Joe Decie Interview

Next in the UK Com­ics Snap­shot inter­views is Sol­ipsistic Pop con­trib­utor and all round nice guy Joe Decie.

1 / Can you intro­duce yourself?

Hello I’m Joe Decie.

2 / What drew you to comics?

Draw­ing them? well I’d made artists books and zines as a stu­dent in the 90’s and from there got invited to do a few things for antho­lo­gies, so I did, because I knew con­trib­ut­ors got free cop­ies. But those com­ics were pretty badly drawn. Let’s pay them no more mind. Instead fast-forward to one day in 2008. I’d been dood­ling little thoughts and silly ideas and I was chat­ting on James Kochalka’s forum on the inter­net and he poin­ted me towards a free webcomic’s host. So I star­ted mak­ing com­ics, I was doing shift work at the time so seemed to have plenty of time on my hands.

3 / Who do you count as your influences?

My cur­rent influ­ences are as fol­lows… Fluxus, Ray John­son, 80’s NYC graf­fiti, Wes Ander­son, Con­ver­sa­tions, The bus to work, Tank Girl, Don­jon, Fugazi’s work ethic, Maurice Sendak, Moebius, Akira, Ivor Cut­ler, Bukowski, Mike Leigh, My fam­ily, Daniel Clowes, Gipi, Vaughn Bode, All the com­ics people act­ive on Live Journal about six months ago.

4 / Can you describe your work­ing process?

I take notes. I have little ideas, that I write down and mull over when I should be listen­ing to people who are talk­ing to me. I just nod, and play with these ideas in my head. Then in the even­ing I draw up my com­ics ink­ing with a G nib and then apply­ing ink­wash. It a slow pro­cess as I’m eas­ily dis­trac­ted, but I enjoy telling stor­ies. Often the story evolves as I draw.

Altern­ate answer here;

5 / What does your workspace/studio look like?

My front room at the din­ing table. The room is chaos, but my work­space is very struc­tured. Left to right clock­wise; Lovely angle­poise, Wind­sor & New­ton ink, Rose­mary & Co brushes, water, rags, cheap brushes, pal­let, cam­era, nib pens, pen­cil. Light­box, scan­ner and Mac over the other side of the room.

6 / What are you work­ing on at the moment?

I’m doing some pages for my new book, due out from Blank Slate in 2011. It’s gonna be one of the first releases on their Chalk Marks imprint. As yet untitled, it’s auto­bi­o­graph­ical truth and lies. It’s look­ing good, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

7 / What are your ambi­tions for the future?

A whole heap of books pub­lished, with spot var­nish and ISBN’s, all stocked in a friendly comic shop near you. I’d also like to attend some North Amer­ican cons.

8 / What advice would you give to an aspir­ing ama­teur cartoonist?

Draw every­day. Do it because you love it and because you can.

9 / What do you think of the health of the UK com­ics scene at the moment, and what do you think it can do better?

I think it’s great, no? We have some pub­lish­ers with vis­ion and drive. We have artists with tal­ent and ambi­tion. We have John Allison’s mani­festo (http://sgrblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/scene-that-celebrates-itself-has.html), John makes some good points.

Inter­est­ingly I only recently felt part of any UK scene. I was never really aware of any Brit­ish scene per-say. Maybe Sol­ipsistic Pop changed that? I’ve only met my Brit­ish con­tem­por­ar­ies a hand­ful of times; a hand­ful of good times. Most of my con­ver­sa­tions with fel­low artists take place on the inter­net and my friends are every­where; Canada, Aus­tralia, USA

10 / Where is the best place to buy your work?

Read them for free on the inter­net: What I Drew (http://www.joedecie.com/) Top Shelf 2.0 (http://www.topshelfcomix.com/ts2.0/artist/323) and watch this space for my new collection.

Again, the same rules apply — click the links, put your hand in your pocket to buy some com­ics and fol­low Joe on Twit­ter. Thanks, Joe!