20 Quesitons with Sakura Maku

I used to send out a survey of 20 questions to different artists I admired. I’ve been lax with workign on that, but with Domino I want to start doing it again. What better artist to start with than Sakura Maku (by the way, Sakura just redesigned her website andits full of beautiful art). Don’t forget to check out her new comic Dark Tomato.

(above image from cheebcheebshkaa)

1. Can you describe your drawing routine—how often you draw, how many hour per day—how you break up the day with drawing?

I draw and paint around eight hours a day for half the week, more if I’m lucky.

Pads of T.H. Saunders from NY Central.

People make comics for a living??  I work at a printshop at an art college.  I like getting on the subway in the morning and being around people making art.

No, there’s a place for it all.

I grew up by Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida and Knott’s Berry Farm (Snoopy, Woodstock) in Buena Park, California, so I guess oranges, American fantastic narratives and intelligent talking animals were fairly real to me..

I enjoy doing both.

John Porcellino on Distribution, Self-Publishing and Diamond

John Porcellino’s drawing style is a big deal to me—it encouraged me to draw in my own way. Johns art style, when I first saw it, was radically different from what I thought ‘comics’ were supposed to be. My own comics were not what I thought comics were supposed to be either. Seeing King-Cat changed things. For a while I thought maybe I would write comics instead of drawing them. But once I saw King Cat that all faded away—I HAD to draw my own comics.

As I keep going with cartooning, John’s commitment to self-publishing and independent distribution becomes just as much of an inspiration as his drawing style. Both things are, to me, equally revolutionary in comics. I try to get at what I see as important about Johns publishing and distribution choices in this short  interview. Once you’re done, go to SPIT AND A HALF and get some books!

Austin: You work a lot with other artists, but are also deeply invested in your own work. When I try to put into words why I like to work with other artists books, I can’t explain it in a succinct way. There is something very ‘right,’ to me, about doing it, but it’s hard to define. Can you talk a little bit about why you run a distro instead of simply concentrating all your energy on your own art?

John: I think to me there’s two main reasons I like running the distro.  One is simply that I enjoy being a part of a community, and helping that community.  When I find an artist’s work that I like I want to share that work with others.  I want to help out on both ends, by helping the artists get their work out, and by helping readers find good work.  It gives me a great sense of satisfaction every time I fill another order.

The second reason is maybe a little more “mercenary,” but–  I’m an artist and as an artist I need time and energy to do my work.  And that requires money.  But as everyone knows, working strictly as an artist can be financially difficult.  So, my feeling is–  if I have to have another job, something outside my individual work as a cartoonist, it may as well be something that’s deeply involved with the things I love and the people I respect and admire.  So if I have to have a dayjob, running the distro is a pretty rewarding choice.

Austin: When I heard about Diamond changing their policy and making it harder for people to list ‘pamphlet’ comics in their catalog, I felt very angry that a lot of people went along with this. I see pamphlet comics as an art form–a perfect size and scope for comics that has real artistic merits that the graphic novel does not eclipse. Accepting that Diamond policy as fact seemed to be letting a corporation determine the artistic future of comics. I know you felt something about that policy as well—can you talk about your reactions?

John: I can understand your anger at people “going along” with Diamond’s policy, but if they’re in the hands of a monopolized distribution stream, maybe they felt there was no other way to go.  As someone who comes from a DIY background, the answer is clear though–  you create a new system.  Many readers like pamphlets, and many artists like pamphlets.  I think after that initial blow of losing Diamond, artists and publishers are finding their way again now.  There are so many small, completely independent publishers coming up, putting out material in this format, and artists self-publishing work in this format.  It’s not going to die–  in fact it might flourish, at least creatively.  You know, that’s another reason I was interested in reviving the distro.  The time is right.  I think the comics world can really benefit from stuff like Spit and a Half (and those others doing similar work) now.

For me personally, I love books, but I love the pamphlet form as well.  I think of my work in 32 page bites for the most part.  Each new issue of King-Cat is a wholly formed individual expression.  It’s a COMIC BOOK.  That’s really clear to me.  For many artists that format is perfect, even crucial to what thay want to do.

Despite all the upheaval in the comics world, and publishing in general, I have nothing but high hopes for the future.  I think the underground got kind of confused for awhile in the 2000’s.  Things were changing so fast.  Now we’re seeing creators and publishers digging in and getting to work.  We’ve seen our options, and we’re making choices.  Comics are more alive now than at any other point in history, and they’re going to survive.  That’s for certain.

Austin: When I was younger, I read something you said about an early collection of your work from Highwater—you made a statement about how someone publishing your work other than yourself seems to ‘validate it’ for some readers, which you found strange. Over the years I’ve started to feel more and more that the only person who can ‘validate’ your work is yourself—but it took me a long time to come to thinking that. Can you talk about your mental evolution into believing in your work that way, and how that has changed over the years?

John: Well, I don’t know if there was much of an evolution…  it’s something inherent in the way I think about art.  Much of it was coming up in the punk/DIY scene of the 80’s and early 90’s…  You don’t sit around and wait for someone to tell you what you wanna do is OK.  If you believe in it, you do it.  And punk meant taking your struggles, your insecurities, and turning them into a badge of honor.  You just throw yourself to the world.  If they take it, OK, if not, that’s not your problem.  I knew what I was doing had value.  Even if not every comic I drew or song I wrote was the best comic or song in the world, I knew the path I was on had value.

I’ve talked about this before, but it wasn’t until King-Cat 44 came out, after Zak and Mr. Mike and I made that west coast road trip in ’94, that I started to feel self-conscious about my work.  It suddenly occurred to me that other artists were reading this work, and taking things “seriously.”  It had never occurred to me before.  That took some readjusting on my part.  But by that point I think I had worked out inside what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it, so I had some inner stability to rely on.  I was able to make a conscious effort to trust myself, and the process of making my comics.  If you’re an artist there can be no other way.  You have to learn to be a good self-critic, and once you do that your confidence can develop .

Workspace

Gonna give you a post today of stuff on my drawing table. I share a work table with my partner Clara Bessijelle, so here’s work by the both of us.

First, here’s a story I just finished, all in pencil. Tried to spread out all the pages from it to fit in one photo.

(click these photos to make ’em larger)

And two pages I’m working on now

And here are drawings Clara is working on

This next drawing is from a long story Clara is working on

More of these later. In Domino News, Sakura’s book is at the printers now…pre-orders might end up getting shippped sooner then we though—fingers crossed!

Keyhole

Starting today, Domino will be serializing a comic by the great Jesse McManus. It’s called KEYHOLE and its 17 installments long. A new page will run every Monday. Go read the first bit now!

Many people probably know Jesse’s work from his incredible page in Kramers Ergot 7. I feel lucky to have corresponded with Jesse about art through mini comics and zines for years when we were both a little younger—I got my first letter from Jesse 7 years ago. I’ve been roommates with Jesse twice now, and each time I’ve learned a lot from him. I would often come  home late at night from my job that ended at midnight and find that J had just started to dig in and draw, as he usually stayed up until 6am working on comics. Something about how Jesse structured his days around drawing, and the pleasure he got out of it, has stuck with me for a long time. I always feel like, even though the art we make couldn’t be more different, we share a very similar love for comics—if I ever get down on comics, a talk with Jesse always does me good.

We’re both hard at work on a collaboration called Spider Monkey. Look for it, hopefully, in the fall.

Ok. Much more Domino stuff tomorrow and all this week!

Me, me, me

Brand new story up in the stories section of the Domino site.

It’s called I Used To Live On Ridge Street, and its by me, Austin English. Made entirely with lithographs, I’ve been working on this for a while. It’ll soon be for sale as an artist book (limited edition of 14 copies). But for now, online.In other me-centric news, the razor-sharp critic and cartoonist Derik Badman has interviewed me about all things Domino and Disgusting Room over at The Panelists. Derik is a really smart guy and quietly becoming one of the best writers about comics around so this was a real treat.

Pages

Here we are, day 2 at Domino Books HQ.  Just time for some quick previews today..here’s a sequence from Dark Tomato #1. This is how the story begins.

OOOOF, those look so good!

Aaaaaannnnnd here’s a sequence from my new book The Disgusting Room

‘EY HOWS DAT FOR A DOUBLE WHAMMY AH????

OK, thats all for previews for a bit. These books are out now and meant to be read on paper, capiche?

Be sure to go to MOCCA this weekend. Sparkplug will be there with Disguting Room and other amazing books. Also, be sure to stop by the Full Orange table (B11)—-Sakura will be there with ORIGINAL ART from Dark Tomato and other amazing stuff (she’s tabling with Fay Ryu, one of my favorite artists). Wish Domino coulda made it—but have fun without us.

Come on back tomorrow…brand new story, by me, on the stories page.

Take 1

Welcome to DOMINO BOOKS. This is our first day out in the real world but DOMINO has been forming in my mind for years. As a cartoonist myself, I strongly believe in working with other artists and supporting work that I love. DOMINO is an attempt to do that to the best of my abilities. If you care about something—and I strongly care about art made in a personal way—I think there is a built-in responsibility to do something with that care.

This is how I’ve tried to sum up DOMINO: I believe that all people—not only those that call themselves artists—have images and phrases lying in their hearts and minds. I’d much prefer a world where people sit down and try to bring these things to the surface, rather than attaching widgets to gears for someone else’s benefit.

I want to publish artists that remind us that art is worth devoting your life to, even if there are no tangible rewards. It is my sincere hope that readers of our publications will have yet another pressure put upon them to not ignore their innate creativity any longer.

We are starting things off with DARK TOMATO #1 by Sakura Maku. I’ve followed Sakura’s work for years. Back in 2005, when my first book Christina and Charles was published by Sparkplug Comicbooks, Sakura also had a new book out: CheebCheebShkaa. That comic had a big effect on me and I asked Sakura to contribute a piece to my magazine Windy Corner. That story, You Turn My Lights, has changed how I make art ever since I saw it. It was so strong in its choices: offbeat in structure, coloring, characters–but totally sure of itself. Not testing the waters but HERE. Sakura’s work is powerful enough, to me, that I know there will be people who read this new book and find something in it that will drive them to new ways of thinking/making art/walking down the street.

More about Sakura here.

The book is available for pre-orders NOW:

DARK TOMATO #1

More books and zines available here:

Domino Books Store—-we are distro-ing lots of local Stockholm zines and art books—more distro items on the way.

All orders will be shipped in early May. Look for it in finer comic stores this Summer.

With this first post, I want to acknowledge how inspired I am by Dylan Williams of Sparkplug Comicbooks in starting a publishing company. Dylan’s support and interest in my art for the last 6 years has driven me to make more work than I ever would have otherwise. His advocacy is largely responsible for me wanting to advocate for other artists as I’m doing here. As you read this, my new book from Sparkplug, The Disgusting Room, will be available. Please check it out here:

The Disgusting Room

Thanks for reading this. Please come back tomorrow–there will be news, interviews, art previews and more on this blog (almost) every day.

-Austin English

austin.robertson.english@gmail.com