1) What motivates you to draw comics?

I think I’ve got a lot to say, and I have a lot of deep, personal visions that I find I can only express through creating my own characters and telling their stories in comic strip form. It’s a form of therapy; working something out from a deep, mysterious place, and giving it shape. Sometimes painful things can be exorcised this way. I heartily enjoy the process of creating work; there’s nothing more fulfilling for me.

It's not your only artistic string: please could you talk us through your other disciplines.

I play the Moog and the Vox organ in a band called Pestrepeller with Savage Pencil and Harley Richardson. We just had a CD, Isle of Dark Magick, released on Important Records this year. None of us are musicians. We make a strange, droney, detailed noise. The thing I like best about it is interacting with other people through music and sound; there’s really nothing else like it. Sadly, we don’t play often enough for my liking.

I’m also editor, writer and publisher of The Sound Projector music magazine, now in its tenth year. I write most of the reviews and conduct interviews. I just published a summer special issue about collecting vinyl records. I put some of my own drawings in the magazine too. (see below)

2) What first attracted you to comics?

I’ve always liked them – ever since I could read, I’ve read comics. After leaving art college in 1982, I wanted to return to something familiar and friendly. I was drawn to creating comics for that reason, wanting to get back to stories. But by then two other main interests outside of comics were also on my mind: abstract art painting, and avant-garde cinema. To a certain extent, I wanted to bring both of those into comics too: I liked abstract mark-making instead of drawing like Jack Kirby, and I liked story-telling methods informed more by Jean-Luc Godard or Stan Brakhage than by Stan Lee.

A particular artist, a history, a means of communication?

Several particular artists attracted me, but especially those who seemed to suggest the medium of comics had more potential than you might suppose. George Herriman is one case in point; sheer poetry in visual dynamics, narrative, and texts.

I know a fair bit about comics history, but that’s when I’m wearing another hat as collector and archivist; it doesn’t feed into my work, if I can help it.

Means of communication – yes, absolutely. I can’t think of anything more direct or intimate than a comic strip. I also found I could use comics to communicate something of my own personal interests and preoccupations – see my answer to the next question.

What advantages/disadvantages do you feel comics have over other artistic mediums?

Advantages: comics can tell stories, but they can also arrange and convey a lot of information in a very particular way to create certain powerful effects; and they can do that in a very direct way, in a very compacted space. Sometimes this can all be at the expense of telling a story, at least I find that’s the case in my work.

Disadvantages: comics seem to arrive with a lot of cultural baggage; most of the audience bring their expectations of what a comic should or shouldn’t be. Sadly I find this is still the case, in spite of all the so-called advances that have taken place in the last 25 years.

3) What's one of your favourite own creations - and please could you explain why you like this one so much?

I love them all. My characters are all real to me! I like my creations because they fulfil me. The best moments are where I succeed in forging a direct link from heart to eye to brain, and then to paper. This happens rarely, and in flashes, so it’s really just a few panels I’m talking about. I like these panels when they mystify me, where I don’t know where they come from.

What words do you like to see associated with you?

Generous, creative, productive. I hope to be remembered as an artist who left enough room for the reader to breathe and be themselves.

Why are you so attracted to the idea of telling Primitif's story - I know this is something you have been doing for two decades now.

Because, like all of my characters, I really don’t know what he will do next. It’s the excitement that’s attractive. The most recent story, was literally revealed to me in nightly episodes as I lay in bed scribbling on a pad. I wasn’t sure what was going on with Primitif then; I’m still not entirely clear now. I also like to find new ways to draw familiar characters; how can I make them look new, yet still recognisable? That’s always a fascinating challenge.

4) Please could you tell me a little about where you're from/something about previous and current creations?

I was born in Liverpool. Ever since I could remember I have liked stories and pictures, and I’ve been drawing since a very early age. I went to art college in Coventry, and made sculptures, screenprints, paintings, drawings, and super 8mm films. After art college, I did self-published comics for about eight years. There’s a full list of everything I ever wrote, drew and published on my website.

Current creations: I mentioned above the drawings I put in The Sound Projector. They’re not comic strips; these are collage drawings, concocted out of a combination of pencil, ink, crayon, paint, and assembled with scissors, glue, and torn paper. Sometimes they’re enhanced slightly in Photoshop afterwards. Often I combine two or three drawings that aren’t working, and make one drawing that does work out of all the debris. Then I scrawl further marks on top of it, making connections, bringing out the core shapes and hidden elements. Then I might tear it to pieces again and paste it onto a larger sheet of paper. I’ve been working this way for a few years now. I like the way that the results often surprise me, and something that starts off as a bird or a tree or a face can change into something completely different.

5) A favourite comic book artist currently working - and why.

To be honest I’m out of touch with current comic book artists. I like a lot of the artists showcased in the Kramers Ergot compilations, although I’m not sure if they’re good comics or good stories or good art. In fact I’m not sure what they’re doing in some cases, but it’s certainly intriguing and enjoyable. They seem to short-circuit common sense, and I like that.

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