Artist Statement

As a comic artist, I am most interested in making my characters appear as living beings on the flat page. This is conveyed through depicting characters with exaggerated expressions and poses, a practice informed by similar approaches utilized by animators in early- to mid-20th century American animation. These cartoons appealed to me as a young child due to their anarchic humor and colorful characters, which are both elements that permeate my comics. Many of my own characters are colorful in how they relentlessly pursue their goals to the point of self-destruction, either being usurped by their own hubris or by characters with similarly unwarranted egos. These character archetypes feel truer to life than characters who learn their lesson throughout the course of a story, providing grounding to comics where things as unrealistic as talking cats being shot out of cannons happen.

Although I have relied primarily on ink pens and digital software in the past, I have recently taken a strong interest in graphite. The messiness of the medium contrasts well with the crisp sheen of the classic animated cartoon look. There have been attempts to explore this contrast in past animated works, but the classic animated cartoon aspects would often remain "clean" due to animation relying on smooth ink and paint. The graphite drawing renders the two-dimensional comic characters in a state of movements and messiness; leaving behind outlines, fingerprints and ghosts of former drawings. These smudges and “errors” allow the process to reference the characters themselves.