Comics on the wall: Q&A with C Hill
A few weeks ago I received a poster tube in the mail that contained one of the coolest things I'd seen in awhile--a "gallery comic" that combined the format of a poster with the narrative of a comic book. The artist of the piece, C Hill of Kameleo Comics, graciously agreed to answer a few questions about his work.
JK: When did you first become interested in doing comics?
C Hill: I have been reading and making comics since my childhood in France. The Belgian magazine, Spirou, and to some degree Disney, too, have been big influences in my early years. Having grown up in Europe, I also read Asterix, Tintin and other well-established French and Belgian comics, but the artists publishing in Spirou really fueled my passion for comics.
JK: Can you give us a little background on your comic work so far?
C Hill: I’ve been drawing all kinds of comics on and off since childhood--short stories, strip gags, one-page gags, “to be continued” strips, 44-pagers (the standard length of comic albums in France and Belgium), etc. I got published in fanzines, regional newspapers, college papers--your typical training years. From the mid-1990s to just a few years ago, I worked as a computer graphic artist, drawing and animating for CD-ROMs and the Web, for Disney, the Smithsonian and many dot coms. Because of that, I didn’t have much time to work on my comics. Around 2001, I felt the urge to change that, and so I combined my passion for comic art with going back to school to get a graduate degree in illustration. I just received my M.F.A. last year from a great school, California State University-Fullerton, where the faculty very much supported me and embraced the idea of comics as art.JK: What exactly is a "gallery comic" and how is it different from a regular comic?
C Hill: Traditionally speaking, comics are meant for the book, for the page, not for the wall. So, putting a comics page on a wall is taking it out of context. Many of its narrative and graphical constructs fall apart. It’s like showcasing a mythical manuscript page of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It’s an interesting artifact, historically and aesthetically, but most of us would find greater pleasure in reading the entire play or seeing it performed. Now, some comics pages, like many from George Herriman or Gary Panter’s “Jimbo in Purgatory,” work great on a wall, but they are more the exception than the rule. And exhibits like the “Masters of American Comics” are wonderful, but frustrating, too. You want to read it all, and there’s no way you can do it in a single visit! I have seen the “Masters” six times, and I still don’t feel like I’ve gotten to everything!
Now, this doesn’t mean that the art form we call “comic art” cannot be adapted to the physical and cultural experience of the gallery, just as comics have evolved with newspaper constraints or Web technology. And so several artists are doing just that: making comics that work in the gallery, that are designed for viewers to contemplate and enjoy just like a painting, an installation, an engraving or an art poster. Look at the art of Mark Staff Brandl, Andrei Molotiu, Christa Donner, Howie Shia, to name a few.
JK: "Stars, Crosses, and Stripes," your first gallery comic, is very different from most comic work. Tell us a little bit about the process for developing it.C Hill: “Stars, Crosses, and Stripes” is different from traditional comics. That’s true, but not so different when you look carefully. Gallery comics preserve enough of what makes comics unique and recognizable. For instance, “Stars, Crosses, and Stripes” includes text and images, strips, panels, story, the idea of sequence, and so on. I also selected a more “mundane” printing technology, in this case, high-end offset printing, over something like, say, wood engraving, so that I could make more copies and keep their price low enough to respect the fact that comics have historically been affordable to just about everyone in society, not just the elite. As for the differences, they vary from one gallery comics to another. In “Stars, Crosses, and Stripes,” although there is a general sequence, it is not the traditional Western left to right, and top to bottom reading pattern. Instead, the composition invites your eyes to meander freely through the print. Your gaze becomes a metaphor for walking through the cemetery. “Stars, Crosses, and Stripes” is also a complete story. There isn’t another page before or after it. Last, like many gallery comics, it plays with the viewing distance. For example, from up close, the stars behind the silhouette of my grandfather blur and disappear in the line pattern; but if you step back, they re-appear thanks to the phenomenon of optical blending – a key tenet of the technique of the Impressionists. Using that same concept of viewing distance, in “Stars, Crosses, and Stripes,” all the markers –– the crosses and stars of David -- look similar from a distance. Just like us. From far away, we look more alike than not. Yet, when you get close, you take in each one’s uniqueness. So in “Stars, Crosses, and Stripes,” not only has each marker a caption portraying a singular aspect of that person’s life story, but each panel design is one of a kind.
JK: Where did the idea for the story for "Stars, Crosses, and Stripes" come from?
C Hill: A personal “Zeitgeist.” My maternal grandfather had just passed. The anniversary of D-Day. The great sadness of 9/11.
JK: What has the reaction been from people who have seen "Stars, Crosses, and Stripes"?
C Hill: Impressive, especially considering our flag is such a powerful and loaded emblem. I cannot tell you how many people told me how moved they were by it. Adult men in the middle of boisterous and eccentric comics conventions paused and even fought back tears. A young woman broke down and wept right in front of me--it had hit too close to home for her. And it was tough for the two of us.
At the same time, many people in the comics community and in the gallery world don’t know what to do with this thing! So that reaction is pretty funny. It certainly lightens the force of the drama in this piece.
JK: Where can people purchase it?
C Hill: It’s in a handful of stores right now, such as Brave New World in Valencia, Calif. It’s also on the Kameleo website.
JK: Do you have any other gallery comics in the works?
C Hill: I’m going back to making a series on what I call my “gallery comics zero,” a test piece I did that got such good feedback that I realized there was something there, and which opened the door for doing “Stars, Crosses, and Stripes.”JK: What else are you working on?
C Hill: A collection of short comics stories, tentatively titled, “Tales of Good, Bad, and Evil.”
JK: What can you tell us about it?
C Hill: Well, when you look at humans, it’s as if good and evil decided to live under the same roof, and they’re both fighting to wear the pants in the house and we're the tenant. So the “Tales” are short stories of people caught between their greatest aspirations and their ugliest flaws. Some “Tales” are funny. Others quite tragic. And for each tale, I'm adapting the comics form to support and fuse with the story. So, in that sense, they're also formalist adventures, each with its unique style and narrative personality. Yet, ultimately, story stays king. And just as with “Stars, Crosses, and Stripes,” I¹m leaving the door wide open for readers to find meaning in different ways and places.
JK: When will it be out?
C Hill: I am planning on pre-publishing a couple of these “Tales” this year. And the final collection in graphic novel book form will most likely see the day around 2008.
More info:
posted by JK Parkin @ 9:56 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home