Sample3

Ever want to punch your friend in the arm and hug them at the same time? That's how I felt when I found out Dan Blouin was so talented. I'd known him for almost a year before I inadvertently discovered his comic strip online. I couldn't believe such talent had been sitting there under my nose for so long. Since I don't want you to have to wait as long as I did, behold Dan's work here, and read on to hear some clever and insightful thoughts about the inner workings of a comic artist. How do you define creativity? Creativity is a thought process, right? It's the fire that keeps you moving from project to project and gives life to your ideas, but that's the real goo at the center of the Creativity Cadbury Egg - having the ideas is just the first step. It's taking those thoughts and ideas and bringing them to a place where other people can share them. It's making things, creating. So, how do I personally define creativity? It's very much this sort of white whale. I find myself constantly coming up with ideas, but very rarely do I see them through to completion. Throughout my creative existence, the Comic Book Dude and Vegetarian Girl comic strip is one of the only things that I've managed to both produce as a complete thought, and then maintain. Even this answer is sort of an unfinished thought. But is it creative? That's for the folks at home to decide or.. define?

How did you get into drawing comics? Ever since I was a kid, I loved reading comics. And you always try to do the things you love, right? Even if you're not great at it. But you keep on keepin' on. Eventually I was in a position to produce a comics section for my college newspaper. Content was not abundant, and so I often had to cobble things together just to make the section look full. Some things clearly had more effort put into them than others. One of those things became Comic Book Dude & Vegetarian Girl. I've had several other start-up projects over the years that have competed with CBD&VG for my time, but nothing really took off the way this did.

Sample2

Tell me more about Comic Book Dude and Vegetarian Girl. Basically, it's a semi-autobiographical series about a bunch of awkward twenty-somethings, who, in the start of the series, all have serious character flaws, and are kind of lousy-people. But over the course of things, rude awakenings happen, as well as general silliness, and they start to realize that the misconceptions and prejudices they were harboring are incredibly unjustified, and everybody gets all close and cozy. It's really not anywhere near as sappy as I just made it sound. In some ways, they're still flawed, horrible people - just not towards each other. In other ways, they're just like people you know. Who love vegetables. And comics. Oh, and this series is FILTHY with hidden references to various comics, movies, books, TV shows, really, everything that I love. But mostly comics. There's also a talking goat.

Do you draw, ink, and write all of your work? I do if I can help it. I don't think I'm a very good collaborator, with a few notable exceptions. This series in particular started out as a one-man show. But my good friend Jessica (the real life Vegetarian Girl, for the trivia nuts out there) became so involved in the planning and plotting stages of things, that we decided she should try her hand at writing, and so, for much of the series, I took a back seat to the actual dialogue side of things, leaving the characters in her more-than-capable hands. I've since gone back to being a solo act, but I'd welcome her help in a second if she wanted to give it. On the illustration side of things, I've always worked alone. This strip began as something I'd pound out during class with a Sharpie, getting it ready at the last-minute before the newspaper went into production. I didn't really intend on working on it ten years later, so the early installments are very primitive. These days, the entire thing is produced in Photoshop- all the “pencilling” and “inking” is done with a tablet.

Sample4

Where do you find inspiration for the themes and content of the comics? CBD&VG is a big love letter to everything that's important to me - my friends, my family, major life experiences (good or bad), the creators and tasty pop culture bits that have shaped my mind and personality over the years. It's all represented in one form or another. Specifically, the three main characters are all based on close friends, combined with pieces of me. All of the jobs Vegetarian Girl has had were my jobs, and very soon they're going to find themselves as the owners of a small-town bookstore, which is where I've been working for about 3 years now. It's always easy to tell when there's a new element in my life - be it a new friend or acquaintance, or maybe I've discovered a new television show - because I'll totally find a way to bring it into the strip. I mentioned that I've been working on this for about ten years. I've grown as a person since coming up with the idea, and I'd hope that my characters have grown, too. I'm in my early thirties, and people around me are getting married, having kids. The spaces between our lives are getting wider, and I feel like soon, that's the sort of thing that should be reflected in my strip.

Daily habits or practices? Hmmm. Not as much. I try to work on it for at least an hour a day. Sometimes that means breaking down the panels, sometimes it means working on the finished art. Lately, it means writing. But this is the white whale I mentioned earlier, I don't work on it anywhere near as much as I'd like to in a week. I try to compensate by organizing my thoughts when I'm at work, or about to fall asleep. I can be a pretty spacey guy.

Favorite artists? For comics? All time favorites are Jack Kirby, John Romita Jr., Kevin Eastman, and Bill Watterson. No question, they've had the biggest influence on my individual comickin' style. For newer favorites- I'm really digging guys like Stuart Immonen, Ross Campbell, and Olivier Coipel. If you like comics, or comic art, and DON'T know who those dudes are, I highly suggest looking them up. And Emma Rios, too. She's wonderful. For non-comic artists? Jim Henson. What a guy.

Sample1

Advice for aspiring comic artists? Draw A LOT. Read A LOT. The most important thing to remember about comics, (to me, anyway), is that it's a form of storytelling. It's awesome if the pictures are pretty, but really, if you're sacrificing a coherent narrative for fancy illustrations, then you're probably not going to be happy with it when you're done. And no one will want to read it. If you really want to draw comics try drawing storyboards for a movie, or a play. Even if it's something you've already seen or read. The goal should be to understand what's going on, even without dialogue. Also, don't be afraid of publishing your own stuff on the internet. It's what all the cool kids are doing these days. I'd like to say it worked for me, but I'm just getting started.

Headshot2

Dan Blouin is a 31-year-old comic artist who lives in Rhode Island with his cat. He's won the 82nd annual local Farmer's Market award for “Most Tomato-like Head”, drives the only car on Earth that runs on love, has bungee jumped from the moon, and is a liar. He's about to complete his 100th comic, and can be found online right here.

Sometimes I feel like my life is an embarrassment of riches. There are just so many talented, unique and special people in it. Seamus Hames is one of those lovely folks. I am so thrilled to introduce you to him and his work today. How would you define creativity? Creativity is the ability to envision alternatives. Some people conform to the world they're born into and some just can't. Those that can't, see the world from a distance. It's a lonely place, so they assert themselves, and eventually new voices and cultures emerge. It's really a search for love, for the bridging of distances. Conformity was essential for early human survival, but there's always needed to be alternatives. Time moves on, people change, and things need to change lest all becomes stagnant.

Some will advise you based on what they've seen, on the world of the past and of experience, while others will lead by what they can imagine: the inner world.

After all, they've been on the sidelines asserting themselves, they are used to envisioning what the future could be. That is the root of creativity. Where those inner visions come from is as mysterious as life itself. Why the search for love? It's almost as if we've been blessed with the ability to manifest something to receive and reflect our own love. Perhaps that's all we are, created by the universe to receive its love. I see that as proof there is love for all things, simply because we can imagine it.

When are you at your creative peak (be it time of day, season of year, etc.)? I like mornings best, they are the most celebratory, but most often I work in the evenings. Big ideas, seed ideas, come at night, often in dreams or just on the threshold. Summer is inspirational in terms of being outgoing and collecting material, drawing outdoors and exploring, but winter is the time of year I seem to make the most and get the most done, being stuck indoors. That's when I write a lot, imagining worlds from my warm home.

You're working on two series - one of Irish mythology drawings and one of little abstract paintings. Can you talk about each of them and what's compelling you? I love mythology from all over the world, and am currently obsessed with Celtic mythology and Irish history in general, and as I've been reading about it I've decided to illustrate my favorite moments, almost as a nightly drawing exercise. The little abstract paintings are also exercises in translating my pen work into paint, specifically practicing my line work and washes. So both are actually work I can do where I don't have to think much once I'm doing it, just have fun and cut loose, since they aren't necessarily smaller parts of a greater picture, as some of my writing projects are.

Tell me about the little 'zines that you make and send out. I've always thought that was such a generous act. Do you see it that way, as an act of service? I've always loved comics and cartoons, and mail art, and the idea of mini-comics as something small, for a few dollars and sent through the quaintness of the old-time postal service, is very appealing to me as a medium. When money is removed from the equation there's nothing left but the love, and things like that are certainly public services. With my mini-comics I get to write in an episodic fashion, to draw quickly, pontificate about things I care about, and send it regularly as gifts to others, which is all a lot of fun. The comic I'm working on now is called The Mystery, and it's about the landscape of southern RI where I grew up, combining nature poems, stories about high school, and local ghost stories and lore. It's supposed to be the celebration of the soul of a place, the way a landscape informs you, but also a coming-of-age story within that landscape. I'll be very sad when it's over, I have it planned for twenty-one issues, which will run about five years, but I'm also excited to start a new fantasy comic I've been planning.

You're the director of an art center for developmentally disabled adults. How does their work inform yours? I'm inspired daily by the work the artists do at Top Drawer Art At The Brass. I always think of the Keats quote "Poetry should come as natural as leaves to a tree or not at all", and I see beautiful leaves every day, in every color and hue at Top Drawer, when they are helped to express themselves clearly. It is the work I'm most proud of, helping them realize their potential. Their talent is limitless as long as they have the support, and that is an important job. Their work and their insights are like refreshing draughts of morning air in a world that can be stifling and bleak. That is the best kind of public service, providing cool air and leaves, what more could you possibly ask for?

Any daily habits or practices? My daily habits are coffee drinking, drawing, writing, pontificating, pacing, smoking, and kissing my son's sweet marshmallow head. I like to play the banjo also, old-time clawhammer style.

Who are your favorite artists? I love the classics like Dubuffet and Klee, Van Gogh, ancient painters like Sesshu. I also love writers, poets like Han Shan and Kerouac, Walt Whitman, and I recently discovered the classic fantasist Lord Dunsany and am collecting as much of his work as I can, which I also once did with Richard Brautigan. I love Outsider artists like James Castle, Hiroyuki Doi, Minnie Evans. I love writer/artists like Dr. Seuss and Maurice Sendak, British cartoonist James Jarvis, and artist/writers in comic form: classics like Ron Rege Jr. and John Porcellino, and newer artists like CF and Leon Sadler.

Any advice for aspiring artists? Be yourself, become yourself. Listen to the things that call for you and go to them, celebrate them and invite them with you. Stay happy through your work and seek to please those who you love through it. Be proud of yourself and never question the practicality of your actions. Represent the ineffable. Never give up.

Seamus O. Hames was born in Warwick, RI, in 1979, and raised in the seaside town of Narragansett. He received a Bachelor's of Fine Arts at the School Of The Art Institute of Chicago in 2002 with a focus on Film Animation and Outsider Art, and he currently self-publishes mini-comics as well as creates artwork for gallery exhibitions. He lives in a studio/cottage in Wakefield, RI, with his wife Arleen Aguilera and son Ronan Michael, and for nine years has worked as the artistic director of Top Drawer Art At The Brass, a studio and gallery for artists with developmental disabilities in Warren. Check out his website here.