We reached out to the author of the series to ask some questions about his work. First, we were wondering if the artist could describe his creative routine. We found out: “Every day I do a little free writing to see what comes out. Usually nothing usable, but I try not to judge it so I can stay playful until the next idea emerges that excites me.”
The artist told us more: “Another thing I’ve started doing recently is an exercise I got from cartoonist Ryan Hudson. I use a random word generator to give me 6 words, and from those I pick 4 and draw quick, bad comic strips based on each word. Most of it is also unusable, but every once in a while something good happens. And until then, it’s good to force yourself to just knock out work quickly. It’s always a struggle for me to stay loose and light.”
We also learned about the approach to the longer stories shared on Cooper Lit Comics: “With longer stories in the past I’ve started not knowing where they’re going. Once I start a story and people are reading it and wanting to know where it goes, that gives me pressure to finish. That pressure is good, but it can also be stressful, so I have a few stories in the works now that I’m trying to finish before I start putting them out.”
Next, we were curious about the influences, both within the comics medium and beyond, influencing the artist’s work. The series’ author shared with us: “Too many to mention. For comic strips, Charles Schulz, Gary Larson, Bill Watterson, EC Segar, Jules Feiffer… For comics, Mazzuchelli, Trondheim, Kyle Baker, Hernandez Bros, Eisner, Sacco, Porcellino, Kochalka… For fine artists, Picasso, Matisse and Egan Schiller are my top 3. And of course I’m influenced by so many peers working in webcomics today, Lote Vilma, Pierre Mortel, Zip Freeman, Nick Edwoods, Danielle Chennette, Bahij Jaroudi. Is this too many names? I’m leaving out a thousand more! I know after this gets published I’m going to be kicking myself for all the ones I left out.”
The artist added: “And I haven’t even talked about writers! Vonnegut, Tolstoy, Saroyan, Forster, Willeford, Smullyan. I’ll stop! The truth is I read fun crime novels more than anything else.”
Every artist faces challenges. This is why we asked what common challenges the author of the series encounters in his creative process. We learned: “A big one for me is overworking stuff and being too perfectionistic. I have to really force myself to leave things alone and not keep going back to fix every little thing. The art becomes dead when you do that. I remind myself the kind of art I love looking at, and it tends to be stuff that’s confidently childish and primitive. Sometimes I’ll copy art that excites me to remind myself what’s good.”
Lastly, asked how Cooper Lit Comics' artistic style has evolved over time, and what factors have contributed to this evolution, the artist answered: “I’m slowly gaining that confidence I was talking about, but I still feel a long way from where I want to be.”
