I have been interested in comics for awhile. I’ve been going to Comic-Con for about 25 years, and at first I was trying to become a comic book artist. For the first few years, I would go to the submission lines when the “big guys” were doing it (Marvel and DC). I was going through those lines and they were telling me to practice this or that. As the years went by, I got better and better, and just as I was getting some editors saying “I’m liking what I’m seeing. You still need a little work here. Why don’t you focus on this or that”, I kind of lost interest and became more interested in comic strips. Unfortunately, since newspapers are going the way of the dodo bird, I had to parlay that into webcomics instead. At first it was a serious hobby, but it is slowly starting to become something more. 

 

 

Yeah, I always thought that was cool. When you look at the first Garfield strips, Garfield is this huge ugly monster. He’s not the character that we are used to, not slick or professional looking. I always enjoyed seeing how artists have developed over the years. Charles Shultz in the 1950s, his comic style had more of an advertisement slick ink style. This was similar to newspaper advertisement style back then, as opposed to the style that we are more used to seeing.

 

 

 

 

The panel was called “Four Panel Frontiers”. It was talking about how newspaper comicstrips are going away… because newspapers are going away. Webcomics have been taking their place for the last 20 years, but I was trying to share the information that I have learned after having done this for about 12 years. Trying to let people who want to start their own web comics know things that they need to know so that they can make the most of it.

 

 

JRG: I haven’t updated that one in awhile. It was basically about two guys (roommates) who went around and commented on various movies that came out, and pop culture in general. I was doing that three times a week, but because it was current event oriented, it was harder to keep up that schedule. Website: http://popcorn.smackjeeves.com/

 

 

 

 

JRG: I like that one too. That was fun. I try to tell people, advice for young web comic people, your website shouldn’t just be about your web comic. I try to make it entertaining. I have a character page and miscellaneous pages as well.

 

 

…

 

Special thanks to JR Gervais and Derek Maki with Cool Water Productions for arranging this interview.

 

New installments of Young Cannibals are posted on Mondays and Fridays on http://www.youngcannibals.net/.

 

 

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