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TALES OF A NERD RONIN: BRANDON GRAHAM
by Newsarama
For over 10 years, cartoonist Brandon Graham has been working under the radar of most comics fans. Beginning the small press books October Yen (for Antarctic Press) and Universe So Big (for Radio Comix), Graham's humble beginnings were in no way representative of what was yet to come.
Mixing both mainstream comics work at DC with the adult comics Perverts of the Unknown and Pillow Fight for NBM Publishing, Graham courted all sides of the industry. His most recent work was a collection of short comics called Escalator from Alternative Comics, which cast sumo heroes, space truck drivers, graffiti artists and alien pornographers as they go about their life with everything that comes between them and the future.
Now a comics veteran (with the stories to prove it), Brandon Graham continues to bring his innovative style to a new audience with the upcoming King City from TokyoPop. Newsarama met with the Washington-based cartoonist, to discuss his roots and his ambitions.
Newsarama: What kind of work are you aiming to do in comics?
Brandon Graham: I like the idea of doing comics more like novels big thick books--graphic novels. I want to sit on my porch in a rocking chair with rosewood pipe and a tweed jacket.
I like the idea of doing books with real life foundation like what it feels like to miss a girl but with all the fun that comics can do; Cybernetic arms and shit.
NRAMA: Right now you're working on King City for TokyoPop. Can you tell us what that's about, and when you expect it to come out?
BG: King City is about a guy who carries around a fat cat that can do absolutely anything if given the right injection. It's a spy comic about trying to be a good friend and getting over heartbreak.
The city in the story is very spy-centric every place they go is hidden just secrets bursting out of every alleyway. I've been trying to outdo myself on how fun and how much weird cool stuff I can come up with for it.
I'm about 70 something pages into the first 150 page book; I imagine it'll come out later this year.
I'm real proud of it so far.
NRAMA: Most every creator making their way into comics has a "dream project" they wish to work on, be it their own characters or someone else's. Can you tell us what you're aiming for?
BG: I did a short porn comic called Multiple Warheads about a girl who sews a werewolf dick onto her boyfriend. Then when I did Escalator, I did a non-porn story with the same characters, about the guy with the wolf dick having to go out and deal with the wolf's past [as] seen from the girl's perspective as she waits for him. I'd like to do something longer with the characters; really show their relationship from the middle of it without first love or anything just characters that have history and are there for each other. The problem is I'd like to show all aspects of their interaction and have sex scenes in the book because that's so big a part of the dynamic of a 'kissing on the mouth' relationship but as soon as you throw some naked on naked action in a book is anyone going to pay attention to the story when they can just flip to that.
NRAMA: You mentioned doing an adult story with sexual elements, but worried about those elements might mess up the overall comic. Why do you think that is?
BG: I just worry that anything graphic would outweigh the story. I think I worry about getting perceived as that kind of artist too much. Like how I used to call the comic Preacher 'violence-porn' because even though he wasn't drawing sex every issue he had some horrible joke violence. I felt like it forced you to treat it like a porn book where you flip through it just looking for that thing. I think Howard Chaykin a good example of a guy whose work I really like but his sex scenes in his books become almost something you need to see when you read his stuff even though it's solid without it.
NRAMA: Have you had any formal training in art?
BG: No formal training but I've learned a lot from friends that have gone to art school. I would have liked to go to art school but not for any of the artistic reasons. I like that comics is something you kind of have to learn on your own. Then you meet up with other artists and your like you do that like that?--weird. Makes me feel like some kind of nerd ronin.
NRAMA: What prompted you to seriously look at comics and art as a career?
BG: I think I decided that I wanted to do comics and nothing else before I had all the facts about the reality of it, I don't mean that in a bad way but I was so focused on that one thing that I never considered doing anything else seriously.
NRAMA: You've mentioned online that you might be doing an art show in March. Is this on, and if so, what do you have planned?
BG: It's a show at a spot called Vain Studios in Seattle with a friend of mine named Specs. Specs is a graffiti writer, comic artist and emcee and one of my favorite dudes doing all 3.
It's in the rough stages still but I think we're going to call the show 'Animal'. For no better excuse than that I'd like to get better at drawing animals -- plus I just got a an elephant tattooed on my neck, I'll be drawing lots of elephants.
I think most of what I'll be doing will be on 7 foot tall brown butcher paper with white paint highlights. I also want to paint on traffic cones and I had an idea to cut a hole in a book, like where someone might hide something and try to make it in a real clear shape then put the thing in some of the drawings… if that makes sense.
Art shows for me are really just an excuse to throw a party. Meet a bunch of people that you've never seen before.
NRAMA: You brought up your work in erotic comics. Is that something you were naturally drawn to, or was it more of "just a paying gig"?
BG: When I was first asked to draw porn I really didn't want to but it is easy work to get and the places that I've done adult comics for have been some of the easiest to work for and fastest paying. Drawing porn is hard, all that human interaction. It really changes you as an artist. And as much as anyone likes sex, who wants to draw it all day for 6 hours a page.
There's more sex in my stuff now. I'm not sure if that's good or bad... but I hate the idea of being seen as the kind of artist whose work is based off of drawing sexy girls and nothing else. There's a fine line cause most dudes want to be able to draw cute girls.
I'm weird about that stuff. Man, I don't even like strip clubs.
NRAMA: You live with a group of cartoonists including James Stokoe and Corey Lewis. Do you have a formal studio name, and how does that living/working arrangement work out?
BG: We've been calling the house 'YOSH'. It's been a really good experience, defiantly the best place I've ever lived. It's gotten very communal and everyone's creative so our days can turn weird. I walk in on lots of heated debates about ninjas.
NRAMA: What are your artistic influences for comics?
BG: I grew up on a lot of French and Japanese stuff and underground 80's American stuff. Matt Howarth, Moebius and Vaughn Bode have always stuck with me. These days I'm really influenced by the work my friends do. The Meathaus guys and the dudes I roll with in Seattle. I like old Conan magazines too… he's a good barbarian.
NRAMA: Graffiti and street art seems to be a big influence on your work. Can you explain what appeals to you about urban art styles such as this, and how you incorporate it into your comics work?
BG: There was a really good graffiti scene in Seattle when I was a punk kid. There wasn't really anyone doing comics around, or no one in this town I knew, so I gravitated to that. I was in a graff crew when I was 16 but I was much more into comics and didn't get really excited by it until I started hanging out with my good friend David Linder through knowing him I got so excited by the possibilities of what could be done with it. I remember spending all night drawing the word dinosaur in the shape of a dinosaur.
I've also always felt that Graffiti and comic books had come from the same place. I don't even know what graffiti would look like with out Vaughn Bode [influential 60s 70s graffiti-styled underground cartoonist]. There's this fun that exists in just doing art for yourself and your ego or just to stick it to the man. I think it helped my art to have to draw under pressure like that.
I'm surprised by the lack of real hip hop in comics, I've known guys that used to do it that don't let it get into their pages and a lot the guys that act like they've got spray paint in their veins are faking the funk something awful. There's a story in my Escalator book called 'True Crime' that was my response to bad graffiti comics; I just wanted to show what I felt It was really like.
I'm not trying to say I'm the graffiti writer in comics. I know what a train yard looks like at night and I've ran from security guards for writing my name on other people's stuff but I've always been more comic book - plus I suck with spray paint.
For more information on Brandon Graham's work, visit his website at http://www.brothersgraham.com/brand...am/brandon.html.
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