Research for a project led me to once again encounter Austin English’s old Twenty Questions with Cartoonists blog. If you’re not familiar, he asks a uniform set of interview questions to different cartoonists. They’re good questions, and for several of the people on the blog I would say this is among the most interesting interview they’ve done. So I think we should all answer Austin’s questions! I’d be interested to read your answers. Tag them #20questionswithcartoonists so they’re easy to find, maybe? It’s not narcissistic to answer interview questions on your own accord – well, maybe just a little. Still, it’s important to be able to talk about your work, and I’m sure people will find your responses interesting.
(I’m talking to myself here. Convincing myself to post this. It got kind of long.)
Anyway, here you go:
1. Can you describe your drawing routine – how often you draw, how many hour per day – how you break up the day with drawing?
Since comics aren’t my job, I have to fit my drawing schedule to other aspects of my life, not the other way around. So while I’m happy with the schedule I’ve had for the past several months, it could change unexpectedly. That is both a good and a bad thing, I think.
During the week I draw from 8pm to 10pm, pretty much every day. I’ll sometimes do notes or sketches in a pocket moleskine while commuting as well.
On weekends, sometimes I’ll have the whole day free to work on comics. Hooray! But I find it difficult to draw for more than 2-3 hours stretches, unless I’m really really cranking on a project.
So drawing time is divided by errands, going to the gym, things like that. Sometimes I think this is because I have never had to draw comics full time and so I haven’t needed to develop the ability to draw for long stretches. Sometimes I think my inability to draw all day indicates I don’t have the disposition to be a full time cartoonist. Chicken, egg, etc.
When I’m writing something new or am stuck on a plot point, I find a change of scenery is most helpful – so I go for a walk or to the library or something.
2. How much revision/editing do you do in you work?
A lot! Fairly recently I’ve found that working in drafts, with some time spent away from the project between each draft, is enormously helpful. That’s sort of obvious, but of course it’s difficult to do drafts of comics since they’re often so labor intensive. I’ve been drawing much looser and more quickly of late, which has been great in terms of my ability/willingness to rework pages or throw out stuff I don’t like.
3. Talk about your process – do you write a script or make up the drawing as you go?
My process changes from project to project. I used to think this was because I hadn’t found the process that worked best for me, but I’m starting to suspect that experimenting with process is a way to keep myself engaged and excited about each new project, and hopefully a way to force myself to do something new with each work. That said, it’s not completely different every time; as mentioned above, working in drafts has been key for my last several projects.
Also, I personally couldn’t imagine working in a traditional script to thumbnails to pencil to ink manner. Those drafts are all full comics, though the first draft is in most cases pretty messy.
4. Do you compose the page as a whole or do you focus more on individual panel composition?
Both! I think they’re inherently connected. Even when I’m working in a grid I can still make decisions that affect the appearance of the page as a whole.
5. What tools do you use (please list all)?
I like to vary my tools between projects because it forces me to draw and to think somewhat differently.
So: pencils (different kinds, nothing fancy), colored pencils (again not picky, though I like these ones a lot), brush pens that I dip in this ink, Copic markers, and I’d like to try out more stuff soon.
6. What kind(s) of paper do you use?
Again, it varies. Vellum bristol, newsprint, colored construction paper, tracing paper, and printer paper have all been used recently.
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?
For several months I wrote about comics weekly on the Comics Workbook tumblr. That stopped around March of this year when I started a new, more time-intensive job – I think I’ve written just one or two things since then. But I’d like to get back to it.
In general I very much enjoy reading comics. There are spans when I’m reading them a lot, and then sometimes I step away from it for a bit. I should do a better job of reading and rereading everything I buy.
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 went to school for something completely unrelated to comics, and I have a normal, full-time day job that I actually enjoy for the most part. Of course I often wish it was fewer hours! My job doesn’t really affect the content of my work, but of course it affects the time I have to do comics.
I’ve been thinking lately about taking advantage and being appreciative of the luxuries afforded to me by having a job. I can afford to be more self-indulgent with how and when I publish my work. I can afford to financially support the work of cartoonists I enjoy. I don’t have to worry so much about self-promotion. I can go to a con and not feel bad if I lose money. I don’t have to feel guilty about a day when I don’t draw comics – though sometimes I still do!
9. Do other artforms often seem more attractive to you?
As a consumer, yes. I read a lot of prose, mostly fiction – more of that than comics, at times. I’ve also been getting more into fine art lately. As a creator, no. I’m really just interested in comics.
10. What artwork (or artists) do you feel kinship with?
Many of the cartoonists who I talk with most regularly are people doing weird, unusual, exciting comics, work that has been described as poetry comics or comics minimalism. I really like how aside from that very general description, the cartoonists I’m thinking of sometimes have very little in common! But it feels like an exciting time for work that is exploring the boundaries of what comics can be.
I also feel connected with many of my roughly same-age peers (I’m 23), even those who I don’t know personally at all. But it’s nice to follow people’s progress over the years –there’s something very gratifying about, say, seeing Kris Mukai publish work in the New York Times when I first encountered her work on forums when she was 16 or something. It’s like feeling a kinship with someone when you’ve followed them from their first minicomics, but given how early many people started posting work online, it goes back even further.
11. Is a community of artists important or not important to you?
I had never spoken in person to a cartoonist before last year. Aside from when I’m at conventions, I almost never talk about comics in real life. I think it’s important and healthy to maintain interests and friendships that are not at all related to comics.
That said, I’ve benefitted enormously from my interactions with other cartoonists both in person and online. Talking to people on Twitter is great, you know? It’s nice to feel that I’m part of a community. Alt comics people are by and large so, so friendly and welcoming. It’s been a real privilege to get to know some of my favorite cartoonists on a personal level.
12. Is there a particular line quality you like – thick/thin/clean/etc?
I think the most important thing to me is that there is some evidence of process and personality in the final art. So much of the work I’m most attracted to has some degree of looseness, of imperfection – though I love Chris Ware! I love Yokoyama! So that’s a long way of saying it depends. I talk too much.
13. What is more important to you – style or idea?
Idea!
14. Is drawing a pleasure to you or a pain?
Usually a pleasure, especially after the first few minutes when it can be tough to get going. Drawing more loosely has made it more enjoyable as well. Sometimes it’s frustrating and painful, of course. In some cases you have to push through that frustration, but sometimes stepping away is best. I’m still learning how to balance those two impulses.
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 usually don’t talk about it at all. I don’t want to answer the usual annoying questions.
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 have so many thoughts about this! In brief: I have read and enjoyed work from Ditko, Kirby, et al, and I have learned things from looking at that stuff, though I can’t say it’s my favorite.
Since I didn’t read Ditko/Kirby growing up, or even read much superhero stuff at all, I don’t feel any of the emotional connection or nostalgia that some people associate with that work. So it feels ‘foreign’ to me in that I’m not used to the specifics of the vernacular. For instance, some people are able to ignore or even enjoy the bad (or at least highly stylized) writing. I have a hard time with that.
When I first read Kirby I finally understood people who say that they “just don’t read manga” – superficial surface elements were so foreign and off-putting to me that I had a hard time engaging with the work on its own merit. That passed with time as I got more used to the tics, though they still bother me sometimes.
17. Do you ever feel the impulse to not draw comics?
I’m pretty sure I will be drawing comics for my whole life. However, personally I very strongly reject the masochistic Work All the Time attitude that many cartoonists have. Maybe my mind will change on this. Obviously it’s completely an understandable and even necessary impulse for someone who gets all or even a significant portion of their income from comics. But that will likely never be the case for me, and certainly not within the next several years.
I therefore firmly and unabashedly place my health and happiness over the number of comics pages I produce! I’m not going to stop exercising, or never socialize, because I want to get in my 10,000 hours as soon as humanly possible. Look, it’s a balancing act, and I actively work to arrange my life in a way that gives me as much time to draw comics as I can manage. I think I have a decent work ethic, and I want to have a better work ethic, especially in terms of being productive when I am at the drawing board. Comics are an incredibly important and fulfilling part of my life. But am I going to try to function on just a few hours of sleep for weeks on end, or not make time to see my family, or anything like that because of fucking comic books?? No. Of course not. Maybe this means that my work will be less strong, or that its somewhat less likely I would be able to ever make a living from comics. At least for now, I’m ok with that. Others might disagree.
18. Do you draw from life?
Not as often as I should, but sometimes. Usually in pocket moleskines. I try to always have one with me.
19. Do you pencil out comics and then ink? Or do you sometimes not pencil?
I haven’t done any pencil/ink work for about two years. If I’m drawing in ink, I draw in ink. I lightbox over things sometimes, but even that allows you be to more fluid than tracing over pencil lines, I would argue.
20. What does your drawing space look like?
