Graphic Novel and Comic Book Creators in New York City - Graphic NYC 18/04/2014 19:02
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Graphic Novel and Comic Book Creators in New York City - Graphic NYC 18/04/2014 19:02 CREATOR PROFILES WRITTEN BY CREATORS ESSAYS AND EXTRAS ABOUT GNYC CONTACT Leaping Tall Buildings TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 2012 Chris Ware on Building a Better Comic Book Leaping Tall Buildings: The Origins of American Comics Buy it on Amazon Get the Kindle edition Comic Creator Profiles Nick Abadzis Neal Adams Mike Allred Words: Christopher Irving Brian Azzarello Pictures: Seth Kushner Peter Bagge Kyle Baker “I feel that a book influences, and has as much of a contributing effect, on the story as the Brian Michael Bendis drawings, ink, colors and paper,” Chris Ware observes. “To me, a book is a fairly obvious metaphor for a Nick Bertozzi human body: aside from the fact that it has a spine, it’s also bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, Jeffrey Brown and it can harbor secrets. One can either be put off or invited into it depending on how it’s structured and Howard Chaykin what’s offered as the point of entry. It can affect how the whole story is felt. I like books. They’re my life.” Chris Claremont, Part 1 Part 2 Chris Claremont (video) Chris is sitting in the study of his house, a Victorian holding a Wonderland of old pop culture Becky Cloonan memorabilia and art. A clock ticks in the background as he sits straight up in his leather armchair, Mike Cavallaro surrounded by shelves housing record albums and books. The soft-spoken Ware’s ACME Novelty Library Gene Colan not only defies the standard comic book conventions, with panel layouts designed to force the reader to Kevin Colden physically turn the book, panels drawn at a smaller than conventional size—a less capable cartoonist would Molly Crabapple fail miserably and produce something unreadable; somehow, Ware makes it work. Mike Dawson Kim Deitch Kim Deitch (video) Dan Didio “It’s not to exasperate the reader, but simply to find new ways of telling stories that might be more Will Eisner in tune with how we actually experience life,” Ware notes. “This said, I realize that being incomprehensible Jules Feiffer http://www.nycgraphicnovelists.com/2012/03/chris-ware-on-building-better-comic.html Page 1 of 16 Graphic Novel and Comic Book Creators in New York City - Graphic NYC 18/04/2014 19:02 Michel Fiffe Bob Fingerman Simon Fraser Dick Giordano Dan Goldman Larry Hama Larry Hama (video) Part 1 Part 2 Tim Hamilton Tom Hart Irwin Hasen Dean Haspiel Carmine Infantino Joe Infurnari Al Jaffee Jack Kirby Joe Kubert Peter Kuper Peter Kuper (video) Stan Lee Paul Levitz Jason Little David Mack Matt Madden Scott McCloud Dwayne McDuffie Frank Miller, Part 1 Part 2 Grant Morrison is occasionally the artistic result. It just seemed to me when I started trying to draw comics that the formal Christine Norrie language of the medium was (and is) fairly limited, and that comics may have had more expressive Josh Neufeld potential locked within them than had been already discovered. George O'Connor Denny O'Neil Jimmy Palmiotti “While I’m working, I worry every few minutes about veering too close to pretentiousness or Jimmy Palmiotti (video) incomprehensibility. I frequently have to get up and walk around, then come back to what I’m doing to see Harvey Pekar if it honestly has the feeling I’m going for, or if the panels are in a readable order. Even if it does make Paul Pope sense to me, I still worry that it’s difficult to judge whether I’m accurately reading it or bringing something Paul Pope (video) from within me to interpret it favorably. Needless to say, this is all a tremendously difficult line to walk as a Leland Purvis writer and artist, but I think it’s something every writer and artist has to do, to some degree.” Joe Quesada Ware doesn’t give very many in-person interviews, usually preferring e-mail—it’s a shame: in Kat Roberts person, Ware is affable and armed with a disarming and dry humor. Earlier, he was winding his living room Jerry Robinson cuckoo clock and pointed out how aggressive cuckoo clocks really are, when they’re typically thought of Alex Ross as friendly and warm, glossed over with the nostalgia of old things. He is one of those rare people who pull Nathan Schreiber something deeper from the world around him, which makes him perfectly suited as a cartoonist and Dash Shaw storyteller of human conflict. Joe Simon Walter Simonson “Blackbeard and Sheridan’s Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics probably was the single Jim Shooter coalescence of early work to change my thinking about comics and what could be done with comics. That Art Spiegelman book was always open on my drawing table when I was in college.” Raina Telgemeier Ben Templesmith Jill Thompson Chris Ware “I don’t think I really read superhero comics that much as a kid,” Chris admits. “I think I was Gahan Wilson just looking at pictures, tracing them, and designing my own superheroes. I don’t really remember many of Brian Wood the stories at all. What I really remember was reading Peanuts and laughing at Peanuts and really loving Peanuts—essentially feeling a real connection to the characters. When I got into college, I started looking Search GNYC at turn of the century comics more closely, both from Art [Spiegelman]’s suggestion and from my friend Search John Keen’s; John really turned my thinking around about that, and we used to try and find old newspaper http://www.nycgraphicnovelists.com/2012/03/chris-ware-on-building-better-comic.html Page 2 of 16 Graphic Novel and Comic Book Creators in New York City - Graphic NYC 18/04/2014 19:02 Christopher Irving Christopher Irving first cut his teeth as a journalist and historian in the pages of trade publications like Comics Buyer's Guide and Comic Book Artist magazine, before authoring a handful of books on comics and their creators. He continues to run Graphic NYC with Kushner while also contributing to his blog and digital magazine www.thedrawnword.com. His work can soon be found in the pages of editor Jon B. Cooke's latest magazine, sections driving around to small town antique stores in Texas. This was long before eBay, and, needless to Comic Book Creator, through say, we had little luck.” TwoMorrows Publishing. The one strip that perhaps had the most effect on Ware’s comics work—and one that is proudly displayed around his house in mementoes and framed images—is Frank King’s Gasoline Alley, a long- running daily strip that started in 1918 and was the first to have the characters age in real time. One look at King’s clean art style on Gasoline Alley and the influence is apparent in Ware’s work. “There was a warmth and an unabashed unpretentiousness to it;” Ware reflects. “It was about family life, which really struck me as sort of gutsy and honest, because he wasn’t simply going for stupid gags or mean-spirited humor; he was really trying to get at something more tender and touching. His work made me feel as if it was ‘okay’ to take this approach, as well—and it had been what I’d been trying to do, but I’d been setting up all sorts of self-conscious art school obstacles in front of myself in the process. I just really wanted to put my deepest feelings on paper, and he helped me to start trying. I thought a lot about King’s work in art school and the feelings it provoked; I had a genuine affection for it. Of course, I loved Krazy Kat as well and I love Little Nemo and Polly and Her Pals.” Seth Kushner Ware had earlier exposure to classic comic strips—as well as other things vintage—when just a kid, and chances are it primed him for his further education and appreciation of old comics and design. Seth Kushner's photography has appeared in The New York Times “For a while my mom dated a newscaster in Omaha, Nebraska who loved Krazy Kat,” Chris says. Magazine, Time, Newsweek, L’Uomo “He’d bring over the sort of lame reflex blue reprint book from the ‘70s and put Fats Waller LPs on our Vogue, The New Yorker and others. In record player and he’d read Krazy Kat to me. I found the strip utterly baffling, but oddly compelling. I 2011, Seth co-founded the Brooklyn- guess a lot of my interests were sparked by this fellow; he even stored a player piano in our garage that I’d filtered literary arts salonTrip City, which play around on every day after school, he being very into ragtime as well as jazz. He was imbuing me with is home of Seth’s profile a variety of tastes that were sure to keep me from meeting girls from many years.” seriesCulturePOP Photocomix, his autobio “comix neurotoica” SCHMUCK, and his prose series, First-Person POP. Intent on creating comics, Ware enrolled at the University of Texas with a mixed bag of painting, drawing, printmaking, and English classes. It was during this period of self-discovery that Chris snagged a job at the Daily Texan as art director, where he also created his own comics. The most he seems to have gotten from it was technical knowledge: The views and opinions herein are the “[It was] a job which I realized early on was not something with which I wanted to occupy my opinion of the respective interview http://www.nycgraphicnovelists.com/2012/03/chris-ware-on-building-better-comic.html Page 3 of 16 Graphic Novel and Comic Book Creators in New York City - Graphic NYC 18/04/2014 19:02 subjects, and not necessarily those of Graphic NYC.