READERSVOICE.COM: You have said you liked Running With Scissors and Picasso: Creator and Destroyer, and Dear Theo. What are some other prose biographies and autobiographies you’ve liked, or have on your shelves?

TED INTORCIO: Gosh, I read a lot of biographies. Let’s see; recently I’ve been reading The Aaron Burr historical novel by Gore Vidal [Burr, a novel which includes a fictional memoir by Aaron Burr]. I also have been looking at Your Vigor for Life Appalls Me, the collection of letters from Robert Crumb. I’m a big fan of the David McCullough‘s stuff. Oh, and I just bought a biography from Denis Kitchen about Al Capp the creator of Li’l Abner [Al Capp: A Life to the Contrary by Denis Kitchen and Michael Schumacher]. Excited for that one!!

RV: How many comics and minicomics have you, and what are some of your favorites of all time?

TI: I’m very biased about my minicomics. I have too many, really. My worries about becoming a hoarder have moved me to cull my collection to a couple hundred minis every year or so. I think I’ll start donating to the Denver Zine library in the future. Favorite minis? Sam Spina and Noah Van Sciver’s minis are really my favorites. If you haven’t picked up Spina’s Dog Craps #2 you’re doing yourself a disservice. Also Pranas T Naujokaitis’ Laffy Meal is a masterpiece. It just won best minicomic at the DINK Awards on Saturday of which I am the director. Check out dinkdenver.com for all the nominees.

RV: What are some novels you’ve liked?

TI: I don’t read enough fiction to really be a great reviewer of that. I like the classics. Hemingway, Steinbeck, a bit of Shakespeare. In the past decade I also became a huge fan of J.R.R, Tolkein’s stuff. I was inspired to pick it up because of the LOTR movies, which I loved. But my favorite of his is The Silmarillion. It’s so dense and so real! What a genius of lore. Im re-reading it right now for the Umpteenth time.

RV: The comics you feature on Tinto Press aren’t afraid to use a lot of contrast, with lots of black and grey. And you can see what a difference a bit of imagination and extra effort in pictures makes in the appeal of comics. Do comics need that extra visual quality for you, or is a good story enough?

TI: I don’t separate words and image when deciding if I like something or not (if I can help it). The story telling in a comic is a combination of composition, performance of the characters, editing and direction just like in film. If any of it suffers, the whole thing can suffer. Not that the imagery can’t be ugly for it to still work great. The images just need to fit the story; sort of complement it. Coming from a graphic design background, I’m more interested in the graphic design principles being employed: repetition, gradation, anomaly, texture, and design contrasts like thick/thin, large/small, positive/ negative… etc. than I am in whether it’s drawn particularly well. I hope that answers the question?

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-copyright Simon Sandall.