About Chris Williams
Location: Dallas, Texas
Occupation: Web Designer
Bio: Webmaster for PopSyndicate.com and other sites. You can see more of his work at his web design site, Martini Lab, and his blog as well.
Posts: 163
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Jim Mahfood is a pillar in the pop-art world. From commercial and advertising to comic books and live art, Mahfood has established himself as the newest young gun in pop-culture. For Free Comic Book Day, Mahfood and Kristian Donaldson attended CAPE! with other artists and writers where they discussed aspects of their work, the industry and did it all without any regard for capitalization. Mixtape Vol. 2, a collected art book, comes out in late July.
How about an introduction! who are you, and what do you do?
my name is Jim Mahfood aka Food One. i'm an artist, i write and draw comic books, i do illustration and advertising art, i show drawings and paintings in galleries around the world, i paint murals in various strange and exciting locations, and i rock live art in clubs and bars around the country. you can check out what i do at www.40ozcomics.com and www.foodoneart.blogspot.com
So, i'm a work at home freelancer, with my own set of wierd pre work rituals and procrastinations. i always wonder what other artists do to prepare for/ put off work while at their home studio. what's your work average work day look like?
i wake up around 10 or 11, drink coffee, check email, and hit the drawing table around noon with the music cranking, try and work for 3-4 hours straight, take a lunch break, go for a walk or a jog, come back home, more drawing, make phone calls, handle bizness, shower, more drawing, dinner break, more drawing, take a break, maybe read a little, watch a movie or some cartoons, crash out around 2am or usually later...
where do you live, and how does living there inform or shape your work?
i live in LA, in the heart of Hollywood. there's no place weirder. the strange characters that live here, the music, the art, the fashion, the attitude and politics, it all creeps into my work and influences it in one way or another.
You're one of the people out there who's not just doing comics, but doing illustration work, as well as showing in galleries. could you elaborate on these different aspects of your artistic life a little bit? how did you get started? how do these different disciplines compare to each other, either artistically, personally, professionally?
i've always been interested in other areas of art, not just comics. the comics stuff got me into meeting musicians and djs, i started doing flyer and album art for people, that led to live art in clubs, that led to painting and meeting gallery people, that led to advertising and illustration work. it's all taken 11 years to get to this point. i like doing different things, staying diverse, and making the art change and evolve all the time. if it doesn't evolve, it dies.
Loved your Mix Tape art book, and really loved the pieces you did in Swallow v. 4. how did those projects come about?
Mixtape was long overdue. i wanted a nice hardcover full color artbook that would collect all this non-comics stuff i'm doing: album covers, flyer art, animation pitch art, etc. Ash Wood is a friend and invited me to be in Swallow again. it's an honor to be in there with all those incredibly talented people. i'm a huge fan of art books, it's what i spend my money on, so any chance i can be in one or put one out, i will go for it! Mixtape #2 hits in time for San Diego Comic Con!
can you talk about the inspiration behind those gorgeous photo/illo mashup pieces featured in Swallow?
this dude named Jeff Shagawat aka Bill Shag moved into my apt. building two years agio and we became drinking buddies. he takes amazing photos (all film, no digital) and we started throwing parties and events together and i eventually just started making drawings and stuff using his photos. since then we have shown our art together in Arizona, LA, NY, and London and France. you can see his photos at www.shagawat.com.
Technique! what do you like to do? what do you like to use? when doing comics what steps do you go through to arrive at a finished page?
i pencil everything out, usually pretty loosely. most of my drawing takes place in the ink phase. i use various pens: caligraphy pens, pentel brush pen, microns...i dunno, whatever's laying around and will work. with comics, i write a script, thumbnail out the page layouts, pencil the page and then ink it. pretty traditional approach, i think...
You were here for CAPE and the live art show last year, what made you come back??
all my friends will be there! and everyone involved in organizing the event are totally cool, easy to get along with-type people. they make the artists feel welcome. i like that. the big cons don't have that anymore.
what are you working on right now? anything upcoming to promote?
yep. i have a new two-issue series called Kick Drum Comix coming out in either Sept or Oct. both issues are full of new short stories, all written and drawn by me, and in blazing full color! and Mixtape: Vol.2 hits in late July.
Mahfood’s the man!!