How to deal with stupid clowns: An interview with artist and writer John Garett

Today, I'm talking with a different sort of creator than my usual subjects. John Garett, an artist and writer, who has decided to meld his two talents in mixed comics/prose humor project, How to Deal With Stupid Clowns who Don't know what the Hell they're talking about!

John is giving away one free copy of his e-book. Just leave a comment with a valid e-mail address, and tomorrow morning I'll use random.org to select a winner.

Before we get started, here's a little "show, not tell" with John's book trailer:

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1) Tell us about your book. 

Sure, it's called How to Deal with Stupid Clowns who Don’t know what the Hell they’re talking about!  It's a mix of funny comics and life lessons that show us we don't have to put up with the annoying stupid clowns in our lives. At the very least you'll probably be able to relate to my experiences. I think we've all dealt with these people at one point in our lives. 

2) What was your inspiration for this book? 

Well, I've dealt with a lot of difficult people over the years, and I thought this was a way to pay them back a little, as well as have some fun with it at the same time.  

3) Can you tell us about your artistic background and education? 

I've been drawing as long as I can remember. I started out just trying to emulate the comic books I read as a child. Then I majored in art in college (I have my B.A. in Art) and continued learning from various books, blogs and videos. 

4) Is there anyone in particular who influenced your artistic and storytelling approach?

For me it was always one comic book creator after the next. I'd model myself on a certain artist one year, then the next year I wouldn't like that style anymore and I'd try to find something else. So I guess there isn't any one creator that pushed me over the edge and made me decide to do this. 

5) What sort of advantage does this storytelling format provide you? 

The great thing about comics is that "show, don't tell" is the name of the game. I can convey a lot of information in 1 page of a comic that might take me one or two pages to accurately describe in writing. In the book I lead in with a comic, then I switch it over to written word, and then back again. I think it punches up the book and keeps it from getting stagnant. 

6) Excluding the work of the individuals who influenced you artistically, do you have a favorite graphic novel or comic series? 

Well, along with every other comic fan out there, Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons was one of my favorite stories. If you look at the art closely, so many clues are given away based on the characters expressions and their body language. There were no coincidences in that artwork. Number two would be the Marvels series, by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross. They captured the magic of the early Marvel universe so perfectly and made it all seem like it could be real. I had never seen anything like that at the time. 

 7) What other future titles are you currently working on?

I'm still working on my fantasy-themed story called True Tales of the Soryan Order. That one will be more of a traditional written novel with the artwork kept in the usual places of covers/dustjacket and merchandise as opposed to inside the book itself. 

 8) Comics, as a medium, are a sort of in-between point between pure prose books and animated films. There are obvious production difficulties, especially for individuals, accompanying animation that aren't present with comics, but that being said, do you have any interest in ever seeing this work as an animated feature? 

I definitely thought about animating it. But at this point I decided to not bite off more than I can chew. If I can gain the level of success I'm hoping for from this then I'll probably go back and do an animated piece for it. If there's a good response to it it might turn into a regular thing. You never know!

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Thanks, John.

If you're interested in winning a free copy of  How to Deal with Stupid Clowns who Don’t know what the Hell they’re talking about! just leave a comment with a valid e-mail address.

You can see more of John's work at http://hypertransitory.com/ and purchase his book at http://hypertransitory.com/stupid-clowns/.

John stopped off here as part of a blog tour. He's doing interviews, guest blogging and more giveaways as part of his tour throughout December. You can find a list of this other stops here: http://www.vbtcafe.com/2011/11/john-garrett-tour-kick-off-giveaway.html