In this second part of our interview with Fantagraphics’ Eric Reynolds, we discuss the official reason for the death of Mome, bringing new blood into the anthology, and the importance–or lack thereof–of sales figures.
[Part One]
We wrap up our interview with the EmiTown author by discussing the Portland comics scene, the downside of art school, and the effect of collaboration on her artwork.
This is just how it goes sometimes in the interview game—you often don’t get a chance to fully discuss a topic until it’s gone. And sure, I had plenty of opportunities to set up an interview with Eric Reynolds—I’ve known him for a number of years, first as the long time publicist for Fantagraphics, and then as its publisher, and for the past six years, the editor of Mome. It’s on the occasion of that anthology’s 22nd and final issue that Reynolds and I finally sat down to discuss its history.
In this four-part interview, we chat about the publishing climate at Fantagraphics that drove Mome’s creation and the internal and external forces that led to its death, a half-dozen years later–and, of course, all of the highs and lows in between.
We talk day jobs, part-time gigs, and the Portland comics community in this third part of our interview with the EmiTown author.
In this second part of our interview with the EmiTown author, we discuss the origins of the strip, interactions with fans, and how Emi Lenox’s work got her a book deal with Image Comics.
[Part One]
It’s perhaps more an indication of my own reliance on print that Emi Lenox’s work didn’t really cross my periphery until late last year, when Image released a 400-odd page collection of her work. She’d been running her autobio strip Emitown online since 2008, and had been a part of the Pacific Northwestern comics scene, in part due to internships at Top Shelf and Periscope. But it was the Image-branded tome released late last year that really caught my eye, in part because the work is in such stark contrast to the work traditional associated with the publisher.
Emitown is a confessional strip, the true life adventures of a woman dealing with life in her 20s with Lenox’s hometown of Portland a s a backdrop. The work is tempered with fantasy at times, sure, but the deviations from reality serve as tools with which to tackle life’s sometimes difficult topics. We caught up with Lenox to discuss life after her first book.
We wrap up our interview with the great Gahan Wilson by discussing the Disneyification of children’s entertainment, Peanuts as religious allegory, and a question from an audience member about Hugh Hefner’s sthance on sin.
I suppose I was a bit worried as MoCCA’s panel on political cartooning came together that it might be a touch tepid, the three participants all left-leaning and long time friends. The intent was never to turn the 50 minute long session into a political debate, of course—there are plenty of forums for that manner of exchange, and a cartooning panel is certainly not the most ideal. But a politically homogenous conversation would likely have disappointed as well.
Of course, given the lineup, I had little reason to worry. All three artists approach politics and cartooning different angles, and the result was spirited, to say the less—far removed from the sort of idealism many predicted as the Bush years transitioned into the first Obama term.
One cartoonist has retired from cartooning, another is plugging away perhaps a bit more indecisively than he’d prefer, and the third has entered this term with a new-found vigor, finding the president an even greater potential threat than his deservedly despised predecessor.
I’ll let the artists introduce themselves in this first part, since they did such a fine job of it on the panel.
In this third part of our interview with the Nuts artist, we discuss the importance of maintaining a childlike sense of wonder and fear as an artist.
In this second part of our interview with the Playboy cartoonist, we discuss the birth of Wilson the humorist, the influence of fine art, and why all aspiring cartoonist ought to go to art school.
[Part One]
BROWSE 
