Ray hosting the on-line comics panel at SPACE '07
1) Tell us a little about yourself.
Don't know what I can say that you didn't cover in your introductory paragraph. When I'm rich and famous, I'll have to hire you to ghost write my autobiography. (Don't hold your breath.)
2) Tell us about your comics.
Wasted Potential is a strip loosely based on my own life. It's about an amateur cartoonist named Norm Burns who pays the bills by working in fast food, and his friends and family.
3) How long have you been self-publishing?
My first self published books were two collections of my college strip "Norm's Dorm" that I made as Christmas presents for my family in 1988. My first "serious" self publishing effort came in 1994, and I started doing Dr. Bob and Irving in 1996.
4) Why did you decide to start self-publishing your comics?
Seemed like a good idea at the time.
5) Who are your main artistic influences--both in and out of comics?
In comics, I'd have to say Berkely Breathed; Garry Trudeau; Charles Schulz; Archie Comics, and perhaps Harvey Pekar and Grant Morrison as well...Outside of comics, I suppose my main "influence" would be Norman Rockwell, who had a comics artist's gift for telling a story in pictures. In fact, some of his paintings, like the one with people on the telephone, are comic strips. If he were alive today, he'd be Alex Ross.
6) What comics do you read?
The only currently published comics I'm reading regularly are Doom Patrol and Casper and the Spectrals. My favorite comics are the super-hero books of the Silver and Bronze Ages. Oh, and I am planning on getting the whole Complete Bloom County collection so that I can swipe even more ideas from Breathed.
7) What are some of your favorite books? (the kind without pictures)
My favorite writers are John Irving, Armistead Maupin, Sarah Vowell and Hunter S. Thompson.
8) Are you really Norm?
Actually, I'm really Mike Binkley.
9) Is the Bob Newhart Show available on DVD?
Yes, and it makes the perfect gift for fans of Bill Daly.
10) Will you have anything new for SPACE? Or are you working on anything new?
I plan to have a third "Wasted Paper" collection with all the Wasted Potential strips from 2009, which everyone reading this interview now has to buy if they want to know what the heck we were talking about in the last question. (At least what you were talking about...though if they ask me, I'd be happy to explain my obscure pop culture reference.)
11) What do you get when you cross a chicken with Norm? (everybody gets a chicken question)
A neurotic chicken. Though chickens are pretty neurotic as is, so you might not notice any difference.
Don't know what I can say that you didn't cover in your introductory paragraph. When I'm rich and famous, I'll have to hire you to ghost write my autobiography. (Don't hold your breath.)
2) Tell us about your comics.
Wasted Potential is a strip loosely based on my own life. It's about an amateur cartoonist named Norm Burns who pays the bills by working in fast food, and his friends and family.
3) How long have you been self-publishing?
My first self published books were two collections of my college strip "Norm's Dorm" that I made as Christmas presents for my family in 1988. My first "serious" self publishing effort came in 1994, and I started doing Dr. Bob and Irving in 1996.
4) Why did you decide to start self-publishing your comics?
Seemed like a good idea at the time.
5) Who are your main artistic influences--both in and out of comics?
In comics, I'd have to say Berkely Breathed; Garry Trudeau; Charles Schulz; Archie Comics, and perhaps Harvey Pekar and Grant Morrison as well...Outside of comics, I suppose my main "influence" would be Norman Rockwell, who had a comics artist's gift for telling a story in pictures. In fact, some of his paintings, like the one with people on the telephone, are comic strips. If he were alive today, he'd be Alex Ross.
6) What comics do you read?
The only currently published comics I'm reading regularly are Doom Patrol and Casper and the Spectrals. My favorite comics are the super-hero books of the Silver and Bronze Ages. Oh, and I am planning on getting the whole Complete Bloom County collection so that I can swipe even more ideas from Breathed.
7) What are some of your favorite books? (the kind without pictures)
My favorite writers are John Irving, Armistead Maupin, Sarah Vowell and Hunter S. Thompson.
8) Are you really Norm?
Actually, I'm really Mike Binkley.
9) Is the Bob Newhart Show available on DVD?
Yes, and it makes the perfect gift for fans of Bill Daly.
10) Will you have anything new for SPACE? Or are you working on anything new?
I plan to have a third "Wasted Paper" collection with all the Wasted Potential strips from 2009, which everyone reading this interview now has to buy if they want to know what the heck we were talking about in the last question. (At least what you were talking about...though if they ask me, I'd be happy to explain my obscure pop culture reference.)
11) What do you get when you cross a chicken with Norm? (everybody gets a chicken question)
A neurotic chicken. Though chickens are pretty neurotic as is, so you might not notice any difference.
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