Here's what the author had to say about his comics: "Well, my standard line to describe Last Place is that it is 'a silly webcomic where things rarely go well.' I started it just as a fun way to make my friends laugh a long time ago in college, I thought I was a pretty funny guy but didn't have the confidence to do something like live comedy, so comics were a way to try to be funny without being social or having the social skills. I kind of stumbled into a small following on DeviantArt. Eventually, I become bored with updating, and the comic went on hiatus for 7 years or so, having basically started over from scratch."
"As for inspiration, that's a tough one, haha. I had to be peer pressured by my friends for about a year to get back into making comics. No one who met me would describe me as particularly passionate, haha. It was when Chesca of Litterbox Comics gave me her old Cintiq that I felt guilty enough to start making them again, but it has been a rewarding experience. I suppose I'm trying to make a comic that I would want to read, and trying to make myself laugh is a standard I take pretty seriously. So, I guess holding myself to my self-imposed standard is what keeps me motivated."
"I have a few years of training as a fine arts major and can confidently say I put zero of that to use in the comic. Honestly, I've been doing this comic for so long the most accurate thing to say is my artistic background is the comic itself. Outside of a brief "I'm gonna draw sad anime characters with guns cause that's deep" phase in high school and another "how hard can real art be?" phase in college, I've pretty much exclusively been focused on comics artistically. Outside of Last Place, my background is pretty standard. Political science degree, retail job, 2 cats, loving wife, proud owner 2005 Corolla."
"Last Place started as just a fun way to make friends laugh. You can find the earliest comics on deviantArt on notebook paper, scribbled in mechanical pencil. I was pretty surprised when random people would come along and like them. I liked that feeling and just decided to keep chasing it. I suppose I just liked making people laugh, but didn't have the confidence for something like live comedy, so starting a webcomic was a way to be funny without having any social skills. Well, I'm still doing webcomics and I still don't have any social skills, so I think they call that a win-win."
"My process looks like pure chaos. Like a lot of webcomic folk, I have an ideas notebook I fill with random garbage I picked up along the train of thought. If something seems like the best of the lot, I'll consider how to make it work in my idle moments throughout the day. I find it hard to work from scripts, so my next step is to start sketching it out. I have to see a thing before I can evaluate what needs to be changed, because my brain is stupid and only understands colors and shapes. I'll go through a lot of variations of the thing, before moving on to inking. This takes much more time, but the tinkering is not necessarily done and I still might delete a fully inked panel if I think it's not the right approach. Eventually, I'll settle on something I like and it's all polish from there. This takes around 8 hours because I am hopeless."
When asked what influenced his sense of absurdity, Zach answered "Oh, definitely the Simpsons in my formative years. Later, the sketch show Mr. Show had some twists that were just so creative they completely opened my eyes to what is possible in comedy.
My early comics were kind of a concoction of the edginess of Cyanide and Happiness, the grim outcomes of Perry Bible Fellowship, and the chaos of White Ninja Comics. Over time, I think I got confident enough to just start doing my own thing.
Here are some folks I love who are underappreciated right now: Pancake Wendy, Neil Kohney, Alec Smith Draws, Elder Cactus, Brad T Jonas, Daily Obstruction, Grichael Meaney.Also, read Litterbox Comics, they are fantastic, even if they are (yuck) appreciated."
The artist also gave his piece of advice for all of the people who might want to do this themselves: "Just do it. You don't have to have it all figured out. You can learn as you go. You can make mistakes, learn what you suck at, delete those mistakes, deny they ever happened, then start making comics that accentuate your strengths."
We don't suggest you binging on other comics that Bored Panda has to offer, but if you really want to do that, here are some suggestions. Here's a comic by Andrew Grossman that captures absurdity and humor in a different way. Same goes for comics by Italian artist Disse. If you love dark themes portrayed in a funny way, here's some by Ryan Hudson. And if you missed the first part the author posted himself, you can find it here.
