Matt D. Archives

Cover is done! Now just a few text tweaks and off to the printers! I hope to have copies in about a month.

'Xoc,' which follows the journey of a great white shark across the Pacific Ocean, is a nominee for the Ignatz Award in the Outstanding Mini-Comic category. Attendees of the Small Press Expo on Sept. 26 will select the winner!

Here's the final cover for my upcoming mini-comic Xoc. I gotta do a few things for the inside cover but hope to ship it to the printer next week.

Questions by Rafer Roberts

You've worked on both solo projects and on collaborations. What is your approach working in either method, and do you prefer one over the other?

My preference is to work solo. It's very satisfying to move an idea from its initial inkling to a full blooded comic page (although, the failure to do so is particularly frustrating). I also think, in the end, that it's the solo projects that really test a cartoonist's mettle.

Collaborating can be a refreshing change, though, because of the way it divvies up the creative and technical labor. It's also fun because you don't really know what the final product will look like, so there's some healthy anticipation to see the subsequent stages, too.

That said, I do think that the ideal is the one person - one comic model, and I think collaborations require that at least one of the people be able to do a whole comic on their own. Otherwise, the division of talent and labor can be too rigidly separate, and that disjuncture affects both the fun of the process and the quality of the product.

A lot of your work could be described as happy or welcoming or friendly. I can only assume that your work is such due to you having a terrifying dark side. What lives inside your soul?

I think juxtaposition is a very interesting and rich vein to mine with comics. Visual style is one source of that contraposition, using it as a kind of foil or cutting agent against other aspects of content or writing. I've lately been trying to use style as a kind of disarming aspect for content. It had occurred to me at some point that a more overtly cartoon style would yield certain dividends, like a potentially broader range of tone as between the writing and drawing. That way, I could plausibly zigzag between extremes and keep things from ever really settling too much for the reader. By consciously playing the writing against the style, and vice versa, I get an extra layer of storytelling to play with.

What is your dream project and why haven't you worked on it yet?

Somehow disposing of the commercial notions of "graphic novels" and "original art" would be something of a dream, I guess, but in the meanwhile I'm still waiting for things to bubble up out of the brain.

Schedule of Events for the Counter Culture Fest IV:

10 a.m.
Journaling with Shauna Lee Lange

11 a.m.
Performance TBA

Noon
Making Comics with Matt Dembicki

1 p.m.
Pilesar (pronounced pie-LEE-zur) is a percussionist and songwriter who specializes in LO-FI 4-TRACK molestation. Instrumentation may include microphone, voice, toys, broken effects pedals, borrowed instruments, thrift store finds, tapes, and various environmental factors. As both a soloist and collaborator, Pilesar has released dozens of fiercely independent recordings on his DIY label, Chameleon Dish Archives. Many of those projects have also found a home on Soundclick.com and are free to download.

2 p.m.
Learn to Crochet with Erica Burns of the D.C. Craft Mafia. Participants will receive a washcloth or a small rosette they can turn into a brooch. Vanessa of NinnyCat Crochet and the D.C. Craft Mafia will be on hand to show you how easy it is!

3 p.m.
Performance

4 p.m.
Screenprinting with Gyotaku with Anthony Dihle

5 p.m.
Rifle Recoil

A MASTER OF THE DELAY PEDALS. Jeff Kessel, a.k.a. Rifle Recoil, has a pretty intriguing approach to his music - he largely builds his tunes on delay pedals into a big, bold sound. Some would call it a wall of sound. The Arlington, Va.-based tunesmith pulls a lot out of his limited array of parts. Worth checking out are his immaculate one-man cover of the Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell classic "All I Need" and the funky Prince-like original "Bad Girl."

6 p.m.
Embroidery with Erica Burns and Shayne of Novelty Kitten. Make your own embroidered plushie! Learn to hand embroider, stuff and hand sew a little plushie with members of the D.C. Craft Mafia.

7 p.m.
Geeks of comedy
The Geek Comedy Tour is a collective of the funniest stand-up comedians from the Washington, D.C., area. Each one is an experienced comic, having performed at bars, clubs, and colleges all over the East Coast. Telling their normal jokes to normal audiences but all of that was about to change.
There was something amiss. For you see, they were all gigantic dorks, and comedy club crowds don't fully appreciate jokes about comic books, anime, and video games. So, they've decided to let their freak flag fly, form together, and bring their geek jokes to the horde that needs them most. Since their formation two years ago, The Geek Comedy Tour has performed at a variety of venues, from anime conventions, college shows, and even the grand opening of a comic shop!

8 p.m.
Michael Auger's black-light workshop

Auger displays his techniques to crafting art that shine day-glo under black lighting.

9 p.m.
Donald Keesing

Keesing was the singer and rhythm guitarist for Rain Crow in 1988/89 and Mink Ranch in 1990. He sang with the short-lived 1982 DC Punk band White Zombies (not to be confused with the very popular NY band with the singular version of that name). He is currently working with Randy Austin (Overkill -DC '76, Slim Jims, Graverobbers w/Karl Straub, Throwbacks...) Bob Young (Tru Fax & The Insaniacs) and CB (Martha Hull & The Steady Jobs) in a band called Dollar Bin.