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This month, my column will feature a series of interviews with comic book artists and creators going to STAPLE! THE INDEPENDENT MEDIA EXPO (Saturday, March 3rd). Staple is an annual event in Austin Texas to promote independent creative media: comics, art, animation, and self-published literature.  In its third year, Staple is the must-attend convention for any self-respecting fan of indie comics.

Let’s start with David DeGrand. He’s an amazing cartoonist, recently praised in the popular Drawn! blog. His website DeGrandland features some hilarious work, wonderfully gross, demented, and a little twisted.

How did you get started in comics?

DEGRAND: When I was in the 5th grade, I was taking an art class that required the students to create a comic strip. I came up with this frog character that gets eaten by a snake. My teacher thought it was really funny and it got published in a school newspaper that an advanced english class was putting together. Having my very first cartooning experience be such a positive one led me to keep doing it. I drew tons more strips and gag cartoons with the frog that I called “Ribbit”, and some of these were eventually published in my small town newspaper. In high school, I was the cartoonist and illustrator for the school newspaper for about three and a half years. That was really cool for me, because I had a whole comics page to fill up with stuff, so I did one strip with Ribbit, one strip with these two high school students named Lyle and Floyd, and two one panel gag cartoons. Several of these cartoons were included in some sort of a national “best of the high school press” book, so that was once again very encouraging. In college, I was the illustrator for the university newspaper where I won several more national and state awards, so I guess by this point I figured I might not be too bad at this drawing thing. I was an art major in college so after graduation I’ve just been doing paintings and mini comics and drawing gag cartoons trying to make a living with it.

As far as influences go, I was very influenced by Garfield at an early age, but as soon as I discovered Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side that’s pretty much all I read after that. Also, I was beginning my interest in cartooning when Ren and Stimpy premiered on Nickelodeon and pretty much instantly warped me and has left its stamp on my cartooning since then.

For you, what’s the appeal of “the grotesque” as a form of art?

DEGRAND: I guess mainly why I savor the gross and disgusting is because that’s what I find really funny. My favorite things as a kid (like many boys growing up) were always the gross things. I was fortunate to grow up in the eighties, which I always referred to as “the golden age of gross”. You had awesome stuff like the Garbage Pail Kids, Madballs, Ghostbusters and tons of variations on those. To go back to answering your question, in my art, I’m simply trying to have fun with it, and those gross influences from my childhood I’m still finding to be really funny. Also, I’ve always held the belief that gross, disgusting and ugly is way more interesting to look at than what most people would consider beautiful. To me, the grotesque is beautiful. There’s also something hilarious to me about cute cartoon characters vomiting and picking their nose and stuff like that. It’s like we’re not supposed to see it.

Your sketch book is very impressive. Doodling: compulsive disorder or something to do for fun?

DEGRAND: Hey, thanks! I’ve kept a sketchbook for at least fifteen years now, I have a stack up to my waist of them. I would like to say that it’s a compulsive disorder because that’s more interesting, but it’s really just my way of trying to get better at drawing and designing characters for my paintings and comics. It also is a way to relax and let my mind wander, doodling is great because you don’t have to create anything specific.

What will you have available at your booth?

DEGRAND: I’m going to be selling paintings, drawings and some old mini comics I’ve had for a while now that I can’t seem to get rid of. If I have the time and money to get it together, I want to try to sell a book of my gag cartoons I’ve done for Stumblebum Studios, but I’ll just have to see if that’s feasible yet.

What are you most looking forward to with Staple?

DEGRAND: I’m mainly looking forward to meeting other artists like myself that share the same interests and just love cartooning and comics. I’ve discovered that for me that’s the best part about conventions, getting to know about artists that you didn’t know existed before and seeing what others create. And if I sell a painting or two, that’s just a bonus for me.

Make sure to visit David DeGrand’s website: DeGrandland. Next Tuesday, we pose five questions to Staple’s featured guest Dean Haspiel.

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