All Alternates
This feature will give you access to all the alternates available for a glyph. The most common way this is done is within the glyph palette in the adobe applications, InDesign and Illustrator. In the glyph palette simply find a glyph that contains an arrow in the lower right corner and click it and select the alternate.

Here we see the K swash alternate for the typeface Taroca in the Adobe Illustrator glyph palette.

Standard Ligatures
A ligature is two or more letters combined into one character often connected by a single stroke. Standard ligatures are usually turned on by default.

Double t ligature in the Lavender Script typeface.

Discretionary Ligatures
Discretionary ligatures have less to do with legibility and more to do with style.

Contextual Alternates
These alternates are triggered when a certain condition is met. These are often used in script faces to create smooth connections between letters. I would suggest that this feature be turned on at all times.

The Azuki typeface has contextual alternates when two identical letters are placed side by side. This creates a more authentic look.

Stylistic Alternates
This kind of alternate is based on style. If you don’t like the look of a certain letter there may be a different style to choose from. When this feature is turned on the first alternate in a list of alternates replaces the default character. I think a better way to do this is to select alternates manually using the glyph palette.

Lavender Script contains many stylistic alternates.

Swash
These are characters that contain some kind of decorative flourish. Swashes can be used to add drama or demand attention. There is a swash button that can be turned on but I think using the glyph palette to select swashes at your own discretion is far better.

Taroca’s swashed Q and R.

Oldstyle Numerals
These are better suited when numerals are used with lowercase letters. Typically the 6 and 8 contain ascenders and 3, 4, 5, 7 contain descenders. Under the opentype tab, in the figure drop-down menu select proportional oldstyle.

Oldstyle numerals from the typeface Delorita.

Ornaments
These are decorative elements that can be used in your layout. Some are as simple as a floral bullet or can be more intricate and used as spot illustration. Use the glyph palette to find these by going to the drop-down menu and selecting show ornaments.

Ornaments from the typeface Taroca.

DOWNLOAD FEED ICON PACK

This feed icon pack contains transparent pngs (56×56, 28×28, 10×10) and vector graphics in 10 glossy colors.

Download: Cards PDF or Envelope PDF

Instructions: First download the PDF files for both the valentines and the envelope. Open pdf files using Adobe Reader (free download). Print valentines on card stock (8.5 x 11) and envelopes on plain paper (8.5 x 11), cut, fold and glue according to instruction on print out and that’s it! I used a corner rounding punch on mine but that’s optional.

Todd Oldham

Todd Oldham is one of my favorite designers. What I like most about him is his sense of fun that he brings to everything he does and his fearlessness with color. It was amazing that he took the time out of his busy schedule to be interviewed. This interview occured in October 2005.

JESS: I really enjoyed your special on HGTV Handmade Modern that aired in September (2005) and I was wondering if you were planning on doing more or is that it for Handmade Modern?

TODD: I had so much fun doing Handmade Modern TV. My schedule doesn’t allow the huge amount of time it takes to do a full time show, so I was happy to do it as a series of specials. I think the next series might be Handmade Modern Garden, as I am a plant nut. I‘m glad you liked it.

JESS: Being a type designer and a big fan of yours I was excited to see the typeface you designed and used in your book Handmade Modern. Have you designed any other typefaces? Do you have plans to design more? What was that like? What techniques did you use, hand drawn or computer drawn?

TODD: The font I designed for the book was called ERASE, as it was hand cut out of pink erasers and scanned into the computer. It has been very useful and its serif free, chunky forms have blended well with all sorts of other fonts, like the House Industries font called NEUTRAFACE that we also used in the book. We have designed many fonts at my studio. One of my very favourites is called PINDOT. We punched the entire font into cardboard using a straight pin and scanned from there. I prefer to make or draw our fonts by hand because to me, in our entirely automated world it brings me joy to see a human hand present.

JESS: You seem to be into designing everything lately: photography, interior, graphic, tv, etc. Do you ever feel stretched in a million directions? How do you keep it up?

TODD: I am very blessed to be able to design all kinds of stuff and I would suffocate if I had to do only one thing. I have managed to sculpt a career out of a very short attention span and I encourage everyone with a wandering mind to do the same. We are a nation of specialists and that can be very boring.

JESS: Are you still designing clothes? If not, will you ever again? I noticed that category was absent on your website: toddoldhamstudio.com and that’s what your most known for.

Hand Made Modern

TODD: I designed clothes for a very long time and had a great go at it. It is a privilege to make things for other people to enjoy, but there came a time when it was no longer in my heart to design clothes. I take this privilege seriously and would never wish to produce anything that is not fueled by the heart. So never say never, but I have no plans, nor anything to say with clothes. I do get to make stuff for my friends.

JESS: What’s it like having Amy Sedaris as a friend? How did you meet her? Do you make crafts and cheese balls together?

TODD: I love Amy. I met her when I was photographing her for a magazine and we became instant friends. She is a constant source of inspiration to me and millions of others, because of her fearless joy. We have made loads of stuff together but never a chese ball. Amy has the nicest manners of just about anyone I know and is a lovely host and friend. She is just finishing a craft/hospitality book called I LIKE YOU. It is so funny and great looking. Coming out next Spring.

JESS: Can you recommend any books, music, websites or tv programs that you find interesting lately?

TODD: I just finished reading KURT VONNEGUT’S A MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY and it is just so great. Defining words from a wise, mature and insightful national treasure. Read this for a sanity break. Also check out THE WEEK, CONTENT, TOPIC and MARTHA STEWART LIVING.
For music check out DEVENDRA BANHART’S new record, odd and great… I can’t take off new WHITE STRIPES, BECK’S GUERO, JONI MITCHELL ANYTHING, and TOMMY GUERRERO’S entire works. On TV, I loved the COMEBACK (although I am one of 3 who did), ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, SEALAB 2021, MXC, and STRANGERS WITH CANDY RERUNS.

JESS: Is there anything that you haven’t done that you see yourself doing in the future?

TODD: There are loads of things I’ve not done and everyday I get to learn something new so you never know where that’s going to take you.

JESS: Thanks so much for the interview Todd!

To see all the amazing things that Todd Oldham does, visit his website:  Todd Oldham Studios!

ALL PHOTOS USED WITH PERMISSION, © TODD OLDHAM STUDIOS

Fawn Gehweiler

JESS: Fave music? I just got the new Stereolab CD, I highly recommend it!

FAWN: Yeah! I just got the new stereolab, too. I like the first half tho,’ the free-jazzy, tropicalia kind of stuff, more than the rest of the record…what else? I’ve been listening to a lot of ‘Os Mutantes’, and early ‘T-rex’, like all the elf songs, um, all the ‘Deviants’ reissues, Brian Eno-the ‘before and after science’ record, a lot of bootlegged CDs of crazy Japanese stuff, all that are like 220 b.p.m, created with sounds from video games, and samples from like Disney movies – that stuff makes me so happy when I’m working, and drives my roommates insane!

JESS: Fave movies?

FAWN: I like so many different movies it’s crazy – not very many lately though… I love the 60′s A.I.P pictures – ‘Wild in the Streets,’ ‘Psych Out,’ I still haven’t seen ‘Riot on Sunset Strip’ in it’s entirety (anybody with a copy-email me!), but that’s definitely one of them! ‘Beyond the Valley of the Dolls’, for sure…almost every Godard movie ever – especially ‘Masculin Feminin’, ‘Weekend’, and ‘Alphaville’. all the late 70′s j.d. movies ‘Over the Edge’, ‘Little Darlings’, I just rented ‘Foxes’ with Jodie Foster and the girl from the runaways in it, but I haven’t watched it yet. I’m trying to see more stuff from the Czech new wave too – ‘Daisies’ is one of the best things I’ve ever seen.

JESS: Fave Books?

The Pill - Cruel Ways: 45 Sleeve

FAWN: I haven’t read a lot of fiction books lately. There are so many on the market and they’re all sooo bad. I like when kids write novels and send them to me, and a lot of writing that people put up on websites is great. Momus has a new essay on his site like every day. I always read anything new by Francesca Lia Block and William T. Vollman. I read magazines like a fiend. I buy like 20 different ones every month, and I still have to go sit at the newsstand all day and read all the ones that I didn’t buy, it might be like an obsessive disorder or something, I guess…what else? I just got a library card in my new town (yay!), so right now I’m reading the Charles and Ray Eames book. They’re artists and furniture designers and totally inspiring (plus there are all these photos of Eames chairs that make me drool, and a book called ‘No Place Like Utopia’, plus a bunch of picture books of Las Vegas and Tokyo and one of American roadside restaurants that are totally beautiful. I love architecture and urban planning books more than anything (the armchair architectural theorists and angry men of urban planning write the best books!), almost any book that MIT Press puts out has proven to be good, esp. the ‘zone’ collection, which I faithfully haul around with me every time I move, even though they’re the heaviest things I own…

JESS:Fave TV shows?

FAWN: I’d probably have more favorite TV shows if I had cable, or got more than one channel, or had grown up in a house with television…that said though, I have to admit that I’m one of the last holdout 90210 watchers that I know, and have been caught on numerous occasions defending Tori spellings acting. My friends think I’m just saying that cause once she wore a shirt that I designed on the show (while she broke up with her boyfriend and caught her Mom having an affair
or something), but I seriously think that she’s the Lucille ball of the 90′s…

JESS: Who are some of your favorite artists and illustrators?

FAWN: A lot of my favorite artists are people I don’t remember the names of, so I’ll describe them in a really abstract and roundabout way until someone either gives up or figures out who I’m talking about, like i love the girl who does some stuff for Wallpaper magazine, and also did Target’s back to school catalog, and last years Screaming Mimi’s ads, Lisolette something, i think – her stuff is amazing. I like the other Illustrator who does a lot of stuff for Wallpaper, too – Jordi Labanda. Michael Economy rocks. I think that guy Kaws who paint little cartoon skulls over bus bench supermodel pictures and then carefully bolts them back in place is pretty amazing. So many of my friends are artist and illustrators that are so great, too…

JESS:When did you first become interested in drawing?

FAWN: I’d say I’ve been drawing pictures pretty much my whole life, my Mom said I used to sit at the table for hours at a time with stacks of paper and just crank out pictures. She sent me this huge folder full of ones she kept, and some are from when I was like 2, and you can totally see that it’s a chicken, or whatever it’s supposed to be. I drew all these series drawings, like the bunny collection, and the fairies, and the praying mantises, I guess hundreds of them sometime when I was really little…

JESS: What comic books would you recommend to someone who is new to them?

FAWN: There are so many good anthology comics out right now, that I would advise someone to pick up something like that first. ‘Non’ , ‘Girlfrenzy’, and ‘Top Shelf’ are great ones! Highwater Press is doing a lot of amazing stuff, longer self contained books, stuff that’s better to pick up than a novel a lot of the time…my friend Craig Thompson just put a book out on Top Shelf – ‘Goodbye, Chunky Rice’ that’s amazing. there’s a ton of other stuff that I’m just not thinking of right now…

JESS: You finished Bomb Pop while living in Kentucky, and Seth tells me you will be moving to Kansas soon. How do you feel about moving around so much and does it affect your work? I am living in Alabama so I hear a lot of people say well you should be in New York or LA, do you get a lot of that? I know your living in California, but when you were in Kentucky was there prejudice against you, or was it hard for people to take you seriously as an artist?

Bomb Pop Comics & Stories

FAWN: I love moving to small towns! I think it affects my work in a positive way, because the ratio of how much ‘real’ work I’ve got to do to pay the rent suddenly goes way, way down, and I have all this time to be productive and do art… I came back from Kentucky with enough paintings for two big art shows, and I wrote a teen novel that’s still packed in a box somewhere. I guess the downfall is that the stuff like the art shows is all back in the main cities – L.A.,San Francisco and New York or whatever, so I could have a million paintings hanging in my house in Kentucky that no one will ever see, or I can go back to the city, which sucks. This time around, I’m going to try to stay in the country and just keep in really good touch with everybody. I think the website will help, I’m gonna eventually turn it into an online art gallery there, where people can see and buy the paintings. I’ll send out flyers or whatever, just like a regular art show. I’ve never really noticed a prejudice against my being from a small town from art directors or whoever, but i move around so much, anyway, that I’m never really associated with a single town, so even though it’s like Louisville, Portland, Austin, Lawrence, Kansas or wherever, maybe it seems almost jetsetty or something! when i was leaving San Francisco this girl gave me a lecture about how the sacrifice of living on filthy streets and getting robbed and working 3 jobs and paying like $2000 rent or whatever is one we have to make to be taken seriously as ‘artists’ cause we live in San Francisco. Whatever.

JESS: You recently did some illustrations for the August issue of Teen magazine, have you done anything else for any major publications? Have you had any new offers since then?

FAWN: I totally wanna sell out to teen magazines for a while. I don’t even care. I’m gonna have a sticker in with (I think) the December issue of ‘Jump UK’, and hopefully a monthly comic for a few months, but that’ll be through cosmic, and will be sort of an ad for them, too…as soon as I’m less busy, I’m gonna barrage every teen magazine on the market with portfolios, hopefully get a lot of jobs, and then take like a year off to sit around on my porch and drink lemonade.

JESS: What are some recent projects you are working on? Do you have another comic book planned?

FAWN: Um, I’m still doing some stuff for Cosmic. A series of five shirts. My friend Liz Baca is designing and I’m doing the drawings on for spring 2000. Then I’ve got this secret project, stuff I’m starting to work on myself for spring, these high concept handbags and dresses that are all made out of felt and fur and paper. I think the first items are gonna show up at ‘Reading Frenzy’ in Portland for the holiday art show, that’ll be more wintery stuff, and some paintings too. I wanna make more T-shirts soon, my roommates are getting a 4-color silk-screen press, so that’ll be when it happens, maybe a few months. I’m doing a ton of little paintings that I wanna sell on the website, and cheap too! I’ve done a few new comics recently, and mostly sent them off to be in different anthologys, i want a new bomb pop to happen, but the business part of it, dealing with the printing and distribution and stuff was such a pain in the ass, I want someone else to publish the next one, but I’m not sure who to ask just yet. in the meantime, I’m working on some little art books with hand sewn covers, and adding to the coloring book for delinquents…

JESS: Do you spend much time on the Internet? How do you feel about the whole WWW?

FAWN: I don’t think I spend a lot of time on the Internet, compared to most people … like an hour every other day or so, I guess. I pretty much just handle all my email, and maybe check some of my favorite spots to see if there’s anything new. I spend a little too much time on Ebay, which has validated a lot of my really stupid collections, and turned each one into a problem – like i used to have 2 cool old 50′s stuffed poodle radios, now i have like 12 of them and started buying ones that weren’t even radios, just stuffed poodles, and pac-man stuff, now I’ve got way too much pac-man stuff for my own good, and those 3-D Lenticular prints, and the kids books that had them on the cover…all in all I think the Internet is a great thing, it opens up so many lines of communication that would have been way too difficult before – who’s that sci-fi writer who runs an empire from the mountains of Sri Lanka? I can’t remember his name, but stuff like that is amazing. I’m totally scared of the whole message groups and chatting aspects of the Internet, but for like 12 year olds who are into punk rock or whatever, and alienated in their surroundings, there is this whole world of kids to talk to, which I can’t even imagine having when I was a kid, so I think it’s great for them. I love the universal location it provides too, like I could be anywhere now, but I’ve got my email and website in one place, and can check up on it from any library in the country!

JESS: Could you give some insight on how you like to work? Do you have a favorite kind of paper, pencil, ink,etc…

FAWN: Um, let’s see, i usually use smooth Bristol board to draw on, but lately I’ve been really liking vellum too, except that it smears up easier, and somebody’s bound to accidentally rip it somewhere down the line, but it looks so good! I use brushes that are between a 0 and a 000, really small cause I usually work the exact size of the page, but still wanna get detail, and either ‘superblack’ or ‘t-100′ inks…

JESS: What fonts were used on the cover and in Bomb Pop?

FAWN: The font on the cover is cut and pasted out of an old Letraset font book – I think it might be ‘Pixie’ though. All the other stuff is mostly rub on letters – I did this way before I had a computer, and wouldn’t even have wanted to go down to Kinkos and typed anything out. I was totally hard-core pro rub on letters. I would find them in thrift stores and old office supply places, buy them all, and horde them like crazy. I love that stuff. I would also collect old typeface catalogs, and Xerox them to cut and paste titles and stuff. I still keep all the pages that I haven’t found the font yet to put on the computer. One day I might just have to make them all myself – is it easy? I did this total 360 from being a total neo-luddite, to buying an iMac like 6 months ago, so I’m new to this whole tech thing…coincidentally though, I think I bought the iMac pretty soon after my supply of rub on letters ran low…

JESS: Do you do any of your work on the computer? What programs do you like to use if so?

Zine Cover 1998

FAWN: I do a lot of my actual ‘work’ work on the computer now, which has kind of created this whole new style, like there’s all this stuff i did for ‘Yum Pop’ that you wouldn’t even recognize as my style, this hyper-cute cartoony kind of style, characters that are like popsicles and lollipops with faces, and cats from outer space. all that stuff was done in ‘Illustrator’, mostly. Sometimes i draw stuff by hand, and then scan it in to color it, that’s also in Illustrator, via Streamline. and i like Photoshop to blend drawings in with actual photos really convincingly. I want to learn some of the 3D stuff, but everytime somebody copies the programs for me, it doesn’t work right…

JESS: What inspires you? (!! kind of a vague question ; P just whatever !!)

FAWN: I’m inspired more than anything by Japanese fashion magazines right now, my friend Liz has to buy them for me now and mail them to me every month, I’m having withdrawals from the Japantown center in San Francisco already…and by these 60s kids books, ‘puppet storybooks’ where they built all these little sets by hand and photograph them, like houses made of candy and stuff. I started doing some stuff like that for ‘Yum Pop’ too, and want to do more, like animation or videos or whatever. I’m inspired by kids who live in really crazy places, like tree houses or houseboats, barns or whatever. punk rock kids who start their own farm, stuff like that, and kids who drive really messed up cars or insane looking bikes – like I saw this indie rock girl in a really jacked up firebird, and a bunch of kids drunk in cowboy hats driving a smashed up Pinto. I love that, I’ve never paid more than $100 for a car, so when I see that, it’s like a secret handshake or something. I’m totally inspired by crackpot theorists, too – like the guy at the bus stop who is so exited about these really messed up ideas or inventions or whatever, and can’t stop talking – those people make my day.

JESS: You mentioned in the intro of Bomb Pop that you were in a band called the Lou Garou and you played Vox organ. Are you still involved in that? Was this your first time being in a band and how was that?

FAWN: The Lou Garou has become a secret and an enigma…we started out as French pop, and ended up as 220 b.p.m. psychotic French high-concept synthesizer pop with samples. We went through 9 different drummers in probably as many weeks, for reasons like being a dumb mod, quoting too many French philosophers in a magazine, dating someone in the band, listening to garage rock, and so on. We became a two piece, with a trusty drum machine, at least 7 keyboards, and shower stall vocals. A million songs are 90 percent recorded, so we’re ready to take over the world. I traded in my Vox for a Farfisa for maximum portability, and now am looking for one of those glossy red Sears ‘panther’ organ instead. my first time being in a band ever was in an art rock jug band when I was 17. We played parties at punk houses and confused everybody, and the Lou Garou would do the same…

Thanks for the interview Fawn! Please visit her website : No Candy!

Images used in this interview are ©1999 by Fawn Gehweiler

Howard Cruise

This interview was conducted in 1999 by Josh Latham.

Howard Cruse is an exceptional cartoonist and an important participant in the underground comic movement. Well known for strips like Wendel and Barefootz. In 1995 he released his now award winning graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby.

Let’s begin!
BV: What got you started in comics?

HC: I started off wanting to do newspaper comic strips, but then began using my characters (mainly Barefootz, in the beginning) in longer stories because Denis Kitchen at Kitchen Sink Comix was willing to include them in the underground comic books he was publishing in the early 1970s. Although I continue to do short comic strips from time to time, I’ve really become addicted to the greater amount of room you have in comic books to develop your stories and characters in subtle, detailed ways.

BV: What comic books did you read when you were younger?

HC: Little Lulu was my favorite comic book series when I first began reading, followed closely by the Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck stories. Batman and Superman were probably next in line, and beyond that were a wide range of comics I enjoyed. Back in the ’50s, y’know, comics came in a much wider variety of types and genres, with loads of good funny ones produced for children. The total takeover by superheroes came later.

BV:What do you read now? What do you think about young cartoonist today? Do you have any that you like?

HC: I don’t have much time to read comics now or much spare money to buy them, so I’m really out of touch with a lot of what’s being produced at present. Occasionally I’ll get to spend a little time with cartoonists like Chester Brown or Roberta Gregory or Joe Matt or Peter Bagge or Alison Bechdel or Bob Fingerman or Nina Paley, and those will be the ones that come quickly to mind at that point in time. A week later, I’ll wax enthusiastic about others. It’s totally haphazard, which current cartoonists come to mind as my “favorites” at any given moment.

BV: What new projects do you have planned?

HC: My present professional relationship with comics is kind of chaotic: I have a history in the field but I’m not really in the field right now, because most of my attention has to be directed toward chipping away at my Stuck Rubber Baby debt. That means that I spend much more of my time these days doing graphic design or digital production instead of drawing pictures. But I still do cartooning on a small scale when I have a chance. I’ve appeared in all the early issues of Harpoon magazine, and I’m doing a b&w single-pager for Jennifer Camper’s forthcoming zine Juicy Mother. And last week the Advocate hired me to do a small spot illustration for one of their columns.

BV: I like the fact that you have such a detailed website, I see this lacking for a lot of artists and illustrators.Do you do everything on your site or do you have someone do it for you?

HC: I do well to keep it from spilling out of the computer monitors into people’s laps! If it wasn’t for Adobe PageMill, I wouldn’t be able to do anything on the web at all.

BV: I didn’t start using an HTML programer like FrontPage until this year.I just wrote my own HTML and played with it. I think that it makes you a much better web designer to know what kind of language is behind your page. You understand bugs better and you can control the page better.

HC: I think you’re absolutely right. Not knowing HTML is a real deficiency on my part, mainly when I’m getting some bizarre effect and I have no idea why. But so many things are always competing for my time and mental space that if I had waited until I taught myself HTML I would have never made it to the web. And I find working with my cartoons in this entirely different medium to be endlessly interesting (if sometimes frustrating).

BV: Do you ever use computers for creating artwork?

HC: Yes, I spend a lot of time working with both Photoshop 5.0 and Illustrator 8.0. I loved Photoshop as soon as I got my hands on it (I only first ventured into computer graphics about two years ago). It took me some time to warm up to Illustrator, but bit by bit I’m developing a bag of tricks that are pretty handy. For the most part I ink my drawings conventionally and then scan them in and use Photoshop for color. Lately I’ve been experimenting with some interesting effects by scanning in only a rough sketch, importing it into Illustrator, and tracing the lines with Illustrator’s pen tool. I end up with areas of flat color and no black outlines. Then I convert that into a Photoshop file and, selecting each color area individually, apply color in a more subtle way. This would never replace my normal way of drawing, but it expands my pange of visual options.

BV:I wanted to ask you about your hippy days, You said something about doing acid and I was wandering how that effected your life and artwork?

HC: Tripping on psychedelics was a major learning experience for me and was a big part of my life for several years. Then gradually I felt I had gotten most of what psychedelics had to offer and shifted the emphasis to my art, where I could make use of the insights and spiritual journeys that psychedelics had provided. The “creative high” takes less of a toll on you physically and is more sustainable over years than highs that involve chemicals. But despite all the anti-drug rhetoric that’s around, I refuse to deny the benefits I gained from that period of my life.
If you come across my book Early Barefootz, you’ll find a long introduction that explains the relationship between Don’s and my psychedelic adventures and the comic strips that grew out of them. There’s also an essay expressing my current views about the dangers and benefits of psychedelic experimentation. And they can be dangerous. (I compare them to sky-diving.)
I stayed strictly away from any addictive drugs. I didn’t want to have any outside fouce controlling my life, whether it was heroin or the Army. And I wasn’t much interested in substances that did nothing beyond giving you a euphoric buzz, like speed. Any of these drugs, including psychedlics, can really put your body through a wringer, like taking a fifty-mile hike. For me, only the spiritual benefits offered by psychedelics justified the temporary battering all of them inflict on your digestive tract.
I do urge real caution about putting stuff into your body. Most of my friends came through the psychedelic years just fine and, in a few cases, were somewhat wiser for it. Others might as well have just partied, for all the insights they got out of it. A few never got their lives onto a productive track afterwards. Would they have had problems anyway, had they never tripped? Who can know for sure? Did psychedelics push them over an edge they wouldn’t otherwise have approached? Possibly — but again, you can’t know. Consciousness is a powerful force and should be explored only with respect, caution, and humility. At least, that’s the way I look at it.

BV: Let’s talk about your fairly recent graphic novel, Stuck Rubber Baby. howard_heads.gif (44080 bytes)
You originally thought it was going to take you 2 years to finish the book, yet it took you 4 years, why the gross underestimation of time? Did something happen to put a hold on it or did it just simply take longer to draw and write it then you thought it would?

Howard & Characters

HC: The latter, mainly. I had simply over-estimated my ability to will myself into drawing faster. I learned that creativity can only be rushed so much before it rebels and insists on moving at its own natural pace. When it became clear that the book was going to take so long and eat up all of my savings in the process, I was forced to spend a certain amount of time scrambling for money to keep it afloat. This (and the anxiety that accompanied it) was a big distraction. But I knew I couldn’t give up. I had to finish it, no matter what. Now the book’s been out for three years and I’m still $50,000 in debt. But I still don’t regret doing it, because it was the most fulfilling artistic experience of my life. Sometimes you just have to absorb these difficult situations and then pick up the pieces afterwards at whatever pace you can manage.

BV: I was curious about the process of how the book was put together, did you draw each page on a board, or did you draw each individual frame on the pages on one board? Was it hand drawn or did you use the computer to aid in the drawing?

HC: I had not begun working with computers (except for simple word processing) while I was doing SRB. Each page in the book is a single drawing, not separate panels. I did it all by hand. The originals are more than twice the size of the reproduced art — roughly 17″x23″, if memory serves.

BV: This was a very hard book to read for me. I’m a very sensitive person and it really upset me to think that some of the characters in the book do exist and did exist. It brought up old questions that seem to never leave me anyway but I usually can keep them at bay most of the time (what is the purpose of life?) (who am I?)…

HC:Aha. I see your philosophical predilections are similar to mine.

BV: It also made me disgusted about being a human at times, to think that my own human race has this kind of hate in them.I believe that we are all connected to this magnetic field of life,of course that being so that means that I am part of this hate that exist. I also like to think that we need hate and pain to know what love feels like, sort of like that pulling that makes life interesting. I don’t want for things to be perfect and I try to accept pain and all the things that are bad in life, as a positive thing.

HC: It sounds like your spiritual moorings should hold you in good stead. They are humane and generous toward other people and other living beings. Generosity and sensitivity are really important in a world that’s got so much brutality in it. Coming to terms with the evil deeds that get committed in our world isn’t easy. My view is that a lot of people go through life with great, gaping wounds that lead them to strike out against others in ways that are usually petty but are on some occasions monstrous. But there are other people who find ways to have a positive influence in the world. One reason I wrote Stuck Rubber Baby was to celebrate the latter set of people, people like Rev. Pepper, Shiloh, Anna Dellyne, and (in his own wounded way) Sammy. I knew people like that, and still do. They had and have the power to inspire others to try harder not to be brought down by the pain and hate. We like in such cynical times, and I do think that cynicism is one of the greatest killers. Knowing people like the Peppers can help us protect our spirits from the despair it’s easy to feel if we only think about the Sutton Choppers (or the Adolph Hitlers).

BV: My favorite character’s were the older Toland and Mabel, Mabel with her eye trick made me laugh so hard! One of the most disturbing parts in the book were when Toland ask his father about black people’s skull’s. I don’t know why but this really stuck with me through the whole book.

HC: The business about coming across the picture of Emnmett Till’s mutilated corpse in Jet magazine was definitely real. I was in the second grade, and it spooked me for years.

Thanks for the interview Howard! ; )

More information about Howard Cruse can be found on his very well done website at:  howardcruse.com