Age, occupation, where are you from, where do you live now, and how long have you lived in New York?
I'm 26, I am from West Palm Beach, Florida, and I've been living in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, for 3 years or so. I work as an editor in a museum's publications department. It's awesome, let me tell you.
Your book, Spaniel Rage, has several daily sketches/cartoons. How did it go from being a personal diary of sorts to a book?
Well, I used to self-publish them and sell them at small press fairs and conventions and stuff. So Alvin, my publisher, liked my self-published stuff and thought it would be a cool project. I mean basically, I began it with the idea that it was personal, but that was just so I wouldnt be intimidated. I'd never drawn comics before really, so I thought it would be a good exercise.
Was there difficulty in deciding what to include and what not to include?
Not really. Every day throughout the day there are these moments I want to remember, or tell people, so that's usually what I end up drawing. There are SO many things that I never even get to draw, and I mourn the loss of their recording for the rest of my days, that is until I forget about them. That's why I have to draw stuff, because I forget stuff.
In the book, you have a strange clown fantasy, care to explain that at all?
I just wondered, do clowns do EVERYTHING with that big red nose on?
How long have you been drawing? Do you consider it a profession now, or still a hobby?
I've been drawing since I was little, and went to art school and stuff. I used to be a painter so it made me very haughty about drawing and so I never thought of it as a hobby. Maybe I dont believe in hobbies. I've been thinking about it a lot lately, but I haven't come to any conclusions. I wish drawing was my sole profession, but maybe when I grow up it can be.
Why did you choose to draw about your life instead of doing a more traditional written diary?
Because no one wants to read my diary! It would be incredibly annoying. My diaries are blood-curdlingly horrible to read. Comics are kind of amazing, in the way they can transform your own personal type of communication. In real life I talk way too much and say too many words. Somehow in comics everything is pared down to just the right stuff. It's a way to acknowledge things that would be irritating to call attention to if you were talking, or something.
