Culture
Spiritualized - an interview with John Porcellino
23/10/2009 17:08
John Porcellino celebrates the 20th anniversary of King-Cat this year. Just before going on tour all across the USA, he has kindly answered to a few questions about his art, his practice of Zen... and a Frisco punk group called Flipper.
Porcellino
"John Porcellino's comics distill, in just a few lines and words, the feeling of simply being alive." This quote by Chris Ware is just perfect to introduce the work of the drawer behind King-Cat. John P. is 40 years old; King-Cat is 20 years old, and the 70th issue just published, Porcellino is going on tour across the USA to promote his Map of My Heart (Drawn and Quarterly).
In King-Cat, I have the feeling that you're not working on a diary of you life but rather on a diary of your memories. A kind of long series of stories that took place in the past and relived in thought. Would you agree with that ?
Yes, when I first began King-Cat, it was probably more like a diary. I would wake up, have some experience that day, and that night I would make a comic about it. Nowadays, I find myself more looking back, and writing about memories. As far as having a great memory, with some things I remember them very well, with others things are more hazy. I often try to talk to the people involved in a story, old friends, etc, to get their view of what happened. Many times they have recollections that are very different from mine, and occasionally I'll incorporate those other people's memories into the comic.
After reading your Thoreau, and while reading K-C, I get the feeling that your life (as pictured in your work, that is) is also a kind of "perpetual Walden". Your relation to Nature, to the tiny & beautiful visions of everyday world, is it related to the Zen philosophy ?
It would be nice to live in a "perpetual Walden," but in reality that can be difficult! We're humans, with our wild brains. It's a practice: losing track, and then remembering over and over. This is like Zen practice, and how Zen practice becomes one's whole life-- there's nothing separate from practice.
For me, discovering Zen was an affirmation of the ways I felt in the world. It took these vague, under-developed feelings I had had throughout my life and gave a ground to that impulse. At some point if you practice, it just becomes the way you live, and thus for me, the way I make art.
Would you say that your change of style is a reflection of that ? Towards more simplicity, a few lines, sometimes abstract, a wonderful childish approach. I have this kind of motto for a long time now : simple, not easy...
I don't know how conscious the evolution of my drawing style has been-- I don't really think about it like that. But, certainly, looking back I can see it gradually refining itself and evolving. I was always drawn to simplicity and straightforwardness in art and life, whether it was film, writing, visual art, conversation, and so on, so I think it was natural that I develop this simple style of making comics. Over time, it just happens slowly, little changes come here and there, and it works itself out, onto the next phase.
Yes, I agree with "Simple, not easy." It's really not easy to draw this way. I mean, with a more elaborate artist, that stuff is more complex obviously, in its outward form, but to draw simply requires real attention and practice. The lines have nowhere to hide, and I find when I'm drawing, if something is even a millimeter off, it can really affect the way the image feels. So you have to pay attention to everything. It's very subtle.
I often refer to the great San Francisco punk band, Flipper. I was always interested in music, but to me a band like Husker Du or the Replacements might have as well been Mozart. I loved it, but as an aspiring musician, I couldn't understand how they did it! When I heard Flipper, I instantly thought-- "Oh-- I can do this..." It gives you a place to enter the form. Of course as simple as Flipper seems, to recreate that music is nearly impossible. It's much more difficult than it seems upon first glance. This is how I feel about my comics too.
For the "remembering" aspect, how do your friends/relatives react to your using memories involving them ? I read an amazing interview of Ken Dahl by Steve Bissette where Dahl says that many of his friends are now ex-friends who try to run over him with their car ;) Do your friends react well?
For the most part they do... I'm pretty careful about how I present things and people. I'm not trying to paint people in a poor light. That said, I'm sure I've caused some hard feelings over the years. But I approach my work with the idea of presenting the truth as I see it, with the understanding that that's only my own subjective view.
How did your practice of Zen influence your style/approach of the art? Or maybe was it a mutual influence? Or just two things that developed naturally side by side in you, interconnected but not especially influencing each other?
Well, they have both influenced each other, but maybe not in any kind of conscious way. Certainly a meditation practice like Zen is going to affect all aspects of your life. Perhaps it's contributed to my slowing down a bit, and being willing to stretch out a moment, or look for the essence of a given experience. But I do feel that that was the path I was kind of heading down anyway. Like I said earlier, Zen kind of gave shape to those vague ideas and directions I had going around in my head. It was kind of an affirmation, like "this is the way I want to do this."
One thing that's true, is that I do look at my comics, my art, as a major point of practice for me. The two are very unified in my life. This is something that probably comes natural to anyone that practices for awhile. If I was a doctor, my medical practice would be unified with Zen practice. It just so happens that I'm a cartoonist.
You're celebrating the 20th anniversary of King-Cat: looking back, how would you define thoses first 20 years? And how do you think the next 20 years will be?
It's been a long time. And my life is very different now than it was when I started King-Cat at age 20. That said, one of the main threads in my life are these comics. Doing this consistently helps me keep a bead on my life, even as it is changing all the time. As for the next 20 years?!? I have a hard time imagining things next month! But, if I am physically able to, I will keep making comics. This is my life's work, and I'm a stubborn guy. Once I start something, I want to see it through to the end.
Vincent Degrez
réaction(s) sur " Spiritualized - an interview ..."
John Porcellino. - Nate Beaty
Reportage photo: Lorsque Largo Winch rend visite à Budgetman...
Quand Jean Van Hamme, le célèbre scénariste des bandes dessinées «XIII» et «Largo Winch», s'invite chez le vice-Premier ministre et ministre du Budget Guy Vanhengel, la ...
Blog: Critique BD : Sutures
S'il est dur d'être parent, il est encore plus difficile d'être un enfant. En refermant Sutures , le dernier roman graphique de David Small, cette évidence saute aux yeux.
Blog: Critique BD : Junk
Brüno, le dessinateur de la série Commando colonial , n'est pas le premier auteur auquel on aurait pensé pour mettre en images un western.
Blog: Critique BD Gaza 1956
Reportage de longue haleine traité sous la forme de BD, Gaza 1956 témoigne de la cruauté des hommes. Comme Maus d'Art Spiegelman l'avait fait en son temps.
