First off, here is my interview with Jon Michael Lennon, writer and illustrator of PRODUCT OF SOCIETY . . . .
John Bruni: How long have you been in the business?
Jon Michael Lennon: Zero years. I am not in any business. No, I’ve been making my own comic books for four years.
JB: What inspired you to publish your own comics?
JML: I always wanted to, and I publish my own because it’s hard, as anyone can tell you, to break into the actual business even with small publishing houses. You always submit stuff, and you get nothing back. After time, a lot of people are like, “Oh, they don’t want me, so I’ll just keep trying, or I’ll give up.” Well, I got a Visa with a high limit. Sure, the debt keeps getting higher, but I’ll pay off a little bit every year. The goal is to someday, maybe not have to pay a printer. Until then . . . you know.
JB: You’ve been around Artists Alley a while now. How has it treated you?
JML: It all depends on the person. I sold a couple of books today, which is better than zero. It’s tough because not everyone is my target audience. You guys are probably more my target audience because you’re younger, you have a sense of humor. A lot of people walking around are old, they got Wolverine shirts, they have no interest in dolphins having sex with chicks. The way it’s treated me? It’s all a matter of positivity. I’m not the most financially successful at this, but I try, and that’s all that matters. I’m lucky to be in the position to be able to do that.
JB: Is it hard marketing your stuff, considering the mature content?
JML: Maybe it kind of screens my audience a tad. At the same time, I don’t have the ability to do anything wholesome. I’ve tried. If the word “fuck” isn’t in my work, I don’t like it. It’s just what I do. Think of Adult Swim. I know they’re not saying fuck, but that kind of humor, there’s an audience for that kind of stuff. Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Vertigo, I mean, they’re a bit more high class than me, but that kind of stuff? That’s my audience. It’s a very small audience, and I’m one guy, so it’s tough. But I keep going and going, and hopefully someday, something will happen. I’m doing this, no matter what, so I might as well make a few bucks off of it.
JB: Speaking of a weird audience, has it been cool to you, or does it get too weird?
JML: Too weird? Not so far, yet. It’s only Friday morning. Most people have been nice to me. They’ve either bought my comics and have been nice, or they’ve looked at me with disdain and spat on the table. Well, not that last part, but there is a chain of comic book stores in Chicago called Graham Crackers, and I know the manager of the store I go to, so I got him to carry the first book I did. And then, some kid bought it and the mother came back, quite irate. There was some guy shooting up semen into his vein to get high off it, or whatever the hell I was writing about. They had to pull it off the shelves. I don’t see the problem. They’re weak, man. Gotta’ be strong.
JB: Considering things like the anti-smoking killer, the stoner-thief having a demon come out of his asshole—-
JML: It’s funny, man. You’ve got notes and everything.
JB: Dare I say that there might be some moral content to your work? In spite of having, you know, government agents drinking poop from a glass?
JML: Wait, what’s the question? Well, of course. It’s all about accepting the Lord Jesus—-no, I’m just trying to make people laugh. If I had to say what my comics are really about, well, it’s gay-sounding, but I’m just trying to say life is funny, and we should all laugh at the worst possible things we can think of. We’re all going to die, so chill out. I don’t think there’s much more of a moral than that. I don’t have anyone getting raped, so I’m against rape.
JB: That’s good.
JML: Especially man-on-man. I don’t know, I’m no creature, man. I just want to make people laugh and spread my disease to the world with whatever comes out of my brain. This book here has the return of the Cyborg Dolphin, but the story I did in the back is really fucking dark. There’s a baby in the womb giving the middle finger, necro-bestiality, man-on-man rape. Well, you don’t see the rape, but it’s implied. This guy, he finds the Lord, and he reads the Bible and the Qua'ran 2-in-1, and he gets out of prison and celebrates by getting a prostitute who bites his dick off. So, those are lessons. Like, check out your prostitute first. Thoroughly.
JB: That said, would you consider any subject taboo?
JML: Jeez, man. I’m not a bad guy. I’m not a freak. I don’t think child molestation is funny. But besides that, what else can you say? For instance, I had a buddy who was doing the cover for PRODUCT OF SOCIETY #3, and it didn’t work out because he drew a woman in a straight jacket, just like we’d talked about. But when he gave it to me, besides being a bad painting, you could see her pussy, dude. I can’t have a pussy on the cover of my comic book. Are you fucking crazy? They’re going to kick me out of here. The only taboo is stuff that’s not funny. I got a lot about terrorists and stuff. Hell, I don’t know. If I could find a way to make child molestation funny, I’d probably write about it.
JB: What’s next for you?
JML: I’m still working on PRODUCT OF SOCIETY, but I’m kind of stressed out with it. The Cyborg Dolphin story has to be continued. After I finish this up, I’m going to start work on some paintings because I feel like I’m kind of stagnating with my cartoony style. I have the ability to do better art, so I want to take a break and do some interesting pieces like this series of paintings I’ve been thinking about. It’s still going to be dark and fucked up, but it’ll just be better art. I have some interest in doing computer animation, just to make some cartoons and put them up on YouTube. Otherwise, I’ll continue to do this kind of thing, society will live on, and that’s about it.
Interview the Second: Kurt Dinse, writer and illustrator of ONE YEAR IN INDIANA . . . .
John Bruni: How long have you been in the business?
Kurt Dinse: I’ve never really been in the business, but I’ve been making comics for about five years, maybe six.
JB: I’ve seen you a lot in Artists Alley. How has Artists Alley treated you over the years?
KD: Pretty good. It’s kind of a different vibe from the rest of the convention because people who usually come through here are here for a specific reason. They’re not here to buy a toy. They’re looking for something they’ve never seen before. Maybe some guys come through here asking you for a picture of Wolverine or something but most say, “Hey, here’s something I’ve never seen before.” So generally, it’s treated me pretty good.
JB: I’ve seen you at C2E2 as well. What do you think the difference is between the shows?
KD: You know, it’s kind of funny. I’ve been talking about that with everyone who comes through here. I found out that people are either bitching about this show, or they're bitching about C2E2. They want this show to be more like C2E2. The only thing I didn’t really like about C2E2 was that, I live around here, and it still is a pain in the ass to get to [McCormick Place]. But the thing about it was, there were windows. There was sunlight, and I could see the city, so it’s kind of a double-edged sword. I wish both companies would treat the artists a little better as far as having ridiculous table prices. I mean, I know they have to cover the prices and costs and stuff, but you’re not really helping anybody by thinning out their art pool. So, I kind of like them both for different reasons. This is a really big artists area as compared to C2E2, but C2E2 had a lot of really good artists over there. Sorry, I’m about as waffley as you can get.
JB: So, how much of ONE YEAR IN INDIANA is based on fact?
KD: More than you’d think. A lot of them are based on fact. Really, quite a bit of them.
JB: Even the one about the jam bands?
KD: Yes.
JB: What is your favorite metal? I see you’re wearing a Motorhead shirt.
KD: I grew up with a lot of the old school stuff. That’s what the character always wears. The shirts of all those good bands. That was the stuff I listened to back then. For a while, I listened to punk, then I came back to metal. Stoner kind of metal, or whatever they call it. I like the super heavy aggressive stuff. I like Mastodon a lot. I guess they’re kind of proggy, but it’s good, it’s different. I have a certain love for super noisy crap, like Relapse and stuff like that.
Cliff Breaux: Dillinger Escape Plan?
KD: Yeah, stuff like that. Have you ever heard them do Soundgarden’s “Spoonman?”
CB: No, I haven’t.
KD: It sounds exactly like the record. They didn’t change it much at all, and you’d think that band would freak that song out. I have an interest, not musically, in a lot of black metal. It fascinates me. It’s a fascinating culture. The music’s okay. It’s not that it’s not too fast, it’s just not heavy enough.
JB: As far as your art goes, what would you say are your biggest influences?
KD: There’s a ton. I started getting into a lot of guys from the Seventies in the past couple of years, like CREEPY and HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE. Corbin’s a big one. Started getting into Moebius a lot. That’s because their styles are so different. I grew up on John Byrne and all those cats. Really, all the different guys were all doing this weird Seventies stuff, the super-thick lines and all sorts of good stuff. That kind of era really influenced me.
JB: What’s next for you?
KD: I have a new book out, my first spin off of ONE YEAR IN INDIANA called TALES FROM THE FRATHOUSE. There are three, four little stories not based on fact at all. Well, maybe a smidgen. They’re just about frathouses, and I’ve always thought that they’re ripe for parody. But I hope to collect everything I’ve done in a nice, shiny, glossy book. I’ve got two more—-well, I have a lot more stories—-but I have two more to do, and then I’ll self-publish everything in a book with a color cover, something nice and thick. Then, I can just keep going on. Eventually, I’m going to run out of stories. I just have to figure out when. I probably have another year or two of this. And I’m doing this science fiction book called HURR, based on a friend’s story. He ripped it off from HEAVY METAL, and all that kind of stuff. It’s a rip-off, it totally is. And I’ve got some other stories that are brewing in my head, about an old folks home and maybe a version of THE RE-ANIMATOR, which would be true to the actual story, which I find a really humorous story, if you look at it the right way.
Tune in tomorrow for my interview with the creator of ARSENIC LULLABY, Douglas Paszkiewicz!
No comments:
Post a Comment