Pat Grant
What have been your personal cartooning/comics highlights of 2012?
My first book came out, got reviewed all over the place and sold pretty well. That was a highlight. Also, going to America with the Caravan of Nerds was amazing. Michael Hawkins taught me how to eat doughnuts like a man and I came home with this massive belly. I've never done conventions before because fandom creeps me out a little bit, but I found it really interesting. I discovered some neat things about my drawing after being forced to draw in each book I sold. Doing this fast, high pressure, disposable art that I will never see again somehow liberated me from the clenched anus approach to drawing that I've always had.
Who are some of the comics creators that you've discovered and enjoyed for the first time in 2012?
I met some cool people in America. We met Sam Sharp and Jeremy Tinder in Chicago. They really do some great comics and I don't know that I would have met them had I not been in the States. Oh yeah, I've been enjoying watching my friend Sam Alden become this amazing comics ninja with every piece he finishes. I also had my honeymoon at his Mum and Dad's house in Portland which was strange but wonderful. Annie Koyama is possible the most fascinating person in comics. Who is she? Is she real? Or is she like, an angel sent down by the god of nerds to help up takeover the world?
What is something non-comics that you have enjoyed in 2012?
Breaking Bad, really surprised me. I just popped out of the cliched trope , you know, the "unlikely suburbanite flirts with the underworld" and has become something entirely more interesting. My favourite thing about it is the setting in Albuquerque, this amazing blend of ghetto, desert border town, and leave-it-to-beaver suburbia.
Have you implemented any significant changes to your working methods this year?
Normally I draw big, sometimes three times the size of the reproduction, but this year what little drawing I have done has been at the exact size that I am reproducing the work.Here's what I've learned: It fucken sucks balls. Comics are supposed to be drawn large, as large as possible, and don't let any silly miniaturist tell you otherwise.
I've also been writing for an hour every week day. A sprawling crime-adventure comic that may or may not ever get drawn. Sure is fun to write though.
What are you looking forward to in 2013?
World War Z? Nah, kidding. I just want to finish of my stupid PhD so I can get a brainless job and devote more time to the next book.
