Interview with Bob Corby

Thanks for doing the interview Bob. We first met, briefly, at S.P.A.C.E., which is a small press comic show you run in Columbus, OH and you’re a cartoonist as well. I was impressed and surprised when I received your trades to the co-op. What started your interest in comics?

I first got interested in comics when I was about 5 or 6 and my cousin showed me a Superman comic and told me it was drawn by a person. I just thought that was amazing and I’ve been hooked ever since.

How long have you been self publishing?

Back Porch Comics (and its initial incarnation of Corby Visual Productions) will be celebrating its 30th anniversary this year at SPACE, if I get around to making the poster. I was actively trying to get some work published for about 3 or 4 years before I decided to self publish. The first minicomic I published was the Wizard of Comics #1 which was a minicomic I did for the Columbus comic shop of that name to give out at a small convention they sponsored. Wizard of Comics #2 was the first minicomic I actively traded in the Small Press Network in 1986.

What made you decide to start self publishing yourself?
I started sending out work right before the B&W glut and did get some things published. Fire Fang had a 5 issue run in Just Imagine Comics and Stories before the glut hit and just Imagine bite the dust. Also my daughter was born that year so I wasn’t looking for anything that tied me to a schedule.

Who has influenced your style?

The three big ones are Charles Schultz, Jack Kirby and Jim Starlin.

What tools do you use to make your comics?
Most of my work is still hand drawn in pencil and ink. I use a Zebra M:301 0.5 mechanical pencil because I’m too lazy to sharpen a real pencil. I’ve been through a lot of different pencils but they eventually seem to start making them cheaper and I snap lead because I very heavy handed. For inking I use a Pentel Brush Pen. It’s neater then using a dip brush. I do most of my drawing in the family room just sitting in front of the TV with my wife, Kathy, so it would be very dangerous to have an open ink bottle. I use a Sakura 0.8 Micron for fine lines and stipple. They take a lot of abuse which I dole out when I’m stippling. I have played around with linoleum cut printing for a few comics and covers. I’ve used the real battle board linoleum and Ready Cut by Blicks. (Never, never use E-Z cut. I don’t know why they still sell it.) I also have done some acrylic painted comics.

What made you decide to start S.P.A.C.E.?

I was exhibiting at the old Mid Ohio Con for years and every year there was more and more non-comics stuff going on. So there were less and less people even looking at comics especially small press stuff. We had one of the first Spirits of Independents show in Columbus which went pretty well but it disappeared right after that. So I decided to do my own after nobody brought back the Spirits show.

What do you get out of making comics?

Mostly therapy. It gives me a chance to be somebody else every so often. I really enjoy making stuff up.

You can find out more about Bob and S.P.A.C.E. by visiting his websites:

http://backporchcomics.com/back_porch_comics.htm

http://www.backporchcomics.com/space.htm

S.P.A.C.E. 2016 is April 9-10 at the Northland Performing Arts Center in Columbus, OH.

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Interview with Brian Payne

Thanks for doing the interview Brian. I think I first saw your stuff through my contribution through the Co-Op. I was surprised when I took it over how many books you had contributed contributed to the Co-Op. Some of them I wanted to keep just for myself. What started your interest in comics?

The Mini Comix Co-Op was and remains a great idea and one that I continue to support whole heartedly, albeit to be honest I believe that initially I merely misinterpreted “5-10 copies” to mean 5 copies of 10 comics or some such which would perhaps explain why they still have so much of my stuff in stock. Like most kids I watched Saturday morning animated cartoons on television and read the Sunday funny papers but other than a few “Mad” magazines I never really read many comic books. It wasn’t until I began studying sign painting after high school and I was asked to letter one of the things that I really became “interested in comics.” The book’s artist gave me a few comics to read so I could see just how comic book lettering was done and I immediately recognized the art forms limitless potential. Yet, it was not until a few years later that I actually began to draw my own comics. In the early 90s I lived in the same Chicago neighborhood as both Dan Clowes and Chris Ware and they would occasionally come into the copy shop in which I worked. Seeing their original pages made me finally want to sit down and try my hand at it myself.

 

How long have you been self publishing?

 

It’s been 25 years since I began drawing comics and started self-publishing them. In 1991 I put out a series of xeroxed micro/mini-comics and eventually self-published two full-sized comic books a couple of years later. I’ve continued to self-publish in fits and starts ever since usually using the 16 page digest-sized format. I’m hoping to publish a few new comic books sometime in 2016 by way of celebrating Zinc Comics 25th anniversary as well.

 

What made you decide to start self publishing yourself?

 

Zinc Comics #1 – Brian Payne

In a word, necessity! My very first “Zinc” strips got published in a free paper in Chicago therefore I thought rather foolishly that I could just as easily sell my next strip to a professional newspaper syndicate. However, I soon had an ever growing pile of rejection letters that proved otherwise. Unlike a lot of cartoonists I didn’t start drawing comics at an early age but soon realized the only way to get good at it was to draw a lot of bad comics first. Yet, since I worked in several copy shops, I was afforded the opportunity to continue to print nearly each and every one of my childlike efforts. Like many cartoonists of a certain age “Cerebus” and Dave Sim was also a huge influence on my decision to self-publish. Although I must admit that I’ve always been poor enough that I would sell out in a New York minute given half the chance and would be more than willing to work for a company that publishes creator owned books and wouldn’t expect me to sign a work for hire contract.

 

Who has influenced your style? It’s very clean.

 

I’ve been influenced by nearly every cartoonist out there from Henning “Mik” Mikkelsen to Bill Griffith and from Fletcher Hanks to Josh Bayer. However, I willingly admit that Gary Spencer Millidge’s “Strangehaven” and Glen Brewer’s “Askari Hodari” had a profound effect on both me and my work. That being said, P. Craig Russell is still “my ideal,” as Li’l Abner would say. Even though I do in fact admire some cartoonists specifically for their passionate and blobby brush stroke I definitely aspire to more of a “lingo claire” style and attempt to keep my own work as “clean” as Paul’s grandfather ever was.*

*Brian is apparently making an archaic reference to the Beatle’s film “A Hard Day’s Night” here.

What tools do you use to make your comics?

I’d always ask this question of every cartoonist I’d meet myself as I secretly wished that if I used the same tools as they did my comics would look as good. I soon realized however that they could draw their comic with a crayon and it would still look pretty amazing and probably better than mine too. I started out penciling all my comics with a lead pencil but became increasingly frustrated by the fact that when I’d try to erase those pencil lines that the ink would sometimes erase too thus I soon began drawing with non-photo blue pencils. I’m currently issuing a Prismacolor Verithin Blue Inactinique 761 1/2. Originally I inked my comics with a #102 Hunt crow quill pen and Higgins Black Magic waterproof India ink and would still prefer to but neither ink nor paper quality is what it once was. I’ve found it necessary to start using Micron and/or brush pens like so many other comic artists have of late. I use a combination of both Sakura Pigma Micron and brush pens augmented by my trusty Pentel Arts pocket brush now. Yet, I occasionally still pull out the crow quill on rare occasions and sometimes even draw with just a Prismacolor/Premier Black Noir PC935 pencil sans ink entirely when I want to live dangerously.

I know you live in Alaska, has it influenced you artistically?

I once imagined that I was most creative at night but where I live in Alaska during the winter months there is 18 hours of darkness and since I don’t use that entire time creatively I’ve had to abandon this notion. In the summer there are 18 hours of daylight as well so I had to learn to tap into my creativity energy by the light of day to get my art work done. Additionally, I’ve found every place I live informs my comics in varying degrees. “Warlock Hotel” was very much a Denver story whereas ‘Jake Wilde” was influenced by the time I lived near the Mexican border. Upon moving to Homer I immediately began work on “Cosmic Hamlet” and this new story is most definitely of this particular place. These strips have been serialized appropriately enough in the Alaskan comic anthology “Sowsear.” Homer has a thriving arts community and I have found myself creating a few new comics with the gallery wall in mind rather than the printed page too.

What do you get out of making comics?

Although every artist should expect to be paid for any work that they do and certainly can’t afford to work for free as the old joke goes “there is hundreds of dollars in this business” so I’m definitely not expecting any huge monetary reward nonetheless. I don’t exactly create art for art’s sakes either though but rather instead because I am strangely compelled to. Once I get an idea in my head I find that it tends to consume my every waking thought. I’m hardly prolific and these ideas can gestate for a quite some time but eventually I must at least try to get it down on paper if I ever expect to purge myself of it. I do not consider myself an especially skilled craftsman or even a “cartoonist” per se and yet I do believe that the language of comics i.e., words and pictures, is the best way for me to try to express myself or at least attempt to communicate with people. This interview has proven difficult at times in fact due to the fact that I couldn’t simply add a few images to it when words failed me.

For more of Brian Bayne’s art & comics check him out at:

http://zinccomics.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ZiNC-COMICS-332958361838

Daniel White Interview

Thanks for doing the interview Daniel. I remember when I first got your book. I was surprised to get a book of such high quality submitted to the Co-Op. What started your interest in comics?

Thanks for having me! My love for comics started at a very young age. My wonderful Aunt sent me a drawing I made when I was 3 or 4 that she had been holding onto for all these years. Its Batman and Robin running, and I figured out back then to clip one of the legs at the knee to make it look like they were in mid stride. I may have been smarter back then, cause at 39 I have a ton of trouble drawing someone running!!

What started the love? It had to be cartoons. Super Friends was on back then, and I have very early memories of the 60’s Batman show that was reruns at the time. I was born in 76, so seeing Empire Strikes Back in 1980 was also a very early memory, and that’s essentially a super hero story. Also, I had my Grandpa bringing me comic books from the candy store around this time as well. So I think it was maybe just all around me. And it was something that I just held onto really tightly. Growing up you can get into fads, and as you get older tastes change. But my interest in comics only grew as I got older. My love for break dancing didn’t last as long, that’s for sure.

How long have you been self publishing?

About three years now. But the first thing that got put out was not by me. It was self published by an incredible company called Super Classy Publishing. They essentially self publish themselves, but they have the skill to make their products look absolutely incredible. After that I had put out ‘1976’ on my own, and have been putting out whatever I can since. I’ve done a few very small runs of certain projects, some tee shirts, and the second long form comic called ‘Nutsac’. All told I think I’ve put out about 5 books.

What made you decide to start self publishing yourself?

Well for one thing, if no one else is gonna publish my stuff, I may as well do it myself. But in doing so, I had the opportunity to learn so much more about what goes into making a comic. And in my mind, that’s a plus. If the idea is to work on your craft, and hope that someday some company says “hey, just draw, we will put the work out”, having already put some things out myself can be seen as a bonus. If a company ever comes along and publishes me, they are gonna see how serious I take this. They are gonna know that I have dedicated a lot of time and care into making comics already.

And its pro active. Most folks are not gonna know who you are unless someone puts a book in their hands. Its the greatest business card!

Beyond that, it just feels good to take something from a thought and turn it into a reality. My favorite moment in the process is not a particular drawing, or writing of a scene. Its the moment when you get back from the printer and have this finished book in your hands.

 

Who has influenced your style?

Lots of music has. I mean, music has influenced my life greatly, and without that information I wouldn’t be the person I am today. As far as actually style… too many to list I would say. but stand outs would have to be John Bryne, Chris Samnee, Alex Toth. Gosh, there’s just so many. That’s a really hard question. You start out tracing some of the greats when you’re a kid, and today I am more influenced by moving objects or film. My big problem with my art is its emotional impact. I’m constantly trying to make a flat image pack a gut punch. So when I sit down and work on a page, Ill try to imagine it like a film in order to find some real moments in there.

 

What tools do you use to make your comics?

Lately its just been two shades of blue pencil, and then some ink. I go between brushes and markers on the ink side. My whole thing is that I want my pages to have an old school kind of feel to them. So I don’t mess with computers at all in the creation of my work. In a way I would rather a car or something in the background look a little off, but at least look like it was hand made, warts and all.

 

Love and hearts seem to be a recurring theme in your work I’ve noticed and you use a lot of black and pink. Where does this come from?

Honest answer? I deal with a touch of depression in my life. That was something that I always tried to hide. But over the last few years I’ve been more comfortable with showing that side, and letting it come out in the work. Bummer topic I realize, but I have felt very alone at times, and because of that, I think my brain has put this huge value on the notion of love. Of being in love. Of having someone that accepts you and is there for you. In a way its silly, but I’m old fashioned. But some of the best love I have ever felt, and seen, has been fucking mythical. So I have been trying to carry that myth over into my comics.

What do you get out of making comics?

I get to teach myself some things that keep the brain working. I get to feel good about myself. I get to let some things out emotionally. I get to actualize my dreams and fantasies. I get to give myself a fighting chance that one day I may get to work for myself. I get the chance to talk and meet new people. I get the chance to occasionally make someone else feel good. Making comics gives me a way to hide from the world on some days, and on other days it gives me the chance to add and take part in the world. Mostly though I like making comics because I love to draw.

You can find more of Daniel’s art @birdsinboxes on Instagram