Brandons's Column -02/25/03
Past Columns
02/18/03
02/04/03
01/10/03
12/11/02
11/27/02
Welcome back. This is the second small-press creator interview being done in accordance with my recent trip to the Alternative Press Expo. Enjoy!
This time around, we’re featuring an incredible new talent that cemented a permanent place on my bookshelf with an amazing little book about the exhilaration and desperation of needing someone, Clumsy. That talent’s name is Jeffrey Brown.
Brown is a young man that recently took the independent comics world by storm with his very first published work-the graphic novel Clumsy. His debut was so impressive that he was nominated for the prestigious Ignatz Award for Best New Talent; the good guys at Top Shelf jumped at the chance to begin publishing his material at the behest of indy comics superstar James Kochalka Superstar, whose right-on description of the book bears mention:
“...Clumsy is the story of a new relationship and it’s stunning in its’ realism and honesty. The frailty of the drawn line perfectly matches the human frailty portrayed within the story. It’s just so damn human. This is my favorite graphic novel ever. Even if Jeffrey Brown never draws another line again, he has already won a permanent place in my heart. Still, I want more.”
The following is an interview with Jeffrey Brown; you’ll find his take on art refreshing, his sincerity extraordinary, and room on your own shelf for a book with Jeffrey Brown’s name on the binding.
BH: Where are you from, and how old are you? Where did you attend college and what did you study?
JB: I'm originally from Grand Rapids Michigan, though I've lived in Chicago for about 2 1/2 years now. I'm 27. I first went to a small college in Holland, Michigan, [and earned] an Art Major/English Minor. Then I sat around in Grand Rapids for 3 years trying to figure out what art was and what I wanted to do with it. I decided to go to The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, thinking I'd become a fine artist, painter type. I finished my MFA there last year, although I stopped painting and started drawing comics halfway through.
BH: How long have you been drawing and writing comics? Are you working at another job?
JB: I've been drawing comics forever, off and on, but always one panel things, one page things. Clumsy was the first real comic I drew so I've been doing comics for a couple years. Yeah, there's not much money in comics if you're not doing superhero stuff-I manage the music department of a major book store retail chain store in a Chicago-area suburb (I won't say which chain here, since I don't want to get in trouble if I'm not supposed to associate them with my comics or something like that).
BH: What kind of career goal do you have regarding comics?
JB: Hm. I don't think of it as a career. I've always drawn and made art and I think I always will. What I like about comics is that I can communicate with so many people, and I guess one goal I have is to break over into an audience that doesn't normally read comics.
BH: Why did you start creating comics? How has the experience been overall?
JB: I started drawing comics because I wasn't happy with my paintings, and the faculty at SAIC didn't like my paintings. I was fed up with what I perceived to be excessive bullshit, posturing, fakeness, etc. in the “art world”...I didn't see much humanity in the work of most artists and somehow, comics suddenly became a way to achieve the most honesty, to be un-ironic...I wanted to make art that was as human as possible.
BH: You’ve succeeded in that...Your self-published graphic novel Clumsy is extremely personal and detailed, and it has a profound effect on your readers. Describe what the book is about and how its’ success has affected you both personally and professionally.
JB: Clumsy is about celebrating being in a relationship, including the down times but mostly the good times, although we broke up before I finished it, and I just rewrote the 4 pages of breaking up over the phone. It basically describes the relationship and the feelings involved through snippets, fragments of memory, all jumbled up in the way we remember things like relationships. The success has been extremely encouraging in terms of making art, and has been satisfying in how I've been able to affect so many people. It's also helped me make more work-that is, in terms of being able to make more copies of books and getting wider distribution.
BH: Do you still talk to Theresa (Jeff’s ex-girlfriend that Clumsy features) at all? Do you know how she feels about Clumsy?
JB: Um, we've talked off and on, though off for a while now...ever since she started dating this new guy and I got weirded out because he had been kind of a friend of mine, by coincidence. She liked Clumsy, although sometimes I worry about what she thinks of the attention it's getting.
BH: Since you mentioned that you and Theresa broke up before you finished
Clumsy, were you going to publish it with a different ending?
JB: The only thing that changed was the 4 page story "The End," which was originally something about us seeing a movie together or something, which would've totally changed the whole book, probably. But the stories that follow "The End" were already set.
BH: Was it difficult to put those feelings and moments on paper and share them?
JB: It wasn't as hard as you'd think. I've always been a bit of an introvert, so this was kind of a cathartic release to express all this emotion that I had been trying to express in my art before but never quite getting it right. I just put down whatever I thought and felt; it's like-I think Mark Twain said this-you don't have to remember if you tell the truth? So with Clumsy, I was just honest, so I didn't have to edit.
BH: Do you ever feel awkward around people that have read the book, knowing so much about your personal experiences?
JB: Sometimes. I try not to think of the book being about me. It also depends on how the reader reacts; the more comfortable they are, the less awkward it is, and I've had friends who didn't want to touch the thing, but my parents and brothers have read it. My oldest brother told my Mom he liked Unlikely (my next book) better because it had less sex in it. And of course, there's so much that's left out in the book, it's misleading to think you know me just from Clumsy...there was more to the relationship than I could show, and there's more to me, and I've changed since then...
BH: The book reminds me so much of my own relationships, mostly my first significant one, as I’m sure many people have told you-are you happy so many people can relate, and has anyone said anything about it that’s really stuck out in your mind?
JB: Yes, I'm both happy and surprised that my own unique experience seems to be so universal...it never ceases to jar me when people pick out some little incident and say that's EXACTLY what they went through.
BH: Did you begin your career self-publishing? Do you now have a publisher?
JB: Yes, Clumsy was self-published, and then Top Shelf was distributing it...they've actually taken me on...they're putting out my next book Unlikely this summer and I'm assuming they'll publish more of my projects. I'm also doing stories for different anthologies, some self-published, some from other publishers like Drawn & Quarterly. I do still have other projects I will definitely self publish...
BH: It’s amazing that you self-published a graphic novel to begin you career. Have you been nominated for any awards, and have you won any?
JB: I was nominated for the Ignatz Award for Promising New Talent last year, but I didn't win.
BH: Do you keep a daily comic diary? If so, do you plan on ever putting them into a collection?
JB: I don't...so much of my work is like diary anyway, but with a little perspective...
BH: What would you like fans to know about you and your comics?
JB: Um....I don't know. I'd like the fans to get whatever they can out of my work, and they don't really need to know anymore than what's there.
BH: What’s been your best experience in comics?
JB: Meeting other cartoonists has been great, especially guys like Chris Ware, but just as much lesser knowns like the other guys on www.theholyconsumption.com...meeting fans has been fun too, and finding out people you've never seen have crushes on you is kind of cool...
BH: What are your plans for 2003 as far as comics releases? What do you currently have out?
JB: Currently out are Clumsy and I Am Going To Be Small, which is a collection of gag like funny stuff. Coming out in July is Unlikely, a 256 page book about losing my virginity to my first girlfriend. If I have the money, a limited edition book called Any Easy Intimacy will be out this fall, and I do mini comics on a limited basis, usually just for conventions that I go to.
BH: Man...Unlikely sounds great! Where on the web can fans find your work, and where can retailers order your books from? Do you have a website?
JB: Retailers can go through Diamond or Top Shelf for my major releases; everyone can shop at theholyconsumption.com which showcases my work and 3 other great Chicago-area cartoonists who have mostly been self-publishing so far. It's a website created by my friend Paul Hornschemeier to sell his comics along with mine, plus those of Anders Nilsen and John Hankiewicz. We're all Chicago area cartoonists, all up and comers, who have mostly self published so far. It's all about great comics. We rotate weekly with "Sunday Services" which showcases sketches and upcoming projects, and you can buy fun stuff like shirts and things also.
BH: Have you read comics all your life? If so, who’ve been your influences? Do you have any influences outside of comics that come out in your work (or don’t come out)?
JB: Yes, as long as I've been able to read. Influences: Chris Ware, Dan Clowes, Julie Doucet, James Kochalka, Chester Brown, Joe Matt, Moebius, Art Adams, Debbie Dreschler, Adrian Tomine, John Porcellino, um, there's more that I can't think of right now, I'm sure. Outside of comics, David Shrigley, Raymond Pettibon, Egon Schiele, and above all, Charlotte Salomon, who did this incredible work called Life? Or Theatre?
BH: Aaah, that Kochalka...James Kochalka has been instrumental in promoting your book, even going as far as helping convince Top Shelf to publish your work. How did you meet James, and how has your guys’ relationship been?
JB: I just sent him books, and he liked them. I met him at SPX last year, and I did a one page strip for the Free Comic Book Day issue of Peanut Butter & Jeremy. We don't keep in touch too often, but I love his work, and he's been a great help in spreading the word about my work.
BH: Where will your next few appearances be?
JB: I'll probably be at the San Diego Comic Con in July, and for sure will be at the Wizardworld Chicago in August. I also have plans for an Unlikely release party at Quimby's the last weekend of July...
BH: What’s Quimbys?
JB: Quimby’s is one of the best alternative comics shops in the world and its here in Chicago. Their website is, I think, www.quimbys.com or something obvious like that. Chris Ware did all their signage and they don’t really carry any mainstream stuff, plus they carry tons of ‘zines and self-published mini comics.
BH: What kind of music, movies, and television are you into?
JB: I like cheesy WB shows like 7th Heaven which is hilarious, Dexter's Lab and The Powerpuff girls, Farscape, Ed, Blind Date, Judge Mathis...I watch entirely too much TV. Music, I like indie/altertnative rock stuff - yoLaTengo, Low, Elk City, Polyphonic Spree, Cat Power, Built To Spill, Modest Mouse, Elf Power, Microphones...I have over 600 CD's, which is also entirely too many...movies: anything by Wes Anderson, Terry Gilliam, and David Lynch...
BH: Pretty nice and developed tastes...a buddy of mine is always talking about Cat Power. So how much time per day do you spend drawing and creating comics?
JB: I spend probably an average of 3 hours a day actually drawing, and then I'm always thinking about stuff, plotting or figuring out how to draw a particular panel or story.
BH: Okay-that’s just about it. Thanks for the great interview, Jeff.
Upon arriving in San Francisco, the first person I met that was going to the APE Convention was Jeffrey Brown, in the hotel lobby where we were both staying. We had a very quick and casual conversation; if it were a movie, that meeting would’ve been some fantastic foreshadowing, because Jeff and Clumsy ended up being the fondest and most significant memory I have of the trip. On Sunday, the last day of the convention, I approached Jeff and asked him to do a sketch for me-just something with him in it. It is easily the best five bucks I’ve ever spent. This is that sketch:
Thanks, Jeff.
Brandon and Jeffrey Brown at APE 2003
**C’mon back next week for a candid look at Jim Mahfood and lots of details about the current sequel to his first big independent hit, Grrl Scouts.
|