King of the hill.

Count the converse! A random sampling of feet at MoCCA this past weekend

I did an interview with cartoon diva Julia Wertz for LHB. Read the interview here. There were some extra questions cut for space that I really wished I could have kept so I've included them below. Here's Julia talking about how where she lives influences her work:

You're fairly new to New York City from San Francisco. How do you find living in New York has impacted your work?

New York itself provides more material on a reliable daily basis than San Francisco. In San Francisco I could conjure up a few "crazy shit happened to me today" stories, but New York takes crazy to a whole different level. Since I often work with autobiographical material about every day events, I'm obligated to find stories in mundane events like going to the liquor store. In San Francisco, a trip to the store was mostly just that, a trip to the store. Here in New York, every small trip is like a mini saga, especially when the weather is warm and the city is airing out all its weird characters. Some days the idea of just going to the corner bodega exhausts me.

And how do you think your formative years living in a country environment in Napa, CA influenced you? I sort of picture you playing King of the Hill on top of a mountain somewhere and making all the neighborhood kids bend to your will, which is not so different than editing an anthology I would imagine.

Ha, we did used to play King of the Hill but I had an older brother so I never got to be the king. I was bossy as shit though, but I think it was mostly because I was a very pragmatic. Even though I could produce a slew of nonsense, I wasn't keen on accepting it from others. I'm still very much like that which sounds a bit arrogant, but I think that most creative people operate that way. The key is to just be aware of that and try to keep it in check, which is really difficult in the internet era where so much bullshit is being produced and pushed into our faces.

My formative years played a huge role in shaping my adult personality and career choices. It gave me a sort of split personality that is clearly reflected in my work and my decision to pursue being a cartoonist. One part of me is incredibly responsible and the other part of me is forever 13. It happened because during my teen years I had to take care of my baby brother, work and go to school, so I was forced to grow up really fast. But then part of me was still busy being a teenager, doing things like smoking, drinking, shoplifting, etcÉand that part of me still makes really impulsive decisions that horrify the responsible side of my personality. These two strong aspects of my personality are carried out to maximum effect in my comics as cartoon me seemingly bumbles through life, while real me has a pretty clear understanding of where IÕm headed.

My sort of schizophrenic upbringing also provided me with the main tool for my work, which is humor. People develop different ways to cope with difficult issues and mine was finding something funny in every disaster. I simply cannot take myself seriously, which is the undercurrent of all my comics. I'm the kind of asshole that laughs at funerals.

Read the whole interview with Julia Wertz here.

(06/10/09)