(Interview conducted by Steven MacDonald for Crashland Studio)
I recently had the honor of a pre-read of Jamie Cosley’s upcoming graphic novel, “More Than Sparrows” from Blindwolf Studios. Anyone who knows Jamie will expect an all-ages fun romp accompanied by some well-placed scatological humor. But this project is different, more personal, more real. The art is still Jamie’s trademark style, but the story is much more adult, dealing with mature themes not often seen addressed so directly in sequential art, and never as gently or lovingly. I’ve been a fan of Jamie’s for a while, and so, after the restraining order expired, it just seemed for me to hunt him down for an interview, and he opened up about the story, his art and himself:
STEVE: What made you choose a long-form format for the telling of “More Than Sparrows”?
JAMIE: I’ve had parts of this story for a couple of years now. It actually began as an 8 page mini-comic. I had certain scenes in my head and certain characters that I wanted to use but the story took a long time to write. It was like a giant puzzle. I had pages strewn all over my bedroom floor and my wife would laugh at me because she knew I was working so hard but it looked kinda silly trying to ’storyboard’ on the floor where the dog was sleeping. Once I made it to 30 pages I knew it was going to be long-form in order to tell it right. And then a friend of mine came up to me at church and said I’m not sure why but I need to share this scripture with you. The scripture was from Hosea and I walked away from that conversation saying my story is finished…that was the last piece of the puzzle.
[Hosea is an Old Testament book whose writer, a prophet, marries a prostitute, divorces her and then takes her back as a rather elaborate metaphor to symbolize God's covenant with Israel.]
STEVE: Who are your influences, both visually and in the story/subject choices you make?
JAMIE: I am a huge fan of minimalist cartooning, artists who convey a full range of emotions with fewer lines. I admire artists like Lewis Trondheim [fantagraphics.com/artist/trondheim/trondheim.html], Art Spiegelman [Comiclopedia entry: lambiek.net/artists/s/spiegelman.htm], James Kochalka [americanelf.com] and Fantagraphic’s artist Jason [fantagraphics.com/artist/jason/jason.html]. He’s probably my favorite contemporary right now. He has this book called Hey Wait that is just heartbreaking and he told the story with these little rabbit-cat characters. I also love mini-comics and the…I guess you’d call it “punk do-it yourself” aesthetic. I’m very stubborn in this way. When I had the early pages drawn, I sent them to a few people for feedback. One artist commented that he liked my character designs but it looked like I had inked it while riding on a bus! I was thinking to myself, cool, thanks!
STEVE: Tony Pony [Cosleys's signature character, for the uninitiated] has been described as semi-autobiographical. Does this story represent any specific event in your own life or is it simply a story using Tony as the protagonist?
JAMIE: This whole project has been an exercise in forgiveness. I needed to forgive someone that hurt me but I wasn’t ready to tell my story. I might tell that story someday but not yet. So I decided that I wanted to tell a ‘Job’-like story that, after reading it, people would scratch their collective heads and say, “This isn’t real,” at which point I’d say, “Hey, the main character is a talking horse!” No, I’m kidding. I wanted it to be a stubborn love story. I wanted to convey that God’s love is stubborn too….He loves us in spite of the fact that we hurt Him over and over again by the way we treat others and in some cases the way we treat ourselves. And I wanted to draw Tony…I’ve been drawing him for 10 years now and I’m just getting the hang of it.
STEVE: I was able to view an early draft of the story, and, even with the roughness of some of the elements, the story itself and the accompanying visuals were almost overpowering. The major characters were all representations of people who actually could have made these life choices. Is it safe to say that this piece is meant to evoke a highly emotional response, irrespective of the character the reader identifies with?
JAMIE: Absolutely. I intentionally kept this story very ambiguous for that reason. I had one reader share with me that it was actually very similar to something that happened to them! That’s a God thing. Another thing is that the main characters don’t actually have names. People who know my work know the characters, but I wanted the reader to ‘plug in’ the names and in some cases the missing ‘pieces’ of the story. Have you ever read Maus?
STEVE: I have. I consider it a seminal work of comic fiction and am continually recommending it to both non-comic readers and those who’ve mostly just read monthlies and are starting to seek out the upper limits of the medium. [Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman, won a Pulitzer Prize Special Award in 1992. While dealing overtly with the semi-autobiographical story of the writer/artist's father's survival of the Nazi concentration camps, it delves into deep psychological ground, fleshing out not only the major characters but also deeper issues of hatred, Jewishness, ethnicity in general, and family. The ethnicities of the characters are represented by different animals - Jews as mice, Germans as cats, etc.]
JAMIE: I remember some people saying that it was pretentious, but it hit me like a ton of bricks! The powerful, emotional story told with these minimalistic or anthro…whatever that word for “funny animals” is…was very effective. I wanted to do something like that, though obviously not anywhere near as good. Maybe someday…when I get better…
STEVE: How did you get involved with the Christian comics movement?
JAMIE: I can honestly say that if there had never been a Megazeen [MegazeenOnline.com] then no one would even know or care about me and my comics. They have not only been hugely supportive of me and my work but they put me on the map, so to speak. I got my job with Campus Life magazine [now known as Ignite Your Faith; ChristianityToday.com/teens] because the editor saw my comics on the MZ website. I love the fact that everyone’s argument (it seems to me, anyways) has been that Christian comics need to look like Marvel and Image comics in order to make an impact, and here comes this crudely drawn zine with tons of heart that changes all that.
STEVE: What is your mission? What greater purpose does your art serve?
JAMIE: I just want to tell good stories that people will want to read again and again. I want them to know me a little better…even the yucky stuff. But again, I haven’t told those stories yet.
STEVE: What brought you to choose this type of creative outlet? When did you realize that there was a void to fill and that you were the one called to fill it?
JAMIE: I have always loved drawing and, like most kids, I grew up reading and loving comics. It was just a natural progression, I guess. I don’t know that I am filling any void per se…I kinda look at my stubbornness as a blessing and a curse. I don’t want to follow any conventional methods of cartooning. I want to do it my way. I guess that’s prideful? But I will say that the reason the artwork is better in this book is because of a young upstart named Josh Alves [www.joshalves.blogspot.com]. This guy rocks! He and I were able to collaborate on this project, and it wouldn’t be what it has come to be without him.
STEVE: What else have you published recently? What’s next for you and Tony?
JAMIE: I’m always doing work for Blindwolf Studios [blindwolfstudios.com]. I illustrated a 6-page story for a new book called Lil’ Creeps that just came out. I was going to start on another project with Josh and another pal but ‘life’ interrupted. I do update my journal [brokenpony.com/cgi-bin/comics.pl?state=view] with cartoons quite often.
STEVE: While still fulfilling your calling, what greater part in the movement do you see yourself playing? How could your talents be used in ways that they might not be currently?
JAMIE: Hopefully when I’m an old coot I can still be an encouragement to others and still draw my own comics for the 12 people that like ‘em. Okay, 13 if you include my mom [his Mom did not return our phone calls...kidding!]. And I think it goes without saying that I want to be careful to give all the glory to God. No God, no Jamie. So keeping that perspective is a must. I would especially like to encourage those people that ‘march to the beat of their own drummer’ rather than trying to look just like everyone else. I like the weird stuff, like Quaceb by Chris Waggoner [http://mogwai_toejam.tripod.com/Quaceb.html, issue one available at megazeenonline.com/buyadventure.html]…that ‘cat’ is the new coolness.
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