READERSVOICE.COM: Roughly, how many gag panels like Funny Business, and comic strips and comic stories would you draw each month?

IVAN BRUNETTI: I can barely finish a page a month, if that, mostly because of my full-time job and because I’m too depressed to even move half the time. But I’ve recently agreed to do a weekly strip, so that might force me to change my habits soon.

RV: What are some of the visual influences that have gone into your comics over the years?

IB: Charles Schulz is probably my greatest influence; I see it in everything I do.

RV: Do you worry about how some things in your comics might have repercussions in your personal life, or do you go for truth regardless of the consequences?

IB: Yes to both questions. This is because I am a fucking idiot.

RV: While some of your comics seem a bit bleak, they also have a cheering or consoling effect. Do you deliberately try to console or cheer up people with your work?

IB: I’m just trying to get my honest thoughts and emotions down on the paper; of course these things are complicated and conflicting, which is why something can be bleak and consoling at the same time, I guess.

RV: Do you go looking in antique stores for old toys and pictures, like the matchbox in your collection, or do you just find them by chance? What are some of your favorite toys in your collection?

IB: I used to go to antique shops, junk stores, and the like (as well as compulsively looking on ebay). I had to stop when I ran out of money a few years ago. My favorite toys are probably my set of Peanuts dolls, just because they look so (incongruously) happy.

RV: Are you constantly looking and researching for your comics and do everything with an idea that it might be a comic, like Jennifer Meets Ivan, or do these experiences strike you as an idea for a comic later on?

IB: I’m pretty obsessive-compulsive, so my comics reflect whatever’s going on with me at the time.

That Jennifer Meets Ivan cartoon was drawn as “filler” for a website (that girl interviewed me for her site); thankfully, this interview was never transcribed.

RV: What are some of your plans?

IB: Schizo 4 will be done in 2 months; the strips in there are actually about 1/3 of a larger work that I am planning, which will probably take me another 2 years to finish.

HAW! will be reprinted sometime next year, unless my publisher goes bankrupt.

Also, I’m putting together a collection of the first 3 issues of Schizo as well as a lot of the stuff I’ve done for anthologies over the years.
This collection will hopefully be out in time for X-mas 2004; it looks like it will be roughly 176 pages.
All of these projects of course are based on the assumptions that (a) the world doesn’t end and (b) I don’t blow my head off first.

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Check out Ivan Brunetti’s comics and illustrations on his website www.ivanbrunetti.com.