Rehab Exit Interview: Adam Ford

1. Briefly describe your experience at comic artist rehab

It was a challenge to pick up the pen and paper again, one that I set myself deliberately, but still tried to duck out of. I’m glad I did get back to the pens, though - I’d forgotten how much fun they were.

2. What, if anything, did you learn from the program?

That I actually do like drawing with pens - that’s something I’d forgotten. I also learned something else that I should have already known, which is that the creation of something totally new from scratch is always more satisfying than reworking something old. It sounds obvious when you say it, but it’s still something I tend to forget in the struggle to find creative time around work , social life and parenting.

3. Which one of your own comics are you most pleased with and why?

Day twenty-four. I really like Kid Shiva’s declaration, and the pose he’s standing in. I also like how “oh shit” the robot monkey looks. It was fun drawing the other characters really really tiny.

4. Which one of your own comics are you least pleased with and why?

I suppose the first one, cos it was done with ‘puters instead of pens, and the deafening silence of its reception told me something I kind of knew but didn’t want to admit - that using computers instead of pens has been kind of a cheat for me - a way to do comics that in some ways avoids the challenge of working pen-to-paper. I also had to admit that maybe the whole vector art thing might be something that doesn’t have as wide an appeal as I might hope.

I’m also not greatly pleased with Day twenty-eight - the way the line weights vary is evidence to me of the photoshopping I used to assemble the middle three panels. If I had had time, I would have redrawn those panels rather than cutting and pasting them.

5. Do you hope to keep up drawing comics after rehab? If so, how often?

I do hope to do some more comicking, but more than that the lesson I learned about stopping with the procrastinating and actually doing some work is something I’m hoping to apply to my novel, which I’ve been fucking about with for almost ten years now. The creative excitement and motivation I got from Rehab is something I’m hoping to be able to apply to the novel, and to all of my other pending projects across the board.

6. Any suggestions for future rounds?

I reckon the exit interview should also include a question about your favourite strip from other people in your round. So I’ll answer the question as though it already is included.

I liked everyone’s work - the variety of approaches was really great. But for sheer fuckoffitude, Sam’s day one strip was an amazing Spectoresque wall of sound that baffled, amused and intrigued all at once. Totally unexpected and quite, quite thrilling.

Thanks to Sam, Adi and Neal for their great work over the month - you’ve all been an inspiration

Tags: Adam Ford