Indie americans

Biographie

Où êtes vous né et où vivez-vous aujourd’hui ?
Je suis né à Los Angeles et y ai vécu jusqu’en 1998, date à laquelle j’ai déménagé à Boston. À Boston, j’ai rencontré Tom Devlin et j’ai travaillé avec lui pour publier des bandes dessinées et aller dans des festivals. Grâce à lui, j’ai rencontré de nombreux dessinateurs de la région. J’ai d’abord rencontré Ron Rege, Megan Kelso, puis Ben Jones et C.F. Ensuite, j’ai rencontré Brian Ralph. Par l’intermédiaire de Brian, je me suis rendu à Fort Thunder pour faire de la sérigraphie, puis j’ai rencontré Brian Chippendale et Mat Brinkman. Boston a eu énormément d’influence et les dessinateurs que j’y ai rencontré, ont façonné en grande partie mon approche de la bande dessinée. Puis en 2000, je suis retourné à Los Angeles, où je me suis établi. Au début, lorsque je suis retourné à Los Angeles, il y avait très peu de dessinateurs vivant ici. John Pham et Sammy Harkham étaient les seuls que je connaissais. Mais au fil des ans, de plus en plus de dessinateurs y ont déménagé. Ron Rege, Steve Weissman, Johnny Ryan. Ensuite, j’ai connu Jaime Hernandez, qui était là depuis toujours, et cela a été une énorme rencontre pour mon histoire personnelle et mon travail actuel. Los Angeles compte actuellement beaucoup d’auteurs dans la ville et j’ai vraiment de la chance de partager leur compagnie.

Quelles sont les maisons d’édition “small press” et plus officielles avec lesquelles vous avez collaboré ? Ou avez vous fait de l’auto-édition, avec un nom de structure ?
Au début, j’ai publié sous le nom Red Ink, puis je suis passé à Reddingk. J’ai aussi travaillé en étroite collaboration avec Highwater Books à la fin des années 1990. En 2004, j’ai travaillé avec Fantagraphics, ils publient toujours mes livres et mes bandes dessinées aujourd’hui. En fait, tout ce qui est imprimé en offset, c’est Fantagraphics qui le fait. Pendant un certain temps (2010-2013), j’ai mis en place un site web collaboratif de bandes dessinées intitulée What Things Do. Ça a fini par devenir une trop lourde responsabilité pour moi et je l’ai fermé pour disposer de plus de temps pour travailler sur mes bandes dessinées. J’ai également collaboré avec Sammy Harkham, sur divers projets d’édition. Je continue à publier de petites éditions de bandes dessinées avec des couvertures sérigraphiées et des intérieurs photocopiés.

Comment avez-vous appris votre métier d’auteur ?
Au fil de nombreuses années à faire des bandes dessinées. J’ai appris par la pratique. Des heures sur une chaise avec de l’encre sur les mains.

Vivez-vous de votre art, sinon comment faites-vous pour tenir le coup ?
Les bandes dessinées ne paient pas mes factures. Je fais des sérigraphies, et cela me permet de gagner de l’argent. J’en gagne aussi ici et là avec les trucs habituels comme des illustrations ou des travaux de commande. La plupart du temps, c’est le travail de ma femme qui paie les factures.

Auto-édition

Par qui/comment s’est fait votre premier contact avec la scène de l’auto-édition ?
J’ai commencé l’auto-édition avant de connaître quelqu’un dans le monde de la bande dessinée. Après ce premier livre, "NON n°1", j’ai commencé à rencontrer des gens. La toute première personne à entrer en contact avec moi était Tom Devlin, puis après Brian Ralph, et le reste de Fort Thunder à Providence dans le Rhode Island. La scène de la côte Est à la fin des années 1990 était très inspirante.

Pourquoi avez vous décidé de vous auto-éditer ?
Parce que personne ne voulait me publier et que je voulais faire partie du monde de la bande dessinée. À l’époque, je gagnais assez d’argent avec mon travail alimentaire pour pouvoir mettre de l’argent de côté et financer un livre. Donc je l’ai fait. C’était pour moi une façon de forcer le destin et faire partie du monde de la bande dessinée.

Quelle est la meilleure partie dans l’auto-édition ? Fabriquer le récit, fabriquer le livre, la rencontre avec le public, la participation à une communauté ?
Ce que je préfère dans l’auto-édition est que je peux faire le livre exactement comme je le veux. Rêver le livre et le faire. J’aime aussi pouvoir donner aux gens un livre contenant mon travail récent, que ce soit à des éditeurs ou à des amis.

Quelle est votre meilleure expérience d’auto-édition ?
Ma meilleure expérience d’auto-édition a également été la pire : le "NON no.5". C’était un énorme paquet de trois livres avec un insert en carton et une couverture géante autour, en sérigraphie. J’ai réalisé l’essentiel de la production du paquet final, toute la production a occupé mon salon pendant des mois. J’ai perdu de d’argent sur les frais de port et des erreurs d’impression. Mais c’était exactement le livre que je voulais faire, j’en ai fait 2000 exemplaires, et ça a pris un an de ma vie. Quelle époque !

Est-ce que l’auto-édition vous coûte de l’argent, vous rapporte, ou a un bénéfice nul ?
Au moment où j’ai cessé de publier des livres imprimés en offset, mon dernier projet avait été "NON n° 5" et j’avais un peu plus de 20 000 $ de dettes. J’ai fait beaucoup d’erreurs au cours de la réalisation de ce livre et elles se sont accumulées au cours de l’année de production. Je suis toujours aujourd’hui sans explication sur les raisons qui m’ont poussé à m’endetter autant pour faire ce livre. Je suis mauvais en comptabilité, je suppose que cela a quelque chose à voir avec tout ça.

Êtes-vous un éditeur ou un distributeur pour le travail d’autres personnes ? Si oui, comment est-ce arrivé ?
Sur mon site web whatthingsdo.com, je distribue également le travail d’autres personnes. Pour la même raison que lors de ma première expérience en ligne : c’est pas mal de travail pour mettre en place une boutique en ligne, et une fois qu’elle existe, autant aussi inclure d’autres personnes. C’est aussi un bon moyen pour moi de rester en contact avec les auteurs et de les soutenir d’une manière ou d’une autre.

Quel rôle joue les salons et les conventions de micro-édition dans votre pratique de l’auto-édition ?
Ils étaient une source de revenus, mais depuis 2008 environ, il semble que les gens n’ont plus d’argent à dépenser. De plus, j’ai une famille maintenant, alors je ne vais plus autant aux conventions. Quand les enfants iront à l’école, j’imagine que je referai plus de festivals.

Gardez vous une archive de vos fanzines ? Comment les conservez-vous ?
Je conserve quatre exemplaires de chaque chose que je publie, sur le dessus d’une étagère. Ce n’est pas le meilleur endroit pour l’archivage, maintenant que j’y pense.

Où imprimez-vous vos fanzines ? Est-ce que vous passez par un imprimeur ou chez un copy-shop ?
J’imprime moi-même les couvertures, et mon magasin de photocopie local imprime l’intérieur. Ensuite, je les agrafe et les plie, les ramène à la photocopieuse et les rogne. J’adore que les bords d’un mini-comic soient bien nets, ça donne un bien meilleur résultat.

Est-ce que vous lisez beaucoup de zines et de mini-comics ?
J’en lis tous les mois. Je ramasse tout ce qui est nouveau dans la librairie du coin et chaque fois que je vais à un festival, je reviens avec un tas de choses.

Est-ce que vous pensez que votre pratique de l’auto-édition est lié à votre situation géographique ? à l’organisation du marché de la bande dessinée aux USA ?
Je ne pense pas que cela soit lié à ma situation géographique. Je pense que cela existe aussi en dehors du "marché de la bande dessinée" et que cela me plait beaucoup. Les mini-comics sont un moyen pour les artistes de créer et de partager leur travail sans se soucier de la valeur économique de leur travail.

Edition

Quel a été votre premier éditeur ? Connaissaient-ils votre travail grâce à l’auto-édition ?
Mon premier éditeur, à part moi-même, est celui qui m’édite encore aujourd’hui : Fantagraphics. Ils ont connu mon travail à travers les comics de mon récit "Keeping Two". En 2002, Gary Groth (éditeur chez Fantagraphics) voulait publier "Keeping Two", mais je ne l’avais pas encore fini (j’y travaille encore, il est presque fini), du coup je lui ai proposé une autre histoire, il a accepté, et ils sont mon principal éditeur depuis.

Avez-vous continué à autopublier depuis ? Pourquoi ?
Tout d’abord, j’adore le toucher d’un mini-comic. J’adore les faire et j’adore les échanger. Au-delà de cela, l’auto-publication, est un excellent moyen pour moi de voir mon travail sous une forme plus ou moins complète. Il m’arrive souvent de publier un mini-comic, puis environ un mois plus tard, de le lire avec de nouveaux yeux et de trouver toutes sortes de possibilités d’amélioration. Pas mal d’histoires ont changé entre la version en mini-comic et la version que je publie dans "Uptight".

Allez-vous continuer à auto-éditer dans les prochaines années ?
La prochaine chose que je vais publier est la septième partie et conclusion de mon roman graphique "Keeping Two". La sortie est prévue pour avril 2019.

Pour vos livres qui sont passés de l’auto-édition à l’édition, quelles questions de remontage ou de format se sont posés ? Comment voyez-vous la relation entre les deux ?
Je n’ai jamais arrêté de publier des mini-comics, je publierai toujours le mini-comic d’une histoire que j’ai finie récemment, à condition que ce soit un livre d’une vingtaine de pages. Généralement le mini-comic est la première version de l’histoire, la version imprimée en offset subit généralement des modifications au niveau du récit.

L’exposition

Vous pouvez nous parler des travaux que l’on peut voir dans l’exposition ?

{{{Biography}}} {{Where were you born, and where do you currently live ? Did you move to other significant places in between ?}} I was born in Los Angeles, and lived there until 1998, when I moved to Boston. In Boston, I met Tom Devlin, and worked with him publishing comics and doing shows. Through him, I met many cartoonists in the area. First, I met Ron Rege, Megan Kelso, and then Ben Jones and C.F. Then I got to know Brian Ralph. Through Brian, I visited Fort Thunder to screenprint, and then met Brian Chippendale and Mat Brinkman. Boston was hugely influential, and the cartoonists who I got to know while living there in a large part shaped my approach to comics. Then in 2000, I moved back to Los Angeles, where I've been living ever since. At first, when I returned to LA, there were very few cartoonists living here. John Pham and Sammy Harkham were the only ones I knew. But as the years went by, more cartoonists moved here. Ron Rege, Steve Weissman, Johnny Ryan. Then I got to know Jaime Hernandez, who had been here all along, and that was a huge connection for me in terms of history and present work. Los Angeles right now has a lot of cartoonists in the city, and I consider myself very fortunate to share their company. {{What are the "small press" and more official publishing houses with which you have collaborated (if you have a web page containing this information, just give us the link) / Or did you self-publish under your own name or using a label?}} At first, I published as {Red Ink}, then I switched it to {Reddingk}. I've worked closely with {Highwater Books} in the late 1990's. In 2004, I becan working with {Fantagraphics}, they publish my books and comics for me now. Basically everything that is offset, Fantagraphics does. For awhile, 2010-2013, I curated a large online comics anthology called {What Things Do}. This grew to be too much of a responsibility for my, and I closed it down so that I would have more time to work on comics. I've collaborated with Sammy Harkham alot, in his various publishing ventures as well. I continue to self publish small editions of comics with screenprinted covers and photocopied interiors. {{How did you learn to be a cartoonist ? }} Over the course of many years of drawing comics, I learned how to draw comics. It was learned by doing. Hours in the chair with ink on the hands. {{Do you make a living from your art, if not how do you manage to earn a living?}} Comics don't pay the bills for me. I do screenprints, and that does pretty well for me in terms of making money. I also make some money here and there from the usual sources, illustration and design work. Mostly, my Wife has a job that pays the bills. {{{Self-publishing}}} {{Who / how was your first contact in the self-publishing scene?}} I began self publishing before I knew anyone in the comics world. After that first book, {NON} no.1, I began to meet people. The very first person to get in touch with me was Tom Devlin, and then after that Brian Ralph, and the the rest of {Fort Thunder} in Providence RI. The whole east coast scene in the late 1990's was very inspirational. {{Why did you decide to self-publish?}} Because nobody was going to publish me, and I wanted to be part of the comics world. At the time, I was making enough money at my day job that I could save up and print a book. So I did. Sort of kick down the walls and storm the castle approach to being part of the comics world. {{What is for you the best part in self-publishing? Making the story, making the book, meeting with the audience, participating in a community?}} My favorite part of self publishing is that I can make the book exactly how I want it. Dreaming up the book and making it is my favorite part. Also, I love being able to give people a book of my recent work, either as a trade or as a gift. {{What is your best self-publishing experience?}} My best self-publishing experience was also my worst: {NON} no.5. It was a huge package of three books with a cardboard insert and a giant wrap around screenprinted cover. I did most of the production of the final package myself, the whole production taking up my living room for months. I lost all sorts of money on the shipping and due to printer snafus. But it really was the exact book I wanted to make, and I made 2000 copies of it, and it consumed my life for a year. What a time. {{Does self-publishing cost you money, do you make a profit, or do you simply break even?}} By the time I stopped publishing offset printed books, my last project was {NON} no.5, and I was a little more than $20,000 in debt. I made alot of mistakes over the course of making that book, and they accumulated over the year it took me to produce it. I am to this day MYSTIFIED as to why I went so far in debt to make that book. I am also terrible with accounting, so I suspect that has something to do with it. {{Are you a publisher or a distributor for other people’s work? If so, how did you come to it?}} On my website {whatthingsdo.com}, I distribute other people's work as well. It's the same reason as why I first published an anthology - It's alot of work to do a web store, so may as well include some other people in it. Also, it's a good way for me to stay in touch with artists, and support them in some way. {{What role do comics conventions play in your self-publishing practice?}} They used to be a source of income, but since 2008 or so, it doesn't seem that people have the money to spend that they once did. Also, I have a family now, so I don't travel as much to conventions. When the kids go off to school, I suppose I'll be doing more shows. {{Do you keep an archive of your fanzines? How do you preserve them?}} I keep four copies of each thing I publish on the top of my book shelf. It's not the best place in terms of archiving, now that I think about it. {{Where do you print your fanzines? Do you go through a printer or at a copy shop?}} I screenprint the covers for them myself, and the local copy shop prints the insides. Then I staple and fold them, bring them back to the copy shop, and have them edge trimmed. I love a good edge trim on my mini- comics, it really sharpens up the profile. {{Do you read a lot of zines and mini-comics?}} I read a few every month. I pick up whatever is new at the local shop, and whenever I go to a festival, I come back with a whole bunch. {{Do you think that your self-publishing practice is related to your location? How does it fit (or not) in the organization of the comics market in the USA?}} I don't think it is related to my geographic location. I think it exists somewhat outside of the "comics market" and that holds a lot of it's appeal to me. Mini-comics are a way for artists to create and share their work in a way that is mostly free from the tethers of the economic evaluation of their work. {{{Edition}}} {{Who was your first publisher? Did they know your work through self-publishing?}} My first publisher, aside from myself, is the one I still have today: {Fantagraphics}. They knew my through my minicomics of {Keeping Two}. In 2002, Gary Groth ({Fantagraphics} publisher) wanted to publish Keeping Two, but I wasn't finished with it yet (I am still working on it, nearly done) so I suggested another story, and he agreed, and they've been my main publisher ever since. {{Have you continued to self-publish since? Why?}} First of all, I love the way a mini-comic feels. I love making them, and I love trading them. Beyond that, self publishing, at this point, is a great way for me to see my work in a more or less complete form. I often will self publish a mini-comic, and then, a month or so later, read it through with fresh eyes and find all sorts of room for improvement. There have been quite a few stories that have changed between mini-comic version and the version I end up publishing in Uptight. {{Will you continue to self-publish in the next few years?}} The next thing I will be putting out is part seven, the conclusion, of my graphic novel Keeping Two. I expect to be putting that out sometime around April of 2019. {{How have you handled the transition of your works from mini-comics to books, in terms of format and reassembling? How do you see the relationship between both objects?}} I have never stopped putting out mini-comics, I always will put out a mini-comic of a story that I've recently finished, as long as it's 20 or so pages. It usually turns out that the mini-comic is the first draft of the story, and the offset printed version usually has alterations to the story. {{{The exhibition}}} {{Can you tell us something about the work that can be seen in the exhibition?}} Pages from Keeping Two This is my favorite size to draw at, not so big that I can get too detailed, small enough that I only have room for the essential details. I like being able to use heavy areas of black, and to work inside these with white ink gives me a great deal of pleasure. These are the pages where everything starts to fall apart, where the worst fears of the characters turn themselves inside out and start becoming true. With Keeping Two, I am making a story of the thoughts and emotions of the two people living the events of the story, and I am really enjoying the visual language that I am able to use, showing the character, and juxtaposing them directly with images of their internal landscape creates a powerful and intoxicating momentum in this story. We Not I / We One / We are all Me (book to be sent) These pages represent the iterative process of working on the story that eventually became the book We are all Me. As you can see by the taped up pages, there were many different versions and attempts at creating the story, many missteps and rabbit holes, until the final story emerged at last. This shows clearly how many completed drafts happened to get to the final book, and for me, it made clear the iterative nature of my work, and how the work strengthens as it goes through different versions, growing and expanding. Middle Nowhere (zine) This story starts with one of my favorite things: a radio tower. I just love a good radio tower. This story has significance for me, as I worked on it while stuck in the middle of trying to write The Dark Nothing, and it more or less paralleled my experience of trying to write a story that just kept getting away from me. Also significant, because despite all the calamity, it has a hopeful ending, which is something that had eluded me for quite awhile. The Dark Nothing (zine) This is the third iteration of the story. The first two attempts were scrapped, and I changed my approach until I got to this basic story. I printed this minicomic with the help of John Pham on his Riso machine for the two color interior. After making this minicomic, I saw some parts of the story that could improve, and the story ended up changing significantly before it's publication in Uptight no.5. I see this story as possibly continuing, I've written quite a bit more of it. On the other hand, I could leave it here. Only time will tell. The Life Unlucky (zine) I had a bunch of morbid limericks that I wrote, and I drew some simple images to go with them. Sort of Edward Gorey territory here. The Shortcut (zine) This story was the precursor of the book "The Clouds Above" The characters are based on a little boy and his cat that I saw walking along in a village in Portugal. A little blonde headed kid with a huge cat, they looked great together, and fell right into the pages of this story, having adventures on the way to school with weird monsters. Uptight no.5 This is my favorite issue of Uptight. The colors on the cover, purple, red, black and gold, were set in place before I even had a cover image, I just wanted to use those colors together somehow. I like the glossy stock alot too, it really makes the colors dense and bright. The content feels like a good mix to me: One ongoing story (Keeping Two) and a bunch of short stories: Wake Up, The Middle Nowhere, and The Dark Nothing. This issue was a whopper, 112 pages long, and printed on the thinnest glossy stock that I could find. Overall it feels like a slim but very dense object, and that's something that I like very much. My only regret with this issue is that the printer didn't put a coating on the cover, so it tends to scuff easily. Keeping Two no.1 (zine) This is the first issue of Keeping Two, with the clouds and wind of a late autumn day on the cover. I liked the green sky with the pink clouds, I felt like it evoked autumn to me without directly using autumnal colors. Keeping Two no.5 (zine) Here we are mid story, things are starting to shape of for the next to the last act. This cover is a quiet night scene, I like the deep green with the lighter, cool shade of green, it gives me the sense of a peaceful night walk. Keeping Two no.6 (zine) This is the second to the last collection of Keeping Two, the story is building to a conclusion, and all the things are going wrong. I am very happy with this cover, the simple profiles, the strong white ghost shape coming from the phone, and the strong jangly strokes of the noise coming from the left of the frame. Pages from Wake Up! These are the originals from a story I did for Paul Lyon's edition of Monster. Monster is a long running anthology of horror stories that started at Fort Thunder in the late 1990s or so. I like this story because of it's dream logic, getting at underlying worries and desires in an indirect manner is something that the dream logic and motivation make easy. I like being able to but disparate elements and needs next to one another to compose a sort of patchwork quilt of needs and impulses. Also I love being able to draw about the horror of being stuck with one's own thoughts and worries. Non no.2 Published in the late 90's , this is the second issue of my anthology. Featured on the cover is the right front side of the 1965 Chevy Nova that I owned at the time. With all the NON covers, there were a few "rules." The cover had to be a natural scene with the word NON as part of that scene somehow. Here it is on the back of a bus bench. The cover had to have a redheaded woman, and the back cover had to have the Japanese lettering of the word NON in a somewhat cartoonish or nonsensical context. There could only be 3 colors used in the cover. Smoke Signals (cover) This drawing is from a found photo. I had an image of traffic that I liked, and I put the two women in the middle of it, one reading and one having a transcendental experience with a beam of light. I am a huge fan of using simple limited overlapping colors, and this one uses my favorites: light blue, yellow, red and black. I like the simplicity and visual impact of broad flat areas of solid color.