SVA INK Magazine Fall 2021

Read back issues at inksva.com INK magazine assembles the best comics by students at the School of Visual Arts.

All stories are ©2022 by their respective authors. All rights reserved. No work from this magazine may be excerpted or reprinted without permission from the authors. , Learn more about INK magazine at insva.com. For more information about SVA s cartooning program, visit sva.edu. Special thanks to Christopher Cyphers, Emily Ross, Jason Little, Curtis Edwards, viktor koen, and Carolyn Hinkson-Jenkins.

Discover comics!

Juyoung Kim .....................@jjkkmmxd...................... 2-7 Ben Satt......................@stuffbendrew....................8-9 Ella Dick....................@ella.bella.draws................10-15 Elora Becker.................... @elo.becker........................16 Federico Muelas..........@federicomuelasstudio............. 17-22 Heather Mann..............@heatherdrawings............... 23-24 LAURA KNETZGER INTERVIEW....................... @lauraknetz.................. 25-31 Melanie Thipsomphou.... @melanie_thipsomphou.................32 Graciela Eastridge...........@squidlo_ 34..................33-37 Liah Yu........................@justadoodler20................38-39 Krystal Perez................@gyrlfriendart..................... 40 Nahia Mouhica....................@peachiare.................... 41-46 Terry Cherubini.......... @terrywho_cartoons............47-48 Yeabin Lee...................... @judgedarts................. 49-52 Sam Migliore................. @radical_bears................53-54 CASPER MANNING................ @casperusual..................COVERS

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

ONE ON ONE WITH LAURA KNETZGER

Laura Knetzger is a Seattlebased author and artist. She graduted from SVA in 2012. She makes comics about feelings, including the kids’ adventure series Bug Boys.

25

INK: Congrats again on your recent publication of Bug Boys vol. 1!

LAURA KNETZGER: Thanks!

Bug Boys come about? Were these characters that you already had during your time at art school?

LK: I started drawing Bug Boys INK: What’s it like working in the summer between my with Random House Graph- junior and senior years at SVA. ic? How did this differ from I watched a documentary when Bug Boys was first about bug collection, and published by Czap? tried to draw cute versions of the beetles on screen as LK: Random House Graphic a personal challenge. I liked and Czap Books have both my designs a lot, so I decided been really great! Czap Books to make up stories for them. is a micropress run by one per- It was so fun that I started son, and they worked really self-publishing zines about hard to make a graphic novel them! I drew a couple issues that looked like it was from a in my room at the Gramercy huge publisher. It was so fun dorm and printed them in the turning my homemade zines SVA library computer lab. I into a proper book with Czap, just kept self-publishing zines it felt like I was taking a big after college and tabled at step forward. Random House comics shows and kept going is so much bigger, they’re a from there. “big five.” They can pay me more, print a book with higher INK: What advice would you production costs, print more give to current SVA students copies of the book, and prowho are thinking about a mote and distribute the book future in comics? way past the capabilities of a micropress. Compared to the LK: Figure out a project that step forward with Czap Books, you really, really want to work [Random House] feels like on. Make it something of your taking off in a rocket. own creation, rather than an existing IP. Break it up into INK: How did the story of tiny, manageable chunks and

26 Opposite: Laura’s cover art for Bug Boys: Volume 1, published by Czap Books

27

self-publish them. The goal is to make something that you finish, and then finish many of them. Even if you’re not interested in self-publishing/ indie comics, it’s beneficial to you to get the drawing hours in and build your portfolio with finished work. Figure out what about comics is fun for you and do that as much as possible. Find the pleasure in making comics.

exchange for “likes.” I miss it, but I also might just miss the comics community on Tumblr in 2012.

INK: What is the hardest part of the comic-making process for you?

LK: Hearing people say “This looks just like Adventure Time!” for the 10,000th time. Just kidding, it’s figuring out what the role of the artist is in a world on the precipice of disaster.

INK: Your autobio work is incredibly moving, what is your process for creating such heartfelt stream-of consciousness work? Do you plan the whole comic out in advance or is it more freeform?

INK: What do you feel are the main differences between publishing comics online versus a more traditional print publisher? Which do you prefer?

LK: For short autobio comics, I really just go for it right out of my head. I kind of have to be able to hold the whole thing in my head before I start, so if it’s longer than a few pages I need to make thumbnails. I haven’t really made any expressionistic autobios in a while because I was mostly making them to build a following on Tumblr, and I got tired of feeling like I was exposing myself in

LK: Online, you can just do whatever you want and get immediate gratification for it. You don’t have to run your ideas past an editor or incorporate anyone’s feedback into your work. It’s immediate, and you can immediately discuss your work with viewers since you’re probably posting it to social media.

In publishing, everything has to be planned out, pitched,

28

and approved by your editor and other figures you never have contact with, such as the sales and proofreading departments. It all happens agonizingly slowly if you’re used to the immediacy of publishing zines or online.

liked it. When I was looking for some freelance work, I emailed him asking if they were looking for anyone to draw backgrounds. He said no, but that I could take a boarding test, where you essentially just board one short scene to show your drawing and storytelling skills. I read up on the visual language of storyboarding, which is very specific. Mostly I read the official Adventure Time crew art Tumblr, King Of Ooo (kingofooo.tumblr.com), where they would post the entire storyboards for each episode after they aired. I spent two days drawing the test, turned it in and heard back a month later that they wanted to work with me.

Print publishing also allows you to have the resources of a giant company behind you.

It’s your editor’s job to make sure your book is good and the book designer’s job to make sure it looks professional, not to mention how priceless having them promote the book is. Publishing pays a real paycheck and online doesn’t, in my experience. I know there are people supporting themselves in webcomics thanks to Patreon but I haven’t sunk the time into self-promotion to do that.

Storyboarding pays pretty well (animation studios in California are largely unionized, meaning even as a freelancer my wage was good) but it is so hard. It takes so many more drawings to convey an action than in comics, and the deadlines are punishing. I would consider doing it again in the future, but I don’t know if I could work as a storyboarder full time.

INK: How did you come to storyboard for Adventure Time? Is this something you would consider doing again in future?

LK: One of the storyboarders on Adventure Time had gotten a Bug Boys zine somehow, and emailed me to tell me he

29

30

INK: All of your short-form comics are brilliant, but I’ve been dying to ask: What inspired “Eyes, Ears, Tail or Whiskers?”

INK: Any advice for finding balance in post-graduation life?

LK: Make an effort to make new friends in comics and hold on to the old ones. I lost touch with almost everyone I went to SVA with, which felt impossible when we were together in class all the time, but then it happened so fast. Cartooning is so solitary and we live in a hyper-individualistic culture, so it’s easy to lose people or forget how to be a real friend.

Consider connecting to people a skill you have to build, just like drawing and storytelling. Try to build good habits to be creative and take care of your body. Unfortunately, you really do need to exercise.

LK: I was trying to write something from the point of view of a cat, if one could really talk, but not in a cutesy or sentimental way.

INK: I know you’ve mentioned before about feeling somewhat trapped in New York City, and how the city affected your comic process. Is there anywhere else you would like to live/visit that you feel might inspire a more positive shift in your work?

LK: I currently live in Seattle, where I’m from. I don’t know if moving out of New York gave my work a positive shift, or if it was just the shift happening in my life at that time. Finding a place you want to live can be really inspiring, since cartooning requires kind of a “home base” to work from. I still wonder if I should try living in other places, especially if I could find somewhere cheaper to live that I would like just as much.

Opposite: An exerpt from Bug Boys

This interview was conducted on August 18, 2020. Since then, Laura has started a Patreon account!

You can directly support her and get daily comics at www.patreon.com/lauraknetzger. You can also find her on Instagram at @ lauraknetz, on Twitter at @lauraknetzger, on Tumblr at laurark. tumblr.com, or on her personal site at lauraknetzger.com. Thank you again to Laura for her time!

31

32

33

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

45

46

47

49

50

51

52

FIND YOURSELF in

MAGAZINE

Send in your , comics to be in the next issue of SVA s student-edited comic magazine Submit by March 15th 2022 Find more information at WWW.INKSVA.COM

art by TERESA CHERUBINI

Terry cherubini senior editor @terrywho_cartoons Terry has held a lifelong fear of anything with more than six legs, or crawls, or FLies. Any insect really.

Nahia Mouhica Junior editor @peachiare Nahia wishes to be a humble bumblebee, bumping into windows and sleeping in Flowers.

Cyd Levine sophomore editor @ploverdere Cyd likes watching insects make romance. Insects make her want to dance!

Heather Mann senior editor @heatherdrawings Heather spent her elementary school years crucifying ants on the playground. Now she collects dead butterFlies to hang on her wall.

apollo baltazar Junior editor @pm.baltazar Apollo used to have pet snails in high school. He misses them deeply.

Adam jones sophomore editor @adamsvanyc Adam Is always excited when he sees ladybugs. They ARE just chilling. There IS a lot to admire.