Dan Dougherty is a good-natured and hardworking cartoonist. He’s living the dream and actually getting somewhere with his comics. It is a pleasure to catch up with him and discuss his work on the ongoing comic book, “Rotten” as well as the new graphic novel, “The Apocalypse Plan” and his comic strip, “Beardo.” To recap for you, “Rotten” is published by Moonstone and is about zombies in the Wild West; “The Apocalypse Plan” is published by Transfuzion and is about what happens when heaven and hell are competing corporations; and “Beardo” is about a guy with a beard who is a barista and an aspiring cartoonist. So, without further ado, Dan Dougherty:
Blog@Newsarma: Dan, guide us through the cartoonist’s life. You have a daily comic strip, “Beardo” and you also draw the ongoing comic book series, “Rotten.” Let’s start with a typical day for you.
Dan Dougherty: Well I’m more of a night-owl, and not much of a morning person. So most of my work gets done during the peak hours of the day for human contact. There’s no formula to it, it’s really just a matter of working on the project that needs to be done the soonest. With “Rotten” and “Beardo,” and the random project here and there, I always have something to do. If I can get a page drawn and a ”Beardo” strip done, it’s a good day.
I used to hate Chicago winters, but I take comfort in them now because they make it easier to stay indoors. You know, reading that back, it seems like I have an abusive relationship with the weather. I might as well have said Mother Nature is the Chris Brown to my Rihanna. Too soon?
Blog@: Perhaps. Well, being involved in comics at your level is a case of survival of the fittest. Let us in on how you evolved as a cartoonist. What are your earliest memories?
DD: Oh, I’ll take it all the way back to memory number one! My first memory is drawing He-Man with my mom, who is a painter. Beyond that, I’ve always had drawing as the one thing I was good at. Terrible athlete, decent student, but I could draw you a hell of a Tyrannosaurus.
In college, I got a little more competitive about drawing. I went to a school where there was a lot more emphasis on concept, rather than technique. For some students, that meant that they could slap together anything they wanted as long as the idea was interesting. It just proved that technique needs to come before the crazy idea, otherwise no one’s going to waste their time with your work. To put it better, I had one teacher who said, “you’re not artists, you’re students. Stop talking and study!”
To wrap up this epic answer, I came out of college unprepared for everything else, but with a good foundation in drawing and sequential storytelling. That’ll guarantee you a job at Starbucks.
Blog@: Speaking of Starbucks, it appears that the dynamic you’ve created between being a cartoonist and having your day job as a barista is working out well. For now, it’s a pretty decent balance, isn’t it?
DD: Actually, I quit the barista job about six months ago. So I’d say it’s pretty well balanced now. Although I miss having a paycheck that I can count on showing up every two weeks.
But I did work as a barista for five years, and it definitely lit a fire in me to get myself out of that job. Of course, nothing goes as planned and you can’t control anything, but one thing I could do was to keep making work. I wouldn’t call it a healthy balance, but I think that if I didn’t have something to prove to myself, I wouldn’t have made as much progress in my craft as I have. And even though I don’t work there anymore, the fear of returning keeps me drawing well past my bedtime.
Blog@: Congrats on moving past Starbucks. In a coffeeshop the other day, I heard someone order what sounded to be a bogus drink but she made it sound like it was common: a Mexican espresso. Her version was espresso, chocolate syrup and cinnamon. Does it annoy you when people make up stuff like this or is that okay?
DD: This is not okay! People cite the expensive prices as their excuse to play God with drink names, recipes, and the very fabric of social etiquette in a public setting! This is no joke, I had a guy come in and ask for his “Count Chocula in a tower with a kick in the pants.” The Count Chocula part meant a Mocha, the tower meant a large cup, and the kick was an extra shot. This might sound funny right now, but when it’s five in the morning and you can barely string a sentence together, deciphering code is not funny!
Blog@: I know what you mean. Back to comics, are there any comics that you have time to follow? Or anything that you’re currently interested in?
DD: I don’t really read as many comics as I used to, but I have been (slowly) following Brubaker’s “Incognito” and Millar’s “Kick-Ass.” And Mark Rahner has been recommending Layman’s “Chew” for awhile now. I have to get on that.
Blog@: So, talk to us about your comic strip, “Beardo.” How did it come about and what do you see in its future. Did it all begin as just this haunting image of a beard?
DD: I started “Beardo” for several reasons. I was getting really frustrated that my coffeehouse job was rapidly consuming more of my drawing time. It seemed like I’d have only a scant few hours left in the day to work on projects, mostly artist-for-hire quickie stuff. My writing itch was not getting scratched at all, so I decided I’d make sure to devote an hour a day to making a quick and easy comic strip for myself. It would be about my day-to-day struggles, which meant I’d never be at a loss for material. And that is how “Beardo” started.
The comic strip went somewhere fairly quickly, as a college newspaper (The Daily Illini) picked it up and still prints it to this day. I posted them online almost every day, and I started gaining a following. And if you do a comic strip a day for long enough, you have enough material to collect into a book. I now have “Beardo” in two volumes, two newspapers, and several online outlets, including a “Beardo” website. All of this from an hour a day.
I would actually like to do “Beardo” for as long as I can. I’m really trying to get it into more newspapers (or at least online newspapers, given the current state of the printed word), so if any of your readers are also editors looking for a new comic, I’m right here!
As far as books, I plan on doing another sequel, and a prequel that is set in my college days. Going to art school and having lady problems are two huge piles of potential comic gold.
Blog@: Now, share with us how your work in “Rotten” came about. That is quite a jump from “Beardo” and you handle it so well. Your drawing and composition skills really get to shine.
DD: Thank you. You know, the style of “Rotten” is actually closer to how I normally draw. I’ve just drawn so much in the “Beardo” style that it’s overshadowed everything else I’ve done. I actually prefer the kind of work we’re doing with “Rotten,” or even “The Apocalypse Plan,” where I got to use ink washes. See how I threw that plug in?
“Rotten” really was a huge challenge for me. I really pushed myself on the drawing end to include as much detail as possible. Plus, I’d never colored in Photoshop to that extent before, so I had a lot of learning to do. On top of that, Mark and Robert had a very specific vision established, so that first issue was batted back and forth between the three of us until everyone was happy. We also did all of this without a publisher lined up, so it was a labor of love from the beginning.
Blog@: How would you describe your relationship with the writers of “Rotten”? Talk to us about the process of creating pages for comic books.
DD: Mark and Robert have their own process of putting the script together, which I’m not involved in. It boils down to the fact that the two main protagonists (Wade and Flynn) are essentially extensions of Mark and Robert.
When I get involved, I deal almost entirely with Mark. I get the script, and I barrage him with as many questions as his fragile writer brain can handle (it’s at this point that I’d like to say how much I enjoy working with Mark). I’ve learned to keep my pencils loose, because Mark and I wage our epic battles exclusively in this stage. Once we can agree on something, he pretty much lets me loose to do inks and colors without much direction or revision.
Blog@: Tell us a little more about yourself. Any favorite books or movies you’d like to mention? Or anything else in your life that inspires your work?
DD: I’ve got my list of favorite books and movies just like everyone else on Facebook. It runs from “Calvin and Hobbes” to “The Wire,” but it doesn’t compare to having creative people around you that can inspire, sometimes without even intending to. My brother, Kevin, and I make a lot of comedy videos that we post on our band’s (Workhorse Kings) Facebook page. He’s one of the biggest reasons I’ve been able to keep my sense of humor throughout my tumultuous twenties.
My buddy Rafael Nieves has been in the comics field for two decades now. He is actually responsible for connecting me to Mark on “Rotten,” and I am still grateful to him after years of drawing zombies. We collaborated on a graphic novel – the aforementioned “Apocalypse Plan” – which I am intensely proud of. And he is always there for me as both a sounding board and an initiator for ideas. And yes, I am using this question to plug the hell out of my work and my friends, and I’m not sorry!
Blog@: No reason to be. Beardo is engaged to Meg. I am assuming that you’re also engaged. Congratulations, if that is the case.
DD: Yes. She’s gorgeous, and she actually thinks I can make good money in comics. I hope she never wisens up.
When I mentioned a sequel to “Beardo” earlier, the main theme of that book will be this whole process of planning for a wedding. There’s a wealth of material, and I’m going to try and convert it into a wealth of book sales. After all, I do have a wedding to pay for.
Blog@: As we close out, any other thoughts on the future? Or advice to budding cartoonists out there?
DD: I sometimes forget that comics are ultimately suppose to be fun. That’s something to remember when the stack of bills is blocking out the sun. I would say this to these budding cartoonists – you’d better really want it.
