Over on CBR’s Robot 6 column Tim O’Shea talks to Nate Powell, writer and artist behind the engrossing Swallow Me Whole (a graphic novel I really loved last year), which is a book well worthy of your time, I think, and I’m glad to read that Nate has two more projects on the boil. I came to Swallow Me Whole with no previous knowledge of his comics work so had no idea he had started out in mini-comics:
“Tim O’Shea: What motivated you to start self-publishing mini-comics at the age of 14?
Nate Powell: Well, I’d been drawing comics with a few friends for a couple of years already. We had many issues of a comic series mapped out, and a friend’s uncle suggested that we finish up each issue and self-publish it. We didn’t really know what that entailed, but soon discovered a few neglected copy machines around town and in my dad’s office. We made 100 copies of the first comic, and they all sold in about two months; we’d never anticipated recovering our expenses, or anyone actually BUYING the books, to be honest. We just wanted to have a comic too, and found the most accessible way to make them. At this time I was already into the punk subculture and had been exposed to people who made zines and released records in much the same manner, but it was not until a few years later when I started writing zines and putting out records that I saw the inherent connections between these two realms of DIY entrepreneurship.”
Wed, Jun 10, 2009
Comics and cartoons, Interviews