Bloggasm

Dave Campbell stalks the misty forests of the Pacific Northwest, where he works for a nameless Huge Corporation by day and writes like a man possessed by night. His blog, Dave’s Long Box, chronicles one man’s increasingly pathetic attempts to cling to the halcyon days of youth by reviewing all the old comic books in his collection. Dave can sing “Stairway to Heaven” in pig latin and is a master at the “I’ve got your nose” sleight-of-hand game. Beware his power.

Simon Owens: You say on your blog that you want to write for comic books. How does one go about being a comic book writer? Is it a hard field to break into?

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A.R.Yngve, Swedish writer/artist, discovered blogs in 2004, became addicted, and started his own blog in 2005. He published comic-strips in Sweden during the 1990s, then decided to become a writer instead. It took him a decade to find a publisher. In 2004, his young-adult SF/F novel TERRA HEXA came out in Sweden, and the sequel is due for a 2006 release. His short fiction has been published in Sweden and China (see http://yngve.bravehost.com/yngve_in_china.html).

Simon Owens: In an email to me, you labeled yourself an “ex-cartoonist.” Why is this? Have you given up on the art completely?

A.R.Yngve: Sadly, yes. I came to realize that
A) the comic-book market was in a terminal decline;
B) the Swedish market for comics was too small to begin with;
C) I was better at writing than drawing, anyway.
However, the comics experience taught me some useful things about prose-writing: To be economical, and to focus on the “climaxes” in a story.

Simon Owens: For 2006, you set your goals towards being published in China more. Is there something about the Chinese market that you find appealing?

A.R. Yngve: China is a growing market for SF, and the Chinese readers have this great curiosity about other cultures and genuine enthusiasm for the future. When you write science-fiction in the jaded West, encountering this attitude is very refreshing.

For example: I discovered the Chinese market only because a Chinese student emailed me. He had seen my novel ALIEN BEACH on my website, and asked for my permission to translate it into Chinese! (See what I mean?)

Simon Owens: How does the Swedish market for SF compare to other countries?

A.R. Yngve: In a word: TINY.

When I started writing SF novels, I did it in English because I figured Sweden was the last place in the world I’d get ANY science-fiction published. So when a Swedish publisher finally accepted my novel TERRA HEXA, I had to translate it BACK to my mother tongue! My ultimate ambition is still to get recognized “abroad”, i.e. outside Sweden.

Simon Owens: What are the five blogs everyone should be reading (besides your own)?

A.R. Yngve: -Only FIVE? Unfair, man! But OK, here’s a list that’ll get old soon:
1. http://drudgereport.com
2. http://gapingvoid.com (great cartoons)
3. http://rogerlsimon.com
4. http://saudijeans.blogspot.com (learn more about how people live in other cultures)
5. http://blog.wired.com/sterling/

Ralf Zeigermann: In the real world, where I am known as Ralf Zeigermann, I work as a freelance Art Director for several Ad Agencies in London and sometimes abroad. In the virtual world of the Worldwide Interweb, I’m running a weblog called The Cartoonist.

I started The Cartoonist in September 2002, mostly for fun, but also to publish my cartoons. It then mutated into a pure ‘Links-Blog’, and at present I simply publish everything I like – private stuff, paintings by a mate of mine, links, old German ads and whatnot. And still my cartoons of course. You may find it interesting. Or you won’t.

Simon Owens: Has running a cartoon blog made you more successful at promoting and selling your own work?

RZ: Yes and no. I started the weblog with the intention of merely publishing my cartoons in the vain hope a publisher might pick up on it and offer me a contract for a book. This of course never happened; I was very naive at the time. However, because of The Cartoonist (and because there’s a whole website built around it, which actually evolved out of the weblog), I quickly got in touch with other bloggers and I did indeed get some work out of it.

I illustrated Annie Mole‘s book ‘One Stop Short of Barking‘, I worked on a few projects together with Gary Santoro, and I got bits and pieces of other work through my weblog, like the Beerwise website, which is a joint project of London Leben and The Cartoonist.

But, as I said – all of it went through fellow bloggers. I doubt that a publisher, an ad agency or an agent is ever going to approach you just because you’re running a weblog with your stuff on it. You’ll still have to walk around with your (printed) portfolio and you still will have to phone up lots of people in order to get work.

Running a (cartoon) blog is certainly not a way of becoming rich, but you’ll definitely meet interesting people.

SO: Do you see any major differences between modern American art and modern UK art?

DZ: I’m afraid I can’t answer that question. Although quite a few friends of mine all over the planet are artists or work as artists, I personally don’t know much about the art scene in either the Uk or the US. I could answer a question about the differences between modern American advertising and modern UK advertising though.

SO: How does the art community in London compare to those in other European countries?

DZ: I don’t think there’s a major difference between countries; but I think there’s a difference between towns. For example, the Berlin art community is totally different from the Hamburg art community; and so is London from Manchester.

They all have their own style and they all are very close within their boundaries, there’s not much of a networking process recognisable. Which is probably bound to change, because of the web, and because more and more ‘virtual’ networking communities.

SO: What are the five blogs everyone should be reading (besides your own)?

DZ: Apart from the above mentioned:
Paperholic
Coudal
Eye of the Goof
Harald Siepermann
Mac Essentials/IT&W (a German FAB Weblog)