We found out why this web comic artist is happiest when left alone to cut out icebergs
How did your series My Cardboard Life start?
Originally it was an idea for a children’s story about recycling, and I designed characters with that in mind. The first couple of comics were just me playing around with these characters, but I found I had lots of ideas for more comics so I kept making them. That was four years ago and I’m still making them now. Originally I uploaded the comics to webcomicsnation.com, but after about six months I got my own site.
How long does each strip take you to put together? Is it more or less time-intensive than drawing a strip?
It seems more complicated than drawing, but I secretly think it’s much easier. I don’t have to do any pencilling or inking or colouring, and I don’t have to stick anything down til I’m happy with it, so I can rearrange as much as I want. No rubbing out. The tidying up stage adds a bit of extra work, though. The time it takes varies a lot depending on the strip. Anything involving characters wearing complicated clothes takes ages, but then again sometimes I do a strip with just three panels and one character and those can be finished in half an hour. Some of the longer ones took days to finish, but on average I’d say it’s about two or three hours per comic-strip.
Which character in the strip are you fondest of?
It’s boring if I say Cardboard Colin, but he is my favourite and the easiest to make. Also I always enjoy making Business Pauline comics.
You’ve been putting a regular strip online for over four years now, and have released three collections. What’s changed in the strip since the start?
It’s gradually got neater, and more detailed. More characters have come in since the beginning, and I’ve experimented a lot with different sizes and shapes of comics and longer storylines too. At the beginning it was mainly just paper related puns and not much else. I still do that now and again, but the characters have proper personalities as well now, and the stories come from that.
You recently ran a poll for readers to choose a new story from a choice of ten, knowing nothing about them other than the title and a cover image. We’re Out, a story that would see your characters break out into the real world, won by a huge margin. Are any of the unchosen story ideas too good to lose?
I would have been happy to make any one of the stories, but I’m glad We’re Out won. I did the same thing last year and St Colin and the Dragon won. I made that in spring 2012, then later in the year I made Recyclost which was one of the other ideas - it wasn’t even second or third place, but I chose it because it was my favourite. After I make We’re Out I’ll make one of the others if I have time. I’d really like to do Treasure in the Arctic. Cutting out icebergs is really satisfying. It would also be fun to make a scary story with The Dimension of the Ghosts.
What other web comics do you read?
My favourites at the moment are SuperMutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki and Dakota McFadzean’s The Dalies.
You’ve got an exhibition coming up. What’s going to be in it?
Lou Bush at The Gold Room in Southsea is putting together the exhibition and she wanted a mixture of all the different styles and techniques I use. So there’s going to be some of the original My Cardboard Life comics and artwork, plus some original Soppy comics artwork, and pages from Looking Out which is another comic I did last year. Plus some other drawings and illustrations and some of the crochet characters that I’ve made.
There are some lovely gifs of those on your site. Is animation something you wish you could do more of?
I learned how to crochet about five years ago just for fun, and I think I’m at the point now where I can make things look like how I actually want them to look. Sometimes I make characters to sell, but generally it’s just for fun and for taking photos of. It’s good for me that gifs have become such a big ‘thing’ because I can make one of those quickly just by taking pictures with my phone. I’d really like to animate something longer with them but I’d need to set aside quite a bit of time, and get some proper equipment.
You created all the artwork for Nottingham’s annual GameCity festival last year, including the shop window display for Page 45. How did that come about?
I think the organisers of GameCity found some games themed pictures of mine on Tumblr, and that’s why I was considered for doing the artwork. I can’t remember whose idea it was to do the Page 45 window but it’s probably the best thing I’ve ever done. I’ve made a lot of small paper models before but this was my first attempt at something bigger. The best bit was making miniature versions of the comics for the little paper characters to read. Page 45 is my favourite shop and one of the big reasons why I moved to Nottingham, so getting to be in that window was really special for me.
What are you making right now?
I’m working on the actual story for We’re Out, and making three My Cardboard Life comic strips a week. Also I’m making more of the autobio comics called Soppy. I’m less strict with the update schedule for that but it’s usually about one a week.
Do you have any madly ambitious ideas for stuff you want to do in the future?
We’re Out is pretty ambitious because although I’ve made models before, I’ve never tried to tell a story with them. I think it’s going to be tricky...
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