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
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
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
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
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.
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
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.
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
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
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?
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
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?
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?
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