Comics Blog: Rebels of the Pacific Northwest

December 6th, 2010

Something about this three-part interview with Vancouver cartoonist Colin Upton made me very happy.

It’s encouraging to see a mini-comics rebel from my small press excursion days holding forth on a dozen topics and looking relatively healthy after recent bouts with diabetes and other challenges.

Upton’s interview reminded me of another recent YouTube find; a video interview with minicomics legend Steve Willis from Washington State. Both videos communicate an air of stubborn resistance to anything slick or mass-produced which makes me smile.

As I’ve mentioned here before, one of the things I loved about the small press scene of the ’80s and early ’90s was the freedom it gave cartoonists to pursue their own path regardless what the marketplace might have wanted from them.

A version of that freedom migrated to the Web, but even a technophile like me knows it’s not the same, and can still enjoy listening to a cartoonist explain his craft with a pencil in hand, sitting at a slanted table, surrounded by books, and hearing the sound of a northwest rain falling outside his window.

Posted in Cartoonists, Comics History, Video
Discussion (3)¬

jess smart smiley says:December 6, 2010 at 8:27 am

Watching these videos just confirms the powers of pen and paper.

Samuel John Klein says:December 6, 2010 at 12:15 pm

I still have a big old drawing desk from when I fancied I’d be an artist and a drafter. I don’t draw the way I used to, but I’d feel bad if it wasn’t there.

You can draw with a computer, but you don’t has ta. And that’s what I love about it all.

anise says:December 6, 2010 at 1:55 pm

I love chatting with Colin. He comes from a very different generation than I do, but he’s such a wellspring of interesting knowledge. It’s not a Wednesday without him