Though she is still in the early years of her cartooning career, Suicide Wolf founder Sloane Leong is already beginning to establish her unique voice as a creator. Her comics are quickly paced and entertaining, but with a macabre undertone that seems to always be bubbling just beneath the surface. This same tension is mirrored in her linework, which combines smooth and confident figure drawing with detailed, almost frantic hatching. Furthermore, Sloane has a remarkable work ethic and has already become a prolific cartoonist, writer and illustrator. She is involved in a number of exciting projects, not the least of which is the founding and ongoing coordination of this very blog. In this interview, we discuss the genesis of her interest in comics, many of her recent works and her thoughts on comics, art and creativity in general.
Thanks to Sloane for taking the time to respond to my questions so thoroughly. To learn more about Sloane and her comics, you can visit her website, which provides links to all of her various ongoing projects. -- Andrew White
To start off, I was hoping you could talk a little about your background. How did you first get into comics, and have they always been a significant part of your life? When did you start drawing comics yourself?
My entire life I moved around a lot, so I was kind of an independent person and liked to be on my own. I drew a lot, watched cartoons, read books and generally liked to be left in my own little world. Like a lot of kids, cartoons were kind of my gateway to comics. Some of the cartoons and animated films that really influenced me as a kid were Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Ren and Stimpy, tons of Max Fleischer stuff and good ol' American Saturday Morning toons.
Obviously, comics were the perfect combination of stories and cartooning so I was immediately hooked. I started reading comics around 13, a couple years after I'd moved to Hawaii, and I'd hang out at Borders for hours while my mom finished work. I pretty much destroyed that bookstore and blew through all the comics it had. Been that way ever since.
I shifted from consumer to creator back in '06 and took the plunge into drawing comics. I joined a website which focused on improving sequential art. It allowed artists to create characters and "battle" them by creating opposing comic stories between yourself and another artist. It was a really fun and interesting way to hone my comic skills and exposed me to a lot of talented artists, many of whom are working as pros in the industry today.
A page from one of Sloane's comics at the website mentioned above
You're also engaged in a number of creative pursuits outside of comics, including fiction writing and illustration work. Do you see your artistic output among these various mediums as one big thing or as several disparate elements? Does each one scratch some kind of creative itch that the others do not?
That's a good way to put it actually, as everything that I do creatively takes care of a certain itch I have. If I'm comic blocked one day, I'll go and paint, or if I'm art blocked, I'll go and write a short story or something. If I can't do ANY of these then I'll go smash on the drums or mess around on the guitar as a last resort. I pretty much have no choice in the matter; it's an obsessive drive. I make art, make stories or make noise.
You're someone who seems to have been fairly active on the Internet as a cartoonist for several years now -- posting on forums, maintaining a blog and more recently a twitter, etc. In what ways is that kind of presence important to you?
Most of the reason is for my own benefit and enjoyment. I live and have lived in areas most of my life that don't have a big "art scene" so the only way I can get my fix and associate with other artists is usually online and occasinaly art shows or conventions once in awhile.
Now that I'm trying to turn comics into my main source of income I've found that attention is the most important commodity for a freelancer like myself. Most artists create new and original content every day or at least often. In a world that copies things over and over, being able to make something new, interesting and unique is an amazing ability. Self promotion and being known is key to being able turn that skill into something that is invaluable, if it isn't already.
As Suicide Wolf readers may know, you are the founder and driving force behind this blog. What were your motivations in starting Suicide Wolf? It seems that an important characteristic of the blog is that almost every contributor is a cartoonist. Why does that matter?
I had a specific idea for this blog when I talked about it with the other contributors. I couldn't find a place that only recommended good comics. I wanted a place that wrote only about good comics, old or new, not just every comic that came around and then criticize it. I see a lot of comic review sites and they just blog about anything and I go to read it and it's like a whole essay of why it was a horrible comic. I don't care about horrible comics. If I read horrible comics I'm pretty sure they would seep into my brain and spoil it. So no negativity here. Only quality comics.
I also wanted to be able to share all the awesome webcomics that I had been reading that weren't getting attention or weren't even in our own language like Korea's massive roster of webtoons which are just now gaining popularity as they're getting translated. I have yet to see a webcomic review site that covers webcomics as extensively as we do and is not just a popularity list. Also, having a place that could talk about art like drawing techniques, writing tips and pretty much anything that had to do with creating comics was a key element. Thus, the Wolf was born.
As for my cartoonist-writers, I find getting information straight from an actual artist, especially one from the current 'scene', is really important as we can relate a little easier to them. Also most of the writers are my good friends and also freakishly awe-inspiring artists, illustrators and comic artists and I really respect and admire them. Seriously, they're amazing.
More generally, do you feel that writing about comics is important to your own growth as an artist?
Definitely. Writing about comics, art and stories and breaking them down to understand them all ends up benefiting my work. There's a difference between knowing something and understanding it.
If you see a picture and you think to yourself, 'wow that picture is amazing' then you know that picture is amazing but if you don't take the time to understand why it is then you'll never be able to emulate it in your own work. Same with storytelling, you may know a story is good but if you don't take the time to study how a good story works, what makes a good character and understand those elements then you won't have them in your story.
You've also worked on a number of collaborative projects, with perhaps most notable being Maschinell, a graphic novel that is currently in the writing stages. Your collaboration with Nen on that project strikes me as fairly extensive -- how has that level of cooperation affected the development of the project?
It's been really great and I've enjoyed every step. Being able to have a different viewpoint on things is really important to me and one of the reasons I love collaborating on projects so much. We both specialize in different skillsets and have pretty different styles; she has a really exact, fluid style that is graceful and controlled while I'm more rough and chaotic. What we each lack, we can make up with the others skills. With the two of us together, the art style and character/environment designs are turning out really amazing.
Also being able to go through the story and put the characters and world together has been great and I feel like working with another person, another layer has been added to this world we are creating. As our differences overlap it's like the story we are creating is getting deeper and more piquant. She can add things that I wouldn't even think and vice versa. Also we're comfortable enough with each other that we can really pick apart the story and art we make, critically think about it and make it better which, for me, is priceless.
The story is now developing beautifully and is almost finished as well as the character designs so we're excited to get into thumb-nailing and busting out those pages.
Maschinell Illustration by Sloane
You recently had a comic published in the first issue of Fixit magazine. I understand that one unique aspect of that venue is that you had to go through a fairly structured editing process, which is an unusual thing in independent/alternative comics. What was that experience like? Do you feel that your Fixit work benefited from that editorial guidance?
It was really fun. I was surprised that [Fixit editor and publishor] Fawn actually chose my story just because it was kind of off the wall. I really enjoyed working with an editor and, as I said before, being able to get feedback from someone else is really important to me. It was interesting going through the traditional process of creating a comic (pitching, thumbing, roughs and inks) as I usually don't do the first two, or even the third, at all. I was kind of worried if my thumbs were too blurry or my roughs too rough but she was really easy to work with and explained what she needed perfectly.
What was great was that she really looked at my work in each stage and gave me some great feedback from story to dialog and paneling. I wouldn't hesitate to work with her again, or with any editor for that matter. Hearing how she broke down my work and what she noticed about my comic style really benefited me. It made me look at things that I had been doing that might be a problem in readability. When you see your work all the time and get comfortable in your style, it gets difficult to see it objectively or in another light so I was happy to gain that knowledge.
Cover and contents page of Fixit Magazine Issue 1
Finally, what projects are you working on right now? Where would you like to be in five years as a cartoonist?
I'm working mainly on Maschinell with Nen, our post-apoc, survivalist, tribal, cyberpunk graphic novel. I'm going to launch a cute, full-colored, odyssey webcomic soon with another writer, Elle, called Wild Roots which will be the most adorable thing I've ever worked on in my entire life.
I also have three solo projects, which all graphic novels, but I'll only mention the one that's the closest to being down which is called Comet Scabs, a little absurdist, scifi, slice-of-life novel. It's a story about a group of poor kids living in a small, tropical slum on an island and how the deal with the madness that ensues when a comet crashes into the middle of their home.
In five years I would love to have several of my graphic novels finished and out in the world, whether they're published by me or someone else. I would also like to be living in Mozambique by then but we'll see how that goes.
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