Off Life Issue5

8/12/2019 Off Life Issue5

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FEATURING AN

INTERVIEW WITH

GILBERT HERNANDEZ

PLUS COMICS FROM

THE BEST INDIE

TALENT AROUND

JUNE/JULY

2013

ISSU

E#5

F

REE


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It may be tempting fate, but I think summer is here.

Cider adverts are back on telly, puffy-nippled Alpha males

are rolling topless through the streets and our local park

attendant has already deposited his first bollock-the-disposable-

barbie commission.

Whats more ELCAF comics fest ival is upon us. We finallyget to catch up with a load of the artists whove blessed our pages

and hopefully meet a load of you guys too, so do come and say

hello. Well be the ones with red sweaty faces carrying bagfuls

of free comics.

Speaking of this months comic, we were honoured when

Gilbert Hernandez agreed to speak with us openly on comics and

the industry that peddles them. Take it from a hack whos sat

through too many PR led interviews to count: its a rare treat when

an artist of Gilberts experience opens up beyond vague anecdotes

and book shilling.

Anyway, I rambled too much last issue and so in the name of

brevity (and rapidly declining sun) Im off. Weve some excellent

comics for you this issue and we hope you enjoy reading them as

much as we did putting them together.

To the sun!

DANIEL HUMPHRY

Editor, OFF LIFE

COMICS

Pages 2 27

GILBERT HERNANDEZ

Page 15

YOU HAVE BEEN READING

Page 28

EDITOR

Daniel Humphry

@Daniel_Humphry

ART DIRECTOR

Steve Leard

@SteveLeard

COPY EDITOR

Lucy Rice

COVER ART

Joseph William

@JoeWilliam88

DESIGN

wearerandl.co.uk

OFFLIFE.CO.UK

[email protected]

@OFFLIFE_COMIC

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From the start of your career youve created

comics that, at least emotionally, are very

grounded in reality. What drew you towards

that side of the comics medium?

Well, growing up I started reading kids comics

like Archie and Richie Rich. They seemed to be

just as entertaining as superheroes and were alittle more down to Earth.

When it came to making my own comics, the

superhero formula didnt feel right if what

I wanted to do was tell stories about people.

The kids comics like Archie did, they were

really just about hanging out, and so they really

influenced my style of telling day-to-day

stories. I just brought them to a new audienceof adult readers.

FOR OVER 30 YEARS GILBERT HERNANDEZ HAS BEEN CARVING

A NICHE AWAY FROM THE SPANDEX AND SUPERPOWERS OF

MAINSTREAM COMICS. HIS WORK HAS BEEN PRAISED FOR ITS

STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS, PERSONAL STORYTELLING AND

HANDLING OF REAL LIFE ISSUES.

OFF LIFE SAT DOWN WITH GILBERT TO DISCUSS WHY HE DUCKED

WHEN THE COMIC INDUSTRY WEAVED, AND HOW HE FEELS ABOUT

THE DIRECTION THAT COMICS HAVE TAKEN.


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Like many of todays indie artists you didnt wait for

a publisher and instead just started putting out work.

Did that shape your style?

I suppose it did. At the time I really appreciated

underground comics, their no holds barred stories and

attitude. That freedom and honesty really influenced

my approach to comics. Like if they could get awaywith what theyre doing maybe I could too.

The freedom with creator owned and indie comics

means that Im not really edited. When I work with

a DC or Marvel there is a lot of editing and it loses

some of that personal expression.

Its well documented that the West Coast punk scene

was an influence on your work. Can you see a trend

in what is now influencing younger artists?

I think the late 80s explosion in indie comics is really

the influence on this next generation of artists. Its great

now that a lot of indie comics are getting press outside

of the comics world, simply because it helps artists to

look at the bigger picture.

At the same time, if comics get too insular, too

much about the indie scene and just indie audiences,

then the whole thing starts to eat itself alive. Thats

what kills a lot of creativity. Being popular and out

there doesnt mean you cant have a personal vision

just look at Dan Clowes. I guess any cartoonist worth

his salt just has to put up with those pressures once

your work is out there.

Do you think theres too much replication of the

indie styles that artists like you, Clowes and Tomine

have helped popularise?

That might be true. I notice that the best work lately is

shorter material, more experimental and more

confessional material. But what there isnt a lot of isfiction with original characters and long stories. Me,

Tomine and Clowes do it but very few others do.

Thats something I miss. Theres a lot of

confessional and autobiographical comics and small

experimentation but not a lot that goes past that.

I wonder if this current generation is just about

possibly replicating. Thats not a bad thing when you

start out, but you have to find your voice.

Speaking of autobiography, your latest book Marble

Season goes back to yours and your brothers

childhoods. Why did you want to revisit that period

of your life?

I hadnt connected to my readers with a personal story

for quite some time; Id been doing a lot of crime and

horror and melodrama. In my early Palomarstories there were lots of small personal tales about

peoples lives and they had a bit of my life in them

but Id never done a story of things that actually did

happen to me.

Is there a message youre trying to tell about your life

within Marble Season?

Its probably more about all of our lives. Back then all you

care about is pop-culture and what youre doing the next

day. Youre pretty much the master of your own

universe. I wanted to put across a normal childhood

from a childs point of view, and for me in the early

60s we didnt have iPads or Netflix or any of that instant

gratification stuff aside from watching a show or reading

a comic we were just outside with our imagination.

I can see how that childhood has been clipped a

little bit because of modern technology and instant

entertainment thats probably why its harder and

harder to get young people to read comic books.

Its no secret that the comic medium is often criticised

for its portrayal of women. Your work, however, has

always been praised for its strong female characters.

Was that an intentional effort?

A lot of the kids comics I read emphasized teenage

girls, if it wasnt a story about Archie then it was about

Betty and Veronica theyd have stories without boy

characters and that was normal to us. With Love and

Rockets, it seemed natural to have women characters.People dont seem so interested in female characters

or even female artists in mainstream comics. Perhaps

its a bit of a boys club.

At least your work is demonstrating how female

characters should be treated.

Well, yeah, but at the same time it might have hurt us. My

brothers and I have never really broken through


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as cartoonists, weve always done fine and had good

support from out readers, but its never gone past that.

I wonder if perhaps thats because some of our main

characters are women or Latino maybe thats a block

for some people.

Is that disappointing?A little bit. Ive always expected the rest of the world

to be a little more open minded, but coming from the

way politics in America are, we can obviously see thats

not true.

Youve been creating comics for over 30 years now.

Are you happy with how the medium and the

industry has shaped up?

Im just glad its still there so that Ive got somewhere

to go! Its difficult to know what to say about how theart form has grown up. The best thing I can say is that

theres an opening for an artist with a different point

of view to make a real splash. Theres a door open, a

road to travel on which wasnt there in the 70s or 80s.

Thankfully, comic books will never go back to being

one thing, and theres gotta be somebody around the

corner to do something new with them. I just hope

its soon so that Im still around to enjoy it.

What do you think needs to happen for comics to

gain a better standing?

Everybody should just stop buying all the other comics

and just buy mine thatll save comics! No, seriously,

more exposure to indie comics and no more to

mainstream comics they get enough with all the movies.

Do you think the mainstream comics that do gain

exposure perhaps hurt the entire comic medium?

It hurts comics in the sense that they could be morethan just that. Im just as happy as anyone with a movie

like Avengers, I mean what a matinee movie, but it

does emphasise thats what comics are and thats the

best they can do. We all know theres so much more,

but I guess its easier to go watch a spectacle at the

movies than it is to pick up a book.

YOU CAN READ MORE ABOUT GILBERT

AND DISCOVER HIS BACK CATALOGUE

AT FANTAGRAPHICS.COM


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YOU HAVE BEEN READING

ANA GALVA

HAPPY NEW HOME

@ANAGALVAN666PAGE 2

TIM BIRD

OFF SEASON

@PSEUDOBOY

PAGE 4

CATHERINE PAPEGIRL SAILOR

@CNPAPE

PAGE 6

EMIX REGULUSWHYBALLS

@ORIGAMISHIP

PAGE 19

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DAN BAILEY

DAVE

@RUBBERPENGUIN

PAGE 8

LUKE DROZD

THE COLLECTOR, THE

CLOWN, THE FLY &

TECHNICALLY DEAD

@LUKEDROZD

PAGE 22

STEVE TILLOTSON

THE MOVIES

@BANALPIG

PAGE 9

SAM ALDEN

REMINDERS

@SAMALDEN

PAGE 23

SALVATORE

GIOMMARRESI

RAIN@SALUTIOAKVILLE

PAGE 10

JOHN CEI DOUGLAS

@SHOTFORMEAT

ALESSANDRA GENUALDO@AGENUALDO

TAN LINES

PAGE 24

HENRY BOON

WHAT GOES UP

@GET_0NE

PAGE 12

JOE LIST

HATRED

@JOELISTPAGE 13

INTERVIEW

GILBERT

HERNANDEZ

PAGE 15

ISSUE#5OFFLIFE.CO.UK@OFFLIFE_COMIC


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