My Pace 02 Artist Spotlight: Sean Knickerbocker
Rod+Cone will be debuting its newest comics anthology, “My Pace 02″, in less than a week at TCAF in Toronto! (You can also preorder it here.)
We decided to do a 5 question interview with each artist we invited this time. First up is the incredibly talented and thoughtful Sean Knickerbocker.
1. How do you go about creating characters for you stories?
My characters are usually amalgamations of people I’ve known at some point in my life. Sometimes I may be using a character as a stand-in for myself and other times I may be writing a character to try and understand the viewpoint of somebody else. I’m still trying to stretch my range of characters. I’m stuck drawing these stories about poor kids living in rural towns. Hopefully this story I’m currently working on puts some of those ideas to rest so I can move on to other topics and other people.
2. In addition to your personal work, you are an accomplished book producer too (Best Pals printing)! What are your favorite & least favorite parts of the writing/drawing/publishing process?
Thank you, yes, I have produced a number of books with my friend Alex Bullett under the name Good Pals Printing. I really love screen-printing and book making and I’m very fortunate to have a ton of very talented friends, so it seemed like a perfect fit. I enjoyed making the books and working out design and production issues with Alex and all of our artists. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time or the money to ever really get Good Pals off of the ground and so we decided to move on. We didn’t feel right publishing our friends’ work if we weren’t going to be able to really get out there and promote it. I would like to revisit micro-publishing again, but it will have to be when I have a little more free time and a little more cash floating around.
3. What are some of the hardest scenes you’ve written, or ones that gave you the most trouble?
Yeah, I actually think I’m working on a really hard scene right now. I feel like I have a tendency to be melodramatic with my work, so when it comes to a scene where there is an argument or a direct conflict, I sometimes have trouble finding that sweet spot between an intriguing plot point and a melodramatic clusterfuck. I love when an artist can show really high levels of tension or drama in a really dead-pan kind of way, I aspire to do that. I’ve probably only done a good job of that one or two times….
4. If money was no object, what would you do this year?
Draw comics all the time. For sure.
5. What do you find most relaxing to read, watch or listen to, i.e. what is candy to you?
How about Eleanor Davis’ comics? Sometimes when I’m frustrated with my own work or overwhelmed, it’s really nice to look at a master of comics tell a story in such a seemingly effortless way. It’s like a nice reminder that these are just simple drawings in little boxes and they really don’t have to be anything more than that to be meaningful and important.
Sean Knickerbocker is a cartoonist, illustrator, graphic designer and print maker living in Mankato, Minnesota. He is currently finishing up his debut graphic novel “Killbuck”. Check out www.seanknickerbocker.tumblr.com for infrequent blog posts and cryptic images of future projects.
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