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Interview

Comics artist Ivan Brunetti talks about his favorite books – Page 2

Ivan Brunetti's daily routine...

READERSVOICE.COM: Do you still live in your apartment on the north side of Chicago? What’s your daily routine?

IVAN BRUNETTI: Yes. I hate my neighborhood because it’s gotten really expensive. My daily routine consists of going to my job, coming home, eating junk food, weeping on the couch, masturbating once or twice, and falling asleep.

RV: What were you studying in college? Any philosophy? Which books or authors did you come across that you found interesting?

IB: I studied English, but I was barely functional through most of college (severe depression), so I don’t remember much. I probably read more in high school and after college than I did during college, sad to say.
There are too many great authors to list: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Joyce, the usual stuff.
Who the hell cares what I read? This is weird.

RV: Did you have any formal art training, and if not how did you learn to draw and develop your style and techniques?

IB: No; I’m pretty much self-taught; sadly, it shows.

RV: What got you interested in website design? How did you learn the technology involved?

IB: I knew a little bit about HTML formatting from a previous job I had as a copyeditor; later, a friend convinced me it was easy to make a website and taught me some basic stuff. Later still, a friend of a friend needed an assistant (he worked as a webmaster). And so I lucked into a job, basically, and learned most of it on the fly.

RV: What has influenced your sense of humor and your satire in comics like Schizo?

IB: A miserable childhood, depression, mood and sleep disorders, countless lonely lights, and the continuing horror of simply being alive. Plus, ever since I was kid, I liked to draw cartoons.

RV: Do many people focus on what you’re criticising and satirising about the world, and incorrectly think or assert that you’re promoting these things, and do you ever find yourself in any trouble as a result?

IB: I’ve gotten into trouble because of some of my autobiographical strips. I know a lot of people misinterpret what I do, but I have no control over that.

I try to assume that the reader is an intelligent, thoughtful, sensitive individual, but then I’ve met some real dingbats who read my stuff. Man, it’s too depressing to even think about. I don’t know why I even bother sometimes.

RV: As you get older do you find your perspective on life changes, and that the world seems less overwhelmingly stupid and vicious, and that you have some control over things? Some of your comics in recent years seem to be a bit more positive.

IB: Yes to all those questions.

RV: Do you draw every day and how much time do you spend drawing? Do you keep a diary?

IB: I doodle non-stop, but I can’t seem to start an actual page of comics. When I think of somebody eventually seeing my drawing, I freeze up. I’m pretty disorganized and have never kept a diary or sketchbook.
I have mountains of scrap paper, though, with barely-comprehensible doodles and scribbles on them.

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