Today’s Questionable Comics pairs two of our favorite people in indie comics. Up first is Andy Warner, one of the geniuses behind the Irene anthology and a regular contributor to The Nib.
What current projects are you working on?
The book version of Brief Histories of Everyday Objects (to be published by Picador in October, 2016). I’m just finishing that up this week! After that, it’s back to freelance comics journalism and nonfiction for the rest of the spring and summer. I’ve got work lined up for The Nib, KQED and a few other places. I’m also planning on putting together a new minicomic for TCAF and CAKE. I’m really looking forward to working on shorter turnaround stuff after almost a year of mainly working on the book.
Use one word to describe how you work.
Constantly.
What’s your workspace like?
It’s a studio that I’ve made out of a shed in the garden behind Silver Sprocket’s HQ on Valencia Street in the Mission district of San Francisco. There are fruit trees all around it and they’ve just gotten their leaves back. It’s a bit cluttered inside, because I run the distro for the Irene anthology out of the same space. I set up a bird feeder outside the window and I like to watch them have little weird bird arguments.
What do you listen to when you work?
Lots and lots of podcasts. Mostly politics, world news, science, history and culture. My favorites are On The Media, Revolutions, Reply All and The World. I just listened to The Museum of Lost Objects from BBC 4 and it was some of the best audio I’ve heard in a while. Made me cry a few times. I used to listen to a lot comedy podcasts, but then I stopped. I don’t know why.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Keep as many irons in the fire as you can.
An in-progress selection from Andy Warner’s Brief Histories of Everyday Objects
How do you get into art mode?
Comics is my job, so I treat it that way. It’s helped by my wife having a regular 9-6 work schedule that I can glom on to. I get up at 6:30 in the morning, eat breakfast and read the news, then commute to my studio. When I sit down, I start working on whatever is first on my to-do list. I go for a walk in mid afternoon and when it’s 6, I go home. I’ve never really felt the need to get into a zone for it or anything.
Is your work paper or digital based?
Digital, from soup to nuts.
What’s the one thing you wish you could improve about your work?
I’m not a really natural draftsman. I wish I could sketch faster and better, but instead I rely on a lot of reference and painstakingly revised compositions.
When’s the best time to work?
I think I’m at my best in early to mid morning or early afternoon. I’ll work in the evenings after dinner sometimes if my wife’s not around, but it’s always rote craft stuff like inking. I’m really not at my best after 7pm.
Who do you consider to be inspirational creators in your field (classic and modern)?
Alison Bechdel, James Sturm, Matt Bors, Joe Sacco, Sarah Glidden, Wendy Macnaughton, Roz Chast, Jaime Hernandez, Charles Burns and Larry Gonick have all had a lot of influence on me.
And next is Loser City BFF Pete Toms, a veteran of Study Group comics and the creator of The Linguists, one of our favorite comics of 2015. You can also read Nick Hanover’s interview with Toms here.
What current projects are you working on?
I’m working on maybe too many things right now, but I just finished drawing a comic called Dad’s Weekend that should be out sometime soon-ish, I’m writing a few scripts that will eventually be comics, including a book-length one that should be out next year, and I’m pretty close to finishing an illustrated story that I’ll probably self-publish soon-ish as well, all while writing a couple things I can’t talk about and attempting to maintain a successful Miitomo campaign and decent hairstyle.
Use one word to describe how you work.
Frequently.
What’s your workspace like?
I have an Ikea table with an iMac and my Wacom tablet on it that I use as a desk. Sometimes, when I get tired of sitting there, I’ll go sit on the other piece of furniture I have in my apartment, the couch. I also spend a lot of time laying on the floor.
What do you listen to when you work?
I don’t listen to anything when I’m writing. I usually listen to music while I’m drawing (the past two weeks I haven’t really been able to stop listening to Roxy Music, but I also currently like the new Woods and Cate Le Bon albums). When I’m coloring I usually listen to podcasts. I will obsessively listen to any podcast until, for reasons I never fully understand, I suddenly decide I can’t anymore, but off the top of my head, the ones I listen to when they first go up are Travis Bickel on the Riviera, Wait What, and Hollywood Handbook.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Every time anyone gives me advice, or I just read advice in like a Facebook meme or something, even if I think it’s amazing and will definitely follow it, or it significantly will change my life and open up the world in a way I never imagined was possible, I always think, “Nope!”
I honestly think the best advice I’ve been given is when Aleks Sennwald told me to try to stop eating bread like four years ago.
A page from a comic Pete Toms is currently working on
How do you get into art mode?
I either just free write or read some comics, or a book, or hours of Twitter while repeating “Time to get off the internet,” over and over.
Is your work paper or digital based?
Pretty much everything is digital. I see the Photoshop tool bar framing everything I see even when I look away from my screen like it’s burned into my eyes.
What’s the one thing you wish you could improve about your work?
Like every cartoonist in the world, I would like to be better and faster.
When’s the best time to work?
I used to stay up all night like a raccoon or demon, but the past few years I’ve tried to be pretty strict about stopping at a decent time and getting some sleep. I think I actually do my best work early in the morning.
Who do you consider to be inspirational creators in your field (classic and modern)?
I have never really stopped attempting to read every comic that exists, so this question is tough, but for the last thing I drew I was looking a lot at Ditko’s Shade, and the Jamie Delano/Mark Buckingham Hellblazer issues because I like how those comics have this weird shit going on inside a kind of rigid grid that makes it seem almost deadpan and pretty creepy.
And this morning I read back through 8 million pages on Dane Martin’s Tumblr.
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