Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Cavna remembers Mad's Frank Jacobs

Remembering Frank Jacobs, the 'poet lauridiot' of Mad magazine who inspired comics like 'Weird Al' Yankovic [in print as 'Poet lauridiot,' a genius at puttin' on the wits].

Meet an Icelandic cartoonist: A Chat with Animator Gísli Darri Halldórsson, part 1

 


By Alexandra Bowman

Georgetown University student Bowman interviewed the Icelandic cartoonist Gísli Darri Halldórsson as his short movie Yes-People is nominated for an Academy Award (it's online at the New Yorker's site). They spoke via Zoom for the Hilltop Show on April 12, 2021 (and the video will be appearing there soon) and the edited transcript follows the press release background information (so we don’t have to rephrase all of the information on Halldórsson’s career.)

Gísli Darri Halldórsson’s animated short film YES-PEOPLE shares a story about an eclectic mix of people finding a way to cope with life’s daily struggles. After premiering at the Minimalen Short Film Festival in Norway, the film went on to win numerous awards and has just been Oscar® Nominated for the 93rd Academy Awards® in the Animated Short Film category. Icelandic Animator and storyteller Gísli Darri Halldórsson graduated with a BA (hons) from the Irish School of Animation (Dublin). He has been a professional animator since 2007. Notable films he worked on include the Oscar nominated short GRANNY O’GRIMM’S SLEEPING BEAUTY, the Oscar nominated short THE ROOM ON THE BROOM and Bafta award winning TV-series THE AMAZING WORLD OF GUMBALL.

Gísli has also worked in live-action doing storyboards for Nordic noir series TRAPPED (Series 1) and Icelandic feature films such as VULTURES and I REMEMBER YOU. His narrative music videos such as WHATEVER by Leaves, received a nomination for best music video at the EDDA Awards (The Icelandic Film & TV Academy) and THE GREAT UNREST by Mugison received best music video of the year at the Icelandic Music Awards.

Just some of the accolades YES-PEOPLE has received include the Best European Short Film at the Wierd International Animation Film Festival in Spain, the Children's Choice Award Nordic Youth Category at Nordisk Panorama in Sweden, the Best Nordic-Baltic Short Film at the Frederikstad Animation Festival in Norway, the Audience Award at Uppsala Short Film Festival in Sweden and many more.

YES-PEOPLE was written and directed by Gísli Darri Halldórsson produced by Arnar Gunnarsson as well as Halldórsson for the production companies CAOZ and Hólamói. Just some of Gunnarsson’s work includes the animated TV Series’ TREASURE TREKKERS, TALKING TOM AND FRIENDS, ELISA: RESCUE TEAM ADVENTURES, the animated feature LEGENDS OF VALHALLA and more. International sales are being handled by Magnetfilm. The film was supported by the Icelandic Film Centre.

Alexandra Bowman: I am sitting down today with filmmaker Gísli Darri Halldórsson, the director of the animated short film, Yes-People which has just been nominated for best animated short film at the Oscars, the 93rd Academy awards. Thank you so much for sitting down with me. I'm so excited to hear from you about how this film was made.

Gísli Darri Halldórsson: Yeah, thanks for having me.

Alexandra Bowman:  How did you develop the concept for this film - in which the idea is that people use one word, a minimum amount of communication to go about their daily lives, and express a whole range of emotions and feelings and situations to each other?

Gísli Darri Halldórsson: So a long time ago I was talking to my Irish friends and I was explaining to them this concept of the Icelandic “Yes” which is “Já,” and how it's ridiculous how often it’s used in Icelandic everyday speech to the point where our neighbors and Faroe islands call us the Yes people. They were just laughing at it, and it just got me thinking about a film with only one word. And then I started thinking about the semi-silent film format, which is I'm sure it has been done before, but I really wanted to pursue that. Animation is a performance that has a lot of gestures, and you control over every single pixel, so you can really be pretty polished with the performance. At the same time, I was also obsessed with routines and habits and I was sort of terrified about living my life in a loop and not growing at all. I kind of married those two ideas together. I thought it would help to have characters who are living their life in a loop and they can only say one word as well. So it was a marriage of the two ideas. I feel like the yes thing is like butter and the habit routine thing is like the bread underneath.

Alexandra Bowman: Did you start making this before or after March 20,20? When did you start making it?

Gísli Darri Halldórsson: The seed, the conversation with my friends was in 2012. So yeah, in2013 I started writing and designing the thing, but yeah, there was like a five-year period of just finding tiny pockets of time between freelance jobs to work on it. I got a production grant from the Icelandic film center and worked on it until the end of 2019. Yeah. So it was completely a coincidence that it kind of fits with the COVID situation. I think it  has another level maybe that was not planned.

Alexandra Bowman: It's interesting to hear you talk about it in terms of the loop, because for me, at least living at home has really showed me the little habits and ruts that I tend to get into. The pandemic emphasized all the little things in life that you might not notice when you're kind of stuck in your own world.  What have you been doing over the last year and how has it helped your creative process?

Gísli Darri Halldórsson: I was following the film and it did really well in film festivals. It’s gone into a lot of lovely festivals, but I didn't manage to see it at all with an audience except in Iceland, which was a lovely experience. And yeah, that's a lot of work. I think there's probably more work doing the online … the COVID festival work. I don't know. It seems like it seems like more work somehow. But, I was working also offsite for a London based animation studio called Blue Zoo on show called Paddington …

Alexandra Bowman: Paddington! Are you serious? Oh, I'm a big fan. Big fan. Big. I have a plush Paddington right here…

Gísli Darri Halldórsson: It’s a lovely show from Nickelodeon. They're doing a really good job. Now I'm on another show, but I guess that's, that's been the benefit for me in the COVID situation. Remote work has been more for me, because I live in Iceland and there's not a lot of animation work on offer. I was kind of living my life in a bubble, like in the COVID situation, because I was working a lot from home before, even as early as 2009. So maybe that's why I started thinking about this because there was a lot of just being in the house, working.

Alexandra Bowman: Because you have been doing this longer than any of us, you gave us a preview of what it would look like. How do you typically look for inspiration for your work? What gives you the creative spark?

Gísli Darri Halldórsson: I feel like inspiration just happens. Something comes in front of me and I go, “Wow.” I think for this film, it was a very long time project. You know, if you have an inspiration to do a film, you can you can lose momentum. And I think a lot of films end up that way; it becomes a chore. I think there's a lot of unfinished films and books and all that, but I think what helped me is obsession. Finding an obsession and an inspiration, because there you have a natural tendency of the brain to go somewhere and it seems unresolved. So far that's my wisdom.

Alexandra Bowman:  Because you're already thinking about something so much. You probably dwell on it a lot and explore it and think about the nooks and crannies and the ideas. So it would be easy to go and make a whole movie about it. What did you consider while designing the characters in this film? Because they have that kind of beautiful rubber-hose stylized look, but they're also in a hyper realistically-rendered world. And I always think that juxtaposition is really interesting.

Gísli Darri Halldórsson: So actually, the world is photographs. It's animated against photographs, but I know what you mean. It looks almost unreal because I took [out] all the color and I recolored them, which makes them slightly less like photographs. And there are some props in there that are 3D, but the reason I chose that style is that I wanted to have that feeling of…  there's something about those sort of caricatures that for me, they're like interpretations of a spirit as well. It’s almost like the spirit version of a person. And I just wanted to have that sort of characters that seem to have a lot of potential and they're stuck in this real world. So that was the idea - to emphasize their stuckness. They don't quite sit in their world.

Alexandra Bowman: Right, you want stylistic contrast between the people and then the world that they're living in? What did the process look like as you developed the characters from like beginning to end? Does it start with a sketch maybe?

Gísli Darri Halldórsson: Some of the characters that are based on people that I know. And I think a few of them have realized this, but they're not completely the character, sometimes it's just the look and the person[ality] might come from someone else. I tried to avoid arbitrary designing. I tried to have something as an anchor. So for instance, the bitter alcoholic lady, she has a huge hairstyle. I started off from, “Oh yeah, I want this person to be kind of like living in a dark cloud so big that, you know, nobody can approach her really, unless she has her hair in her curlers.” Then there was the music teacher who was based on a bird, like this idea of somebody who likes to sing naturally. Those sort of just little things. There was always one idea, just as a starting point.

Alexandra Bowman: How many drafts do you usually go through for one character?

Gísli Darri Halldórsson: I can't say. Some were really easy. The music teacher was really quick and really hit and there was one character, the old man, he was too similar to the fat person in the film. I didn't want people to go like, “Oh, who's this guy?” I also tried to make them a different color or different from each other, so you just immediately know, so I had to redesign him quite a bit. And so I can't really say how long it takes; it's such a hard thing to measure that nebulous five-year period where I was just working. Sometimes I was working for nine months and I couldn't do anything on the film, and then I'd get like a month to work on it, so it was hard to say.

Alexandra Bowman: My vantage point as a 21-year-old, currently taking some animation classes, might be hard for people like myself who are used to the social media model of “you produce something, you post it, you produce something, you post it” kind of like feeding the beast, feeding the algorithm. Do you have to fight that in yourself? I finished a little short film a while back, but it was tough for me to work on something for that several month-long period of time.

Gísli Darri Halldórsson: Absolutely. It is tough. I'd say I came from the blog generation, so I was posting drawings and stuff on my blog, and there was no “likes” or stuff like that. It wasn't as addictive in terms of, “Oh, how are people liking this one?” Right. But still you check the weekly hits and stuff, so I definitely know exactly what you're talking about. I really thought, “I really enjoy doing this blog. It's great for my visual development and my thinking, but I'd really like to do a long-term [piece]. All the work that's gone into this blog could have been a film as well.” I think really the key was finding the inspiration in the obsession. I just remember thinking, “I know it's going to take a long time to make the film. I really need to find something or work with something that I know is going to have the oil to last.” And it was hard. It was a hard film to finish, but I think the key for me was I always had a sense of meaning, because I was working on something that was quite close to me and something that I was concerned with, and interested in.

Alexandra Bowman: What would be your words of advice to a college student or recent graduate who has always been interested in filmmaking, but hasn't quite gotten the boost to go make their own film? What would you say to them to help get them off the couch and into their little studio?

Gísli Darri Halldórsson: First of all, I would say not everybody needs to make a film. I think it's also finding your voice. What do you really want to do? I think a lot of artists, really talented artists, they think about their ideal self and think, “Oh, I should do a film,” but try first, listen to your real self. What do you really want? It's really hard, because our environment is constantly telling us what we should do. There's so many little systems that are tricking us and seducing us into this. But a part of, you know, the subject matter of the film is talking about what do you do with your every day? It's like looking at a huge painting that's either beautiful or sad or horrific, but if you go zoom in on a tiny square, it's completely meaningless and it's ugly, or it's dull and it doesn't have any meaning. But if you know the big picture, it is actually a really important part of that picture obviously, and that's how I think I view habits and routines. T might be helpful for younger people or anybody actually, who wants to do something over a long period. I read a book, I I'm sorry, I can't remember the name, but it was some reporter or journalist who had gathered all these habits and routines of politicians and scientists and artists. It was just like a little book like that. And it was super interesting to see their day-to-day life. It was really dull, but the work that these people produced! It was all the big artists such as Picasso and all these people had some really funny routines. Gertrude Stein apparently liked to go every morning with her girlfriends to the countryside to sit in front of a cow and write.

Alexandra Bowman: (laughing) They're serene. They are inspirational. I aspire to that level of peace.

Gísli Darri Halldórsson: I know it's cliché, but if you write for 10 minutes every day for a week, suddenly in a week, you're so invigorated and your day has meaning. If you do that in a year, suddenly the year doesn't seem like a blur anymore. I think it's like the first thing people should think about. Figure out what they want to say, who they are, who the real them is -  the ideal version, and just kind of chip away every day and in a year, maybe they'll that at least they'll be happy with what they put their mind to. I also experienced it first hand because I was really not good at drawing. And there was that same thing, my drawing teachers saying, “Oh, if you draw out 15 minutes a day, you'll be amazed in a month.” Obviously you do [better] under the direction of a teacher of course, but yeah, it's unbelievable.

Alexandra Bowman: Last year at the start of quarantine, I challenged myself to draw one cat every day in April. And just because I would feel bad for skipping a year, I'm doing that again this year. Even after a week, I feel like I've improved and I already draw most days. But for some reason, focusing deeply on something over the long term or doing something little every day helps add up.

Gísli Darri Halldórsson:  Your mental health is just also for your happiness, to have meaning in your life. There's nothing sadder than just thinking, “What did I do last week? Like what was I doing?” and there's nothing, you know?

Alexandra Bowman: Yeah. I kind of enjoy looking back at my Instagram and what I've drawn and thought, “This is evidence that I existed, just to myself. Maybe it probably won't be remembered in 50 years or whatever, but at least I know that I was alive and I was thinking and creative and used this time.” I think that's really interesting.

(continued in part 2)

Tonight!: ‘The Underfoot’ graphic-novel series co-creators talk

'The Underfoot' graphic-novel series co-creators plan Member Book Talk for 7 pm on Tuesday, April 13

National Press Club member Emily S. Whitten, co-writer of the award - nominated "The Underfoot" graphic-novel series, along with co-writer Ben Fisher and artist Michelle Nguyen, plan to discuss the second book in their series, The Underfoot: Into the Sun, during a Virtual Member Book Talk on Tuesday, April 13, at 7 p.m.

The Underfoot

The event is open to everyone but to be admitted to the Zoom event, you must RSVP by email to Heather Forsgren Weaver at heatherforsgrenweaver@gmail.com.

The Virtual Member Book Talk is slated to preview the second book in the series, Into the Sun, which is scheduled for publication on April 20.

Set in a post-apocalyptic Washington, D.C., where all humans have disappeared, "The Underfoot" sci-fi graphic-novel series chronicles the animal kingdoms left to rise and fall in the absence of the "Giants-That-Were." At the center of the series are groups of intelligent hamsters with special skills struggling to survive amidst a world of deadly threats and conflicting stories about their species' origins. Suitable for middle grades and above, the first book in the series, The Underfoot: The Mighty Deep, was nominated for a 2020 Ringo Award for "Best Kids Comic or Graphic Novel."  The Mighty Deep focuses on the valiant Hamster Aquatic Mercenaries, or H.A.M., as they seek to find new recruits for a mission to save their badger allies from dangerous flooding in an epic fast-paced adventure that combines heroic battles, dark mysteries, and heartfelt friendships.

Into the Sun revisits the H.A.M. and their new allies, the Hamster Airborne Paratroopers, in a tale full of escapes, rescues, and strategy.

The event is sponsored by the Member Author Book Group, which seeks to produce events for members to promote their recently published books. To inquire about the group, please contact Joe Motheral at joegm35@aol.com. The group meets (currently virtually) on the second Tuesday of the month at noon.

Saturday, April 10, 2021

A list of Robert F. Kennedy cartoon journalism awards

Incompletely harvested from Wikipedia - 

 1983

·  Cartoons: Don Wright, Miami News.

·  Citation, cartoon: Sam C. Rawls, The Atlanta Constitution

1986

·  Citation, cartoon: Mike Peters, Dayton Daily News

·  Honorable mention, cartoon: H. Clay Bennett, St. Petersburg Times.

1987

·  Honorable mention, cartoon: Bill Day, Detroit Free Press, "The Color Black 'n' Blue".

1990

·  Honorable mention, cartoon: Mike Peters, The Dayton Daily News.

1993

·  Honorable mention, cartoon: Don Wright, The Palm Beach Post, "Perot for President".

1995

·  Honorable mention, cartoon: Mike Luckovich, The Atlanta Constitution.

1997

·  Cartoon: Doug Marlette, Newsday.

1999

·  Domestic cartoon: Joel Pett, The Lexington Herald Leader.

2000

Domestic cartoon: Ted Rall
Universal Press Syndicate

2001

Domestic cartoon: Matt Davies
The Journal News

2002

Cartoon Prize: Signe Wilkinson
Philadelphia Daily News

2003

Cartoon: Dan Perkins ("Tom Tomorrow")  "This Modern World"          

2004

Cartoon: John Sherffius                        

2005

 Cartoon: Mark Fiore
 

2006

Cartoon: John Backderf
"The City"

2008

Cartoon: Signe Wilkinson
Philadelphia Daily News

2009

Cartoon: Jack Ohman
The Oregonian

2010

Cartoon: Bill Day
Series of cartoons,
United Feature Syndicate

2011

Cartoon: Gary Varvel
"The Path to Hope"
The Indianapolis Star

2012

Cartoon: Stephanie McMillan
"The Beginning of the American Fall and Code Green"
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

2013

Cartoon: Jen Sorensen
 
2014

Cartoon: David Horsey
“Portfolio by David Horsey,”
Los Angeles Times

2015

Cartoon: Darrin Bell
"Darrin Bell 2014 Editorial Cartoons,"
The Washington Post Writers Group

2016

Cartoon: Angelo Lopez, “Editorial Cartoons,”
Philippines Today
 
2017

Cartoon: Mike Thompson, “The Flint Water Scandal,”
Detroit Free Press

2018

Cartoon: Ruben Bolling, Andrews McMeel Syndication, Boing Boing, Daily Kos, and GoComics
“Tom the Dancing Bug”
Syndicated by Andrews McMeel Syndication



Friday, April 09, 2021

old news: Staff Cartoonist Joe Melvin Leaves For USS Antietam

Staff Cartoonist Joe Melvin leaves for USS Antietam
National Naval Medical Center News (March 28 1955)


from Naval Hospital Bethesda, MD's newspaper.

The Lily's latest comic

I used to feel ashamed crying in public. Now I embrace it every time.

In 2020, I started keeping my 'crying diaries'

I used to feel ashamed crying in public. Now I embrace it every time.
(Pepita Sándwich)

Thursday, April 08, 2021

PR: 2021 Ignatz Submissions Info for Small Press Expo



Hello Everyone!

Between juggling the information about COVID vaccination rates and re-openings from the State of Maryland, Montgomery County and the Marriott, we are still trying to figure out whether we will hold an in-person show this year. So we do not hold up the Ignatz process, we are going to move forward with again using PDF file submissions for the 2021 Ignatz Awards.

As it was last year, we will only be accepting PDFs to be submitted to the Ignatz jurors.

Here is the process for submitting your mini-comics, comics, graphic novels and anthologies for the SPX 2021 Ignatz Awards:

  • Submissions must have been published between June 1, 2020 and May 30, 2021, and the deadline for all submissions is June 1, 2021
  • Go to this shared public folder to drop PDFs of your comics. All you have to do is place your PDF in that folder, and we will get it to the Ignatz jurors
  • We are ONLY accepting single-file PDFs of the comics - we cannot accept folders of files, or comics in other formats
  • Each file must be named with the following naming convention:
  • For mini-comics, comics and graphic novels:
CreatorLastName.CreatorFirstName.Comic_Title.IssueNumber.Publisher.PubMonthPubYear.pdf

  • For example: Hanselmann.Simon.Bad_Gateway.Fantagraphics.July2020.pdf
NOTES: If there is no Issue Number, then do not put one in the file name
If it is self published, put Self as the Publisher
  • For anthologies:
EditorLastName.EditorFirstName.Comic_Title..Publisher.PubMonthPubYear.pdf
  • For example: Terry.Laura.AnnaStrong.Comics_for_Choice.Self.June2020.PDF
NOTE: If there are multiple editors, use only the first one listed on the title page.
  • Please do not assume we will figure out the creator's name, publisher, etc., as we simply won't have the time/person power
Ok, that's it. Please let us know any questions you have, and thanks so much for making great art!!

Dan, Francesca and everyone else at SPX
Hit us up on Instagram, Twitter, or  Facebook for a quick reply. We're also happy to chat if you email us at dan@smallpressexpo.com.

Copyright © 2021 Small Press Expo, All rights reserved. 
You are getting this email because we know you might want a table to SPX 2020!! 

Our mailing address is: 
Small Press Expo
P.O. Box 5704
Bethesda, Maryland 20824



Largely uncredited Wonder Woman writer Joye Hummel passes away

Wonder Woman writer Joye Hummel donated her archives to the Smithsonian Institution in 2014. In her hands is the psychology take-home exam that had drawn William Moulton Marston's attention. (Elizabeth O'Brien/Smithsonian Institution)


She was the 'secret' Wonder Woman writer in the 1940s. Here's how she finally got her due at 94.

April 14: Shawn Martinbrough at online MoCCA Festival

MoCCA Festival goes virtual next week with Comic and Cartoon Art Week

Among the participants, Adrian Tomine, Meghan Parker and Shawn Martinbrough

Wednesday, April 07, 2021

P&P Live! Nate Powell | SAVE IT FOR LATER with Eleanor Davis



P&P Live! Nate Powell | SAVE IT FOR LATER with Eleanor Davis


Wednesday, April 7, 2021 - 7 p.m.

As he was completing his work on the award-winning trilogy March, artist Nate Powell watched in dismay as the world around him fell apart. In this graphic memoir, Powell details his family's experiences during the four year stretch between Trump's election and the COVID-19 outbreak in heartbreaking detail, focusing on his effort to communicate complex issues like institutionalized racism and police brutality to his two young daughters. In an intimate tone, Powell shares their poignant interactions as he encourages them to stand up for what is right. Powell's impassioned call to action is a relevant message for our times. Illustrator Eleanor Davis will be in conversation with Powell to discuss protest and parenthood, and how to equip young people with tools to make their own noise as they grow up and help shape the direction and future of this country.

Nate Powell is a National Book Award–winning cartoonist whose work includes civil rights icon John Lewis's historic March trilogy, Come Again, Two Dead, Any Empire, Swallow Me Whole, and The Silence of Our Friends. Powell has also received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, three Eisner Awards, the Michael L. Printz Award, Comic-Con International's Inkpot Award, two Ignatz Awards, and the Walter Dean Myers Award. He lives in Bloomington, Indiana.

Eleanor Davis is a cartoonist and illustrator. Her books include How To Be Happy; You and a Bike and a Road; Why Art?; and The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook. Her graphic novel, The Hard Tomorrow, has been recently released. She lives in Athens, Georgia (pre-covid) and Tucson, Arizona (mid-covid).

Tom King's first comics story was never published

Third Eye and Velocity comics stores interviewed

Velocity Comics here -

2020 Was a Tough Year for Comics Shops

Retailers discuss what they've learned from the pandemic

By Shannon O'Leary |
Apr 02, 2021
A version of this article appeared in the 04/05/2021 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: A TOUGH YEAR FOR COMICS SHOPS

and Third Eye here -

So What Does Marvel's Move to Penguin Random House Actually Mean?

We dig into this massive shift by answering ten key questions related to Marvel's big play.

Apr 9: Learn to Draw Comics with John Gallagher

Max Meow Comics Camp with John Gallagher | Ages 7+
Register

Tuesday, April 06, 2021

Meet a Local Comics Writer: A Chat with Matt Kund

by Mike Rhode

Recently I went to my first comics signing since the pandemic started. Matt Kund and Brett Murphy were at Fantom Comics on Dupont Circle for a few hours. I chatted briefly, bought their comics, took a couple of photos, and asked them for an interview. Here's Matt answering our usual questions.

What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

I’m mainly a writer, I do draw a little and soon I am drawing my first story for an anthology I am part of.  

How do you do it? Traditional pen and ink, computer or a combination?

Mostly know I am digital, I love working in Procreate on my iPad, I never thought I would be a digital artist, but that’s mostly want I use now.

When (within a decade is fine) and where were you born?

I was born in the 1970s in Washington DC.

Why are you in Washington now?  What neighborhood or area do you live in?

My day job is with the Federal Government.  I live in the Maryland now.

What is your training and/or education in cartooning?

I have taken two classes in comics writing from Comics Experiences and on coloring class at Comic Experience as well.  

Who are your influences?

My influences - writing wise Jonathan Hickman is my biggest current influence.  I would love to be able to craft stories and world build like him

I grew up on 80s Marvel Comics, GI Joe and Spiderman 

I love Mike Zeck's Marvel covers.

Lee Weeks is my favorite all time, with Sean Gordon Murphy more currently.

If you could, what in your career would you do-over or change?

Get an early start, I did get serious about trying to make comics till my 30s.

What work are you best-known for?

I would think maybe my comic “Digital Forever” a sci-fi comic about a digitally-designed afterlife program.

What work are you most proud of?

A mini comic I did with call “RX-tiction” with my art and podcasting partner Noah Ray.  I was our first project together that lead to a bunch of future project and friendship built around art/movies and comics, and we told a zombie story with a twist I don’t think anyone else has tried.

What would you like to do or work on in the future?

I am currently working on a book called “Metal Eagle”, that I’m excited about.  Pitched as "Atomic Blonde" meets "This is Spinal Tap."

What do you do when you're in a rut or have writer's block?

I don’t have a lot of writer's block.  I have written something every day for the last 1,500 plus days.  I was really influenced by "The War of Art" by Stephen Pressfield were he talks about not waiting for the muse, setting down each day and being ready for the muse.

What do you think will be your future in the field? 

Hopefully as writer, but I would love to have a Jeff Lemire-like career, writing a bunch of books, and maybe doing the art on one.

What local cons do you attend? The Small Press Expo, Awesome Con, or others? Any comments about attending them?

Yeah all 3 of those, and Heroes Con in North Carolina. 

What's your favorite thing about DC?

I zipped over to the Art Gallery or the Portrait Gallery on my lunch (when I go into the office).  It’s a great outing to get inspired to want to make things.

Least favorite?

Tourist not understanding the unwritten law of the escalators, walking on the left and standing is on the right.

What monument or museum do you like to take visitors to?

National Portrait Gallery, it’s hardly ever crowded and so much fun to see the art!

Do you have a website or blog?

I have a website MattKund.com, I haven't worked on it lately I was trying for a time to detail the trails and tribulation of trying to break into comics as writer. Hopefully I get back to it. 

I have a Gumroad site to buy my comics - https://gumroad.com/forevercomics

Twitter @MKund
Instagram @MAK0876
Facebook Pages https://www.facebook.com/digitalforevercomic/ and https://www.facebook.com/ConstructingComic/

How has the COVID-19 outbreak affected you, personally and professionally?

I haven’t tabled in a year at a con.  But I have been able to Kickstart comic books as a publisher  -“Dino Thrashers” and as a writer - “The Reset” and a few anthology stories.  I run a meet-up group called DMV Indie Comics Creators and since March of 2020 we moved those to Zoom from in person meetings.

Tell us more about your new company, Forever Comics Publishing, your comic from it, and your Kickstarter campaign.

Forever Comics is a small publishing company I formed for my stories. And there is now an imprint mainly to handle sci-fi stories under Ageless Press, with the other co-founder Brett Murphy, who had started Legacy Comics, which is now the horror imprint under Ageless Press.

Forever Comics as published - "Digital Forever," "Multi - Larceny" and "The Reset" (via Kickstarter) and "RX-tiction," "Life Cycle" and "Orryx Mini Comics" with Noah Ray.

Matt, can you tell us about your Constructing ComicsPodcast?

Constructing Comics Podcast is a podcast I do with Noah Ray. It started off as a page-design podcast (which we still do from time to time). We do reviews of current releases, but we have found a good groove interviewing indie creators and some bigger names at DC and Marvel Comics.

What comic books do you read regularly or recommend? Is Fantom your local store?

Hickmen’s X books, and Pax Romain; Mister Miracle; Anything by Brubaker and Phillips.

 Yes, Fantom is my local store, I have been with them since Union Station, but since Covid, I have moved to mail order, happy that I can still help them out and get my books during the pandemic.




Matt Kund & Brett Murphy at Fantom Comics