Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, Dirty Diamonds, entertainment, Kelly Phillips, weird me

Philly Comix: Talking With Kelly Phillips About Weird Me, Dirty Diamonds And 24-Hour Comics

Published Wed, 24 Feb 2016 11:45:05 -0600

By Nikolai Fomich

Kelly Phillips gets things done. A versatile cartoonist and editor, Kelly has produced a number of indie comics, including Weird Me and Oh, The Things You Won't Know!, co-founded the all-girl comic anthology Dirty Diamonds, and organizes Philadelphia's annual 24-Hour Comic Challenge. Kelly's work embraces both the bizarre and the personal, providing a humorous and thoughtful perspective. I spoke with Kelly about her career and her love for funny books.

Nikolai Fomich: Kelly, why do you love comics? What would you say is special about this form of art?

Kelly Phillips: Comics make sense to me. I was definitely indoctrinated at an early age. There's a lot of inherent nostalgia tied in with them because I grew up reading tons of superhero comics that my dad would buy every week, reading all of my mom's Kliban and Garfield collections, scouring every inch of the Sunday paper's comics section… I think it geared my brain a certain way, and I get a lot of satisfaction out of combining art-making and story-telling. It wasn't until I was a little older that I got exposed to what at the time were less typical comics, and that's when I actually realized how unique and varied and powerful they could be. I can talk forever about how comics can tell stories and express ideas in ways that other formats can't, but suffice it to say that a cartoonist can control every element of how a story unfolds and how a reader soaks it in. I love how I can put that much curation into it and really craft an experience for a reader.

NF: Growing up, which comics meant the most to you, and which creators did you find most inspiring?

KP: When I was thirteen, I spent an entire summer reading every single issue in my dad's collection of half a dozen long boxes of X-Men comics. Jim Lee, Joe Madureira, the Kuberts, Chris Claremont – I freaked out. It was gold. That was the first time I read comics that both completely blew my mind, and were true garbage. Then I went whole hog into manga and webcomics. I read a lot of shouja manga (I loved Yuu Watase) that my friends had, then things like Hellsing that my ex would give me (also responsible for introducing me to Alan Moore comics). I've always been very torn between the incredibly feminine and the oppressively masculine. I love it all. The aesthetics from the two play a big role in my own style. I think it's important and fun to incorporate elements of the things you like from other people's work into something that's uniquely you.

NF: Talk a bit about your early cartooning years. What were some of your earliest works?

KP: I was always doing autobiographical comics as a kid. When I was little, I had this horrible ongoing comic that I did on lined notebook paper about all of our cats (my mom is a veterinarian and a crazy cat lady) where they stood on their back legs and made stupid jokes. I drew stick figure comics about my friends, I copied artwork from my favorite cartoonists, I imitated the storytelling that I knew, I drew fan art and fan characters. I was all over the place.

When I first deliberately tried to get "into comics," I was totally lost. I knew it's what I was drawn to (ha), but I didn't have a lot of direction. I tried doing gag strips, I tried doing wordless art comics, I tried doing the things that other people were doing… I think once I started to focus on being authentic in my writing and more relaxed in my art style, it all started to click.

NF: Your first big success in comics was co-founding the all-girl comic anthology Dirty Diamonds with Claire Folkman, an anthology presenting incredibly honest views by cartoonists on work, beauty, relationships, and pleasure. How did Dirty Diamonds come to be – and why?

KP: Dirty Diamonds was the result of getting fed up. It was our first time really taking a microscope to the comics scene and the books that were being put out by alternative creators, and after attending a show and seeing a pretty large gap between the numbers of women being published in anthologies versus the disproportionate number of men, we said, screw it – let's publish what we want to be reading.

So, we gathered our favorite ladies, came up with a theme that was near and dear to our hearts (alcohol), and we published a book. Dirty Diamonds has evolved so much since we started doing it, and I love what it allows us to do in providing a venue for really candid comics, and sharing (and constantly discovering!) work by women we're blown away by.

NF: I would be remiss to interview you without asking about your Weird Al fandom. You've recently completed your four-volume Weird Me comic series, which chronicles your journey from webmaster to something of a minor celebrity within that community. What was it about Weird Al that spoke to you so powerfully back then, and why did you feel it important to tell the story of your fandom today?

KP: This is a hard question! What was in my thirteen-year-old brain? I don't think it's a coincidence that I got obsessed with Weird Al and compulsively read comics at the same age. It was also when I first really got on the internet. Doesn't the internet beg for obsessive behavior? I think when I discovered Weird Al, I felt like I stumbled upon a secret. Here was this guy writing music about all of these things in pop culture that I knew about and was into, and it felt like it was all just for me. The fan website was also really born out of the petition I wanted to launch in order to have his movie UHF re-released, so I guess that's an early precedent for me creating something and trying to get things done myself after getting fed up.

As for why it was important to tell this story, this is something that had rattled around in my brain for a long time. There was a long period of my life where I was not a Weird Al fan, where I fell out of it, and I sort of forgot about this huge, important chunk of my life. I touch on this whole revelation in the later volumes of Weird Me, but it was an embarrassing piece of my identity that I eventually recovered and embraced. As someone who spends a lot of time reflecting through autobio comics, it felt impossible to omit something like that from my work. The timing finally felt right, so I gave myself a deadline and I cranked it out.

NF: You've also recently completed your latest 24-Hour Comic Challenge, where cartoonists are given twenty-four hours to make a twenty-four page comic. What was that experience like?

KP: This was actually my fifth time doing it! I'm the organizer of the challenge in Philly! It's like a sickness now. I've had vastly different experiences each time I've done it, but I've always managed to be successful. The first time I faced the challenge, I went in with an awful plan. I wanted to come up with three distinct comics that make up the full 24 pages, 8 pages each, and I wanted to pencil my way through each section before starting on any of the inking. That did two things: it gave me the stress of having to come up with multiple ideas throughout the 24 hours, and it completely killed my hand to frantically ink for hours at a time. Never again.

Year two, I had a much better grasp of it. After that, I tried to keep challenging myself to do new things – year three I came up with a complete fictional narrative on the spot, year four I tried to write a story on the spot that came full circle, year five (this year) I did my whole comic in prose and played with layouts.

I think the 24-hour challenge is exactly what you make of it, and I think you can learn a lot about how you currently work, and what you can do to break away from your habits and learn new ways of working (whether you ever want to work that way again or not). We'll see if I'm up for doing it again…

NF: What other new comic projects are you working on? What can we expect next from Kelly Phillips?

KP: There's always something! Last year, I made a big effort to be as productive as possible, while also working full time, and I want to keep that momentum going. I have a couple comics in the works for some large and small publications, along with a few publishing projects of my own (including a digest of particularly inspiring and empowering Dirty Diamonds comics, aimed at young readers). I also keep getting my hands deeper into organizing comics-related events, because I can never say no to putting more on my plate. I've been brainstorming what I want my next big project to be, but I know that I want to work on a long-form fictional story, and I know I want to publish an ongoing comic online. Probably also some cat comics.

The latest open call for Dirty Diamonds also just launched! The theme for the upcoming book will be "Imagination". We're taking proposals through March 1st, and we're planning to debut the book this fall at SPX. All the details can be found on our website, and submissions can be sent here.

NF: Finally, Locust Moon has, sadly, closed. Any words on what Locust Moon and its gang has meant to you?

KP: The Locust Moon boys are my degenerate big brothers. I love them. They're idiots. They're my kind of idiots. They did such an amazing job curating not only a beautiful, inviting space with their shop, but also creating an unbelievable sense of camaraderie between all kinds of comics creators that will last well beyond the final beer that's spilled on the warped hardwood floors.

They were kind enough to invite me to be part of their schemes in planning their latest festival, and they were wise enough to let me boss them around. I can't believe how well they've done for themselves in their publishing, and I will always rub it in their faces that they lost the glowing, Back to the Future-themed Philly Geek Award to Dirty Diamonds right after winning their Eisners. The shop closing is bittersweet, but I know they've always got something new up their sleeves.

Kelly Phillips is a Philadelphia-based cartoonist and editor whose works include Weird Me, Oh the Things You Won't Know!, The Edge, and Dirty Diamonds. Read her thoughts on Twitter @kellypcomics and visit her website

Nikolai Fomich is a Philadelphia-based writer, journalist, and scholar. Follow him on Twitter @brokenquiver.

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