Hopefully everyone has been enjoying the interviews so far. Based on message board posts and YouTube viewings, there were far more response to the Laura Martin interview, so let's keep up the momentum as we roll into our chat with Nicholas Gurewitch. On this one, you really have to see the facial expressions and dramatic pauses to get the full effect, so if you're able check out the video actual. If you can't do video, the article and transcript are below.
When online journals first became available, they eventually diminished what it was to be a journalist or columnist. I should know, this is a blog. As technology and the internet have expanded to include scanners and photo hosting websites, web comics have begun to chew away at what it means to be a traditional cartoonist. Then Carly showed me PBFComics.com, and the concept of strips as a force of thoughtful, gut-wrenching humor was again elevated to a fine art.
If words and pictures could be transmuted to sound, the Perry Bible Fellowship would have been the soundtrack to our HeroesCon weekend. Thursday night, describing panels over dinner to John, who had never seen the strip before. Friday, hearing Raph and Carly recite Nick Gurewitch's responses during the web comics panel, which I missed mulling around the convention floor. Saturday, impacting the humor of the comic over drinks with Jermaine and Joe in the lobby of the Westin. Sunday, guffawing as we turned page and page in The Trial of Colonel Sweeto over lunch at Fuel Pizza. And then this interview.
I guess laughter is a sound. It was recorded for posterity.
Upon briefly speaking with Nicholas Gurewitch at his table, it became starkly apparent that the abundant wit expressed in his comic strip, the Perry Bible Fellowship, was but a reflection of the man himself. Not wanting to fall behind in the conversation, I stepped behind the camera and threw Carly and Raph to the wolf. Circles were run around each other, the interviewers became the interviewees, and a good time was had by all.
Raphael Majma: We're with Nicolas Gurewitch and he does...
Nicholas Gurewitch: the Perry Bible Fellowship comic strip. It tries to be funny and sometimes some people say it succeeds.
RM: I heard it was about death, though.
NG: Often.
Carly Storum: Suicide?
NG: Often.
RM: Marriage?
NG: Sometimes.
CS: Quality?
NG: Rarely.
NG: I've always tried to just pretty much do what I do.
CS: What is it that you do?
NG: I concentrate on the "do" part. I just do.
RM: You're able to adapt your art style for comedically dramatic play in a lot of your strips. Is the diversity something that you work for or does it come naturally?
NG: It comes out of boredum. I mean, I hate doing the same thing twice, you know? Gotta spice it up.
RM: You do draw the round faces a lot, though.
NG: Right, but they're always doing something new.
RM: That's understandable.
NG: And I usually stick with those when I want to concentrate on the new topic at hand.
RM: How do you gauge if a strip has taken things too far?
NG: Usually my sister is good about that kind of stuff.
RM: So your family reads your strips?
NG: It was easier when I lived with my sister when I was younger, but I usually try to show it to at least one person in my proximity.
RM: Does your mom read them?
NG: Yeah, she's seen them all. I don't much listen to my mom. I respect her a lot, but I don't know if she's got the right eye for comics. Peers, I check with peers.
RM: With peers like...?
NG: My roommate or my friends.
RM: Do you get a lot of hate mail?
NG: No, I don't at all. I can count the pieces of hate mail on one hand.
RM: Do you think when you start getting more hate mail you'll finally have made it?
NG: That would be the mark of accomplishing something. I'm not sure what that would be. I guess when you say make it you mean successful, but I like to think I'm successful just by doing what it is I like to do.
RM: That was a very serious answer.
CS: For a man with candy on his books...
NG: Hopefully it was an honest answer. That may have just been BS. I really want more money. [laughs] I want to be a millionaire.
RM: And you plan on doing that how?
NG: By getting into philanthropy and things like that.
RM: One of my favorite strips of yours is "Wishing Well." What's on the other end of your wishing well? Is it the Terrence Trent Darby show?
NG: What do I wish for?
RM: At the end of your wishing well.
NG: At the end of it?
RM: Yeah, at the other side.
NG: China, maybe? [laughs] The other side...
RM: Not literally on the under. When you throw a coin into a well, what comes out the other side?
NG: I have the wish and then I flush the remains, what comes out?
RM: What comes out of the well when you wish for something in the wishing well?
NG: Oh, ok, so what comes out of the wishing well? That's a much better way of putting it. What comes out of my wishing well? Probably the inspiration to achieve my wishes by my own means. That's a bit of a cop out.
RM: Isn't that like wishing for more wishes?
NG: In a way, but not in a way that a genie wouldn't grant it. I think inspiration's the most valuable thing.
RM: I think we're talking about a wishing well, not genies.
NG: I hope I can give myself the inspiration that I need to continue making things. I think that's the most valuable thing. I hope I have complete inspiration to live my life appropriately and excellently.
RM: How do you define appropriately?
NG: In a way that makes me feel the best. In the way that leads to the best time I could possibly have. I want to be a really good person. [thumbs up] I want to be great.
RM: That was Nicholas Gurewitch. Thanks for doing an interview with us.
NG: It was great. But not as great as I will be someday if I achieve my wish.
[All laugh]
The Perry Bible Fellowship's first collection, the Trial of Colonel Sweeto, has already gone through 5 printing from Dark Horse Comics and over 15 copies from us at Acme. The second, complete collection, the Perry Bible Fellowship Alamanck, is due out in October. The strips archive, as well as a store and about the author section, can be found at PBFComics.com.
