We're Back!

I've decided to start it back up. Stand by....

Chris Cilla

I first read Chris Cilla's comics in the late nineties and I can't help but associate him with that period. Unfair, probably; Chris continues to make cool comics in his signature style, something lots of younger ( and less thoughtful, imo) cartoonists are still trying to catch up to.




> 1. Could you maybe give us some background about your own cartooning?

As a kid I drew Cracked magazine inspired comics, based on movies or
TV shows, where I would insert my own characters, & change the names
into "funny" jokes. As a teenager, I kept sketchbooks constantly, with
B.Kliban/Heavy Metal magazine based drawings, some continuing
characters, but not really "comics", just related scenes & absurd
gags. In high school (Tucson, AZ) I met this kid named Kevin Byrd who
made a xeroxed comic book called Ricky Rat Comics. He got ads from
local businesses, & really got it out there into record stores & pizza
parlors, & he asked me to contribute. That was around 1987 or so, and
I started xeroxing my own comics soon after that.

> 2. To what extent do you think small press comics have changed since you got
involved with them? Have these changes effected your approach to cartooning
or putting out comics?


I guess there are fewer small-press comics nowadays, I mean
mini-comics made by hand. Today most minis seem to be made by people
who are "Cartoonists", while in the late 80s early 90s I seemed to get
comics in the mail made by anyone who felt like it. Does that make
sense? Maybe minicomics now are more informed by the larger
alternative comics world. I don't think any of this has changed my
personal approach to making comics. Now I'm much less inclined to
crank out a weird mini to mail to a bunch of like-minded guys,
probably because no one would have anything to trade.




> 3. Do you feel nostalgic at all for pre-internet small press comics land?


A little bit, I miss getting good mail. In those Factsheet Five days,
I would get a lot of funny/strange stuff in the P.O. box every week,
but also crappy poetry submissions, & occasional racist/crank bullshit
(people would just mail stuff to every address listed in F5). I kind
of liked the pre-internet world of minicomics & zines because I would
get something in the mail and that was it! There was no looking up the
artist's complete works, artist's statement & CV (not to mention
reviews, photos, profiles, etc) five minutes after you read the comic,
you just had the magazine & maybe a brief note written on scrap paper
for context.


-( A snippet from Cillas' contribution to Typhon )-

> 4. Do you work a day job?

Oh yeah. I am currently employed in retail used book sales, full time.

> 5. Do you draw everyday?


Yes. I draw something in a sketchbook, at least, or on some loose
paper. If I have more time I draw comics, or other stuff. I always
have something to work on.

> 6. What drawing implements do you favor ( pens, paper, ink, etc.)?


For drawing finished comics pages I use Speedball ink & nibs, C-5 or
others, I'll try any india inks, really, I don't have a favorite.
Cheap brushes. Bristol tablets. For sketching out of the house I bring
Koh-i-noor rapidographs, & Staedler pigment liners, or other similar
type pens. Prismacolor double sided & Chartpak markers are favorites.
Watercolor sets bought at yard sales. #2 pencils, plastic eraser. I
like Strathmore 5x8 spiral sketchbooks, but will try any notebook for
sketching.

> 7. To what extent do you think your immediate environment- or the
environments you've lived in- informs your drawing/comics?

Not a lot, most of my comics have a real general comic book setting,
like big city, desert town, gas station or something. I try to add
details that aren't too specific, but I use my immediate surroundings
for things like plants, doors, or incidental objects, tools, dishes. I
am drawing some comics where the setting is slightly more important,
but these are also not specific real places I have been, just
impressions made into imaginary comic book settings. I guess my
surroundings show up in my stories in a general way, but my comics are
usually the same (to me) no matter where I am living when I draw them.

> 8. I sometimes wonder, when reading your comics, how overt your intentions
are when it comes to traditional story concerns. To what extent do you think
about things like theme?

I don't often plan a theme before starting to work on a comic. Maybe I
do think a little more about these sort of things in my most recent
comics. I am not really interested in making comics that do what
"traditional" literature does. I like the storytelling, but I'm only
slightly interested in the story, a lot of the time, in books or
movies, or comics. I like a comic-book reading experience (and try to
create one), and am not much of a fan of the "literary" school of
contemporary comics (I also don't care for books based on movies or
photonovels of TV shows).



> 9.It seems to me that often your work features sort of sad-sack, "everyman"
type characters.It seems that fairly often these characters' mundane
existence is almost invaded by the fantastically grotesque. I could be wrong
about that, of course, but to what extent do you think that reflects your
overall world-view ?

I have made a lot of comics like that, I think because it is easy to
start with that set-up, lots of comics do. You have the
everyman/audience entry-point character, who experiences
weird/funny/scary stuff. I have been trying to create more specific
protagonists in my more recent comics. As far as reflecting my world
view, I think that most folks are operating with a belief in
themselves & their world as "normal", and the noteworthy or
significant experiences tend to be outside that somewhere (most people
will tell a story about the neighbor who destroyed all his furniture &
threw it in the yard, not the guy who checked their mail while they
were out of town). It's another easy way to get a comic book story
going. I think a lot
of stories work like that, but with most genre fiction, the fantastic
is expected (murders, gangsters, robots, human-animal hybrids, etc). I
try and make different things happen that are more exciting or
entertaining to me specifically, and I guess you could look at them as
reflecting my experience of the world, but I don't read my old comics
too much, so I can't vouch for some earlier concerns. I do think that
there are a lot of absurd things going on in
this world all the time, and some of them are horrible, and some are
funny, and some are both. I exaggerate things I see or read or
daydream about (or manipulate them beyond recognition) until they seem
like a plausible comic book, and then I draw it.


-Click to enlarge-
"From my new Stun Nuts comic"

> 10. Rat Fink or Alfred E. Nueman?

I have to choose? I guess I'd side with Alfred E. Neuman, but then Rat
Fink & his (monster) buddies would probably kick our asses.



(-Flyer for a show featuring some of Cillas' art that just opened.)

John Broadley

John Broadley is a book artist, illustrator, cartoonist and drawer from the UK. He's making some great comics and books, available via his blog. He's also featured in BEASTS! 2 from Fantagraphics.

1. Any big plans for the weekend?

Not really, we've got three children under the age of five, so things tend to revolve around them - I think we've got two kids parties to attend!


2. Do you draw everyday?

As well as the kids to look after, I also work a night shift, so I only get to work for about an hour or two in the evenings. I tend to go through prolific periods of drawing, but then grind to halt in order to put it into book form. It's not a source of income, it kind of comes third in the list of priorities. I worked as a freelance illustrator for about five years in the mid-nineties - but that was awful.


3. To what extent do you plan out your strips (scripting, pencils,etc)?

I gather lots of reference material, photos, clippings, old comics etc and have notebooks with samples of text taken from a variety of sources. That's the extent of the planning, I often don't know what I'm going to do from panel to panel. I maybe start drawing from a photograph, or sometimes from my imagination and, if it's working, get lost in it with the end result looking totally different to the source. I'll then look for some text I feel goes with it. I use a dip pen and ink on cheap, lined, paper, no sketches before-hand - if it doesn't work, I'll stick some paper on top and draw over a mistake, or throw just bin it and draw something else.






4. If you could live in a different time, what time would choose?

I guess this question is because of the manner of dress of the characters in the strips! Things like suits, belts, plus fours, hats and buckle shoes just seem more interesting to draw than jeans, trainers and t-shirts, they also create their own figure types quite naturally. As I mentioned above, I used to work as a freelance illustrator, and having to draw people in modern day settings didn't really work for me. Towards the end of that time I was regularly illustrating teenage girls magazines, and I remember on one occasion having to re-do a picture several times to make one of the character's hair more fashionable - like I'm going to pass a pair of scissors across the picture of something!
But no, I don't really have any personal desire to live in a different time; the olden days seem pretty grim.


5. Your narratives seem sort of cut-up. To what extent do you think there is an internal logic to what's going? To what extent do you think the reader might be trying to make connections in order to satisfy desire for a logic?

I alluded to this in an interview with Picturebox a couple of years ago, and this was recently quoted on another website, which has a write-up of my latest book, saying my idea was 'kind of silly' so I'm quite wary of saying anything about what I might think as words can come back to haunt you.
There is an internal logic, but I find it difficult to explain it. It might be easier to tell you how I came to working this way. I was originally influenced by the author Richard Brautigan, Adrian Henri (sixties Liverpool poet), and Ivor Cutler - I'm not saying I've achieved anything like their work, but that was my starting point for the strips. The first two reference all kinds of random people, characters from fiction, film stars, old stories etc, rather like they are telling what they like. A book like 'Trout Fishing in America' by Brautigan, you could say has no conventional narrative. Similarly, listening to an Ivor Cutler record, you are taken, in one-minute segments, from insect life to childhood memories, through to encounters with talking animals, the result as a whole is quite dizzying.
It's probably important to note that I've been making the books for about twelve years and for most of that time, no one was interested, everything I sent out was coming back return post, so after a few years I'd run out of people to mail to so I didn't care the slightest what the reader might think, it wasn't a concern, in fact the less sense it made the better.
Secondly, and not wanting to name any names, the idea of an action strip, for example, appearing serialised in three-panel segments in a daily newspaper seemed bizarre to me, I don't know how people can retain any sense of drama on that basis, I just thought the idea was redundant, I thought, you might as well put anything in those panels - give people something they don't understand.
Strips are actually a small part of my output. I've been primarily concerned with making books as objects - replicating the work in small editions, which were basically just collections of drawings; the strips developed through a desire to create more of a flow, but then the next book might be something totally different. I was also thinking how I was going to print 20 or so copies, what size it would be, and so on. That's probably had an effect on quality over the years, but that's life - I'm not precious about the work at all, I'm usually thinking about the next thing.





6. Do you think of your work as distinctly British?

I'd like to think so. I see a line through medieval drawings, 18th century broadsides and chap books, to people like Edward Lear, Edward Bawden, John Tenniel, John Nash, Gerald Scarfe, nowadays, you have David Shrigley who has picked up the baton. There's a particular kind of British wit and love of nonsense that appeals to me, although, with exceptions, the only people who seem to like my work, judging from feedback I've received, are actually from outside the UK.


7. Do you think Art School is a good idea?

Well I have to say yes, with some misgivings. I enjoyed college socially, although I don't think it really prepared me for the outside world, that's as much my fault as anyone else's. In the UK there seem to be an awful lot more of these courses about nowadays (graphics/illustration) than when I went to college. I don't know how this figures with what I see as a decline in the amount of illustration being commissioned - how many magazines do you see with illustrations on the cover nowadays?

8. In your development as an artist, were there any false-starts in terms of drawing style, or has your course been a pretty consistent one?

I think there's been a consistency in my work up to leaving college but I lost it gradually over the time I was working commercially, but then picked up again when I took a normal job and walked away from it.
I'd drawn ever since very young, and remember copying stills from Hammer films and Arthur Rackham's illustrations for Edgar Allen Poe age about 9 or 10, so in some ways, not much has changed.



9. Is there anything you'd like to accomplish with your art that you're uncertain about being able to accomplish?

I see the next step as actually trying to do a narrative strip. I don't want to leap too far, I see some of the characters which have already appeared being in it, I've got an idea of how this might work, but I'm still mulling it over.



10. I had no idea of your age going into this, but you've clearly been at it for a while; Maybe the internet has given me this impression, but it seems to me there is a greater interest in drawing/comics/comic art in general, or at least a more defined place for it in culture at large.
Firstly, do you think I'm at all correct, and secondly is that little realm something you follow closely or watch with interest?

Yes, I think you are correct. I must admit to knowing nothing about comics myself though, apart from 70s DC comics and British things like, Beano, Whizzer and Chips etc, so I'm not the best person to comment, I've always approached this from the background as an illustrator. Albeit one who can't actually illustrate, but who produces work which looks like it might be an illustration for something. I saw a quote by an illustrator called HENRIK DRESCHER which I can relate to; "I like to work in notebooks and spin my editorial work out of these; ideally a “job” is already done before I get the assignment. In a perfect world all I need to do is tear a page out of my notebooks and send it in"

I personally always thought graphic novels were all super heroes, rippling muscles, etc. I have recently been shown otherwise. Someone gave me a couple of books by Seth which really impressed me, so good. Then there was David B, 'Epileptic'. Brian Chippendale's books too are something else, these people are clearly interested in things beyond comics, and have brought things back into the medium - I'm certainly converted.


thanks for listening

Ed Piskor

Ed Piskor isn't as young as I thought he was, but he's still pretty young. He puts the vast majority of "indie" cartoonists to shame with the sheer number of pages he's sent to print. This work ethic, along with a steady eye, steady hand and a dedication to straightforward storytelling has landed him some pretty sweet gigs.

I feel like I asked him some sorta dumb questions, for the record.

***************************



1. What did you do over the weekend?

This weekend was kind of a bust. I just printed my new Wizzywig comic,
and I've spent the weekend stuffing envelopes. I spent some other time
doing some work pimping the book too. It's been a productive weekend,
I guess, but I'm going nuts because it didn't include much drawing.


2. You seem really prolific for a younger guy. What do you chalk that up to?

I'm never satisfied with anything I have, man. Unlike a lot of
cartoonists, I don't come from affluent means and I'm actually
interested in making a living at doing my comics and illustration, so
it requires doing a bunch of work.

3. You're work to me seems to share certain qualities with the
underground and alternative cartoonists associated with the last
couple of decades, which I definitely appreciate. Are you conscious of
such qualities? Do you feel connected with newer stuff that younger
cartoonists are doing that maybe doesn't share those same concerns?
(Sorry if this is too oblique. I can get more specific if you need.)

Yeah, my influences are certainly from the underground/ early
alternative period. A lot of the stuff going on now seems to be moving
towards the arty side of things and that doesn't appeal to me much.
I'm a pretty shallow guy and I like cool drawings and cool stories,
I'm not so hung up on the oblique stuff.


"This is from the beatnik book I did with Harv that is coming out in March.."

4. You grew up in Pittsburgh, right? How do you think growing up where
you did/how you did has informed the content of your work (as opposed
to the work ethic itself)?

As a kid, growing up in the neighborhood that I did, hip hop was
flourishing. My stuff doesn't exude that culture in the way that a guy
like Jim Mahfood's work does, but it played a big part of just simply
being about to have some competent skill. Mom would always say that my
work was good, but I would get clowned at school if my art was weak,
which happened often. I wasn't great at art as a kid and I certainly
wasn't the best, but I did draw better than I could catch a grounder
or shoot hoops. I still have those guys in the back of my head, which
acts as a reminder not to half-ass my work.


5. I think I recall reading that you went to the Joe Kubert school. Do
you have any insight to offer on comics as a course of study?

At the Kubert School, we were trained in a very old-school,
studio-like, environment. Meaning that we were supposed to be either
hacks, or sleepless drawing robots. So many assignments per week! I
got a lot out of it because there's a certain amount of adrenaline
that gets conjured up during such deadline pressure, but it didn't
yield much usable portfolio fodder.

Also, the teachers at the school were far lower leveled than the SVA
days of yore where Eisner, Kurtzman, and Spiegelman were your
teachers. Our guys worked for Archie in tandem with teaching at the
school and they had the intellectual incite towards the comic medium
as you would expect a guy who draws that freckled faced twerp all day
would.

6. What are your three favorite films?

Can't give you the top three because I don't have them structured in
my head that way. 3 flicks I really dig are:

Hitchcock's Rear Window
Evil Dead 2
Pink Flamingos

I ain't as deep most of these dudes you'll interview.

7. I think lots of people who read my blog draw/cartoon themselves.
Can you tell us what drawing implements you favor?

I use speedball ink , Letter with a Micron05 and an ames guide set at
3.5, Hunt 102 dip pens, Strathmore smooth bristol (though I dig a good
piece of illustration board too).

8. Are there any cartoonists/artists/writers working right now that
you really like?

There are plenty of awesome guys out there, but right now i'm
devouring old strip reprints so no one comes to mind right now.

9. I appreciate how forward you are about needing to make money doing
comics.Seems like a dirty word in a lot of indie comics circles. Is
there a line in the sand, so to speak, between "selling out" and , er,
not, but still trying to make money? Where do you draw it?

I'm a stream of consciousness kind of guy and I'm not the most thought
out so I can't directly answer. I just never put that much thought
into it. I do laugh about people who would look down at someone for
making a few bones here and there. Generally speaking, people who are
quick to holler "Sell out" can usually replace their tattered garb
with one phone call to mommy. I've met a lot of kids along the way who
denounce their affluence for a life a bare subsistence and become
artists, but they're really in no danger. They can bail out of that
lifestyle whenever they want.

10. Have you ever been in a fight?

I've been in a bunch. Mostly gotten my ass beat because of either my
big mouth, or a friends. Won a couple along the way, but if you looked
at my record it would resemble that of Glass Joe in Mike Tyson's
Punchout.




***************************

Check out Ed's site HERE, where you can pick up his new Wizzywig Volume 2: Hacker comic, and his blog HERE.

***********
-Some preview pages of Wizzywig Volume 2:

Hans Rickheit

Hans Rickheit has been at it for a while. I like his comics a great deal.




1. What did you do over the weekend?

The weekend was spent engaged in the activity that subsumes all others; drawing. I am very nearly finished a large graphic novel called "The Squirrel Machine" which Fantagraphics Books has agreed to publish. I promised to have it ready by the end of the year. For a while it appeared that I wasn't going to manage this, but fortunately, the beast is shaping up nicely.
I am recovering from a rather nasty cold, Disinclined to leave the house, I watched a documentary film about Alan Moore. It was surprisingly engaging.


2. Do you draw everyday?

Yes. I used to keep a sketchbook for drawing from life and scratching out odd ideas. Nowadays, almost all my drawing goes directly into the book.
When the current project is finished, I'd like to get back to life-drawing and expanding my skills. My visual vocabulary is diminishing from not forcing myself to render reality on paper, Currently, fantasy mush occupies too much of my attention. Fun as it all is, it becomes too easy to draw this kind of stuff. Muscles and abilities atrophy as a result.

3. Why comics?

Processes are best represented in a narrative format. Animation is too costly and time-consuming. I can think of no better way to depict these notions. This condition is compounded by a lifelong affinity for the medium. Euthanasia might help.


4. Do you work a day job?

Yes; I kill people. I administer death in installments as a tobacconist.


5. What are you reading right now? (Or, what's the last thing you read?)

I don't get to read as much as I'd like. Time is scant. The last thing I remember reading was a collection of H.P. Lovecraft stories.





6. Pretty sure I saw the same Alan Moore doc. Pretty interesting, I
agree. I seem to recall you talking about a similarly mystical concept
a while back that informs your comics- something like the
'Under-brain'.
Care to expand on that at all?

I'm not entirely sure what the UnderBrain is, really. I use the term as place-holder for a somewhat undefined concept. I tend to think of it as the Collective Unconscious, but something more gestalt in nature. When drawing or coming up with ideas for comics, I tried to act as a conduit for the UnderBrain, which in turn feeds off sentient experience. Rather than calling it 'the subconscious', I view it as being more of an Super-Consciousenss, operating on its own whims and (to all appearances) arbitrary rules. It's hard to explain the nature of the anti-logic that makes things 'work' in my comics; it's probably best left unexplained. I suspect this is somewhat a rambling exposition. Please forgive.


7. You seem to be remarkably consistent in your approach. Flipping
through all the work I have by you, it seems you're refining and
expanding as you go, but it's in a consistent universe of ideas and
imagery throughout. Have you ever had any trouble maintaining an
active interest in that universe? Do your motivations for exploring
that world change as you age?

It's not so much a matter of maintaining an active interest in the tropes that propel the comics that I draw, but keeping my obsessions under control.
A long time ago, a reviewer (I don't remember who; possibly more than one) accused me of 'making weird comics for the sake of being weird.' I don't see this as a drawback , but an incentive in and of itself; the driving force of worthwhile creative effort. Of course 'weirdness' is inevitably relative. One has to explore strangeness and what makes it work.
What qualities makes an image completely defiant of logical precepts without simply existing to be contrary? What makes a picture profoundly peculiar no matter how many times it is regarded? Rhetorical questions, these.




8. You started putting out comics in the mid nineties, right? (
Correct me if I'm wrong) Where there any immediate influences that
pushed you into getting your ideas down on paper? I guess I'm asking
if you could describe the milieu your comics sprouted from.

I've been drawing comics before I learned to talk. As a youngster I made superhero comics which I xeroxed and sold at local comic shop.
I was a very average comics nerd until I started reading underground and independent comics; #4 of JIM by the luminous Woodring had an incurable effect on me as an impressionable adolescent.
I am also compelled to mention the objects of Empire S.N.A.F.U. , a homeless wanderer who built shrines and peepshows from wreckage that defy description. A lifelong friend, who is now the head curator of The Empire S.N.A.F.U. Restoration Project, introduced me this individual's work long ago.

Likewise, I was impressed by the efforts of the following peoples: Franz Kafka, William Burroughs, Chester Brown, The Brothers Quay, Rick Altergott, Rene Magritte, Max Ernst, Mahendra Singh, Bill Kliban,Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Alfred Jarry. I also get vital juices from useful medical textbooks with lots of pictures, anatomical picture-books more than a century old, wonder books from before 1900 and the photography of trespassers who infiltrate abandoned industrial sites.

9. Not sure if you've checked out the blog that this is going to be
posted on, but I think it's safe to say that the majority of the
contributor/artists on the blog are into kinds of monstrous/grotesque
imagery. This might be too broad a question, but what do you think
motivates that basic urge to draw the horrific?

((-I initially planned to post this interview on Eaten By Ducks. -Ed))

'Stop picking at that scab, or it'll never heal.'


10. Congrats on the upcoming graphic novel. I was going to ask,
finally, what your plans are for the future. Short term, we can
surmise it's all about finishing up the comic, then maybe convention
type stuff. What after that? What 10, 20 years from now?

My plans are vague. I intend to attempt a weekly web-comic about a little girl and exploding donkeys. Seeing the bulk what there is online, I doubt I'll have too much competition. There are many, many projects that tempt. I hope the world permits it.

*******************


Extras:

"I've also attached some sample images. (Note, the attached pictures are 'out-takes' from the upcoming book and will never see print.)" ::::

FREDERIC FLEURY

Frederic Fleury draws a lot. He edits Frederic Magazine, a spiffy publication dedicated to the drawn. I sort of consider Fleury a Drawers' Drawer. Big thanks to my sister for translating Fleurys' emails from THE FRENCH ( English in bold.

Witness:


1. What did you do over the weekend?
Je dessine.
I draw.



2. Do you draw everyday?
Je ne sais pas, je dessine très souvent peut être pas exactement tous les jours.
Je suis souvent sur plusieurs projets en même temps que j'essaye de
faire avancer
et ce qui est certain c'est que mes semaines sont ryhtmées par le dessin.

I don't know, I draw quite often, perhaps not exactly every day. I'm often working on many projects at once that I try to move forward, et what's for sure is that my weeks are set by the rhythm of my drawing.

3. Why drawing?

Parce que c'est devenu une évidence.
Le dessin a toujours été là, même pendant mes études artistiques alors
que je faisais
essentiellement de la vidéo.
Je crois que c'est quand je me suis retrouvé seul face à ce que
j'avais vraiment envie
d'exprimer (sans personne pour me diriger) que ce médium s'est révélé.

Because it became clear (this is kind-of like saying that it became evident that this was what he was supposed to be doing) Drawing has always been there, even while I was in art school when I was mostly doing film. I think that's when I found myself alone, facing what I truly wanted to express (without anyone to guide me), that this medium was revealed.




4. Do you work a day job?

Oui je travaille dans une école d'art, deux jours par semaine ce qui
me laisse du temps
pour mon travail personnel.

Yes, I work at an art school two days a week, which gives me time to do my own work.


5. What are you reading right now? (Or, what's the last thing you read?)

En ce moment je lis la trilogie Millénium de Stieg Larsson et je dois
dire que c'est assez ennuyeux.


right now, I'm reading the Millenium triology by Stieg Larsson, and I have to say that it's pretty boring.



6. Could you tell us about Frederic magazine?

Frederic Magazine is an Internet site dedicated to drawing. Since
2004, on a daily basis it presents works of artists from different
worlds and nationalities.
In an extension of this work, an editorial venture has been
established, another way to disseminate drawing.
Two books were already published and we are working on the next issue.

7. How do you feel about the role of the internet in displaying your
artwork and also viewing other artists' work?

Internet est un excellent outil.
On peut toucher beaucoup de monde, rapidement et de manière hyper efficace.
Pas mal de mes amis de la scène "dessin" qui sont très sollicités
aujourd'hui ce sont fait connaître essentiellement par
internet.
Je me dis souvent que si ça n'existait pas on aurait probablement
retrouvé notre travail après notre mort sans que personne
n'en ai jamais entendu parler...une histoire à la Henry Darger en somme.
Celà dit, ça a ses travers et ça permet aussi à des gens sans talent
de se faire connaître et de faire illusion.
Il suffit de regarder Myspace par exemple, à part quelques artistes le
reste donne un peu envie de vomir. "

The internet is an excellent tool.
You can touch a lot of people quickly and in a really effective manner.
Many of my friends in the "drawing scene" that are highly sought-after (solicited) today made themselves known essentially by the internet.
I often tell myself that if it didn't exist, you might have found our work after only our deaths, without anyone have heard of us before... a story à la Henry Darger, in sum. That being said, it has its quirks, and it also allows people without talent to make themselves known and to delude themselves. Just look at Myspace, for example, except for a few artists, the rest kind-of make you feel like vomiting.


8. Is drawing, or art in general a social matter for you?

Je ne sais pas, (je ne suis pas sur de saisir parfaitement la question
anglaise) j'aurai tendance à penser que l'art à forcément à voir avec
la société
mais qu'il ne doit pas s'en préoccuper.
Concernant mon travail, je crois que certains de mes dessins traitent
de faits de société (les sans-abris par exemple) mais pour autant je
ne fais pas du social.

I don't know (I'm not sure I truly understood the English question) I have a tendency to think that art really is about society (italics mine) but that it (art) shouldn't be preoccupied with it. Concerning my work, I believe that a certain number of my drawings deal with societal matters (the homeless, for example) but all in all, I don't do much with social issues.

9. Are there any artists or cartoonists working right now who you are
particularly fond of?

Oui je peux citer pas mal d'artistes dont j'aime le travail mais on en
retrouve une bonne partie dans le Frédéric Magazine 3 qui sort en mars
2009.
Je préfère garder la surprise.
Je peux citer Jack kirby et Sempé par exemple.

Yes I can cite quite a few artists whose work I like, but you'll find a lot of them in the Frédéric Magazine 3 that's coming out in March 2009. I prefer keeping it a secret. I can cite Jack Kirby and Sempré for example.

10. Do the French really hate us Americans so much?

Je ne crois pas, en tout cas pas moi et puis je n'ai pas le sentiment
que les français se reveillent le matin en se disant : "putain ce que
je deteste ces américains!"
Culturellement parlant j'ai même l'impression qu'on est assez
dépendants des Etats-Unis.
Musique, arts, cinéma, série tv etc...
Quelq'un de ma génération qui part en voyage aux usa c'est plutôt en
général une personne qu'on considère comme ayant pas mal de chance,
enfin je sais pas mais ça fait
un peu réver.
Peut être que certains français détestent les américains mais ils ne
font pas parti de mon entourage difficile de parler pour eux donc.
Après ça ne nous empêche pas d'être critiques vis à vis de ce pays
comme vous pouvez sans doute l'être vis à vis du nôtre sans doute.

Il y a des dessinateurs américains sur le site et dans notre prochain livre."

I don't think so, at any rate not me. I don’t think/feel that the French wake up in the morning saying, "Fuck, I really hate those Americans!" Culturally speaking, I go so far as to have the impression that we're pretty dependent on the United States.
Music, art, film, TV shows, etc...
Someone of my generation who travels to the USA is generally someone we'd consider pretty lucky, well, I don't really know that, but it makes you think/dream a bit.
Maybe some French people hate americans but they're not among my peers so it's hard for me to speak for them. Then again, that doesn't stop us from being critics of your country, just like you are, without a doubt, of ours.

There are American draftsmen (?) (artists who draw... draw-ers) on our website and in our next book.




P.S- Check out loads of Fleury's drawings on his Flickr page.

John Hankiewicz

John Hankiewicz is a gifted cartoonist, print-maker and drawer.
Check out his regularly updated blog HERE, and pick up a copy of ASTHMA, a recently published collection Hankiewicz' comics at The Sparkplug Comics site, the books publisher.





1. What did you do over the weekend?

Art-wise: drew a small image for an etching, re-drew a panel for a comic, and wrote couple pages of off-the-cuff prose for another comic. Otherwise: a couple of long walks.

2. Do you draw everyday?

Two or three days out of the week, I make prints (etchings and lithographs) at a local community college print studio. I tend to stay there from morning to night, doing a lot of the preparatory work in the first half of the day and the processing and/or printing in the second half. I tend not to draw on those days, because my concentration and energy are somewhere else. During the rest of the week, I typically draw on a daily basis, though not necessarily comics.

3. Why comics?

I loved them as a child, and anyone can make them.

4. Do you work a day job?

I taught writing for several years, and then I quit to concentrate on art. I've done drawings on commission, sold some original pages, some prints, etc.; but all that (little) income has more or less evaporated in the past year or so. We'll see what happens next.

5. What are you reading right now? (Or, what's the last thing you read?)

Nixonland by Rick Perlstein.

6. Is there a concrete or explicit conceptual framework or strategy
that you've developed that informs your work?

I am against frameworks in art. I am in favor of strategies, the more the better. When I was doing the comics for Asthma, I seemed to be coming up with new strategies all the time. That was the result of thinking hard about comics, constantly working on them. Because I've been doing fewer comics recently, I think less intently about them, and, unfortunately, I fall back on old strategies. I guess that's what a "framework" is: an old strategy.



7. Is music important to you?
Is there any form of music that you really hate?

I like jazz from the '30s to the '60s, and that's really the only music I know anything about. I particularly like the vocalists who straddled the line between jazz and popular music. Sinatra is the best and most obvious example. It's hard to talk about music. I did a comic about Anita O'Day for MOME 11, and I think I was trying too hard to convey her approach to singing. It would have been better to do a comic that was obliquely inspired by her music, letting it filter into the style of the drawing.

I hate a lot of music, but that's more a matter of temperament than judgment.


8. What's the last comic you read that blew you away?

I can't pin it down to one.

I love the way John Broadley (http://www.johnbroadley.blogspot.com/) draws and goes about making books, though I suspect he isn't trying to make comics as such--which is all to the good. I think David King's Danny Dutch (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kingkomics/sets/72157603500714748/) is the best comic online and if it is printed, will be the best comic in print. The finest graphic novel I've read lately is Paul Goes Fishing, by Michel Rabagliati--observant, humane work.



9. Drawers question: I could be wrong, but it looks to me like you
use a lot of different drawing implements in your comics. Could you
tell us which tools you prefer- pens, brushes, paper, etc.?

For my comics, I mainly use a Hunt #102 nib and FW black ink. I pencil with a mechanical pencil and erase with a kneaded eraser. Occasionally I'll use an old brush for sloppy effects, and sometimes a crayon for shading.

For my sketchbook, I'll use whatever is at hand, and typically I'll collage elements over the drawing to rescue it or make it more interesting.


10. What do you think about on your long walks?

I go on long walks to stop thinking!