The Comic Roids Project

#38 - Igort

2011-04-24T15:23:00.000+02:00

#37 - Jean "Moebius" Giraud

2011-04-17T23:50:00.000+02:00

#36 - Ville Ranta

2011-04-10T16:44:00.000+02:00

#35 - Marek Oleksicki

2011-04-03T23:19:00.000+02:00

#34 - Marguerite Abouet

2011-03-27T18:01:00.000+02:00

#33 - Marc Bell

2011-03-20T12:05:00.000+01:00

#32 - Brecht Evens

2011-03-13T12:57:00.000+01:00

#31 - Merwan Chabane

2011-03-06T11:27:00.001+01:00

#30 - Chris Ware

2011-02-27T15:20:00.000+01:00

#29 - Joann Sfar

2011-02-20T01:09:00.000+01:00

#28 - Dash Shaw

2011-02-13T19:56:00.000+01:00

#27 - Adrian Tomine

2011-02-06T22:20:00.000+01:00

#26 - Alvin Buenaventura

2011-01-30T10:07:00.001+01:00

#25 - Karol Kalinowski

2011-01-23T13:53:00.000+01:00

#24 - Igor Baranko

2011-01-16T12:07:00.000+01:00

#23 - Charles Burns

2011-01-09T13:08:00.000+01:00

#22 - Joe Sacco

2011-01-02T15:13:00.000+01:00

#21 - Guy Delisle

2010-12-26T11:49:00.003+01:00

You have two paths of working. You are making wordless comics and travelogues. Is one of these paths easier for you and do you work differently on them?

Wordless comic books are easier for me. I like to do the travelogue ones, but the text is a lot of work for me. I prefer to spend all day listening to the radio and draw.

Your comic books (especially the ones without words) have very specific narration, they’re like animation on paper. How creating animations helps you in making comics?

I don't know for sure. I guess, I have been very influenced by working in animation. When you work in animation, you spend a lot of time focusing on the movement. I always liked that and I remember that I was thinking at the time, that there is a few things worth doing with that for a comic book.

In your travelogues, you’re the main character, but you’re not writing too much about your emotions. You just show the situations, without commentary. Why do you show the facts, without emotional involvement?

It's just the way I am. I don't have the impression that the book is lacking of emotions though. Generaly, I prefer to bring the reader with me and let him feel or think by himself.

When you’re writing your travelogues, how do you choose the appropriate events and how do you connect them to create one, long story? Do you sometimes exaggerate or change the facts?

It's very simple. I read back the notes I took when I was away. Everything that is interesting, funny or just weird I put it in the book. I make sure, that the rythm is well balanced and voilà. I never change or exaggerate, it is not necessary if the storytelling is strong enough.

Cinema has movement and music has sound. And what – for you – distinguish and make comic books a different medium?

You can hold it in your hands.

Many critics say, that everything in art had already been said and done. If that’s true, what are the new solutions and horizons for comic books?

The recent past years have been filled with new ways of telling a story in comic book. I think, we are living in a great time to create or just read them. It will be seen as a golden age in the future. Working with L’Association was a blessing for me, it was a place of great creativity. I think there is still a lot more to explore but I don't have any solutions but my own.

Instant photography, like Polaroid, captures the evanescent moment. And what is evanescent for you?

I don't know, I am more of a “feet on the ground” kind of guy.

If you could take only one picture, what would you photograph?

My kids.

You can also find Guy Delisle here:

- Official Site

- Drawn & Quarterly

#20 - Przemysław "Trust" Truściński

2010-12-19T14:18:00.000+01:00

#19 - Sean Gordon Murphy

2010-12-12T12:27:00.001+01:00

Your style of drawing is very specific. It’s realistic but with cartoonish elements (especially facial expressions). Do you think, that using cartoon style is good for showing emotions of the characters?

Cartoons are hyper-expressive and show emotion beyond what a normal face can do, so I think it’s great for showing emotions. Because drawings can’t speak or move, it might be important for an artist to incorporate some cartooning to make up for the deficiency of photorealism in comics.

You’re working with other writers, but you also write your own original graphic novels. Is writing your own things is your priority in the future?

I don't know yet. Writing and drawing everything yourself is a lot of work. After my next book is done, I’m sure I’ll want an easier book where all I need to do is draw. I’ll probably switch back and forth for the rest of my career.

When you’re thinking about your story – first, you have the images in your head, which you draw and then you write a script? Or you start with words and after that you think about images?

I start with words – a plot, a three act structure, dialog, everything. I only start drawing once I’ve worked the script out in complete detail. Some things will change along the way, though. Having to draw a script out slowly helps point out the flaws in the writing.

You’ve worked with many writers, drew many different scripts. When you have a script, you’re tryining to change your drawing style a bit to make it adequate to the story?

Yes, I try to make the art work for the story as much as I can.

Cinema has movement and music has sound. And what – for you – distinguish and make comic books a different medium?

Comic books are about art – it’s the one realm where we defeat cartoons, movies and books. Because of that, the art should be trying things that aren’t possible in these other three formats.

Many critics say, that everything in art had already been said and done. If that’s true, what are the new solutions and horizons for comic books?

Since the invention of the camera, art has been forced to shift from realism to expressionism (and all the other movements surrounding them – impressionism, modernism, etc). At this point in history, I believe that art has basically explored everything it can. But not comics. Because comics rely on story, there will never be an end to our journey, because there are infinite stories out there. The kinds of art we see in comics might be limited, but not the stories. And while art might be vast and expansive, I would still argue that it is limited. There are only so many styles, that one can study before being able to rightfully claim: “I’ve seen it all and now I’m bored”. And while there might be a limit to stories, I think think it’s much larger than art. And as to your question about “what is new on the horizon for comics?” – because media reflects modern events and history, perhaps a better questions would be “what's on the horizon for us as a species?”

Instant photography, like Polaroid, captures the evanescent moment. And what is evanescent for you?

The present. Wish I had a fancier answer.

If you could take only one picture, what would you photograph?

A photograph of our planet in 100 years, so I could show the media where we were headed – for better or worse.

You can also find Sean Gordon Murphy here:

- Official Site

- The Comic Book Database

#18 - Sascha Hommer

2010-12-05T10:05:00.003+01:00

Your first comic book (“Insekt”) was surreal and the next one (“Vier Augen”) had surreal moments. Why do you like to write about realistic things in surrealistic way?

I mostly enjoy narratives with imaginary parts in it.

What's easier for you - writing script about your life (like in “Vier Augen”) or about characters, that are not real (like in “Insekt”)?

I thought that it might be easy to make a book about my life before I started working on “Vier Augen”, but then realized that it is a real challenge. In my opinion, it is somehow easier to make up a fantastic story.

You are doing many short comics to various anthologies. And I think, that you are a big admirer of short stories. Why doing short stories is so important for you? And is it more important than making full-lenght comic books?

Making short stories can be important to try out certain aspects of style and narration. Making a book is different. I began with short stories, but only after finishing my first book in 2006, I started regarding myself as a “professional” comic author. Nowadays, I concentrate on my full-lenght comic books, though I read the short stories of other artists with pleasure and great interest.

You founded the comic-anthology Orang and the small publishing house Kiki Post. What's the difference between being published and publishing other artist's works?

Having this small publishing house, and also working for the small publishers Reprodukt (Berlin) and Edition Moderne (Zurich) helped me to understand many essential things a comic artist should know about the product he is creating – books. The way to think about the books is different when you are a publisher, and you can see a lot of misunderstanding between artists and publishers.

Cinema has movement and music has sound. And what – for you – distinguish and make comic books a different medium?

Comics are better.

Many critics say, that everything in art had already been said and done. If that’s true, what are the new solutions and horizons for comic books?

Who said that you have to do something “new” in arts? In my opinion that’s not an inevitable point for story tellers. I probably would have to face this problem if I were in fine arts.

Instant photography, like Polaroid, captures the evanescent moment. And what is evanescent for you?

Culture.

If you could take only one picture, what would you photograph?

I would not take a picture then.

You can also find Sascha Hommer here:

- Official Blog

- Reprodukt

#17 - Régis Loisel

2010-11-28T12:10:00.000+01:00

#16 - Pieter de Poortere

2010-11-21T13:56:00.005+01:00

Your comic books are full of very harsh and cruel jokes. You are joking about many things. Don’t you have any taboos?

I don’t know, I have never had complaints so far so I just carry on... I think we live in a world, where there are far more extreme things than my comics, I consider myself not as extremely harsh. Truth is stranger then fiction.

Very cartoonish, innocent looking drawings (mixed with these cruel jokes) are your way to surprise the reader?

Indeed, I like the contrast between the innocence and the cruelty. It is also about skipping everything, that is not important and only drawing the essential things. That is necessary because I don’t use text.

After doing “Boerke” series for a few years, you made your first – that long – full lenght story, “De zoon van”. Making long stories is harder for you or you just like the form of short stories?

No, it’s easier. In the short stories, I have to create a new universe every page, because Boerke is almost always a different character (a farmer, an astronaut, a terrorist, etc.). In a long story you can build on the previous pages. I have the story ready for my next long book. I hope to start drawing in april. The next book will be Boerke at the cinema. With on every page a joke based on a famous movie.

Besides doing comics, you are also the author of few commercials (you won Bronze Cannes Lion for Oogmerk campaign). You think, that commercial work – for you as an artist – is just a way for earning money or also a way of artistic expression?

That is for the money. But sometimes it’s challenging too, it depends on the subject. It’s sometimes a nice way to experiment and try new things.

Cinema has movement and music has sound. And what – for you – distinguish and make comic books a different medium?

The reader can decide its own speed of reading. You can pause, look back. In movies and music you have to follow the tempo. In my work it often happens you have to look twice to get the joke. Or sometimes, there are things hidden in the background...

Many critics say, that everything in art had already been said and done. If that’s true, what are the new solutions and horizons for comic books?

I don’t think everything is done. I think every generation ads new things to it. There is also a lot of crossover at the moment between illustration, comics, photography, animation, music...

Instant photography, like Polaroid, captures the evanescent moment. And what is evanescent for you?

Euh... I am just a simple comic book artist... I even had to look that word up in the dictionary.

If you could take only one picture, what would you photograph?

I don’t know, I am really bad at photography. At the moment, I only take pictures of my children, so I guess that would be it.

You can also find Pieter de Poortere here:

- Boerke

- Bries

#15 - Brian Azzarello

2010-11-14T00:16:00.000+01:00

#14 - Gipi

2010-11-07T00:02:00.000+01:00

#13 - Mawil

2010-10-31T00:15:00.015+02:00

You are dividing your works between autobiographical stories and comic books about funny rabbit Supa-Hasi. There are two Mawils inside you or is that just an effect of your actual feelings?

No, there is just one Mawil. The autobio-books represent the past adventures of my real life and the bunny is me in fictional situations. I would act like him, if I would be in his situations. I need him from time to time, because it’s boring just to write about the own poor life.

Your comic books are very light. Even when you are writing about sad or dramatic things, you are doing it in very delicate and light way. Why you don’t show tragic events, brutality or dark atmosphere in your comic books?

Because my life is so nice and cute. Of course, sometimes I like to put some drama in my comics, but not too much, so it don’t gets to much Hollywood.

Music is a frequent theme of your comic books, few short stories and one long story (“Die Band”). You wanted to be a musician in the past, but besides that, why is music so important for you?

Because music is the only mind-effecting stuff (besides alcohol), I allow myself to take.

It’s amazing, that you use only few simple lines to show multitude of emotions on your character’s faces. But do you have that skill from day one or at the beginning of your drawing career, your style was more realistic and less fluid?

Yes, it was more “cool” or realistic or graffitty-style later, but I'm so lazy and economic and my favorites and idols changed within time to the more simple but clear styles.

Cinema has movement and music has sound. And what – for you – distinguish and make comic books a different medium?

Eh... I don’t know. Cinema and music are more exciting. The distinguish of comics – for me – is just that I'm quite good in doing it, in opposite to music and cinema.

Many critics say, that everything in art had already been said and done. If that’s true, what are the new solutions and horizons for comic books?

I agree with the critics, but it is still fun to invent stuff by yourself again.

Instant photography, like Polaroid, captures the evanescent moment. And what is evanescent for you?

I don’t know if you can catch moments with recordings, drawings or photos. At least you will miss the feelings. They change so fast. So you have to construct a story of more than one picture and hope that you can generate a smimilar emotion for the reader with this.

If you could take only one picture, what would you photograph?

My girlfriend. As possible naked.

You can also find Mawil here:

- Official Site

- Reprodukt

- Top Shelf

#12 - Uli Oesterle

2010-10-24T12:42:00.000+02:00

Your comic books are not assigned to one genre. You are mixing fantasy with realism and your stories are both funny and scary. Making comics in one specific genre is not that exciting?

Yes, I mix it intentionally. I’m not interested in working in only one genre. For “Hector Umbra” I invented a fictional storyline and added autobiographical elements. Put a lot of clichees in and reverse them, to get a really strange cocktail. For me, it’s important to let the story happen in a place I’m really familiar with, to make the whole story more authentic and believable. Therefore, “Hector Umbra” takes place in my hometown, Munich. The only problem to mix up genres is: I have the impression, that readers need to have their categories. An expectation, which “Hector Umbra” doesn´t have.

One of most important things in your comic books is atmosphere. You are achieving it thanks to specific colours. But what else are you doing to create characterstic ambience and why is it so important for you?

I create atmosphere also with black areas, cinematic sequences or dialogues. Besides, colour also helps to make sure, that the storyline still stays understandable, no matter how strange the plot suppose to be. For me, it’s important to give the reader the impression to be inside the story, inside the character’s brains. I try to grab them by their emotions.

In “Hector Umbra” you have many dead characters and you are writing about the danger of illusions. So one of the main themes of this comic book is death and limits of sanity. What fascinates you in that subject?

Don’t forget friendship as a main-subject. I lost my best friend ten years ago. He died in abusing drugs. The years before I lost another two friends. In the beginning of the 1990’s, I suffered on a four weeks breakdown of my brain (technical term: aphasia), because of using drugs by myself. These dramatic happenings leave a constant impression in my head and delivers me luckily my recurring topics. Death and insanity are still very present in my entire life.

When you’re doing comic books – you work alone, but you are also working in a graphic studio with few other people. What’s the difference between working alone and working in a team?

Actually we are not a team. We’re ten and everybody works alone at his own projects. Rarely we do jobs together. But of course, we talk about our projects and exchange opinions. It helps to talk with somebody professional about a problem in storytelling or anything else. This is the great advantage against working alone at home. I won´t miss it.

Cinema has movement and music has sound. And what – for you – distinguish and make comic books a different medium?

Comic combines characteristics of movie, fine art and novels. On the other hand, it lives from the special style of the artist.

Many critics say, that everything in art had already been said and done. If that’s true, what are the new solutions and horizons for comic books?

God damn smart ass critics! Actually everything had already been said. Not only in art. But everything has a revival. You simply have to say it again, but in a different way and context.

Instant photography, like Polaroid, captures the evanescent moment. And what is evanescent for you?

Nothing.

If you could take only one picture, what would you photograph?

A bottle of bavarian beer.

You can also find Uli Oesterle here:

- Official Site

- Official Blog

- Carlsen Verlag

#11 - Alex Robinson

2010-10-17T11:40:00.004+02:00

You’re writing and drawing your comic books, so you can control everything in your art. But do you have situations, that you can’t draw what you wrote before or maybe you were angry with yourself, that you wrote 350-pages script of “Tricked” (and now you must draw it)?

For better or for worse I think I've developed a filter in my brain, that doesn't let me write something I don't think I would have a reasonable chance at drawing. There are always times the story will call for me to draw things I'm not excited about, but that's more a case of my laziness than me writing myself things I can't draw. I've only scripted out one of my books in advance – and that one was only 66 pages – so I've never faced the daunting task of having to now draw a 350 page book I wrote out. I almost always write and draw one or two pages at a time, so fortunately I never have to tackle a long script in the way you describe. The idea of sitting down with a huge script like that is horrible to imagine!

Your comic books are like movies on paper. The way, that you are showing the action, the number of characters and plots – movies and your comics have very similar structure. Does cinema inspire you? And have you ever thought about writing movie scripts?

I enjoy watching movies but I've never thought about writing a script. I've just heard so many horror stories about Hollywood and the process of making movies that it's not for me. It sounds like having a baby and then – when the child is three – having to give it to a mad scientist. “I'll take over from here”. I like that when I do comics I can really control everything and tell exactly the story I want, without compromise. It's strange because I have absolutely no problem with someone else turning one of my books into a movie. As long as I get some money out of it they can do whatever they like. This sounds sort of contradictory to my other attitude, but the difference is that no matter how awful (or great) a movie they make out of it, my book will still exist. People will still be able to find out my original story. The same thing can't be said of a script, which most people never see.

Your stories (especially “Tricked” and “Box Office Poison”) are very complex. It’s hard to do stories like that without any mistakes in the storyline. So what are you doing before writing a script? Writing yourself a treatment or a synopsis?

I'll have a rough outline in my head, along with the main characters and important plot points or scenes that establish the theme of the book, but beyond that I like to keep it very loose. I like to give myself room to follow things that interest me and improvise, so I don't have any formal script or written synopsis. I usually work one or two pages at a time. I'll get out my sketchbook and write out the dialogue and drawings for about a page or two, then I'll write and draw the actual page. Once I complete that I'll go on to page two and start the process over. What I like about this method – and I've rarely worked any other way – is that if something intrigues me I can digress a bit, or even change the plot. The best example of this was the character Caprice in “Box Office Poison”. Originally I intended her to just be in one chapter of the book, but I enjoyed writing and drawing her character so much I brought her back and she played a rather big part in the end. “Box Office Poison” was kind of structured in such a way as to really encourage this kind of improvising. I had a general rule that I would alternate chapters that moved the plot with chapters that are kind of incidental or just established the characters. My though, my hope was that this would give the book a realistic flow, since that's kind of how real life works. Some things in life are important plot developments and some things are just interesting diversions.

Do you think, that you could write a script for someone else or draw a comic book to another artist’s text?

I wrote a short story years ago for someone else to draw but the artist never completed it, and last year I drew a superhero story that my friend Josh Flanagan wrote. Both were interesting experiments that I'd like to try again. The story Josh wrote was an interesting example of what you asked earlier, about writing things that you don't or can't draw. Josh included a big scene featuring a car and that's a big weakness of mine since I've never been able to draw decent cars. I just had to grit my teeth and tough it out as best I could.

Cinema has movement and music has sound. And what – for you – distinguish and make comic books a different medium?

I can't really think of anything that smarter people than me haven't already theorized. I think Scott McCloud probably summed it up best. Since comics lack those elements it's up to the reader to provide them, and that participatory element makes the reader more involved, compared to the passive experience of watching a film. Comics are sort of compromise between movies, in which everything is presented to you and prose books, where the reader has to fill in even more.

Many critics say, that everything in art had already been said and done. If that’s true, what are the new solutions and horizons for comic books?

For me, much of the experience is personal, in the sense that even if every story has been told “I” haven't told them. It's like riding a horse: just because other people have ridden a horse doesn't mean I'm not curious to try galloping on one myself. So my interest, as a creator, is to do the kind of stories that are interesting to me. Hopefully, people will find the way I ride that horse interesting, too, but I wouldn't say I'm ever consciously trying to explore any bold new directions.

Instant photography, like Polaroid, captures the evanescent moment. And what is evanescent for you?

Wow, this is a heavy question! I think as I'm getting older I'm realizing that it's all evanescent. My wife and I were out for a dinner one time and I remember saying to her: “There's going to come a time, where this evening will be just another memory. We'll be lucky if we can recall one or two details”. In fact, the thing I recall about that specific meal was that I brought up that way of looking at it – oddly, if we didn't have that conversation I probably wouldn't remember the evening at all. I guess, I've always been a somewhat nostalgic person, so in a weird way I'm always experiencing every moment as it happens but also keenly aware that some day it will all be forgotten.

If you could take only one picture, what would you photograph?

I'm a big history nerd so I would probably go somewhere in that direction. The crucifixion? Dinosaurs? Maybe John Wilkes Booth about the kill Abraham Lincoln? Too many options!!

You can also find Alex Robinson here:

- Official Site

- Official Blog

- Top Shelf

#10 - Jakub Rebelka

2010-10-10T09:36:00.000+02:00

#9 - Michel Pirus

2010-10-03T23:13:00.000+02:00

#8 - Olivier Schrauwen

2010-09-26T18:10:00.003+02:00

Your comics look like classic, old-fashioned American newspaper strips. Why did you choose such drawing style?

My knowledge of early 20th century comics is quite limited. “My Boy” might look like it’s true to the style of those strips but it isn’t really. I use very little reference material, I just draw what I think they look like. It's an approximation. In fact, everything is made up architecture, clothing. It’s an absurd, fantastical world, but you can’t see that right away.

Why do you sometimes connect scenes of naturalistic brutality with funny situations or slapstick humour?

Slapstick humor is always kinda brutal. People get hit in the face, fall to their deaths, etc. By making certain slapstick scenes extra nasty I can break up the comedic pattern and have something more dramatic. Sometimes it seems necessary to have a tragic counterpoint, when a character finds it’s death for instance.

You have specific drawing style and characteristic type of humour. It’s probably hard to make stories and drawings coherent. So how – for you – the story should interact with the drawings?

Mostly, I want everything to work together: story, idea, drawing. But sometimes I look for a formal conflict, the drawings might appear warm and gentle, but the story implies something hard and cold.

Your comics are surreal and funny, but you also write about serious things. Don’t you think, that this surreal atmosphere may distract attention from the serious side of your comics?

I don't consciously balance those things out, like: “I need 4 jokes and 2 serious moments”. When I get excited about a story or an idea, it always has a humorous and tragic side to it. For me one thing doesn’t necessarily cancel out the other. I can imagine though, that some people get annoyed by the silly jokes or vice versa by the “serious side”.

Cinema has movement and music has sound. And what – for you – distinguish and make comic books a different medium?

I also make films and music, but I hate the technical bullshit I need to deal with when working in those media. For comics, I just need paper and a pen. Apart from that, I always express the same things, no matter wich medium I work in. Except for the case of comics I know the language the best.

Many critics say, that everything in art had already been said and done. If that’s true, what are the new solutions and horizons for comic books?

I don’t see art as something that’s moving towards a sublime an perfect state at which no more new art will be needed. It’s more like a mutating beast, always adapting to it’s environment, always changing. In this way things are never said and done. I guess, if the presentation of comics will become digital, this will have a profound effect.

Instant photography, like Polaroid, captures the evanescent moment. And what is evanescent for you?

I do hope my comics capture some of the evanescent moments. They aren’t explicitly auto-biographical, but things that are going on in my everyday life tent to slip in. Even if the story involves a gang of revolting pygmees.

If you could take only one picture, what would you photograph?

I dunno. When I like a photo, it;s mostly not for what it litteraly depicts. It’s mostly something more subliminal that appeals to me. The way the light looks, the gaze in someone’s eye, whatever. It’s very hard to pinpoint, so if I had to take one essential photo, I’d just take a random snapshot and hope for that one chance in a million that it’s the right one.

You can also find Olivier Schrauwen here:

- Official Blog

- Bries

#7 - Lewis Trondheim

2010-09-19T20:35:00.010+02:00

You made more than a hundred comic books. Do you sometimes have a thought, that you are maybe repeating some motives and dialogues from your earlier comic books?

Always. But I do comics to get some fun for myself. And an artist have always the same obsessions all his life. So I go on without looking behind. I don't want to be frozen.

Sometimes you write for other artists. How do you choose, which script you should do by yourself and which one someone else should draw?

It is a question of friendship. And I don't have drawers full of projects. I work on a story when I have to do it.

You write a lot, so I guess, that you have thousand ideas for a second. In that case, why are you drawing scripts by other people?

Because my way of drawing is quite poor. Working with different styles of drawing is exciting and I can write things I'm unable to draw.

Your stories and scripts are absurd, surreal. Even when you are writing about your life (in "Little Nothings") you are showing yourself and other people as animals. You don't like realism?

No. I prefer masks to show reality. It's much more powerfull.

Cinema has movement and music has sound. And what – for you – distinguish and make comic books a different medium?

It's a quick way of expression, and not too expensive.

Many critics say, that everything in art had already been said and done. If that’s true, what are the new solutions and horizons for comic books?

We are all doing variations. And the differences are in our tone.

Instant photography, like Polaroid, captures the evanescent moment. And what is evanescent for you?

I don't agree about what you said. You only can capture evanescent moment with your brain. Photography is too restrictive.

If you could take only one picture, what would you photograph?

Jesus Christ. And I'll make a lot of money.

You can also find Lewis Trondheim here:

- Official Site

- Fantagraphics

- First Second

#6 - Frederik Peeters

2010-09-12T18:08:00.007+02:00

In your comic books (no matter whether you are doing drama or science fiction) you are always writing about human beings, their problems, emotional condition and concerns. Why do people and relationships are most important to you?

Because human beings are the only subjects that make good stories. I cannot imagine writing something interesting about eggplants or palm trees. Everything I like to read or watch tells stories about human concerns. I love our little intimate games, when we play to be courageous despite of our cowardness, when we lie to ourselfes or to others about what we hide inside. The contradictions about what we show and what we really are.

You created one autobiographical graphic novel (“Blue Pills”), comic book series based on real events (“RG”) and a lot of comic books based on fiction. What is the difference between fiction and nonfiction writing? What is easier for you?

It is very easy to write about your life, especially when you know you're living something very special. You just need to organise and make choices, but the core is always very clear and full of energy, because it lives in your guts. The important question is not the “how”, but the “why”. “RG” was a very different exercice. I had to build a story of genre out of pieces of real life anecdotes told by a real french cop. Everything in there is very far from my way of seeing life and people. So I had to find a balance between the necessary clichés of the genre and the taste of reality we wanted to give. In the first case, I had the feeling of playing jazz music, in the second I felt like cooking something with a precise receipt. All my other fiction books have always a link with my concerns and my life.

Your comic books always have interesting background and great atmosphere (sci-fi in “Lupus”, horror in “Pachyderme”). Does background, type of genre comes first when you are thinking about the story? Or do you think about your characters first and then you choose specific background for them?

I always start with a taste in my mouth. Stories have tastes. Images have tastes. I always start with a tone and a taste, like a global vision if you like, a kind of direction. So the background comes first. And then the characters appear and will be sucked into the context and create the story.

Sometimes you are changing your drawing style. Do you like to experiment or do you think, that every story should have particular type of drawings?

The two reasons are both correct. I'm always afraid to get bored, so I try different graphic styles, but the story comes first, and the drawings must serve the reading process.

Cinema has movement and music has sound. And what – for you – distinguish and make comic books a different medium?

For me comic books shouldn’t try to compare with cinema or music. It has much more to do with litterature. Because it totally depends on the person who reads it. When nobody reads a comic, it doesn't exist, it's nothing, dead. When you press play on your DVD player and you go to the toilets, the film still exists without you, in an empty room. Reading books or comics is an active exercice, it exists only in the human brain. It's almost a magical process. Nothing magic in music or cinema when you think about it, it's physical process, light, air vibration etc... So for me, it's interesting to use the brain of the reader, by playing with rythm, elipses, undertext, silence and symbols.

Many critics say, that everything in art had already been said and done. If that’s true, what are the new solutions and horizons for comic books?

I don't know. From my point of view, I try not to get bored by making the books I would like to read. And I always try to make books that could only work in that medium. It's dangerous and frustrating to make under-cinema, or under-litterature.

Instant photography, like Polaroid, captures the evanescent moment. And what is evanescent for you?

Life. The only way to give a definition to this word is by opposing it to the word Death.

If you could take only one picture, what would you photograph?

A painting.

You can also find Frederik Peeters here:

- Official Site

- Atrabile

- Portraits As Living Deads

#5 - Sara Varon

2010-09-05T12:47:00.007+02:00

Your comic books are very often about friendship. Why is friendship so important to you?

Isn't friendship important to everybody?

Robot, dog, chicken, cat and many more. You are doing comic books about people and people’s problems, so why do you always use animal or fantastic characters?

To be honest, I'm just not very good at drawing people. Also, it's more fun to draw characters that are not human (in past books, I drew mostly animals, in my current project, I am drawing food characters). They are not male or female or young or old, so I think readers can project whatever they want onto those characters. Also, they can be symbols for certain character traits. For instance, everyone knows that a tin robot would rust if he goes swimming, so I don't have to explain it. Or in “Chicken And Cat Clean Up”, the cat decides to go into business catching rodents, which makes perfect sense, because everyone knows that's what cats do. Also, some things are just funnier if they are, say, a banana or an elephant doing something than a person.

It’s hard to show some things in comic books without words. Do you sometimes have a great desire to use words in your silent comic books? And are you afraid, that the reader can overlook something?

No, I'm not worried the reader will overlook something. Most people take something from my stories, although it may not always be the same thing. And simple stories don't need words. The book I'm working on right now has a lot of dialogue because it's kind of a complicated story. But I do think I'm better at wordless stories, and the wordless parts of my new book are probably better than the parts with a lot of dialogue.

Not only adults, but also children can read your comic books. Is it a problem for you to connect a simple story (easy to understand by children) with an intelligent message (that meets the expectations of adults)?

No, I pretty much just make what I like and, lucky for me, my stories have turned out to be for all ages.

Cinema has movement and music has sound. And what – for you – distinguish and make comic books a different medium?

I dont' really think they are different. Comic books and cinema both have movement, although it is depicted in different ways. I started out doing animation, and it was too much work and also too isolating (my films were hand-drawn, so I spent a lot of time alone in a dark room, working on a light table). So I turned to comics instead. To me, they are the same thing. But what I like more about books than films is that you can spend as much or as little time as you want on each particular frame, whereas in animation, it is predetermined (in 16mm film, which is what I worked on, each picture is shown for 1/24 of a second, and you can't go back if you missed something). Also, I especially like books because you can read them anyplace, like in bed or on the subway or in a cafe.

Many critics say, that everything in art had already been said and done. If that’s true, what are the new solutions and horizons for comic books?

Oh, people like to say that, but I don't think it's true. If it were, nobody would want to make anything anymore, yet they do. However, I don't feel like I am any kind of spokesperson for the state of comic books. I don't actually read that many, nor do I keep up on the latest trends. Mostly, I just read novels.

If you could take only one picture, what would you photograph?

I would take a picture of all my favorite people and carry it with me. Wouldn't everyone?

You can also find Sara Varon here:

- Chickenpolis

- First Second

- Dargaud

#4 - David Lloyd

2010-08-29T12:07:00.004+02:00

You started as a commercial artist in an advertising art studio. Making comic books came naturally to you or you had to learn it?

Yes, I started drawing them on a continual basis from the age of 13. It did come naturally. I guess if you have a natural appreciation of what is the best of art, you follow the best artists as role models. I had that gift, luckily, so you could say I learned unconsciously from good examples. From a technical point-of-view, I only had two books that I used for some direction – one of the big Walter Foster books (if you are unaware of these, they were large size American instruction books on all kinds of facets of art, which could be found in almost all art stores at the time I was a tyro) and a little Charlton Comics pamphlet for aspiring sequential artists.

It was your idea to avoid sound effects, thought balloons and captions in “V for Vendetta”. Revolutionary idea but what was the reason for that decision?

Only revolutionary in part, and only in part of the mainstream comics business. I wanted to do that because I was always interested in getting more people to read good comics than those who were naturally attracted to them. I wanted to expand the reader base – spread the gospel of how good comics were to those who had a prejudice against them based on their perception of them as second-rate literature for semi-illiterates. One of the ways was to eliminate the totally unnecessary use of sound effects – only necessary for morons who don't know a gun goes “bang” or for children who want bells and whistles – which have always branded comics as intellectually low grade in the eyes of the general public. And the other things (including the use of simple rectangular panels in tiers) were planned simply to give the familiar effect of a tv/cinema experience – a straight narrative without any complications that non-comic readers might baulk at. In the end, Alan couldn't do without captions – for their own value as descriptive devices and as substitutes for thought balloons, so that ambition of mine had to be modified.

You are best known as an illustrator, but you’re also a great writer. When you’re working with somebody else’s script, you’re talking with a writer about some changes or you’re giving him some advices, your ideas?

Rarely an exchange of ideas with a writer who's supplied a full script, like with Garth Ennis or others, though with “V for Vendetta”, after the initial brainstorming of the thing into existence, we'd discuss what happened in the Books of the story before the individual chapters of it were written. Then after that, I'd suggest changes in pacing and action in the individual chapters if I thought they'd make things better. Working with Jamie Delano is different though, because I've always worked with him in the “Marvel method” – that is, from breakdowns of action that I lay out into panels, and to which he writes the final script. On “Territory” and “Night Raven” we collaborated on the development of the story. But on “The Horrorist”, I just helped as much as I could with the visual storytelling.

You showed in “Kickback”, how to keep a balance between images and words. You are showing what is necessary and telling what is necessary. You don’t like modern comic books, where the authors are showing and telling everything to the reader?

Absolutely. I think comics should be much closer to cinema than they usually are, but traditionally the industry has always wanted to pack lots of story into their comic pages so this hinders the possibility of that occurring when the perception of “cinematic” in most editors minds means “slow”. This is a mis-perception, of course. Ironically, despite being heavily expositional most of the time, many comics these days have found themselves telling very little story in their spaces, because they've given over too much space to the sizes of panels – perhaps because of the desire of publishers to keep their readers buying a title through long story arcs...

Cinema has movement and music has sound. And what – for you – distinguish and make comic books a different medium?

You don't have to have movement or music to tell a good story. I don't want to distinguish what a comic is by what it isn't, because to do that labels it as a particular thing that does this or that – and if we do that we fix it down to the ground again. I can stick two pictures together that will tell you something, or a thousand that will tell you something more. I can put words into it or not. In balloons or not. What is it? Sequential art.

Many critics say, that everything in art had already been said and done. If that’s true, what are the new solutions and horizons for comic books?

Not really interested in what many critics say.

Instant photography, like Polaroid, captures the evanescent moment. And what is evanescent for you?

Oh, happiness. It never lasts.

If you could take only one picture, what would you photograph?

A cliche – but a beautiful sunset. There is nothing more beautiful or exhilarating on this Earth – for me it symbolises all the other beautiful things that can be found on the planet.

You can also find David Lloyd here:

- L For Lloyd

- Dark Horse

- The Comic Book Database

#3 - Ivan Brun

2010-08-22T15:07:00.006+02:00

In your comic books, you like to combine cartoon drawings with often violent content. By doing that, you want to surprise and shock the reader?

Well, I started to develop this cartoonish approach since 2005, before that I was drawing my cruel and violent stories in a much more realistic, figurative manner. Sometimes I felt it was too heavy and dramatic for the reader to take. Then I decided to simplify my drawings, adding humor and a caricatural twist to get the message across more easily. The simplified humoristic drawings creates an interesting counter-balance with the subject matter, at least in my eyes, because it seems that some people still view my comics as insane, scary and disturbing material. Whatever you'll do, some people will never fully understand your artistic intentions, again, it's still a matter of personal sensibilities.

You are writing about poverty, ethnic minorities, geocentrism, you show the dark side of the modern world. You do it because you want to tell everyone, what irritates you in this world? Or do you hope, that the reader will change under the influence of your comic books?

The whole deal was to deliver a vision, a commentary about the post-industrial, post-capitalistic world we're living in. Since the early nineties, it have always been my line of work, considering the world situation is changing drastically at a rapid pace since the fall of the iron curtain, I wanted to analyse and understand the dynamics of the “New World Order” and how it's connected to our daily lives. I don't believe in fairy tales, so I don't think the situation will ever get back to normal since the 2008 financial crisis, and I also don't believe my comic books will have a positive impact on the readers in terms of political awareness. For the better, I can expect at least that people sharing the same vision can feel some empathy.

Sometimes you are showing very brutal and gory scenes. Do you ever had problems with censorship because of that?

Not really, because in France, the publishing scene is pretty liberal, and the obvious fact that my material is directed to mature readers. The censorship can reveal itself in more insidious ways, meaning that my previous book, "No Comment", was not distributed in some bookstores or displayed in public libraries because of some graphic and explicit sex scenes. But that decision belong to the store owners. Also missed a publishing deal in the United States for the same reason. More recently, before the release of my latest opus, “War Songs”, the publisher wanted me to remove multinational logos appearing on the cover. Reason is they didn't want to put themselves at risk, knowing that such logos are copyrighted and protected visual stuff, which could not be reproduced without authorization... Maybe I did hit a sensitive point, depicting porn and violence seems okay, but when you get “too political”, it's a different story.

You are a musician, a painter and a comic artist. Which medium offers you the greatest opportunities to express yourself and your opinions?

The three offers lots of opportunities to express oneself, but I have to admit I'm quite limited in my abilities as a musician, tuneless noise can't express a wide range of emotions and feelings. Never been able to make it with painting, which is an elitist medium, and art circles or cultural institutions never showed any interest in my works, I probably suck at painting, but nobody told me it straight... It's definitely within comics that I have been able to express myself in the better conditions and reaching a wider audience.

Cinema has movement and music has sound. And what – for you – distinguish and make comic books a different medium?

A low-tech, inexpensive medium using pictures and words, or in my case, pictures within pictures, offering a wide range of possibilities.

Many critics say, that everything in art had already been said and done. If that’s true, what are the new solutions and horizons for comic books?

In terms of subject matter – sure, it is. But things are still evolving in terms of shape and form. E-books and e-comics could offer new ways of making and reading comics in the next years. For the moment, it's just adapting old material for new supports, wait and see...

Instant photography, like Polaroid, captures the evanescent moment. And what is evanescent for you?

Life/Love/Happiness/Youth/Death.

If you could take only one picture, what would you photograph?

Can't tell for sure, but catching something that the human eye can't see.

You can also find Ivan Brun here:

- Dump Site

- Drugstore

#2 - Rutu Modan

2010-08-15T16:52:00.012+02:00

You prove – in your comic books – that you are a great observer. So do you try to remember every meeting and every conversation in your real life? Do you pay attention even to the smallest detail of the environment or people’s behaviour?

I admit, that eavesdropping is one of my hobbies... One of the reasons, that it is such fun being an artist, is that it makes you more aware of the world around you. Images, conversations, human behaviour... it makes life more interesting, because everything has some meaning, everything becomes material. And you might use it in your work, so you are never bored.

You write about yor family, about Israel, but never about politics. Do you think, that artists should not write about politics?

I don’t think, that artists should not write about politics, but I don’t think we HAVE to. It is dangerous for an artist to think of "important subject" to write about and than do it. The art should come from a truthful, deep personal places of the artist. If not, he is in danger of writing a shallow propaganda. As for myself - I am not interested in writing stories that will explain the political situation in Israel or to tell my opinion about it. Of course, I have opinions but I dont think they are so original or more smart then other people’s opinions. In my work, I try to show my point of view about life. I try to understand how – as human beings – we are stuck in our random, personal, small reality and how we are trying to survive it for the best. For me this is also politics. Besides, family interactions are not different from politics interactions.

You are always looking from a distance at your characters (even when you are telling about your family). You are leaving interpretations and emotions to the reader. Aren’t you afraid, that the reader will miss and will not understand too many things?

I prefer not to write in a way it is too understandable. The beauty in art is that once it leaves the artist's mind it has a life of its own and you cannot control it completely (by the way, this is true for the artistic process as well). I try to be communicative, but not to the point where I feed the reader with a spoon with my ideas. The reader should have some space for himself in the text.

Your stories are very often about family, identity and secret or tragic past. You are showing, that all this things have a strong impact on poeple’s lives. This subject comes from your personal experience?

Every family has secrets. These secrets can be important or silly, big or small, but it is a part of every family, nescessaty for a bunch of people living together. My family is very secretive. For example, in my family you never say where you are going, or if you do – you lie about it. My mother used to say: “In a family, you should not say everything...”. I also remember a story, my father told me once, that when his family escaped from Poland in 1940, they arrived to Triest and his mother told him he should pretend he is a tourist (what does it mean?). He said, that for him it was very exciting. So it seems, that secrets are something of a character in my family. And writing fiction stories allow me to tell these secrets without exposing them, since in the story I change the names and the places until the essence is left without the gossip.

Cinema has movement and music has sound. And what – for you – distinguish and make comic books a different medium?

Simultaneity – the ability to have few events in the same time happaning on the page, few people talking in the same time (and you can "hear" them well), etc. This is unique to comics

Many critics say, that everything in art had already been said and done. If that’s true, what are the new solutions and horizons for comic books?

Everything was said and done and it is and will be said and done again and again from the begining of times till the future. Love, money, death, war will always be interesting. What is new, is the ways we find to deal with these subjects. There will always be new ways. What is exciting in comics, is that it is still a new medium and there are still plenty to invent and explore.

If you could take only one picture, what would you photograph?

My funeral.

You can also find Rutu Modan here:

- Mixed Emotions

- IcExcellence

- Drawn & Quarterly

#1 - Tony Sandoval

2010-08-08T12:23:00.012+02:00

You called your blog "Los Monstruos de Tony", what means "The Monsters of Tony". But you don’t show many monsters there. So maybe you are something like Doctor Frankenstein and monsters are just your comic books?

I used to draw a lot of monsters and I think I still do, but for some reason I have not uploaded them to the blog. And the name comes from my publisher, he originaly wanted to call my sketchbook like that.

Your drawings are very expressive. So I wonder, that when you are creating a comic book, you care more about writing the story or conveying emotions?

I think both. But all the time, the story comes a bit late in my stuff.

In general, what is your first step in making comic books? First you see the picture, which inspires you? Or maybe some words, whole story?

Usually it’s an image. Then I imagine the past and the future of it and that’s how my story comes.

I see similarities between your comic books and movies by Guillermo del Toro. You are both mixing realism with fantasy and you are from Mexico. Combining realism with fantasy is characteristic of Mexican culture?

Well, I don´t really know, but maybe, why not? There must be something in our culture or maybe we just have the same influences.

Cinema has movement and music has sound. And what – for you – distinguish and make comic books a different medium?

It’s a powerfull media, who has image and words.

Many critics say, that everything in art had already been said and done. If that’s true, what are the new solutions and horizons for comic books?

Yes, maybe it is or can be true. So the new solution is just an idea, how to tell those stories.

Instant photography, like Polaroid, captures the evanescent moment. And what is evanescent for you?

Life itself.

If you could take only one picture, what would you photograph?

Hm... it’s hard to tell. Maybe a childhood landscape?

You can also find Tony Sandoval here:

- Paquet

- Les Monstruos de Tony

Hello World!

2010-08-01T19:23:00.007+02:00

Let us tell you something.

We strongly believe that comic books, strips and graphic novels are true Art. We love it in fact! We also love instant photography, like Polaroid. That’s why we decided to mix this two great and remarkable things – the world of comic books and polaroid photography.

All in all, we always dreamed about creating this special project and now our dream comes true. We called this dream of ours “The Comic Roids Project” and we decided to post one note a week – on Sundays – until we get one hundred notes.

Every week, on our blog you will find polaroid shot (with autograph and sometimes little drawing) and short interview with people, that are very gifted and important for comic book culture. We want to show you the photos of the best illustrators, scriptwriters and publishers from all over the World.

Photos, that are catching this one ephemeral moment.

Photos, that are showing the character and style of these great people (after taking a photo, we’re telling artists, that this photo is their space and they can write or draw everything on it).

Photos, that we love (yeah, that’s corny but also very touching).

Enjoy!

koka&sztybor

His name is Bartosz Sztybor. He's a writer and – like every writer (maybe besides writers, that are dead) – he writes. So he writes scripts for movies, tv and of course comic books. Sometimes, when he is not writing any script, he writes about comic books for few polish newspapers and magazines. He lives in Poland (yeah, you know that from the earlier sentence), prefers Pepsi than Coca-Cola and loves working. Always on diet. Always in fashion. Always mysterious (almost nobody knows how old is he).

Her name is Koka Skowronska. She’s a photographer and a designer. So she is – as you probably guessed – photographing things and designing other things. Okey, sometimes she’s photographing things, which she designed earlier. She has many ideas (about six for an hour) and power to make them come true. She lives in Poland, prefers Coca-Cola than Pepsi and loves travelling. Always thinking. Always talking. Always smiling.