Almost posted this in response to this post on The Panelists, but it didn't seem appropriate to set such self-involvement in that context:
"Blaise and I were talking today, and I mentioned this post, said that I hadn't yet read it, but it made me aware of his "Magic Forest" page again and reminded me of some of his earlier work like his very perfect zine Wigwam or other drawings similar in aesthetic. This work feels very unlike comics to me, and it makes me want to give up the medium altogether because comics are almost never this graceful."
"Magic Forest" reads as comics, I think, mainly because Blaise is known as a cartoonist. He told me today that he at one point decided that everything he did would be comics, thus freeing him from the question "what is comics?" I feel like I come at this from the completely opposite direction.
Everything I make is so informed by comics that I think I need to tell myself now that I should stop making comics in order to give myself license to explore non-narrative ways of expressing myself aesthetically.
I have a hard time feeling comfortable making art that isn't comics, but comics are a losing proposition. This blog is much more fun because people will read it and react directly, and I can react back, etc.
With comics, I feel like I put too much effort into something that doesn't communicate effectively. The immediate payoff that comes from blogging or more traditionally "artistic" pursuits like drawing/painting is so much different, so much purer an exploration of my impulses than cartooning.
I am so entrenched in this - how to define myself?
