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Posted March 31, 2017 by Mari Linsangan in Comics
 
 

LET’S TALK KOMIKS: Seems that November Garcia has some Foggy Notions

Flipgeeks got another opportunity to interview a Filipino artist who have been published both here and abroad. November Garcia, a freelance graphic artist who have been published by Hic and Hoc for her work Foggy Notions will be at Summer Komikon 2017, selling her works.


November GarciaHow and when did you start illustrating/drawing comics?
I drew myself out of the womb. But the obsessiveness over creating comics came in my 20s when I started reading comics by Peter Bagge, Jim Woodring and Crumb.

I made this really sucky comic series about this girl named Bean, which was drawn in pantomime because I was too lazy to do any real writing. Plus I was on all these psychedelics at the time, so it was all really bad eye candy. I actually never drew that well. In art school they always loved my weird ideas and characters, telling me to enter art shows which I would never win, because my execution was never good enough.

What is your common inspiration when drawing?
Life. You just can’t make this shit up!

What is it like being in the indie comics scene? 
While I don’t know how much I’m really part of the indie comics scene at the moment, I am slowly connecting with many cartoonists I admire, thanks to my publisher Matt Moses of Hic and Hoc.

It’s amazing how friendly and supportive everyone actually is, unlike how it is, say, in the San Francisco music scene, where it can be pretty cutthroat.

Do you have a day job? 
I used to do full-time Graphic Design in San Francisco, but part of the reason why I moved back here is so I could work more on comics (San Francisco got way too expensive and my day job took up my whole week while chores dominated my weekends).

As the saying goes… “If you knew you wouldn’t make any money out of it, would you still do it?”. I will probably do comics until I die, which is both sad and fulfilling to me.

That being said, I still freelance as a graphic designer and get illustration gigs here and there. My income is more sporadic but I am fortunate enough to get by while having time to do what I love.

How do you balance work and other things while also working on your comics?
Since I freelance now, I pretty much work on comics 90% of the time. I only break that cycle when I get a design or illustration project. I never leave the house because I no longer have a reason to. I’m like this crazy hermit now, drinking in my pajamas and suspiciously peering through the curtains at my neighbors.

Foggy Notions Malarkey
I used to go to the park or on motorcycle rides when I lived in SF to get away, but here, malls are the only spontaneous option. I do take occasional beach trips so that I get some sun to offset my “drunk vampire” look and also interact with other humans (also sea creatures).

Can you tell us how your work, Foggy Notions if I am right, got published by Alternative Comics? 
Well actually, the publisher is Hic and Hoc, and Alternative Comics is the distributor.

When I was approached by Matt Moses to do a comic, he wanted a coherent theme, so we decided to focus on my misadventures during my 13-year stint living in San Francisco.
Foggy Notions, the title, alludes to foggy bad decisions, foggy Karl the Fog, and foggy like Lou Reed foggy.

What inspired you to make Foggy Notions?
Well I had been doing autobio comics regularly anyway so it just made sense to write about real events that happened to me during my time in SF, good and bad.

A lot of hi-jinx went on so there’s a lot more where that came from!

What’s the hardest part to draw from all of your comics?
Fucking perspective, man! It’s just torturous with all the damn lines and vanishing points—I just want to draw people, animals and trees.
Ironically, I got an A in perspective class in art school but I suspect it’s because my professor always got a laugh out of my characters…I was drawing these bears selling their babies, singing flowers and creepy nannies while the other students went about with the usual superheroes, blah blah. I loved that professor. His name was Jon Dalton, he was the best.

What about the easiest?
Animals and trees. I used to struggle with anatomy but these days I really love drawing people too. I also love to draw penises which, for some reason, upsets people.

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 You would be at Summer Komikon right? What should we look forward on seeing?
I got a very limited supply of Foggy Notions shipped over, which is being sold in the US and Europe but is not available in the Philippines at all. (I’ll get more for the November Komikon).

There will also be more of my mini, Malarkey, which is published by Blender Media. I originally self-published Malarkey to send to Matt for last year’s SPX (Small Press Expo) and he handed it out to a bunch of people. It got into the hand of comics critic Rob Clough, who reviewed it and even put it on his list of “Best Short-Form Comics of 2016″ in The Comics Journal.

You can find me at the Komikon Inc area this Saturday.

Any future projects and work we should be looking out for?
I’m working on Malarkey #2 which should be done by June (a deadline I set for myself because I want to bring it to CAKE (Chicago Alternative Comics Expo)! I won’t be tabling but I’m looking forward to meeting other cartoonists and spending all my dough on comics.

I’ve also gotten feedback from Foggy Notions and people have said that they were sad when it ended. I have a lot more to tell so I’m hoping there’s a Foggier Notions in the future. I’ll probably write it anyway, with or without a publisher.

cheese ramen (1)

Any way for your fans to reach out to you on social media?
I used to use my blog a lot during the Catholic Girls days because it went viral and I got a lot of hate mail, and saw some heated arguments in the comments section. That was really fun. These days I post mostly on Tumblr and Instagram. I plan to redo my website, eventually, to be completely comic-friendly but I’m too lazy at the moment. So…

Instagram: instagram.com/novembergarcia/
Tumblr: oneeyedwondergirl.tumblr.com
Facebook: facebook.com/yarrrrrr
Website (in progress): novembergarcia.com

Any words for your fans? 
For those who have stuck with me since the Catholic Girls days, thank you for tolerating my bad art, my annoying angsty period and my drunken delusions of grandeur. For those who have just started to follow me, I promise you, I will make you better comics…I am working my ass off everyday.

And in the words of Iggy Pop: “I fucking love you!!!”


Mari Linsangan

 
A Production Coordinator at a small independent movie production company. But despite the busy schedule of filming, she finds time for her hobbies as she's also a bookworm, a gamer, a occasional cosplayer and a certified geek girl.