Post by eternity on Dec 23, 2007 16:08:00 GMT
Interview with Jon Towerswww.jonnyaxx.com
administered by gray929
Name? Jon Towers
Age & birthday? 33; March 31, 1974
Location? Pittsburgh
Website/gallery? www.jonnyaxx.com
Give us an overview of what sort of artforms you're interested and skilled in.
Primarily I work in a black and white comic style. I like to use it because it allows me to boil the story down to the basics, under-produced art lets the writing and story shine through a bit more. I also like to paint with watercolors, however I can hardly ever find the time to commit to painting.
What's it like working in the comicon circuit?
I only went to one in 2004, the year my book came out. I shared my table with the guys from Rubber Mallet Press and we had a lot of fun. Very few comic fans go to cons to find new things, they usually go to add to their collections or meet established artists. So it was a learning experience for me. But I still had a great time, and met some interesting people. Any place you can go to see people walking around in Storm trooper costumes is all right by me.
I looked at your excellent assortment of drawings from your art show. Why did you choose watercolor as your tool of preference, and how did you come up with a theme to highlight throughout the show?
I like watercolors. You know they were not very technical or outstanding from an art point of view, it was the theme of the show that made it what it was. The concept of the show was to sort of showcase some of my personal spiritual beliefs and not offer an interpretation. It was fun being at the opening and listening to people talk about the pieces.
At the end of 2005, you had a watercolor show known as Gnosis of the Pilgrim. Is there a story behind this collection? If so, would you mind sharing?
The whole show was a self-contained series of 28 pieces. It ran in a gallery downtown for a month. It is like a concept show, all of the pieces relate to each other but can also stand on its own. It is not so much a story, but it is sort of designed to let people look at it and think, so I don’t want to give too much away.
www.jonnyaxx.com/gnosis_of_the_pilgrim1.htm
How did you first become interested in watercolors?
I have been into art as long as I can remember, and did a few watercolor projects in art school. When I had this idea for the show, I knew it was an opportunity to do something with it people had not seen from me before.
How do you go about beginning a piece? How long does one piece generally take to complete?
It depends; mostly I try to approach a piece from a conceptual angle. Try to leave the execution of the art out of it for as long as possible. If you have something that is going to make people think, or have an idea that is interesting despite the visual artwork then you have something. That is where It try to excel, at the conceptual level.
What exactly is The Nonstandard Assembly? What do you do for it?
The Nonstandard Assembly is a series of three books that follows The Heart of Abracax, they are not really sequels but they do take place in the same world as Abracax. They share some characters and some themes from that book. I wanted to do something a bit more basic, a bit more in the vein of a mainstream comic book.
I took a pretty common team premise and started building it. The first one is really an open love letter to the comics I grew up with; the second is a homage to classic Romero Zombie movies; the third is more of a political action thriller. I am currently posting the whole run of all three books on a webcomic site called Drunk Duck.
www.drunkduck.com/The_Nonstandard_Assembly/
The Heart of Abracax is your graphic novel, yes? Tell us what it's about, where your ideas for this came from, and how you went about working on it (how long did it take).
It started out as an action story, featuring my pro wrestling gimmick (I was an independent pro wrestler for a few years), but as I kept writing it, it got way more personal and sort of turned into this heavy dark story. I basically wanted to do something that was all mine, all the things I was interested in and roll it up into one thing. So there are obscure religious figures, demons and angels, strippers, wrestling, drinking, Pittsburgh, and a lot of mayhem. It took me over three years to complete the whole thing.
I have read through some of your stories, and at the end was in awe of how creative the plots were. I am very curious as to where you come up with them? Where do you get your ideas from?
I get ideas from a lot of different places. Sometimes it is obscure religious trivia. I once took a leak next to George Romero at a comic con, and found the inspiration to do a zombie story. You know just how you choose to observe events, and what sort of themes you want to explore, how much fun you want to have with it. I do creative writing exercises in the form of journals or articles, sometimes those spawn good ideas or ideas I could lash to other ideas to expand stuff. I am a horribly undisciplined writer, so I tend to really try to create some sort of structure in the story to sort of keep myself in check.
You also have a very large character base. I read many of the characters descriptions, and they all had very distinct backgrounds. Is it a struggle for you to develop characters?
No, I do not have a problem with that. A character is going to be what you put into him or her, you know? There is a struggle to make the character flawed in some way or give them a touching point with the reader, so they might be able to relate. You know with mainstream comics that is the big problem I see; how the hell do you identify with someone who can't be damaged, or is a billionaire? Maybe that is mostly done on some subconscious level, I am not sure. I like to reuse the same characters, so I don't run out and create a new guy for everything.
There are many parts that must be included in a story in order for it to succeed. What are a couple components you think must be included in a graphic novel/comic?
The most important part of any sort of story is the ending. This might sound funny, but I didn't really learn how to tell a story until I went to pro wrestling school. When you wrestle a match that is all you are doing, is telling a big story; here is the good guy, here is the bad guy, here is why they are throwing each other into barbed wire, and then you take them on a ten minute emotional ride and end with some sort crazy physics defying finale.
You have to give the readers a reason to take the journey with you. I try to envision the end of stories and sort of try to work backwards. This is another problem with mainstream comics from my point of view; there is never, or rarely, any catharsis. They are more like soap operas than literature. I want to clarify; I am in no way saying pro wrestling is like an Ernest Hemingway novel.
What did you have to do in order to get your work published? I know it is a very hard thing to do. You have to find a publisher first, then send them your portfolio. If they don’t like it, you have to start over and work even harder. It can be a pressuring time for someone.
It is the hardest thing in the world. I self-published my graphic novel, and am going a similar route with my latest projects. This method has pros and cons. Mostly it is nice not to be beholden to anyone else's vision or ideas. The work is completely yours from cover to cover. The biggest con, of course, is you don't have that giant publishing machine out there helping you sell your book. And you can only do so much with the internet.
I am going to be publishing 12 or 13 issues of my newest project, The Nonstandard Assembly, in actual comic book format starting in December or January; the details are still sort of sketchy so I don’t want pin myself down with a date for the first issue. But it is great for me because I don't have a name, as I have never worked for mainstream comic companies. So it is hard to sell yourself to anyone, especially doing the sort of work I did in The "Abracax" Book.
You must've had an interest in comic books as a kid. What originally drew you into the world of comic books? Do you have any regrets in doing so?
My old man read comics when I was growing up, so there were always books lying around the house. It was great for me. I was always drawing and being creative so it was really a shoe in to doing comic art. I joined the Army out of high school to get money for art school. It was always my goal to be doing this.
Some of your drawings have greatly impressed me. Did this talent come natural to you? What would you suggest to someone interested in drawing, but doesn’t have the talent?
Practice, practice, practice. I mentioned art school already. I see a big mistake with people doing comics on the internet and stuff where they are doing all of this wild experimental kind of things. Which is great, but you should know and understand the rules before you decide to break them.
Surely, you had to use all of your imagination to come up with some of these graphic novels. How important is your imagination to you?
My imagination is very important to me. It is my best weapon! This world is so boring and mundane sometimes I can't imagine surviving without it.
What's the biggest thing you get out of being a graphic novelist?
I personally get a lot out of it. I like throwing everything I have at a project then putting it out there for the world to see. It is nice to do something that I love, and am proud of. I guess I just love to tell these sorts of stories.
You have written many interesting and entailing articles for various publications. What drives you to do so? Do you like reaching out to an audience?
I like reaching audiences, I like to make people laugh. The web site I do most of my articles for is pretty left leaning. To me, it is sometimes interesting to throw out an article nicely calling Hilary Clinton a communist, or defending the war. I think it is nice when someone writes you and says, "You know you sort of made me look at my beliefs in a different way." I don't want you to get the wrong idea, my articles are not all right wing politically oriented think pieces. Some of them are just funny ideas, or when I write companies to complain about products or services I will send them in as an article, just because I think they are really funny.
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. God bless you for all the community service you’ve done in and out of the army. Any last words?
Thank you for thinking I was interesting enough to interview. Check out my website: www.jonnyaxx.com
