Head over and read the latest page. When last we saw Paddy, he was confused and afraid after seeing a ship for the first time in his short life.
The web-comic/graphicnovel GO HOME PADDY is moving to www.gohomepaddy.com! The initial launch went so well that giving the story it’s own site was the obvious next move. I’ve heard from sooo many people with such positive reactions that I can’t wait to hear from readers as the story continues. And the story continues next Tuesday with the start of Chapter 2!
So update your book marks with www.gohomepaddy.com The new site is powered by Comicspress and will allow for easier page navigation, a better reading experience and hopefully more reader interaction. See you there!
The last page in Chapter One can be found>>> HERE.
If you haven’t read the story regularly, now’s a perfect time to read the whole chapter in one sitting!
Also, stay tuned for news regarding the start of Chapter Two as well as a change in venue….
The latest page in the continuing story of an Irish immigrant in Boston in the mid-19th Century can be found>>> HERE.
In the last installment, we saw a devastated Paddy burying his mother in a field in Ireland after digging her grave with his bare hands.
The latest page in the continuing story of an Irish immigrant in Boston in the mid-19th Century can be found>>> HERE.
Last installment, we saw Paddy waking up to find his beloved Mother dead and then proceeding to dig her a grave with his bare hands.
And if you haven’t been reading along, here’s an example of what you’ve been missing!
The latest page of the story of an Irish immigrant in Boston in the mid-19th Century can be found>>> HERE.
Matt Bors originally came across my radar when I began reading Idiot Box in the Boston Phoenix. Since then, we’ve connected on Twitter and traded a lot of music. He’s a cool and interesting guy, and if he ever comes to Boston, I owe him a few pints. Read on and enjoy!
What’s your background? Where are you from originally? Did that and family play a part in your interest in political cartooning?
I was born in Canton, Ohio, where I spent most of my life. My family wasn’t particularly political, but I have always had the singular goal of becoming a cartoonist since I was a little kid and they were supportive of that. For a while I was into superhero stuff – X-Men and Spawn – and then in high school became more interested in what Fantagraphics and D&Q were putting out. Then in college I shifted to political cartoons. I have a love for all forms of cartooning though. I finished a graphic novel this year and want to branch out and do some other stuff besides political cartooning.
Did you go to art school? If so, was your program focused on strip cartooning or just illustration?
I went to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 2001 for graphic design. There wasn’t any focus on illustration besides a few life drawing courses and cartooning certainly wasn’t part of the picture. Basically I knew cartooning was a long shot and wanted to work in the creative field in some way instead of working a lame day job, which, of course, I did after college.
How did you get Idiot Box up and running? How did you achieve syndication?
I began political cartooning in the run-up to our invasion of Iraq. I had been growing increasingly political as the Bush years took shape and it seemed a natural evolution for me to combine my thoughts on it with comics. I submitted a political cartoon to the school newspaper, my fist published work, and haven’t missed a week since. That was March of 2003.
From there I quickly realized I wanted to do it for a living, or at least figure out a way to justify one political cartoon a week as part of a career as a freelancer. So I submitted to alt-weeklies and slowly started picking up clients. The Cleveland Free Times (now The Scene) and Seven Days in Vermont were among my fist clients and continue to run me to this day. I’ve also remained in Pittsburgh, bouncing around to a few defunct papers before being picked up by the City Paper a few years ago.
I never really submitted to the syndicates because I never thought my style was viable to mainstream papers given the kinds of cartoons they run. But a few years ago Ted Rall called me up and asked if I wanted to do three editorial cartoons a week for United Media. He was their submissions editor at the time and was actively recruiting cartoonists that were doing different things withing their genres. (The daily strip “Diesel Sweeties” being a good example.) I had come to know him a little bit through “Attitude 3,” an anthology of webcomics he included me in. I jumped at the chance–then the recession decimated newspapers already averse to adding opinionated content that could get the granny brigade to write letters to the editor.
What kind of research goes into your strips—what books/papers/blog/websites do you read regularly?
I’m basically a news junkie. I work from home so I’m listening to NPR, talk radio, podcasts and audio books when I draw. I’m dipping in and out of the internet all day checking news sites and blogs. Tweeting. I’m doing the tweeting. I even subscribe to the print edition of The Oregonian to stay up on local news (I do local cartoons for them occasionally) and give my eyes a break from the computer. I subscribe to about 12 different magazines. Read books. And then I drink beer and stare at the wall until an idea hits.
How did you end up out in Portland? Was it through the cartooning scene out there? What is the scene like out there?
There was no specific reason I moved to Portland other than wanting to move to the west coast since I was young and not being so much into California – or able to afford it. That pretty much leaves Seattle and Portland if you’d like to live in a bigger city, which I do. One of the things I appreciate out here is the bike culture. We basically have the most bikeable city in the States. I don’t don’t drive and live close in so that works for me getting around. Also, I only commute from my bed to my drawing table.
As for the cartooning scene here, it’s pretty vibrant. There’s a good number of publishers and an overwhelming amount of cartoonists. There are a few I pal around with, like Shannon Wheeler, Kevin Moore, Jack Ohman and Barry Deutsch. It’s nice to get out from behind the drawing table and be able to talk about work with people when you are not working. Nothing beats that relaxing feeling.
What has been the effect of the Recession on your work? Are you finding the web as a viable alternative to newspapers?
The Great Recession has been pretty hard on newspaper cartooning. Alt-weeklies have slashed their content and some of my colleagues have stopped drawing regular political cartoons altogether (David Reese, Tim Kreider, Mikhaela Reid). I lost a few papers and haven’t picked up any new ones in quite a while. Freelance rates have plunged but I’ve noticed that rent seems to increase every year. (Stop moving to Portland, young people. It’s not cool – I swear!) So that’s a drag, but I’m still able to do what I love for a living.
The web is great because I’ve found a lot of readers through it, but it hasn’t come close to replacing the money available in the print world. Most websites don’t want to pay to run your strip. Building a readership on your own site is great, of course, but you need to have merchandise to slang and political cartoons don’t lend themselves to that as much as strips with rotund felines and their hilarious fixation on lasagna.
My hope with the web is not much different than what it is – or was – with print: make enough money to justify doing one or two editorial cartoons a week and fill the rest of my time with freelance work. I would like to get back up to three comics a week (as when I started syndication) and I would jump at the opportunity to do 5 a week for any paper or website willing to pay enough for it but realistically that era is pretty much over, save for a few lucky individuals. I like doing longer works such as graphic novels as well. That area of comics still seems to be growing and I’ll be working in it as much as time and money allow.
You mention both an upcoming graphic novel and a desire to do some other work besides political cartooning. What do you have in mind?
I have a graphic novel coming out August 3rd called “War Is Boring” through New American Library. It was written by David Axe, who is a journalist, and is a memoir of his forays into different war zones over the last few years. This will be my first book and the art is a little different from my political cartoons – more realistic, which is actually in line with how I’ve drawn most of my life.
As for other work, I am set up to draw a graphic novel written by Ted Rall, the sequel to “The Year Of Loving Dangerously” that came out recently. Right now I have a lot of freelance projects up in the air. I’m currently designing a few book covers, doing freelance illustration, plotting a collection of my political cartoons. I enjoy it all, but cartooning is my main priority so I’m trying to find the balance between decent freelance work and what I want to do with comics. I see myself always keeping with the political cartoons, so other projects I plan on doing, such as writing my own graphic novel, may take a while to get to. But I’ll get to them.
Any interest in coming back for a round 2 of Q&A when War Is Boring comes out?
No interest. You kind of disgust me. Wait – I mean, YES!
The latest page of the story of an Irish immigrant in Boston in the mid-19th Century can be found>>> HERE.
I never owned the game Operation, but I always thought it looked like fun.
