Bored Panda reached out to ToothyBj with some questions! First, we asked the cartoonist if he had any major influences in his life that might've helped him to develop and refine his style.
"I love comics. I grew up on a healthy diet of Hergé and Quino; truly masters of the craft. But I ended up doing webcomics, which is the comic equivalent of doing crack. My drug lord inspirations are ExtraFabulous, Mr. Lovenstein, Perry Bible Fellowship, and the most important of them all, Ai Uehara."
Art, in any kind of form, takes a lot of time not only to practice but also to produce, therefore we asked Toothy how long it takes him to fully finish his comics.
"That's a pain in the a**. I don't pretend to make anything beautiful; just funny drawings, y'know. But even then, finding the right vibe and making it work can take up from 2 to 3 hours. And you must consider that this is after a full day of work. I'm not complaining, it is what it is."
Being a cartoonist is not easy, one can easily encounter a lack of inspiration, burnout, etc, so we wanted to ask him about his ideas for the comics.
"I couldn’t tell you; ideas come and go on the spur of the moment. It can spark from a mundane conversation. I tend to forget everything, it's my thing, so I always have my notes app ready. Even then, sometimes I’m stubborn enough to think I'll remember it, to only forget it a second later. I even forget about writing it down just after saying 'Imma write that down.' I wish I was kidding; I fear for my old age."
As we mentioned before, sometimes creative work can cause quite a burnout, therefore we asked the cartoonist how he dealt with that as well.
"I have been burned out since 2014, and I hadn't even started to make comics yet. I need more free time."
We also asked Toothy about how people usually react to his work.
"The usual. First, they’re in shock and denial, then feel pain, and guilty for insulting me. The anger and bargaining start, sadness arises, but in the end, they accept it. It's a process."
The creative process is not easy, but there are always some enjoyable parts to it.
"Sometimes I'm laughing in the toilet, while I write down on my phone a joke about poop that I'll never show to anyone. Except maybe to my sexy, sexy patrons."
We also asked about the inspiration behind the cartoonist's Instagram account.
"Instagram is the evil incarnate. No platform has done more harm to humanity than Zuckerberg’s. So, it was only natural for me to partake in corrupting minds."
Digital art and art, in general, is not easy and requires a lot of patience, time, resources, and in most cases, even money. Therefore, we wanted to know how the talented cartoonist started his own career in digital art.
"As I said before, I'm not an artist. An artist makes art, if you wanna consider ANY creative endeavor art, that's on you. I do comics, I'm a cartoonist, if anything. But I do like to do illustration on my alternate account @toothydraws. I don't know if I can advertise it here, but Imma type it anyway."
Artists tend to get motivated by a lot of things such as curiosity, the search for beauty, or even meaning. Therefore, we asked Toothy about that too.
"To get over myself, laugh, make someone else laugh, and write comics that are not commercially viable."
