Riding the tail of Derik’s question: Would you tell us a little more about how specific influences play a part in your work and process? You’ve mentioned Mondrian, shoujo and shonen before, what about them do you find yourself referencing? (Here’s where I admit complete ignorance of manga, so anything on that subject will be totally new to me.)

(Derik’s question is here, for anyone following along)

Yeah, the story that I’m finishing up now is very consciously influenced by Mondrian and shoujo in terms of layout and pacing. A structure where panel size and shape became integral to the work seemed a logical next step after a long time using primarily grids, where panel size is not a factor. So to give a few examples of the things shoujo and Mondrian help me think about:

• Panels that serve a primarily ‘decorative’ purpose (you can do this in grids too, but in a grid each panel has equal value as a ‘beat,’ while a decorative panel offset from the main focus of the page is more like background music)
• Information communicated through the space between panels
• Can a panel itself contain narrative content, if there’s nothing drawn inside it? (Relevant for another project I’m working on with Kimball Anderson, and of course definitely tied to Mondrian)
• Grids facilitate and help readers to notice repetition. How does repetition function when each page is laid out differently?
• Aggressively, indulgently slow pacing – how to combine this with my impulse to condense, to present partial information?

Lots more I could say on this, but I’m definitely still sorting out my own thoughts so I’ll leave it there for now…