We reached out to the creator of the Quatsch cartoons to ask some questions about his series. First, we were curious about the role of humor in the artist’s work. Dieter Bevers told us: “Humor plays a very big part in my work. Which is logical, of course: cartoons are supposed to be humorous. Without humor, it would be an illustration. There is nothing wrong with making illustrations, but they are a different thing, it's just not what I do. About gauging the audience's response: Unlike a stand-up comedian, I cannot see the audience's reaction to my humor. I cannot see smiles or hear laughter. So the only feedback that I have from my audience are the comments on Instagram.”
Asked if any real-life experiences often find their way into the artist’s comics, Bevers answered: “Um, no, that doesn’t happen very often. Most of my cartoons are 100% fantasy, not based on real events. But a lot of my cartoons start when I sort of ‘zone out’ in real life. I have daydreams while I'm doing my 'real' job in the 'real world'. Comic or absurd ideas always pop up in my mind while someone is trying to have a serious conversation with me. A lot of my comics (or ideas for comics) are born during these situations.”
Dieter continued: “This can create very awkward situations for me because I don't hear everything that the other person is telling me. My mind cannot register every word of talk while I'm having these daydreams. This is something that happens all the time to me, I cannot turn off (I wish I could). So you could say that real-life experiences trigger my mind to create comics. So I have never drawn things that actually happened to me, realistically. But I do tend to draw the things that I was thinking about during normal, realistic events. But these things never actually happened (only in my mind).”
We were also wondering how Bevers handles creative blocks or moments of artist’s block. We found out: “A real creative block hasn't happened to me (yet) but if it ever does, I think I would try to keep on creating: to keep drawing. Even if the work that you produce at such times may not be good enough, it might spark other ideas that may eventually lead to stuff that you DO think is up to your standards. Of course, if you really don't feel like it, it doesn't hurt to do something different for a while. That might ‘unblock’ your creativity. What also helps me is to have a look at my collection of sketches. I have a lot of boxes that are filled with quick drawings that I have made over the years. When I start to browse through these piles of my old work, I always find something in it that I want to develop. Or these sketches trigger other ideas that result in more sketches, which are then added to the collection.”
Lastly, we wanted Dieter to tell us what advice he could give to aspiring comic artists looking to break into the industry. The cartoonist shared with us: “I am still looking for this break myself so I don’t think that I’m the right person to hand out career advice. But I would say: ‘Shoot for the Moon. If you miss, at least you’ll land among the stars.’ What I want to say is: send your work to as many magazines/newspapers/websites as possible. Also: post your work on social media, of course. And don’t be discouraged if you get little (or no) response, try to keep it up!”
