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Many thanks to Austin English of Domino Books for generously granting permission to use his Q&A format from the now defunct, but still excellent 20 Questions with Cartoonists blog.
John MacLeod's The Mundane Adventures of Dishman is currently crowdfunding on Fundrazr. All twelve issues of the celebrated 1980s minicomic are collected in a prestige hardcover volume, along with a bonus 6-page story! Pre-order your copy today at go.blackeye.ca/dishman
1. Can you describe your drawing routine — how often you draw, how many hour per day — how you break up the day with drawing?
This varies so much — some days I don't draw at all, sometimes just a few rough doodles, sometimes I spend hours at the board. Depends on my health and my mood and (rare) deadlines.
2. How much revision/editing do you do in you work?
Very little, because I do so much prep work in advance.
3. Talk about your process — do you write a script or make up the drawing as you go?
When doing a comic book, I always write a full script, with page breaks and panel breaks, indicating dialogue and action for each panel. This script is where revisions happen. I then thumbnail each page of the story to work out compositions before I begin any of the actual art. With a comic strip, I still write a script describing each panel, but with fewer drawings to worry about, I do the thumbnailing in my head.
4. Do you compose the page as a whole or do you focus more on individual panel composition
As years have gone by, I have become more aware of composing the page, so that each panel guides you to the next, and the page ends on a "what happens next" beat. (When I look at my older work, those stories seem less aware of the page as a unit.)
5. What tools do you use (please list all)?
Currently using:
pencil: General's Cedar Pointe #222
ink: Dr Ph. Martins Black Star Matte
nibs: Gillott 170 (pre-WW2 bronze), Hunt 513EF, Zebra G-Pen
markers: Pigma Micron various sizes
brush: a cheap #2 round for filling in blacks
erasers: Pentel Hi-Polymer, General's Kneaded, Eberhard-Faber Rub-Kleen (notSanford! Their new Rub-Kleens are nowhere near as good!)
white-out: Dr Ph. Martins Pen White, Signo white gel pen
also a Staedtler drafting board, T-square, triangle, circle and ellipse templates, French curves, Ames lettering guide, #5 blue mechanical pencil
6. What kind(s) of paper do you use?
This has varied over time. The first ten issues of Dishman were drawn on Strathmore bristol, but over time the quality of it went down. (I'm not the only one with that complaint.) When I was doing Space Kid!, I was using Borden & Riley Paris #234 paper, with a super smooth finish for immaculate lines, but ink on it takes literally four hours to dry because it doesn't soak in. The next couple of Dishman issues were done on Canson bristol which a friend recommended. And my current strip Not That Magic is on Canson Fanboy bristol with preprinted blueline borders. Still pretty satisfied with Canson — it's about as good as Strathmore used to be, for me.
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7. Do you read a lot of comics? Are you someone who reads comics and then gets excited to make more comics — or is your passion for making comics not linked to any particular love for other comics?
Oddly enough, I rarely do anymore. My collecting stopped in the nineties, and nowadays I am more likely to re-read old faves, or sometimes pick up a volume reprinting classic newspaper strips. My current favourite series is Sylvain Runberg and Serge Pellé's Orbital — a beautiful and smart book.
8. Do you make comics for a living? if not, how do you support yourself, and how does this relate to your comics making process?
I am retired, but when I worked it was in an office job. It means that making comics is something I have always done for my own satisfaction, without external demands on it.
9. Do other artforms often seem more attractive to you?
I dunno about more, but equally, yes. The last couple of years I have taken up painting — trying to work in acrylics, watercolour, pastel, and most recently gouache. I'm not good at it, but it's interesting and sometimes exciting to try it out.
10. What artwork (or artists) do you feel kinship with?
I'm taking "kinship" here as more than just "liking their work". In comics, I feel a connection with (and inspiration from) Alex Toth, Dik Browne, and Tonči Zonjić. In fine art, I would mention the Blaue Reiter and Fauve painters, and the Group of Seven. What I get from all of them is an interest in making things simple and vivid, not fussy or over-render-y. (If you asked me this back in the 80s when I was starting Dishman, my answer would be quite different.)
11. Is a community of artists important or not important to you?
I've always been something of a recluse, and never participated in the cartoonists' community much. But it's important to me that that community is there for the others!
12. Is there a particular line quality you like — thick/thin/clean/etc?
The older I get, the thicker line I like, it seems. But clean, for sure!
13, What is more important to you — style or idea?
I'm taking "idea" to include "story" — and that's always most important. The most gorgeous art cannot make a bad story into a satisfying read. But I've loved reading some roughly drawn comics because the story was compelling.
14. Is drawing a pleasure to you or a pain?
Always a pleasure. I do it because I want to. I just need to be sure not to draw too long without a break, or my hand hurts, and that part is a pain.
15. When you meet someone new, do you talk about being an artist right away? do you identify yourself as an artist or something else?
I'm really shy. I won't say anything about it unless they ask me what I like to do, or if they happen to bring up art somehow.
16. Do you feel at all connected to older comic artists like Steve Ditko or Jack Kirby — or does this seem like a foreign world to you?
I am an older artist like them! Those guys were working at their peak at the time that I started reading comics. Their world is not foreign to me at all — it's home.
17. Do you ever feel the impulse to not draw comics?
Too often — I can be terribly lazy.
18. Do you draw from life?
Rarely — not nearly as often as I know I should. My son is a good sport about modelling unusual poses for me, at least.
19. Do you pencil out comics and then ink? or do you sometimes not pencil?
When I first started learning to draw in ink, I never did preliminary pencils. That went on for years. But once I realized that the pros did, I started doing pencilling myself, and by now it's a crutch. A few times I have tried ink drawing challenges of working without pencil, and they always feel like walking a high-wire. Some people thrive on that kind of adrenaline, but I like to relax more when I draw!
20. What does your drawing space look like?
One end of a kitchen table, with an Ott natural daylight desk lamp.
21. Bonus Question: What can you tell us about Dishman. And has your impression of the character and story changed since the original publication of the minicomics
Dishman was truly a gift from my subconscious. One night I dreamed that I was drawing a comic about a superhero with the power to clean dishes. And when I woke up, I thought, "What if I actually tried to do that? How would that go?" The only time in my life that that has ever happened to me.
I will say that, today, I am surprised and gratified by how much it resonates with people and continues to be remembered — I know I wasn't expecting that going in. Back in the day, I thought it was just this weird little book that I really wanted to see get made.
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