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AG: S O R R Y C O M I C S, your autobiographical web comic from which your practice grew, existed in digital form first. Why this switch to paper? Early on, I was just so focused on the making of comics and I knew paper distribution was a lot of work for a smaller audience. With the internet, I can share the work quickly and even get some feedback. I was most interested in honing my storytelling skills then, so I just decided to focus on creating comics and forgo publishing anything until the urge struck. Then in early 2015, I read a bunch of things like Mineshaft magazine, Noah Van Sciver's Blammo, Box Brown's Number 1 and was finally intrigued enough to publish.
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AG: There are two film-related comics in this issue of EXIT – one about the 1986 film Heavy Metal Parking Lot, and one about your personal history with a drive-in theater. Both the film and venue are lost to time, but specific to Maryland. What compels you to offer these sorts of histories? |
JK: Well, both comics are included because of the specific time and place they reference. All the material in EXIT #2 takes place in Maryland and spans a long period of time, but they all have the most overlap during the period of 1986-87. The cover is an homage to the 1987 Topps trading card series Dinosaurs Attack, which I first saw on my grandparents' property that year. I also included some Wacky Packages-inspired paintings and a self-portrait as a Garbage Pail Kid, although I named mine Trailer Trash Kids. Each of the pieces throughout the book makes thematic connections to the overall series. For example, the comic about my child drive-in experience reveals many of the influences to a comic featured the first issue of EXIT. |
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>>excerpt from EXIT #2; The Rise & Fall of Sonny Morrison:![]() |
AG: The comic about your grandfather Sonny (who is deceased) is a great story. While the description of his life and illegal activities is borderline invasive, it’s not nearly as humiliating for you or some of the people you’ve included as characters in your work from the past. What’s with the classiness?? JK: I certainly do not mean to come across as classy, and if I have, I apologize completely. I still intend to humiliate myself and others hopefully again sometime soon. Also, I don't see my grandfather's story as invasive. I'm proud and excited by the story, warts and all. I want to tell autobiographical and biographical stories that have the same meat a fiction story might have. And just like I inherited the crazy mountain man gene from my grandfather, I also inherited his legacy. I didn't ask for it. It was given to me. |
Visit John's website and blog>> Follow John's Twitter>> Support John's work by purchasing the EXIT #2, among other things>> |