Aidan Koch

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?

Fred and Ryan in Tales from the Crypt #9!

Tales from the Crypt #9 Tales from the Crypt interior

For those of you looking for your Fred and Ryan comic book fix during the far-too-long wait between issues Comic Book Comics - check out Papercutz's Tales from the Crypt #9 - available at your local comic store right now! The second feature "Glass Heads" is written by Fred with full-color art by Ryan. The lead feature "Chicken Man" is really cool and creepy - it captures the sprit of the original "Tales" comics really well while putting a modern spin on the storytelling. 48 full-color pages with no ads for only $3.99, and if you know anything about modern comics prices you'll know that's a good deal!

Zak Sally

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.
>
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> 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

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?