2 great Chris Ware articles.
TNW: How did you two meet, and how did the idea for the comic come about?
TM: We’ve been friends ever since 7th grade. After we both had finished college and one day Eugen said he wanted to do a comic on the Internet, “short like Dilbert”, he said. Later that day he called me on the phone and asked me to come up with something in 5 minutes. He called back and I had two ideas. One was about two white pigeons on a mission to destroy the world – the second idea is forever lost. We did the 5 minute dare again to get the names. White pigeons usually symbolize good things like peace or the Holy Ghost, and with them having a horribly evil mission we’d get some symbolic conflict and tension. (via How 2 Friends Built a Webcomic Sensation - The Next Web)
Magnet Beam Interview: Lamar Abrams
How can you not love Lamar Abrams? His comic, Remake, should live on everybody’s shelf in between their Mega Man strategy guides and their Astro Boy manga, and he is an awesome guy, to boot! I talked to Lamar about Dragon Quest, Mega Man and comics and he also provided us with some awesome artwork, so check it out!
I should come clean. I did this interview. But we DO talk about playing Dragon Quest at SPX, so whatever!
Five Big Questions for Becky and Frank!
Hello everyone, I’ve been busy for the last few weeks traveling, but I have something to show for it! Back in Bethesda, Frank and Becky said that I could interview them. Unfortunately, they were swamped by fans and requests, so it didn’t happen, but thanks to the power of the Internet, it was made possible. Here is the first of hopefully a new segment, Five Big Questions. So here it is.
In case you are wondering who these people are, they are the creative team behind the webcomic, Tiny Kitten Teeth.
1) Becky: Your art style is very distinctive and has changed quite a bit over the past few years. When did you decide on your current style and to create hand painted works?
It was when I graduated college. My influences had changed a lot; I was not as interested in stereotypical manga and edgy alternative comics, more interested in Little Golden Books, old cartoons and animation concept art. Part of that was when I made the move to painting in general. I went fully into the painted style based on a good response to some little paintings I did for various people who worked in animation. Even though they were really quick, it was the best reaction to my work I had ever experienced. Also painting was a side hobby for me, so I found it just as fun if not more so than regular drawing.
2) Frank: When it comes to your comics, you show an ability to create a variety of stories. What do you do to help build up this creative mortar.
I just want to make the things that I love. For the longest time, that has been comedy. I don’t consume a whole lot of serious media. I love working in genre. For Tiny Kitten Teeth, it’s light-hearted satire, mostly influenced by P.G. Wodehouse and peppered with my love for the Wodehouse influenced Chris Onstad. With the graphic novel I’m working on, it’s a variety of mystery and detective works, from Agatha Christie’s Poirot, to Raymond Chandler, to Scooby Doo and Nancy Drew.
3) Becky: You have collaborated with several people on different projects, from your own Tiny Kitten Teeth to Lookouts, is there one that you enjoyed working on the most?
I’ve been really lucky to work with a bunch of incredibly talented people, but I always love working with my partner, Frank. We’ve been working together on and off for nearly seven years, but the past few years we’ve almost exclusively just worked with each other. It’s always great working with new people though, like Oliver Grigsby and the Penny Arcade guys onLookouts.
4) Frank: You do a lot of collaborative work, do you have any advice for anyone who would wish to work with another person, or even a group?
Respect. As a writer, what we do is very important, but we are incredibly lucky that artists are willing to work with us. Their work is incredibly time consuming, much moreso than what we do. What you also need is a balance between your vision and the artists. I generally script fairly sparse, because I want as much of the artist to come through as possible, especially their visual storytelling. I have been very fortunate in that every artist I work with, it always comes out better than what I had in my head. I think writers need to be a lot less precious about what they want. They should just focus on it turning out good.
5) Becky and Frank: Do you guys have anything exciting in store for your fans and readers that you wish to share?
We have a graphic novel we’re working on right now, a 100+ page Tiny Kitten Teeth oversize hardcover collection, a new Tigerbuttah book. We also have our first vinyl figure launching at New York Comic Con from Cherry Vinyl. We’re super pumped!
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If you like this and want to read more of their work, go over to Tiny Kitten Teeth.
Chester Brown Interview with Fanny Kiefer
It’s no secret that I’m a huge Chester Brown fan. I only recently came across his work, the first book of his that I read being Paying For It. Brown’s extreme self-awareness and unwavering critical analysis of his own thought patterns is so refreshing I’m almost enamoured instantly. Since Paying For It, I’ve been ingesting his earlier publications at a steady pace. Thankfully I still have more to read. I’ll be so disappointed once I’ve finished them all.
Emily Carroll, interview at The Comics Journal
Emily Carroll drew her very first comic in May 2010. Thirteen months later, she won the Joe Shuster Award for Outstanding Web Comics Creator. So go ahead, pull “meteoric rise” out of the cliché file and wave it like you just don’t care—Carroll and her comics have earned the term.
Interview with Joe Sacco — Longform.org
Published in The Believer, June 2011. On comics and journalism: Now, when you draw, you can always capture that moment. You can always have that exact, precise moment when someone’s got the club raised, when someone’s going down. I realize now there’s a lot of power in that.
via Longform.org
