Minty Lewis Interview

Approximately four weeks ago, I attempted to convince you that Minty Lewis is someone you should know.  She is a wonderful comic artist, and as you probably assumed from reading her comics, she has a great personality.  Minty agreed to answer an attack of my silly questions.  I predict that your future-self (that is, you in the future), will soon learn about Minty’s googly-eyed flowers and her feelings on snakes.   Maybe I should have prefaced that with a “SPOILER ALERT.”  Instead of more effusive Minty praise and spoilers, perhaps it would be best to charge ahead to the interview.  Vale!

1.  Let’s imagine that members of the “Minty Lewis FANS4LYFE” Google group (I am purely being facetious, and have not researched whether similar groups exist.  The existence of such a group would be coincidental.) unite to create a petition.  What type of petition?  A petition to convince you to create a biographic music album, of course.  In the face of such pressure, you cave and agree to take on such an endeavor.  Please list the song titles (remember! they must capture your life!), as well as a sample lyric for each song.  Other song notes (musical instrument requests, musicians you would collaborate with, locations you would record the song, etc.) are encouraged, but not required. Finally, describe what your album booklet would look like, and people you would cite in the liner notes.

I’d like to record this album in a haunted house, so that we might hopefully pick up some authentic ghosts on the audio. I’d have to cite the usual suspects in the liner notes, probably all the same people I thank in my comics: my husband Damien, my family, all my pals and pets… I’m going to say that my album art would probably contain some fruit pals, but this question is really too difficult for me to answer properly without spending several hours sketching. Anyway, here’s my track list (the lyrics vary greatly in their level of relevance to my life):

1. Say Hello by Heart (“I’d like to know when you will say hello”)
2. Baby’s on Fire by Brian Eno (“Baby’s on fire, better throw her in the water”–pretty sure he’s not referring to actual babies, but I like this song)
3. The Village Green Preservation Society by The Kinks (“We are the Village Green Preservation Society, God save Donald Duck, vaudeville and variety”–mostly because my preschool was the Village Green Day School)
4. Bicycle Race by Queen (“I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle”)
5. Radio Radio by Elvis Costello (“Radio is a sound salvation, radio is cleaning up the nation”)
6. Dancing Queen by ABBA (“Dancing queen, young and sweet, only 17 – oh yeah!”)
7. Mystery Juice by Sean Lennon (“Every day I watch the TV shows , It’s getting so I know the shows hosts”–I’ve had a lot of “me time” on my hands at various points in my life)
8. Jocko Homo by Devo (“I can walk like an ape, talk like an ape, do what a monkey can do”)
9. Kings of the Wild Frontier by Adam Ant (“Down below those dandy clothes, you’re just a shade too white, shade too white”)
10. Young Turks by Rod Stewart (“Young hearts be free tonight, time is on your side. Don’t let them put you down, don’t let them push you around, don’t let them ever change your point of view.”)
11. Goodbye by Mary Hopkin (“Leave your flowers at my door, I’ll leave them for the one who waits behind.”)

2.  A little birdie informed me that you are from MCLEAN, VIRGINIA.  Tell me about McLean.
It’s true, that birdie had her facts straight. McLean is a suburb of Washington, DC and home of the Central Intelligence Agency (it’s more formally in Langley, but that’s part of McLean). In addition to the CIA, McLean boasts McLean Pizza, a Chesapeake Bay Bagel Bakery, Dolley Madison Public Library, USA Today, and Peking Imperial (Evans Farm Inn is now closed). Many people who grew up here are ashamed of McLean’s reputation as a conservative, wealthy, and snobby area. I don’t have much to say in the its defense, but I cannot deny that McLean is where I’ve spent most of my life.

IT IS MY BIRTHDAY TODAY SO PLEASE CLICK ON THE JUMP FOR MORE OF THE INTERVIEW!

3. What led you to comics?
I didn’t pay much attention to the medium until I was in college, when I discovered alternative cartoonists like Chester Brown, Dan Clowes, and Lynda Barry through friends’ recommendations. I had always been interested in writing and art, but it took me a long time to figure out that I could unite them under the umbrella of comics. It wasn’t until a few years after college that I made my first comic on a whim, as a submission for the Small Press Expo anthology. To my great surprise, my submission was accepted, and I’ve just been making comics ever since.

4. Please describe your creative process.  Do you imagine your story lines first, and then start sketching?
My creative process always starts with writing. Most of the time when I sit down to do work, I only have a vague idea of what I want to address. If I can just commit to filling up a few pages with words in the beginning, I can usually find a kernel of an idea that works, which I can then focus on in my next writing session. I go through a few rounds of this type of writing before I have a solid idea for a story. Once I have my foundation, I’ll write on a script with thumbnails. I often re-write and re-thumbnail a few times over, too, as I work out pacing, dialog, character design, etc., and I will do even more revision when I pencil the art, then ink it, then scan it, and then lay it out. In summary, my creative process is a big mess. It’s three steps forward, two steps back the whole way.

I only chose to use fruits in my first comics because it’s a lot easier to draw an apple with arms and legs than it is to draw a human–no one can say, “Hey, those apple’s legs are too short!”

5. Why fruits? When you come across apples in the REAL WORLD, do you imagine them all be little wompers?  Do you ever feel cannibalistic when eating fruit?
I never set out to make a career of drawing fruit comics. I only chose to use fruits in my first comics because it’s a lot easier to draw an apple with arms and legs than it is to draw a human–no one can say, “Hey, those apple’s legs are too short!”–but I’ve stayed with the fruits because I think they work for my stories. I tend to focus on the more depressing and cruel aspects of life, and ambulatory fruit keep the tone from coming off as too heavy. I also like to think that a reader can relate more universally to fruit characters than to human characters, since specific outfits or haircuts or body types might occlude the reader’s ability to recognize the characters as people in their own lives. That’s my theory, anyway.

I only imagine fruit to be wompers if they have eyes on them, and then it really depends on the eyes. When my husband and I got married last year, we had fruit with googly eyes in our flower arrangements . The florist suggested that guests might be less inclined to eat them this way, which was a risk we hadn’t even considered. Apparently drunk guests at weddings always eat fruit in flower arrangements, even lemons and limes. I didn’t notice any gutted fruits on the tables, so I guess I’m not the only one that doesn’t like to eat things with eyes!

6. Based on your fruit comics, I can tell you have a good command of office politics.  Have you ever worked in an office, or is your accurate portrayal a reflection of watching too many episodes of The Office?
Yes, I have worked at an office. Many offices, in fact, mostly as a temp or freelancer. I actually don’t think office politics are all that different from high school politics. Offices one of the few adult environments where you’ll be surrounded by and closely involved with a group of people that you don’t necessarily like or feel connected to. And, to make offices even more competitive than high school, the social hierarchy is public knowledge! And the stakes are your income! Offices really seem to bring out the worst in people. It surprises me that there isn’t more art and literature focusing on them–they’re rife with the stuff of humans!

7. What is your favorite fruit?
There’s nothing better than a peach in the summer. Without eyes.

8. Do you own any terriers?
Yes, I do. Or, rather, I am the guardian of a terrier (so as not to upset any pets’ rights activists). His name is Otis. I’m not sure what kind he is, we got him at a no-kill shelter where they didn’t have much information about his history, but it’s clear from his stubbornness and scruffiness that he’s mostly terrier. I have requested a dog DNA kit via my family’s Christmas gift arrangement, so hopefully I will have more information about his breed background soon. I used to have/guard another terrier, Lucy, but she died in 2006. She was a Yorkshire terrier that I inherited when my sister had too many children and couldn’t handle her anymore. She was a very good friend to me. (Just so they don’t feel bad when they read this, I also live with three delightful cats.)

9.  Considering the name of this website, I feel like the following question is necessary.  What inspired “Donuts for Lunch”?
Sorry for the terrible answer, but I wasn’t especially inspired when I wrote “Donuts for Lunch.” I made it as a minicomic so that I would have something new for the Alternative Press Expo–I didn’t really have an idea for a story so much as I knew I wanted it to be short (because I had only a few weeks to finish it) and have humans in it (I was trying new things). It seems like I always just turn to office environments for the reasons I mentioned earlier, so I just started writing about an office and that was what came out.

10. Are you retiring P.S. Comics?
“P.S. Comics” is just the catchall name I gave to my minicomic series, but there isn’t a whole lot uniting the stories outside of my sensibilities. I’ll retain “P.S. Comics” as an imprint (and website), but I probably won’t publish anything as part of that series unless I amass another minicomic’s worth of short stories.

A friend asked me recently to give Apple a girlfriend, and it made me realize that I didn’t have to keep making everything in his life turn out wrong. I don’t know why I do that.

11. What else are you currently working on (that you can divulge)?
I have a couple of longer stories that I am working on. One is a story about Apple quitting his job and becoming a volunteer for the Gorilla Foundation (or, rather, a stand-in for the Gorilla Foundation) and maybe finding love. A friend asked me recently to give Apple a girlfriend, and it made me realize that I didn’t have to keep making everything in his life turn out wrong. I don’t know why I do that. Anyway, it has been a pleasant change for me to think about Apple’s life in optimistic terms. I’ve only finished about 1/4 of the story and am debating publishing it incrementally as a minicomic or waiting until it’s completed. I should probably wait until it’s all completed, but I have a hard time staying motivated when I’m not getting regular feedback, so I’ve been thinking about publishing another little minicomic in the meantime.

I’m also working on a book called “Leisure Cove” with my husband, cartoonist Damien Jay. It’s about a twenty-something terrier who moves home to work at her parents’ furniture store while pursuing her dream of having an interior design blog. I’m writing it and he’s going to draw it, but we are moving really slowly with that one.

12. What are on your walls at home?
Let’s see… I am on the couch right now and above me is this weird 3D papier-mache and rope painting thing that my dad bought at a Community College art fair in Delaware. I am pretty sure the artist wasn’t comfortable rendering hands, as there are three people in it and all of their hands are conveniently hidden behind objects. To make up for the lack of hands in this picture, I have a Steve Keene painting titled “Hands at Berlin Film Festival” depicting two big hands with watches on them. There’s also a screenprint by cartoonist and friend Sara Varon, it says “Superfight” at the top and depicts a monkey and penguin boxing. I also have a woodblock print by my book artist friend Emily Tipps–it’s a multi-panel comic about a chair that travels around the world and then comes home. Also a professional-style photograph of my friend Adam and his husband Ryan in their Brooklyn home. It’s amazing. I wish you could see it.

13. I am inspired by…
Fruits, nerds, jerks, terriers, oblivious people, overheard conversations, serial killers, Guinness Book of World Records. There’s so much crazy stuff in the world that I can’t believe is real–all that stuff is inspiring in a way, even if it is often horrifying.

14. I support…
Quitting your job, sleeping in, being nice to animals and not eating them (except snakes, I don’t care if you are nice to snakes but you should at least not bother them), staying away from the internet (I support it, but I fail at it), recreational swimming.

15. I’m against…
Nerds with attitude (the kind that act like everyone else is so dumb, don’t get me started on this variety of nerd), the sound of pets cleaning themselves, self portraits on flickr, orange juice with pulp, diet beverages, acne, team sports.

15. Name a favorite in the following categories:
Adjective: janky
Color: orange
Song or Band: “Ça Plane Pour Moi” by Plastic Bertrand–great for montages
City: Vancouver, BC (I’m not sure why, but I felt something special there.)
Television show: “Get A Life”
Book: A Confederacy of Dunces (comic book: The Greatest of Marlys)
Movie: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Food: gravy
Font: Nobel

16. Death Matches:
Red Apples v. Green Apples v. Yellow Apples: All are losers, variegated wins! I like Pink Lady apples best.
Ampersand v. Semicolon: Semicolon
Chocolate v. Vanilla: Vanilla
Coffee v. Tea: They’re both winners! Coffee in the morning, tea for the rest of the day. Wasn’t that the answer to the sphinx’s riddle?

TOMORROW = CURRENTLY OBSESSED WITH MINTY LEWIS.

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