Scratchy, Messy People: An Interview with Rob Jackson
Rob Jackson is a cartoonist living and working in Manchester. Here at Bugpowder we decided to chat to him about his comics, art education and thoughts on the small press scene. Here’s the result:
Please tell Bugpowder a bit about yourself and how you got into making comics.
I’ve been drawing mini comics for eight years. It’s hard to remember back that far as to why I started, but I met Colin Mathieson (of Accent UK) and Shane Chebsey at a comics’ mart at Sacha’s hotel in Manchester and they had mini comics for sale. They inspired me to finish my own. I had already started doing my first comic Train to Shanghai, which is an autobiographical story of my 36-hour train journey from Harbin to Shanghai. After that I did a couple of short story compilations and then Café le Guillotine, which is my comic about the French Revolution. Then I did my Random Journeys trilogy, which seemed to go down well. Then my newer ones On The Banks of the Mighty Croal, Bog Wizards and my latest one 8 Stories which is another collection of short stories.
Are you self-taught or do you have you had a formal art education?
I did a fine art degree at Salford. In the last year I did cartoons on great big sheets of paper, which the lecturers didn’t like at all, and made a few comic books too that I have never sold to anyone. I had got into manga and the ‘60s underground stuff (Crumb mainly) and started drawing them. I guess that answer should go with the first question though as that’s when I started drawing comics for the second time in my life, as I drew hundreds of pages of comics as a child.
There's a lot of variety in your work, in terms of subject at least. Any ideas why that is?
I am easily bored and don’t like doing the same stuff for too long. I like to try all the different genres. When I have a new idea I like to be able to do it in any way that seems best suited to it.
Which cartoonists act as your comic-making inspirations?
I’ll make a list: Crumb, Lewis Trondheim, Joann Sfar, Ted May, Mardou, Daniel Clowes, Jesse Reklaw, John Porcellino, Yoshiharu Tsuge, Taiyo Matsumoto, and some cool underground Korean comics I got while I was over there.
Is art how you make your living?
Sadly not, I have a boring office job.
Which of the artists that you mention do you see reflected as an influence in your cartooning style?
Porcellino, Sfar, Trondeim and Jeffrey Brown too. They have scratchy, messy ways of drawing people.
What were you doing in Korea?
When I left college I wanted to go teach English in Japan. But I couldn’t get a job there as I had no teaching qualifications or anything so I went Harbin in Manchuria, China and taught there for three months. Then I got fired and went to Shanghai by train as in my comic. Then I came back and went on the dole for a while and tried to get another job in Japan. Once again I failed and went to South Korea where I taught English for 6 months until I got fired again and came home via a month holiday in Japan. I was really bad at teaching English but it was a very good laugh, apart from the work, and constantly being fired…
What are you trying to do with your comics? Make a living, express yourself, push the medium, all of these? What do you think are your strengths and weaknesses as a cartoonist?
Express myself I guess. If I don’t draw, I get depressed with my totally non-creative job. I don’t expect to make a living, but I’m trying not to lose loads of money any more. My strengths would be trying lots of different things and not getting stuck with a particular shtick and then carrying on with it forever. My weaknesses are drawing people, and my animals all look like weasels. Though I quite like the way I draw people.
What do you like about your style of drawing people?
They’re nice and cartoony and good for looking sweaty or worried. I’d like to try a story where they are trying to show more subtle emotions though.
What’s next for Rob Jackson comics-wise?
I’ll have something new out for Bristol Comics Con’ I guess, though I don’t know what it’ll be yet. I might do a Bog Wizards 2 or a sequel to On The Banks of the Mighty Croal possibly set in the Pennines, or something new.
Can I add Viz in as one of my influences? I read that for years at school when I had given up on all the other comics.
Sure.
You've done travelogue. I wondered if you were influenced by any of the other cartoonists out there who have done this: Craig Thompson, Oliver East et al.?
I hadn’t seen either of them when I did Train to Shanghai. Just after I’d finished it I saw Guy Delisle’s Shenzhen and he stays in an identical hotel to me in that book. They are mass-produced in China. With On The Banks of the Mighty Croal I was influenced by Jiro Taniguchi’s The Walking Man for the drawings, but I’ve added in loads of writing to make mine into a somewhat sarcastic walking guide.
Any advice for aspiring cartoonists?
Try and get reviews from all the usual websites (Comics Reporter, Optical Sloth).
Which cartoonists, small press or otherwise, are you really digging right now?
I really look forward to anything new from Ted May and the Trondheim ‘Donjon’ series.
Oh, and tell us a bit about Korean comics.
Most of them look just like manga but they have a thriving underground and small press comics scene, a bit like here, too. The best thing for them there is that they have very cheap printing so you can sell a 200-page full colour book for £5. I bet the prices have gone up since I was there but compared to here it’s very, very cheap. Sadly, I’ve forgotten how to read Korean since I left so I can’t read the creators names on my books anymore…
Rob Jackson, thanks for your time. Rob's blog can be found here.
