s, and a Van Gogh set my uncle bought me a few years ago, that I mostly use when one color gets used up in one of the other sets. Wow, this is boring. I also really am into prismacolor markers and Ph. Martin's condensed watercolors but I never have many of them at a time because they're expensive. OH and I also love all-lead pencils, really soft big ones.

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

Usually just whatever watercolor paper I can find, but I like hot press. I was using this hot press watercolor paper from NY Central, and it was really absorbent and made all of my paintings really muted, it was like toilet paper. I also do a lot of work just in my sketchbook, and I have yet to find one I really like. Right now I have been using a Moleskine sketchbook and a Fabriano Venezia book, because they're small, but now I think they're too small.

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 don't read a ton of comics. I usually like comics more than I think I will. When I REALLY like a comic, like when I read an issue of Ganges or something, sometimes I feel kind of hopeless because it's so good and complex. But when I read Love & Rockets I want to draw....I don't know, I definitely used to get way more inspired to draw by the work my peers were doing, but I was also living among them and that probably had a lot more to do with it. I usually am the most inspired when I am just casually babbling about some thing or another, and I realize that I inadvertently structured it perfectly and I could easily put it down on paper. I think I started making comics because I had a lot of stories I wanted to share, and creating single images just wasn't letting me get them out clearly enough.

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?

Comics sometimes will supplement my income, but they absolutely do not come near being able to support me. I have a part-time dayjob as an administrative assistant. I used to love it, and it was exactly what I'd been dreaming of doing after working fulltime at a museum magazine in New York, but as I get older I resent having a job I don't care about and then having to come home and start my "real" work.

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

I miss painting a lot, I love painting. I like to work big. And I still want to do textile design. If I had a garage or a studio I would do both of those things. I also miss editing, not that that's an artform in the strictest sense.

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

Most of the work in Twisted Sisters had a huge influence on me--mostly Debbie Dreschler, Aline Kominsky, Carol Tyler, and Dame Darcy. Also Julie Doucet was probably my biggest deal when I thought about comics, especially before I started doing them. When I first started making comics and people would look at my stuff and say it reminded them of Lynda Barry--but I hadn't read any Lynda Barry. Now of course I am incredibly flattered when anyone says that.
My dad was a photojournalist and I think I inherited his inclination to observe and to find things funny or absurd. I was also influenced by my mom a lot but I see now that's not really the question.... I think it's hard to differentiate kinship with influence sometimes, because I know that I have a lot of the same artistic goals as say, David Hockney had at one time, but I think I developed them partially through seeing his work, so it's hard to say that's a kinship, it's kind of full of myself to say that. But I like artwork that is decorative, that finds a profundity in small things. I don't like grandiose themes, I kind of think it's cheap unless there's some kind of self-consciousness there, or idiosyncrasy. I can't relate otherwise.

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

I think it's very important to me, though I don't know how good it is for me all the time. Sometimes being around it or not being around it can freak me out in the same way. When I first started making comics, living in New York, I fell in with a really inspiring group of people, and it coincided with a time in my life where, developmentally, I realized I didn't have to settle for being friends with people I didn't like or admire. I think when you're young sometimes you don't know that. But so, I was 23 or whatever and hanging out with cartoonists, and they were so smart and funny, but also ambitious and sophisticated, but really in a very modest and understated kind of way. It was just really cool, and everyone was so welcoming. I wanted to be welcoming for people too when I felt like I was part of the community. I think I get freaked out though because it's such a big group now, nationwide, and I can't relate to everyone. But that's okay. Living in an isolated community now, it's important and restorative to still connect with people, though now it's on a more individual basis.

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

My mom is proud of me, but I think she wants me to have less ambivalent a tone in general. Her best friends all read my book, and I was informed that some of them "got it" and some of them didn't. I don't think my sister reads it.

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

I think the idea is more important but sometimes style is part of that. I actually think it's important for everything to be a deliberate choice. Every time I've failed, it's because some element was arbitrary. Style without substance is boring, and the same for the other way around.

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

Both. Sometimes I find it a huge hindrance to telling a story. I also am really hard on myself and won't let myself just do like, two people talking or big chunks of text.

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?

It depends on the person. Usually mentioning that I am a cartoonist leads to uncomfortable questions like, how do I support myself or what magazines can my comics be seen in, and then I really regret it. But when I say I'm an admin assistant people often think I'm boring or a dummy. Basically people are jerks.

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'm really not well-versed in a lot of older comics, but I do get more and more familiar with them as time goes by. I don't know how connected I feel to them...I am definitely envious of them. It seemed like back in the olden days it was more common to have a job as like, a staff cartoonist or something. Of course in the olden days you couldn't just get a salary for doing comics about doing your hair or worrying about what your boyfriend thinks of you so I am probably better off now being the whiner that I am.

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

I don't know that I identify myself completely as a cartoonist--that comics will be the perfect artform for me forever. I used to worry about this when I was younger, because I didn't know what "kind of artist" I was, because I changed media a lot. But I realized that my common theme was autobiography, and a narrative, illustrative, and decorative drawing style. Sometimes it freaks me out to hear cartoonists talk judgementally about other cartoonists that "quit" comics or haven't done anything in a really long time, because I haven't put anything out in a long time and I probably won't make comics forever, at least primarily or consistently. And I don't want people to think I'm a loser for that or whatever. I don't like to see myself as part of a movement. In fact, the amount that comics are in the spotlight at the moment really freaks me out, as part of what drew me to comics was how opposite a world it was to the one of fine art. But so I don't think I have the impulse to "quit" as much as I just know there will probably come a time when I won't do it anymore. And I think I'm fine with that but I get freaked out about what others will think. But I will just hopefully be doing something that suits me better at that time and then it won't matter.

18. do you draw from life?

I have a bad visual memory, and I need reference to draw almost everything. But sometimes I realize I'm getting caught up in having something look too realistic and then I just try to shorthand it.

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

I always pencil, but I sometimes don't ink.

20. what does your drawing space look like?

Blaise Larmee

2008-10-19T22:10:00.000-07:00

Here are 20 questions with Blaise Larmee.

Blaise is a cartoonist living in Brooklyn. His first major comic, Architecture #1 is available from Giant Robot. http://secure.giantrobot.com/products.php?code=ARCHITECTURE01

Here is his blog: http://blaiselarmee.blogspot.com/

He is serializing his next comic at the secret acres wesite: http://www.secretacres.com/weeklyghosts1.html

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

Over the summer I was really into making pots and pots of green tea and I'd have a certain part of the room I'd draw in. I could go for long stretches - six hours or more - and go to sleep at dawn. Lately I've fallen back into doing most of my drawing in cafes.

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

I like the idea of "the first take is the only take." I like this idea because the drawings are spontaneous and full of life and I also hate the idea of drawing something twice - which is what most cartoonists do. So now if I want to "white out" something I use an oil-based paintstick, which makes it impossible to go over again with ink. So I really have to question whether I want to revise something.

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

I don't plan anything on paper. When I was creating characters I tried to get to know them by talking to them and watching them in my head - which was incredibly difficult, especially as I began adding more characters. It was hard to keep track of them. Lately I think I've been doing them a real disservice, sort of in the way adults do when they patronize kids' imaginary friends. I've forgotten about the "real" characters and sort of let them become actors. Now they are only functional, when really they should be the ends to their means.

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

The panel ... the page usually works itself out. I used to feel that this wasn't "pure comics," but now I am more comfortable with this approach.

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

"The usual," plus various things for color.

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

Moleskine, graph.

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 love comics so much I cannot afford to buy them. I am more comfortable now in my role as a creator rather than a consumer, though I still feel bad sometimes for not "supporting the industry." If i owned a Chris Ware book it would be one of my most prized possessions. For me, that makes the case for leaving him at the library.

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?

My savings had given me a year after college to live without working. Looking back, it has been wonderful. I have been shielded from commercial desires to some extent. I stopped doing illustration. My world became an aesthetic world. I also became more simple. I spent a lot of time cooking. I stopped buying books and started hanging out in bookstores. I say all this with longing, as this phase of my life ends in two months.

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

Yes and no. It frustrates me that comics is so young and it is already nostalgic. Past creators are deified by even the most liberal of creators and critics. The comics canon should be like a young sprout (to borrow a metaphor) but instead it's like a huge tree. As a result creators impose all these restraints upon themselves, in their tools and in their process. The Marvel Method is still used by a majority of alt cartoonists who want nothing to do with Marvel.

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

Goodnight Moon, The Dead Bird, Austin English, Genevieve Vidal.

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

Incredibly. But I am not good at group friendships.

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

They like the drawings.

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

Comics is a queer medium, in the way binaries are dealt with. Words or pictures? Style or idea? Homo or hetero?

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

I feel very strongly that it should be a pleasure. I am against the cartoonist-as-depressive model that Chris Ware sets up. Comics should not be depressive or repetitive or take forever to do. They shouldn't make you want to kill yourself. Of course, it is not always a pleasure and that is ok too.

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?

That word - artist - has a lot of different implications for different people, so it's always safest not to bring it up. If I feel very comfortable with someone I might be comfortable using the word.

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?

It's a foreign world worth visiting.

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

It's not so much an impulse ... sometimes it's difficult to see progress.

18. do you draw from life?

Recently, yes. Something amazing about comics is this dynamic between the internal and the external. Lately I've felt like I've slipped into the internal too much, so I'm trying to acknowledge the external again.

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

I used to. But the drawings always lose life.

20. what does your drawing space look like?