We here at Multiversity are fascinated by everything comics, and that includes finding out all about the people that make the books that we love. With that in mind, welcome to WorkSpace! This is where creators let us into their homes and, by getting a glimpse at their surroundings, we uncover a little about their process and their inspirations.
This month: John Allison
John is the creator and writer of the Eisner and Harvey nominated “Giant Days” from Boom! Studios, as well as the creator of webcomics “Scary Go Round” and “Bad Machinery” over on his website ScaryGoRound.com. He’s also writing the upcoming “By Night” series with artist Christine Larsen, out in June.
Thanks for letting us into your home, John! What can you tell us about your workspace?
John Allison: My workspace is far from optimal, at least in terms of being the kind of aspirational space someone would want to take a photo of. It’s a box room in the house my girlfriend and I share, that I fill up with junk, then put more shelves in to accept more junk. Eventually I will wall myself in with shelves and no longer be able to leave. You see photos of some artists’ studios, especially in the US where there is so much space, and think, wow, I work in a sad old box. A box that I have meticulously tidied up for this feature.
When I’m drawing though, I just don’t see it – I get a sort of tunnel vision – and it’s easy to keep warm in winter. It’s not a good space for writing in though, so I’ve just built a summerhouse in the garden to do that in. It barely has internet – intentionally – and I’ve not bought proper furniture for it yet, but it’s already very conducive to thought. It’s a work in progress.
What sort of inspirational items do you have around your working environment to help you with your work?
JA: I used to pin up things I found inspiring, but now what I have pinned up, largely, are things that inspired me eight years ago when I pinned them up. They’re artefacts that comfort me, rather than inspirational objects of great meaning. I stopped curating any kind of meaningful visual experience for myself – pictures on the wall, home design choices, about a decade ago.
Why was that, do you think?
JA: I think I just stopped flexing that muscle. I started to prefer function over form. I do have some nice pieces though, by artists I admire – I have a Warwick Johnson Cadwell original, a Bryan Lee O’Malley original, Feltmistress and Jonathan Edwards pieces, and a big framed Jordan Crane from an SPX in the mid-oughts. There are one or two new little postcards, now I look – an Eleni Kalorkoti, a Roman Muradov, but manned missions will probably reach Mars before those things are ever framed. These wonderful artists get the same democratic space as my spare supermarket clubcards.
So what’s a day in the life like for you, do you have a set routine?
JA: I get up around 7.30, eat breakfast, read emails and check my sites between 8 and 8.30, shower, then start writing or drawing around 9. I don’t like to do a task for more than half a day per day if I can avoid it, so I divide scripts into thirds, and draw in 3 hour spells. I try to do the work I have to do in the morning, and work with a less stringent deadline, or things which are more free-form in nature (like writing my webcomics, which I do with pencil and paper in quite loose fashion) in the afternoon.
The morning is supposedly hard graft, the afternoon is meant to be choosing time – though it doesn’t always work out that way. I try not to work after 6. I’m very focused when I’m working and if I don’t take a proper lunch break, or start to let work creep into the evenings, I soon begin to experience the start of burn out.
John, thanks so much for your time!
John Allison can be found at his website Scary Go Round, where you’ll find all of his webcomic works. “Giant Days” is released monthly through Boom! Studios and is written by John, with pencils by Max Sarin, inks by Liz Fleming and color by Whitney Cogar. You can find all of John’s work on Comixology or in your local comic book store. “By Night” is out in June 2018, By Allison, Christine Larsen, released from Boom Studios.
