Chip Zdarsky is one entertaining guy.
I’m not trying to be hyperbolic or anything, and that’s certainly not an understatement. Out of all the interviews I’ve ever done here at Multiversity, chatting with Zdarsky — or Steve Murray if you’re nasty — has easily been one of the most entertaining experiences. With an unabashed love for the zany potential of the medium and a general love of the irreverent, his answers are off the wall and hilarious throughout. Yet, beneath all the jokes and pop culture references, there’s a real heart to the hilarity; as I came to find out during chatting with him, you’ll not find too many people with his wry sense of honesty that hide under masturbation jokes. It’s an eclectic dialogue, but a highly entertaining read no doubt — not to pat myself on the back, mind you, as the genius here is all Chip.
So today for Artist August, in celebration of my excitement for the upcoming “Sex Criminals” book from Image Comics with Zdarsky and Matt Fraction (more with him later today), I had a discourse with Mr. Zdarsky about all things art and comics. Read on as we talk sex, criminals, Sesame Street, a Batman and more, as well as some unique looks at the creation of “Sex Criminals.”
(It’s perhaps slightly NSFW, but only in the sense that you probably don’t want your boss to walk by your desk and see you laughing up a storm. No dick pix … this time.)
So lets start with the brainy question: why comics?
Chip Zdarsky: Cause illustrators NEVER get fan mail. But, that being said, illustrators never get hate mail either, so get back to me after issue one comes out and I sort through the flaming e-bags of e-shit that end up on my e-porch (the library computer that I check email from).
All I’ve ever wanted was to make people laugh, because mother told me that if father hears the laughter he may come back one day. But, working with Matt, I’m experiencing a different reason for doing comics, which is to also make people … feel? Feelings? It’s … not a concept I really understand, but comics seems like the best medium to get all that done.
I think your art does a great job of at times utilizing Looney Tunes style cartoons and at other times featuring a good dose of real-world details and imagery. What is your background as an illustrator?
CZ: Thanks! I went to Sheridan College for illustration, which was a great foundation. But after that I just did EVERYTHING in order to make money as an artist while picking up some skills along the way. Animation background painting, photo manipulation, cartooning, oil painting, doggy-style, graphic design, portraits, kissing a man on the dance floor and just getting lost in the moment, corporate character illustration, masturbating into a clock until it no longer works, information graphics, etc.
Where did your initial interest as an artist come from?
CZ: It’s a funny story, actually. Years ago I managed to secure third-class tickets for a trip on a fancy cruise ship. While on board I spotted a stunning young woman on the deck who was, shockingly, contemplating suicide because she was engaged to be married to a real dickhead. After talking her out of it, she asked me what I did. I told her I was a sketch artist, which was entirely untrue. I hadn’t drawn anything since I was five! She asked me to sketch her, so we went back to my cabin and she disrobed. I’d never seen anyone so captivating before. All of her bits were pretty neat and I was crazy aroused. But I sat and sketched her, overcoming my sheer horniness to produce my first life sketch. When I was done I found myself relatively pleased and showed it to her. I’ll never forget what she said to me in her lilting voice: “What the fuck is this?” She grabbed her clothes and ran. Alone, I tried to masturbate to my sketch of her, but it was near impossible.
I swore that day I would learn how to properly draw.
What was your first experience with comics as a reader and a fan?
CZ: The first comic I bought with my own money was the toy-mandated SECRET WARS #7 and it completely hooked me. True story: I ended up having to go into the hospital for testicle surgery shortly after and a kind uncle brought me Secret Wars #8, so I will forever associate comics with testicle pain and uncles.
I think it’s fair to say that a lot of your work features a particular type of off-brand humor. How did you develop your particular comedic stylings?
CZ: Lots of focus group testing here at ChipCo™. Lots of people locked in rooms as I scream jokes at them through a loudspeaker. Jokes. Results. ChipCo™.
How did your gig at the National Post come about, and what led to the decision to do these pieces that were a mix of your art and humor?
CZ: When I started at the Post I was doing stock charts and graphics about tanks and maps. I desperately wanted to write humour stuff for them as well, so pitching it as a writing/art combo just made sense, cause then they wouldn’t need to assign art/photos for the pieces. Making an editor’s life easier is 75% of what they really want.
Some of your National Post illustrations are just … I want to say mind-bogglingly impressive, such as the recent Wizard of Oz post with every character ever from the series, or the less-recent Avengers roster. How do you even go about composing work like this? How do you figure out who makes it in, where they go, etc?
CZ: That kind of thing all started with Sesame Street’s 40th anniversary. An editor asked me to do a full-page illustration of some Muppets to accompany a story. I then thought, “What if I drew … 100 of them?” It took three days to research them all, pencil them out, ink, scan, colour, code and write bios. I pulled all-nighters at the paper, crashing on a couch when I needed to. I then had to take four weeks off for short-term disability because I just blew my arm. Totally fucked it up. Physio treatments and everything. Not the smartest move.
But of course I didn’t learn my lesson and kept producing more pieces like that. I think the Oz one had over 200 characters? It was a lot harder because I had to find character descriptions in the books since it’s not as thoroughly documented as the Muppets. But I’ve learned to pace myself a bit better. At least I did until I started this comic. Ha ha oh fuck
Sex Criminals, from concept and title alone, seems like a very audacious title to bring to life. Obviously both you and Matt Fraction have shown interest in NC-17 humor stylings before, but how did this story and collaboration come about?
CZ: I knew Matt from THE INTERNET but we finally met in 2008. At some point he said, “I bet if we fucked it would stop time,” but we never really put that to the test because of “relationships” and “heterosexuality.” Then, a couple of years ago we started emailing each other and Matt said, “I bet if we did a comic about fucking to stop time we could destroy our careers.” Sold.
You’ve done a good deal of independent comics work, but Sex Criminals is your first big ongoing book from one of the major publishers. What is it about 2013 that makes it right to unleash Chip Zdarsky on an unsuspecting world?
CZ: Well, I said I would never do another comic as long as Earth existed, but 2012 was its last hurrah, so I’m now free to make comics again in this After Earth scenario (Matt is Will Smith and I’m l’il Will Smith).
Also, Image is just an exciting place right now. So many great projects, so many coattails for me to ride. I’ve set up a hobo tent on Coattail Park and it’s going to take the full force of the law to remove me.
You and Matt seem to have a really open relationship in terms of the creative partnership of the book, so what is the give-and-take like for the book in terms of collaboration?
Continued belowCZ: Thank you for noticing our open relationship. Matt and I initially talked through the characters and some story bits and then he went and worked his scripting magic, turning loose ideas into funny, charming stories. I’ll give him some story feedback like, “need more dick jokes me like dick jokes” and he’ll give me art feedback like “draw better” and we just go from there.
There are parts of the book where it’ll just be, like, a potential buffet of jokes, so we have more back-and-forths on stuff like that. Then we can do things like, say, properly compile a solid list of unfortunate sex moves.
What is the research like for this book? In your best guesstimate, how many watchlists do you think you’ve ended up on?
CZ: Oh man, it’s like a rabbit hole of rabbit holes if you know what I mean. Even just basic visual research on a sex move could lose me hours of time, where I wake up in the corner of my studio crying, covered in sweat that may or may not be my own.
Has there been anything in the series that has made you take pause so far? Is something like that even possible?
CZ: Nothing that you’d expect. It’s a book for adults – presumably adults who have penetrated or been penetrated by other human beings – so there’s nothing in it that would shock those fuckers (people who fuck, not people who are assholes).
Not too much has been shown in the way of previews for the book, but from what little HAS been shown it looks like you’re packing the world with as much detail as possible. How do you decide what to fill the world of “Sex Criminals” with (besides… you know)?
CZ: With Matt focusing on things like “story” and “character development” and “good comics,” I get to throw some visual jokes in, which is a lot of fun. I want to pack it full of weird background details so you can read and re-read the books and find something new each time. Comics are expensive! People should be producing work that asks to be re-read.
I saw that for the two main characters of “Sex Criminals” you’ve chosen to use models for the two leads, with Fraction as the male lead. How did this decision come about, to give the leads a more realistic flair, and does that add an extra challenge to working on the series?
CZ: The funny part is, the models for the two leads are friends of mine and the guy just HAPPENS to look like Fraction. When the similarity was pointed out to us, Fraction suggested we add glasses to him to change it up, which was pretty funny cause 1) That never fucking worked for Superman and 2) Fraction wears glasses.
The danger with a sexy book is that your characters and their poses can end up being, well, “porno fake,” y’know? So I wanted to have real people as the leads and also I wanted an excuse to invite people over to the studio to simulate sex acts while I photograph them. SO SUE ME.
In terms of working on Sex Criminals vs. working at the Post, do you find anything particularly note-worthy (positive or negative) about working with a collaborative partner versus doing everything yourself?
CZ: Working by myself, I just have to please one person: me. Which is easy because whenever I finish one of my trademark bad drawings I get to masturbate as a reward. But with a collaborator, like Matt, I have to take someone else into consideration and his hands are so terribly coarse.
I’m a bit of a lone wolf, like, for example, Wolverine; so used to just working on his own, yet fate has put him on several teams and running a school. The main difference is that I’m legally not allowed near schools.
One thing about the first issue of Sex Criminals that is sure to capture everyone’s imagination is the things you’re adding to the sexual medium, let alone the comic medium. Do you particularly hope you have an impact on either one or the other more?
Continued belowCZ: I hope we inspire creators to produce comics about people stopping time through sex and then robbing banks so we can sue them.
The only thing I want to add to the sexual medium is comic books. People should read more comics while having sex.
Is Sex Criminals the most honest book about relationships ever, or is it the mostest honestest book about relationships ever?
CZ: Matt is the guy to ask about that. He really fleshed out the relationship stuff. I just kept asking him questions like, “Is that called ‘flirting?’ I thought flirting was when you passed out on a homeless man in the park.” He assures me that this is a mostest honest look into sex and relationships. I have to take his word for a variety of reasons.
In all seriousness, though, I think a lot of people will be surprised at the balance of comedy and sentimentality found in Sex Criminals #1 when it hits stands. In terms of illustrating the two different types of sequences found in the book, do you approach the more emotionally heavy sequences any differently than you might think about the more ridiculous moments?
CZ: I’ve never had to do emotionally heavy sequences before so it’s definitely weird. I do comedy stuff cause my life is pretty terrible and I need the balance, so, having to draw people having a tough go of it is like having a sunburn and rubbing hot chicken wings on it instead of milk, like you’re supposed to do.
I’m really proud of issue one. Matt wrote such a great script and I just tried to have my illustrations live up to it. I just want him to be proud of me. Have you talked to him? Did he tell you he was proud of me? I just want to know.
In terms of your general impressions of the industry, what do you think of comics as they are today?
CZ: I don’t read a lot of books, but I follow the industry like a weird hobby; like a sad fantasy comics league of one. There’s a ridiculous amount of talent out there, in the mainstream (DC) and alternative (Marvel) comics world, and I tend to follow creators around and not specific books.
Where would you like to see them go?
CZ: I would love to see more kids books, more humour books, a book where Wolverine gets married and settles down, a book where Batman does it with Wonder Woman, a book where Galactus enters the Ultimate Universe, a book where the Flash is fucking fed up with running all the time, a book where Captain America does it with Wonder Woman, a book where a man and woman stop time when they fuck and rob a bank, a book where a character dies and comes back to life two panels prior, finally breaking the record of fastest death-to-rebirth turnaround.
With the assumed success of Sex Criminals, do you perhaps have any plans to release any collections of Prison Funnies or Monster Cops for the world at large?
CZ: YES. I’ve collected all of the Prison Funnies books (including the limited release issue three) into a nice and easy digital collection. Comixology isn’t returning my emails, probably because they’re busy being the future of comics or something, but when they do I’ll hopefully have a release date. I’d love to do a proper physical trade, but the only company that’s shown interest is DC, who said I’d have to add weird costume details and collars and armour to all of the characters first. We’ll see.
Last but certainly not least, the ultimate question: you are stuck on a desert island with three items that will ensure your survival pending any form of rescue. What are the three items on the island?
CZ: The British parliamentary system. A book collection of the Internet. A Batman.
