BRIAN WOOD WEEK: BECKY CLOONAN

[MattBrady]

FASTEST GUN IN THE EAST
Brian Wood Talks to comic’s Master Killer Becky Cloonan

Becky Cloonan is my comics hero. I forget exactly how I found her. I think it was linked off Matthew Woodson’s website. I went there and straight away found myself staring at scans of this comic called Social Unrest that blew me away. I felt as if I were looking at myself five years previous. But, you know, better. I don’t mean that in any way to diminish her style. I think she and I have similar interests and backgrounds, so it comes through, but Becky is all Becky. I sent her mail without really knowing what I wanted to offer her, but I offered her a project. She said yes.

Initially I was gonna take a stab at DEMO back then (I was calling it NYC at that point, and it was almost a direct rip of my version of NYX) but it wasn’t ready yet. I didn’t have it cooked up enough in my head. I offered her Jennie One, which I wrote for her to draw specifically, and she rocked the house with it.

Right after that book hit the stands, I got DEMO off the ground and got Becky in on that. Anyway, lots of people here know Becky’s name and her work, but I thought it would be cool to get some more info out of her, including: “How fast do you actually have to draw to handle 2 monthlies, a 200-page graphic novel, short stories, animation design and a shitload of freelance illustration all at once?”

Brian Wood: I know you a little bit. We've worked together directly for almost a year, and I was talking to you awhile before that. But I don't really know a whole lot about you. Probably wise of you to keep your distance from an old man like me, in case I suddenly perv out suddenly in my declining years, but for the record, give us an overview. Who you are, what you do, where you live, where you come from, etc.

Becky Cloonan: Ah, I just turned 23! I was born in Italy, and grew up mostly in Merrimack, New Hampshire, on the Mass Border. When I (barely) graduated high school, I moved to NYC and started college at SVA in Manhattan. After three years I decided to leave school and try to get rich and famous as a comic book artist. I lived in Queens (hollah back!) until a little while ago, I recently moved to Allentown, PA with my husband. It's so cheap to live outside of the city that we can afford to live without me having a full time job, which is what was keeping me from doing a lot of work when I lived in NY. What else can I say? I love punk rock, movies and sushi. I met my husband at a Leftover Crack show. My least favorite season is summer because my inks and pencils smudge. I can spit really far, and with devastating accuracy. Sometimes when I talk about comics I get really, really excited. I've got small feet and my eyes are too big for my stomach. I love 50 Cent. I hate webcomics and my slow modem, but I love when Jen downloads episodes of Price of Tennis. I wear boys clothes because they are comfy. Comics rule everything around me.

BW: What's on your schedule now?

BC: Right now I'm doing two monthly books, DEMO and East Coast Rising. DEMO is a monthly book written by you and being published by AIT/Planet Lar, and I'm really rocking out on that. East Coast Rising is a comic I'm doing for IC Entertainment's compilation Amerimanga. It's a story about a bunch of pirates on the post apocalyptic East Coast looking for this treasure that's going to change the earth. Basically everything is covered by water, there are no more trees or plant life, and there are rival pirate crews and giant sea monsters lurking everywhere. Basically things are bleak. It's my first time doing a monthly book that the story carries over to the next month, so it's been a learning experience. East Coast Rising will start in issue #7 of Amerimanga, and run for 7 or 8 issues. I'm pretty excited to be in this compilation, a lot of my good friends are in it too and they all have awesome comics! It's kept me really motivated to work hard.

I'm also working on some short comics, one is Vampirella comic for Harris Comics. It's been fun to take a stab at such a notorious character. Meathaus #7 just came out, and it looks totally sweet. I'm starting to think of my story for number #8. Meathaus is a great compilation, and a lot of fun to do work in. One of the larger projects on my plate is a comic called "Every Cowboy Sings a Sad, Sad Song." It's a 200 page graphic novel that I'm working on with my friend Matthew Woodson (matthew.onigami.net). In some ways it's related to my East Coast Rising story in that it takes place in the same setting. It's about people trying to make it from the East Coast to the West Coast. I have about 30 pages done, but I've had to take a break because my other projects take priority. Hopefully I'll finish it before the New Year. It’ll be published by AIT/Planet Lar, and it's going to totally rock, I promise.

New projects are popping up all the time, I do a lot of flyers for shows and freelance illustration work also. Shit keeps me pretty busy.

BW: You do lots of band flyers. Do they come to you, or do you volunteer your skills? What’s the creative process there?

BC: A bunch of my friends know I draw comics, so when their bands would have shows, or they would book one they'd ask me to do a flyer for it. I guess from there it's been word of mouth. I've done flyers for kids in different states for bands I've never heard of. They're a good break from my comic pages, and lot of fun for me to draw so I do them for free. It's a nice way to contribute to the scene cause most kids can't afford to hire an artist. I love going to shows, and when I see kids running around with a flyer they shove in their pocket it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, sorta. I can whip them out pretty fast, I just ask them for the info on the flyer and then I draw something that goes with the bands on the list. If I don't know the bands I just draw something punk rock. You know, pentagrams, upside down crosses, burning flags and kids with mohawks. \m/

BW: Describe your typical day.

BC: It's not that interesting, really. I get up and draw comics until I get hungry, then I eat and do some email and computer geek stuff, then draw some comics. Take a walk, draw some more comics. When my husband gets home sometimes we'll go to see a movie, or rent one, or have sex. I spend a bunch of time in NY also, while I'm there I usually go see shows and catch up with friends I haven't seen in a while. And draw comics. It's a good life. I love comics!

BW: All your work has varying degrees of manga (for lack of a better term) influence, from the very clearly manga-styled East Coast Rising, to the heavy, messy, mostly pure black ink Jennie One. How do you decide how far to take it? Is one way easier than another? Talk a little about this - I think it’s fascinating how versatile you can be, with no loss of quality.

BC: That's a hard question.... I've always drawn in different styles, and I've never given it too much thought. I think it's because my attention span isn't long enough to drawn in one style all the time, I gotta mix it up you know? I think each of my comics is different, so why should they look the same?

For East Coast Rising, the editor specifically asked me for a more 'manga' styled look, which is pretty fun to draw, although the biggest challenge so far is making the comic look good, not like some rip-off manga style. It took me an issue to really work the bumps out of it, and find a style I can call mine. It's harder to make the faces have structure when there is so little structure in them. It's easy to make face stew- when the features sort of float around and look stupid.

Actually while I'm talking about manga, I think a lot of people cashing in on the manga craze are throwing big eyes and speedlines on a comic, and not realizing that it's more about storytelling. There are so many styles, how can you just pin it down on a couple of features? A lot of artists mimicking a manga style seem campy, and it lowers peoples' perceptions of others drawing it. I've seen a lot of pretension because someone's comic is drawn in a manga style (although not so much lately). Like "Oh you draw manga." You know what I mean. I have a hard time calling any of my comics 'manga' because I'm not Japanese, hehe! I'm actually a little afraid of being pigeon-holed as a "manga" artist, because that's not how it is. I just draw comics.

Usually my style develops over the course of the comic, it sort of adapts to the storytelling. You can really see this in Jennie One, the style really moves from chapter to chapter. I'm trying to calm that down though, like work out the style before I start the comic. I'll know generally what style I'll draw in while I'm doing layouts, and I'll know how far to push the style while I'm penciling. I'll be drawing a page I'll bend the style as far as necessary to tell the story the way I want to.

BW: You're locked down with work for the next long while, it seems, with DEMO, East Coast Rising, and Every Cowboy Sings... What do you think you'll do afterwards? In a perfect world, what would be your dream next project?

BC: I'll probably finish up everything by this February, hah by then I'll probably have thought of something to keep myself busy. Mostly I just like drawing comics, so as long as I'm doing that I'll be happy. Actually I'd like to have a schedule that's a little less crunched, right now I'm doing two monthly books, some shorts and freelance work, that means I have to finish between 3 and 5 pages a day, hah so it's easy to fall behind. If I get sick for a week I'm screwed. I'll tell you though, I got speed down. As for future projects, I've already got some ideas lined up. I want to draw a soccer comic.

BW: Are your mini comics still for sale? Not to make this sound like a set-up for a sales pitch, but I’ve been sending peeps to your site for a year to buy them, and I wanna make sure you have them in stock still.

BC: Yeah, there is info on my site about it, http://www.estrigious.com/becky I'll probably always keep making them out of habit, ha ha ha. I have nine up for sale, I also plan on making a new mini of my flyers and some illustrations this summer.

BW: And – on top of all of this, you have some history in animation?

BC: Oh yeah. I went to art school for animation, but I dropped out because I'd rather be drawing comics. Besides my school projects, I did work on the flash animation Battle Seed by LeSean Thomas, and the Johnny Chimpo animation for the movie Super Troopers. I've done work on a few pitches for animated television series, also. Mostly it's the actual animation I don't like doing. I love the pre-production, character design, storyboards, that stuff. I think animation might be in my near future also.

BW: Give us a list of "Becky Recommends", for comics, music, film, and whatever else is interesting to you.

BC: Oh man, right now I'm listening to Madball, Against Me, Morning Glory, Negative Approach, Charles Bronson, Big L, Choking Victim and Dead Prez, mostly punk and hardcore, some ska and hiphop, it's all good. I'm afraid of making the list too long, so I'll stop there, ha ha ha! Music is a really big part of my life, I'm sure for a lot people it's the same way. I'm always listening to something; most of my inspiration is from music and movies. I just saw Pirates of the Caribbean - I am pretty hot for that movie. Some of my favorites are The American Astronaut, Shaolin Master Killer, Brother (Beat Takeshi), Wild Zero, and of course The Princess Bride. A lot of early expressionist films had a big impact on the way I draw comics, and probably account for a lot of the way I use black in my work.

I actually don't read too many comics, mostly cause I spend all my extra cash on music. The one I religiously pick up is the Blade of the Immortal trades, by Hiroaki Samura, there's something about the way he tells stories that I think is perfect. I started reading Vagabond also, and I enjoy 100 Bullets, Alien Nine and Stray Bullets. Bipolar and Pop Gun War are brilliant also. Actually, my dad got me into comics by reading me Silver Surfer bedtime stories when I was a kid. I always thought it was weird, how he was so naked and so silver.

BW: Does your husband get sick of you drawing all the damn time?

BC: I just asked him and he said "Hm... No?.... No!" So I guess not! Actually I do most of my drawing while Sal is at work, so it doesn't affect him too much unless he's got a day off and I've got a deadline.

BW: Did I miss anything?

BC: Don't think so. I'd like to give a shout-out to my peeps Jen, Amy and Miss V, and my boy Sal. Peace.

[AForceOfOne]

Quite an amazing artist. I've had Becky's site linked on our website for a good long while now.

Glad to know somebody else out there still listens to ska.

[XIII]

I like that art !

[briancwood]

Originally posted by AForceOfOne

Glad to know somebody else out there still listens to ska.

I have a soft spot for the late-60's era stuff off Trojan. the newer stuff leaves me a bit cold.

-bri

[JustinV]

is that east coast rising going to be collected when its done?

[AForceOfOne]

Originally posted by briancwood
I have a soft spot for the late-60's era stuff off Trojan. the newer stuff leaves me a bit cold.

-bri

Yeah that and I'm in the middle with The Toasters, Scofflaws, Slackers, Pietasters, NYC Ska Jazz Ensamble etc. as favorites. I've got so many others on cd I haven't listen to in awhile...I should prob get them out.

I do listen to Less Than Jake but that is pretty much borderline and isn't ska per se. But that is about as current as I'll take it. My friend has a band that's playing this friday for $5...it's a newer band but they have a love of all ska. Great guys and a great band. http://www.backupjackson.com Tell them Anthony sent you!

[briancwood]

Originally posted by JustinV
is that east coast rising going to be collected when its done?

i dunno what Becky has planned, but I can safely say that AiT/Planet Lar would publish anything she does.

-bri

[Larry Young]

Originally posted by JustinV
is that east coast rising going to be collected when its done?

I don't know what Becky has planned, but we'd publish anything she does.

L.

[Benjamin Ong]

Great stuff, guys. I'm really looking forward to the original version of NYX, I mean, Demo

Ben

[Larry Young]

Originally posted by Benjamin Ong
Great stuff, guys. I'm really looking forward to the original version of NYX, I mean, Demo

Just to be clear, DEMO is not reflective of Bri's work on NYX. It's all new material.

L.

[phil_knall]

Thanks for that interview! Added a couple of items to my "to buy" list.
Looking forward to the rest of "Brian Wood week."

[reallybigmonste]

I LOVE BECKY!!!!

[Ganter]

Becky's one of the fastest and most professional artists I know! I look up to her a lot and whenever I talk to her I always get pumped to do more comics! Thank you becky for constantly reminding me how much I love comics~! COMICS ROCK! AND SO DOES BECKY! XD

ps - I agree about the "american manga" thing. Glad someone said it!

[hamsterdance]

I've never heard of this lady before but after seeing the first few pages of Demo (as a .pdf) I'm making it a point to add this and several other comics mentioned in this article to my home library.