About two years ago I spent the summer in London at my uncles' flat in Kings Cross across from the station, they recently moved to Seven Sisters.. but that's not the point, the thing is I was often stranded outside the building waiting for them to get home because I didn't have a key.. one of those days I spent a few hours in a local print shop and discovered the great
Bedsit Journals bought a few and went on with my life.. I started getting into comic books in high school and had had very little contact with them before. My first recollection of reading a 'comic book' was as a kid when I picked up one of those dirty graphic novels from a warehouse in a factory my dad ran in Mexico, which of course any six year old would find fascinating..
I also remember one of my father's associates had a teenage son with a fascination with Archie comics which even now seems bizarre to me.. any how I enjoy the usual R. Crumb and many other lewd and ironic publications.. so back to Richard Cowdry's
Bedsit Journals... I added him on facebook and some other comics artists and recently came across Bronwyn Price and since I couldn't find any information on her over google (lol)...... she agreed to let me facebook interview her and post some of her art/comics which is fucking clever and amazing... look at the LINE QUALITY- its all about the line quality and dot shading or is that benday?.. so here it goes:
J: where are you from?
B:Born in Barking (east London), grew up by the seaside then moved back to London in my teens. I'm currently in south London.
J: do you publish your art as comics?
B: Not yet, but that's what I'm working on now, getting enough stuff together to put some out. Hopefully soon.
J:what got you into this style?
B:As a kid I liked old movies and girls' comics and they both made quite an impression on my view of the world. When I was older I got into underground comics, pulp books and record covers, stuff like that. I didn't start drawing properly until I was 30 so by that time I'd had a lot of influences going in. I think there's a slight '70s touch to my art though I can't put my finger on what it is exactly. I started stippling (the stuff with all the little dots) because I wanted to make my comics look like old movies. Then I was shown the works of Drew Friedman and I went stipple-crazy for a while after that. I've not quite reached the style I'm going for yet but I'm getting there.
J: have you been to art school?
B: No, I did art at school and it was enough to put me off picking up a pencil again for twelve years. I started a film studies degree but got kicked out early on. The film studies course was probably a pretty big influence on me though.
J:who is your favorite artist/comic book artist?
B:Oh gosh, it's a real struggle answering that but if I had to choose I'd say Basil Wolverton.
J: I notice you have a lot of blues inspired comics: who is your favourite musician?
B: Music has been such a big part of my life I can't help but draw it. Mainly 50s/60s music, especially country and soul. The Everly Brothers are a big favourite of mine. I even started drawing a comic about them until I realised that publishing it might not be exactly legal.
J:for your shading do you do it all by hand or do you use benday pattern or both?
B:I'm the old-fashioned type and do it all by hand. The stippled stuff I do using a small paintbrush and ink. My favourite way of colouring is with an airbrush. I've probably got one of the most time-consuming comic techniques going but I just like the effect it gives. I'd like to try that benday thing out though.
you can check out more of her work at
http://calliopekid.deviantart.com/
and that's a WRAP!
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MJJ
