November 2007

Mike Kowalski,

Hm, well, to tell you the truth, I'm not sure how to take this news. On the one hand, I tend to mistrust all conspiratorial thinking, and regard this sort of oh-my-God-this-is-it-the-jackbooted-thugs-are-coming-after-me-at-last-because-of-my-blog alarmism as the left-wing equivalent of hysterical right-wing fantasies that a liberal President is going to confiscate all their guns or outlaw the Bible or hand America over to the Islamofascists. (cf. Jean-Francoise Revel's dry observation that "the dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe.") On the other hand, law enforcement has never granted itself any new power that it hasn't abused. And it does seem that governments around the world are using terrorism as an excuse to claim more centralized power and gain more control over their citizens' lives and privacy. I myself prefer to err on the side of vigilance rather than complacency, even if it verges on paranoia. Nonetheless I will probably continue blithely drawing my cartoon in my New York apartment rather than a fortified compound in Idaho, until the inevitable day when the jackbooted thugs finally bust down my door.

Tim

Scott Hamm,

Your impression of me is, as far as it goes, more or less accurate. The short answer to your question is: I can't. I have enough money that I could afford to live without a real job as long as I resided at least part-time in my rent-free cabin at the Undisclosed Location, but now that I've made the official move to New York City, where it costs $100 just to leave your apartment, I will have to secure some sort of income. What anyone would pay me to do I honestly cannot imagine. What do people do? I have no idea. Suggestions, leads, and job offers are welcome.

Tim

A.H.,

You're the second reader his month who's written me about martial law. Do you guys know something I don't?

Since you wrote your letter your idea of Zombie Castro has taken on new life (no pun intended). And I do like the idea of laying siege to the White House and torturing Bush with rock and roll... though it's possible George wouldn't mind Guns 'n' Roses. Not sure what musical anathema to him would be as GNR et al was to Noriega. Hip-hop? The Grateful Dead? (Though the evil Ann Coulter is a huge Deadhead, so who knows.) I may yet steal your idea of polling various characters for their post-fascism/collapse-of-civilization/apocalypse contingencies, if you don't mind.

Tim

Jess Morgan,

Glad you liked the Muslim death robot. I myself was somewhat proud of that panel. Not sure what the American analog would be... I fear the Muslims do not share our cultural fear and hatred of Karl Rove. Perhaps a giant robot Abe Lincoln? Giant robot Jesus? Giant robot Pamela Anderson?

Tim

Jason,

Please accept my apologies for having let nearly five million years elapse before replying to your letter of November 15th. Since Ms. C.-H. returned to Europe I have failed to keep on top of the mail situation. I am only now getting around to answering November's letters because I am laid up with the flu and on powerful medications. I feel I owe you an especially abject apology because I know how demoralizing it is to offer your work to anyone at all--let alone someone whose work you respect--and hear nothing at all in response. It just feels lousy. Sorry.

Now I know you weren't looking for a lot of feedback but I took the liberty of giving you some anyway, partly as a courtesy from an older cartoonist to a younger one and partly just as reparations for my tardiness. But if, like me, you can't bear even the most gentle and well-intentioned criticism, just skip to the end of this email.

Well, I did like your comics, Jason. The first line that made me laugh was, "Oh God I saw up his dress." And I laughed again at the drawing of the guy sketching his girlfriend as a stick figure. And "I can see down your friend's shirt! Thought bubbles rule!" is amazing. It makes me wonder why I never thought of this (in comics, or in real life). At times your work comes across as too bitter and didactic to be quite funny (I'm thinking of that guide to parenting, which is a heavy-handed guide to your own horrible childhood). These are the ones that make the reader cringe instead of laugh. I think you already know that and don't care (since you go out of your way not to apologize for it in the one strip that ends with the forlorn non-punchline, "I can't wait"). You don't always feel like bothering to filter your experiences through art. And not all art should be funny. But I do prefer the strips that illustrate the point you're making rather than just explicating them (like the flashback to the wimpy caveman guiltily watching his baby devoured by a bear). And, of course, like most people, I'd rather laugh than cringe.

[some boring criticism deleted here]

Don't get me wrong--I'm not telling you to Lighten Up or anything. I like the intensely personal aspect of your work and the deeply mordant, pessimistic sense of humor. As with my own website, there's interplay between the comics and the accompanying commentary that's pretty fascinating (I read through a lot of your archives). I'd be kind of interested in seeing you draw longer stories that would tell some of the behind-the-scenes stories you describe in your notes, but then this is the kind of thing people are always saying to me and I know how useless it is to try to tell an artist what to do next.

Do you know Ivan Brunetti's "Schizo"? I'd recommend it to you. Ivan's angry and depressed and has Issues with Women and he drew three issues of a hilarious comic boook about it, stilll available through Fantagraphics. (Since those first three issues he's discovered Buddhism and is less depressed and now draws in a completely different style and is, to my mind, a much less interesting artist, but no longer being suicidal is probably worth it to him.)
Also, maybe you ought to read some evolutionary psychology, like Steven Pinker, or Matt Ridgley's The Red Queen. It might turn the mysterious and perverse interactions between the sexes into an object of understanding for you instead of bewilderment and despair. Won't necessarily help you with the ladies, though.

I hope you'll stick with the cartooning, Jason--or, if not comics, than some sort of expressive art--because you do seem to have the temperament for it (my condolences). I like to see someone putting his whole self into his work, not just trying to put out some product that'll sell. (I myself suck at self-promotion and al that real-world stuff, and as a result am in only one alternative weekly, making $20 a week. So I have no advice on this front to give you.) And what the hell, it's better than killing yourself.

I hope this constructive criticism is not presumptuous and won't be unwelcome. I will offer you one piece of unsolicited personal advice: you should get out of sales. You will be much happier. Or at least less unhappy.

Tim

P.S. F.Y.I., Van Gogh was not popular with the ladies.

Scott,

Ironic that I only get around to answering your email after answering your postcard, which was sent nearly five months later. Since Ms. C.-H. left I have not kept on top of the administrative details around here. Glad you were finally able to translate her Hungarian.

Tim

Roofer:

I think the things I love about America are not things you would appreciate
or understand. Such as the fact that I am free to draw my cartoons and you
are free to think I am an asshole. As one American to another, I agree: it's
a great country.

Tim Kreider

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