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Alt-Fantasy Comics
Strzepek and I discussed how fantasy tropes are influencing contemporary art-comics. I asked him to extrapolate a theory as to why this is so. He replied: "It could be a repercussion from people getting tired of the same old kind of comics, like superhero comics — superhero stuff has been bashed for a long time, we're all kind of tired of that. […] I think personally, I picked up more manga: and you see [Kentarō Miura's]
Berserk and things like that, which have heavily fantasy-type stories. And I think a combination of reading that kind of stuff and then growing up, learning about Brian Ralph and Fort Thunder and these kind of guys; this grungy, gritty, world that's an alternative fantasy world, was appealing."
He also offered: "With self-publishing, people don't really need to have an editor really go through your stuff, so you're able to do whatever you want, and be no-holds-barred, crazy. It can be great, that stuff: that people can appreciate that kind of work, that kind of freedom. I think maybe because of that, people are seeing more and more of it; and more and more people are coming out and making more of their own kinds of stuff."
World-Building
Music features heavily in Strzepek's creative process: "I remember going on a field trip in the third grade or something and we went to the symphony. The teachers would tell you, 'Listen to the music and close your eyes and just imagine something happening.' I always did that at as a kid, take my music, close my eyes, and imagine things. For a while, I would go to the bathroom and sit in the bathroom in the dark or something and listen to headphones, imagining, like as a spaz, acting out action sequences, my own kind of characters. This is like the whole world-building of LEGOs, I built huge cities, and this one mountain that was hollow, was this underground city of elves."
He explained that in
Mourning Star, "those archetypes that are standard like that, you just mix and match with different ideas." However, he elaborated that more thought goes into creation, and that there's more backstory than appears on the page: "I'm hoping that that translates too, when people read it they can see that the Snipper Sniper is an amnesiac, and he's supposed to be a badass fighter kind of guy, but I hope they understand that there's more to it, it's not just me … ‘OK, I need a tall guy, I need a short guy, I need a fat guy …' There's more feeling to it, I hope, from the outsider's perspective, if it's conveyed at all."
The Drawing Process
"I do scripts" Strzepek detailed. "I mostly plan out the comic with bullets of what do I want to do for the whole comic. And then I have to string it in between. I'll usually take a bunch of Xerox copy paper (livin' the glory life of an indy comics person, scrounge for paper and stuff) and just thumbnail 20 pages at a time. Or two scenes or one scene at a time, and thumbnail out all the dialogue and everything like that, and do a final version of that. I wish I wrote the whole thing at once, or had it all prepared, because by the time I get to the end of the book, sometimes I'll be like, "Oh, I can connect this to this, or I can add … I can maybe clarify things more, because I didn't write it out as well, or as fast. Then I'll go back and I'll have to redraw whole pages, or redraw new panels. Which I have no problem with, but when I'm trying to make deadlines, it can be a little frustrating."
Strzepek works
on Bristol board in
standard (not blue line) pencil and uses Sakura Micron pens for inking (and a croquil occasionally for larger drawings and close-ups). He then uses a Sakura SJ-100 pencil eraser (which he can only find in Hawaii).
On Photoshop and Originals
Photoshop, which Strzepek called "a godsend for some stuff, when I need to add a new panel to things" is changing the nature of original comic art. Although Strzepek said "I'm scared of computers anyway. I'm not very good at the computer. So I'm not really afraid of that kind of thing, getting too involved," he also admitted "but I also feel bad — this is coming from the artist's perspective — for people who want to buy original pages and stuff like that. ‘Oh yeah, I really like this page, this is a cool page, I'd like to buy it.' I'm like, ‘Oh, yeah, actually, this panel isn't on this page, it's on the side, it's like a really shitty panel that I may have scratched out, or it's a really embarrassing panel I wouldn't want somebody to see.'" He concluded, "More and more people are using computer in their editing, and there's no original, really. It's kind of rough. […] If people are able to produce great work that's good though, but it sucks if people want to make extra money or if people want to buy originals and they have to settle for a print, I guess."
Teaching
Strzepek recently taught a minicomics workshop at the Savannah School of Art and Design – Atlanta. Though he describes himself as "a pretty nervous person" who's "not very good at speaking in front of large groups," he viewed the event positively: he said that it provided him with more public-speaking practice and helped him learn more about the craft: "I would like to do more."
Kristy Valenti currently works for The Comics Journal and Fantagraphics Books, Inc.
Uncharted Territory is © Kristy Valenti, 2010
