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INTERVIEW: Get to know Comics Issue champ Mike Sgier
The Comics Issue came out today, and for the first time ever we had a celebrity judge in Art Baxter and a "top comic" selection. Congratulations to Mike Sgier! Check out his and all the comics here. But who is this Sgier guy?
INTERVIEW: Get to know Comics Issue champ Mike Sgier
The Comics Issue came out today, and for the first time ever we had a celebrity judge in Art Baxter and a "top comic" selection. Congratulations to Mike Sgier! Check out his and all the comics here. But who is this Sgier guy?
City Paper: What’s your day job?
Mike Sgier: I work at the library for an art school in downtown Philly. Though I have the late closing shift, so ‘day’ is more like ‘night.’
CP: How long have you been making comics?
MS: I started drawing comics in 2002, but didn’t start making them seriously until 2006.
CP: What should we know about you and your work?
MS: My main focus right now is a comic called Supernova Lullaby. It follows a group of aliens in a far away galaxy. It gives me a chance to work with a lot of different genres in an invented world, or in this case, a galaxy. I also make illustrations, sketch cards, and other assorted artwork. It seems like I have a hundred different ideas, and of course I’m trying to tackle them all at the same time.
CP: What’s your philosophy on making comics?
MS: Make time for the work. There’s just no shortcuts. To become good at any sort of craft, you have to a make a lot of it, and comics is no exception.
CP: How the hell did you manage to make a comic about monsters that was both funny and oddly touching?
MS: I tend to put some heavy emotions into my comics, but I also try to make them a little bit lighter at the same time. As I was working on this particular comic, I watched Werner Herzog’s version of Nosferatu. I had seen the earlier Murnau version, but I felt that Herzog really highlighted the lonely existence of the vampire, and I guess I empathized with that, and that emotion became part of the comic.
CP: Is there an origin story behind the winning comic?
MS: I was making the comic around Halloween, but nowadays you’re hearing about Christmas before the end of October. So I found that mixture interesting, and tried to find the perspective of a group of monsters and their reactions to a holiday that was never meant for them. Of course, I share some of the ambivalence.
CP: You won $100! What are you gonna do with all that cash?
MS: Well, it would certainly help to cover material and printing costs for comics. But there are also a lot of books being released from local, national, and international cartoonists that I really want to support. Those are the first two things that pop into my head.
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