GR: Did you have a good time at the San Diego Comic-Con? J: The Comic-Con is fun, but tiring. Being behind the booth is sort of like being in the eye of the storm. It's nice to meet readers and also other cartoonists that you never see except at these conventions.
GR: When you sketch, you seem to use very few pencils and go straight to ink. How much planning goes into one of your books? J: Sketching at conventions is one thing; drawing a strip another. I don't usually write a script or do thumbnail sketches. For the most part, I pencil directly on the original and then ink. Usually I work on 8 or 10 pages at the same time and go back and forth on those.
GR: What type of fountain pen and ink do you use? J: I use the kind of pen that you have to dip and different kinds of ink. GR: Did you go to art school or receive formal training? J: I went to the National College for Illustration and Design in Oslo, which lasted four-and-a-half years. GR: Is there an independent cartooning scene in Norway? J: The cartooning scene in Norway is a lot smaller than in the States, so everybody knows everybody. Most cartoonists in Norway do newspaper strips, but there is also some small publishers that do more independent comic books. There is very little money in it, but there are grants from the state you can apply for. GR: Why rabbits, cats, and birds as protagonists? J: I had a cat as a kid, but it doesn't really have anything to do with that. It's more the iconic qualities of those animals. Also, it's animals you find everywhere. I wouldn't draw an elephant character. GR: Your style is very melancholy. Do you consider yourself a sad person? A quiet person? J: Yes! I'm a quiet guy, I guess. But more melancolic than sad. Must have listened to too much Leonard Cohen. GR: Talk about the use of silence in your panels. J: What I like about silent strips is that they invite the reader to participate in the story and do his own interpretation. I like silent movies, Buster Keaton especially, but I've also gotten inspiration from the silent strips of Fabio and Jim Woodring. GR: The Iron Wagon is different from your previous works that I've read because it is very dependent on dialogue. How did you adjust your technique to handle it? J: Well, it's based on a novel, so I had to adapt it into a comic book. I couldn't just make it up as I went along, so I had to write a script and also do thumbnails. I also did research since it's a period story, taking place in 1909. I just wanted to do something different after having worked on silent strips for some years. GR: Are there any other literary works you'd like to "cover"? J: No, not for the moment. GR: Your color covers are awesome. Have you ever done an all-color book? Would it be harder to capture your mood with color? J: The covers are done in acrylics. I would never do a strip in that style. I generally don't like painted strips. They read slower, and the wordballons are no longer an integrated part of the panel, but this glued on thing, or even worse, computerfont on top of the painting. Fires by Lorenzo Mattotti is an exception, though. It's a beautiful strip. GR: I noticed that you have a comic of the week on your Web site. How do you feel about comics online versus ones on paper? J: I prefer paper! They were originally done for a newspaper. GR: What do you like to do besides draw? J: Read books and see movies |
