Interview with Scott Stewart
As conducted by Chris Buchner

What got you into comics?
I came along at just the right time for the Silver Age. I was born in 1951, and I’m sure I read Carl Barks’ Disney material and Looney Tunes as a kid.

What was your first comic?
Detective Comics #275, “The Zebra Batman.” And Justice League of America vol. 1 #4, “Doom of the Star Diamond.” I was hooked for life by the covers of those two comics. I commissioned Fred Hembeck to recreate the Detective cover for me a while back, and he did a great job. I also remember seeing an early issue of the revived Flash at my doctor’s office. It was issue number one-hundred-and-something, with the Mirror Master. That (and the Superman and Batman annuals I soon found) intrigued me with their promise that comics had a long history I knew nothing about. Ironically, modern comics had only been published for about twenty years at that point — I’ve now been reading them for more than 45 years, so I’ve seen more than 2/3rds of the entire history of modern American comics.
I bought Fantastic Four vol. 1 #1 and Amazing Fantasy vol.1 #15 right off the rack for a dime. In fact, I remember not being able to afford FF#1 when it came out. The mom-and-pop grocery store on the way home from school kept their comics on a rack attached to a pegboard end cap — I slipped FF#1 behind the pegboard and came back a few days later and bought it. The whole comics explosion of the early ‘60s — I was an adolescent then, and it was right up my alley! Then my best friend Mark and I discovered a local thrift shop where we could get comics for a nickel; some of them quite old. We discovered EC [Comics] that way, then in the Ballantine paperbacks, and things were never the same after that!

Do you have any favorite titles currently being put out?
I still buy a couple of titles each from Marvel and DC, mostly out of habit. I loved Mark Crilley’s Akiko and Jeff Smith’s Bone. I love Linda Medley’s Castle Waiting. Darwyn Cooke’s stuff is great — I haven’t gotten around to reading his Spirit stuff yet, but I couldn’t think of a better guy for the assignment. I like Big Bang and Godland. I tend to follow creators — Robert Crumb, Dan Clowes, Chris Ware, the Hernandez Brothers, Tim Truman, Paul Chadwick, P. Craig Russell and on and on. Dozens of great cartoonists; maybe hundreds.

In being a writer/artist, which creative aspect appeals more to you than the other?
I’ve recently decided that I’m a writer who draws and not an artist who writes. The story or idea behind the strip is the point for me — the rest is just filling in the little boxes with pictures (which is not to say that the pictures aren’t equally important in impelling or amplifying the story). I try to make them the best I can.

When you set out to do a strip, what’s your usual thought process?
God, I wish I knew. I told my dad awhile back that I was working on a new strip, and he asked me who the characters were. Well, they weren’t important — the story was. I suppose I miss out on fame and fortune because I don’t generally use continuing characters; that means I have to re-invent the wheel every time out, to some extent.

What is your media of choice?
Lead pencil, a brush and India ink. Pro White for corrections, marker pens for lettering. For years I inked with Rapidograph pens. The last two or three years I’ve finally learned to ink with a brush, which has been a revelation to me as an artist — kind of scary, though. To me, penciling is rehearsal — inking is performance! It sometimes takes me days to psych myself up to attack the page with a brush and ink.

Do you have a favorite genre of comic?
Of course, superheroes brought me to the dance, and I’ll always love them. But lately I’ve become enamored of humor comics from the ’40s and ‘50s. Teen stuff, funny animal, DC titles like [The Adventures of] Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis, [The Adventures of] Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis, [The Adventures of] Bob Hope, [The Many Loves of] Dobie Gillis, (Bob Oksner rules!), Sgt. Bilko and Fox & Crow by the great James Davis. Jingle Jangle Comics with George Carlson and Dave Tendlar. Dennis the Menace, with art by Al Wiseman. Some Archie stuff. Stumbo [the Giant] by Warren Kremer is a classic, and I love offbeat, goofy comics, the kind of stuff Scott Shaw calls “oddball comics.” Dell,/Gold Key,,Harvey, [American Comics Group],,Tower,,Charlton; stuff like that.

Who or what are your inspirations?
Elzie Crisler Segar,,George Herriman,,and Cliff Sterrett — the Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Marx Brothers of early comics (and no, I don't know which one is which). The Warner Brothers and Max Fleischer animated cartoons, and early Disney as well. Jack Kirby — my personal idol. Will Eisner is the master theoretician, but Kirby is the best instinctive storyteller in comics history.
Harvey Kurtzman — the god of anarchic humor and satire, the Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor of comics. Let's throw his best collaborators, particularly Will Elder and Wally Wood, in there too. Jack Cole and Basil Wolverton — sui generis. Robert Crumb — his personal take on comics, his internalization of earlier styles that he made his own, spawned a whole new stream of non-corporate comics, leading to the whole tradition of independent and literary comics. I'd have to credit Gilbert Shelton and Vaughn Bode as well. It's an eclectic list, but there you go...

You’ve created a lot of satire and comedic things over the years. What about them appeals to you over more serious stuff?
Real life is full of serious. Death, disease, disappointment and heartbreak…why create more? I’d rather lighten somebody’s load, make them laugh — maybe make them think a little.

What are some of the comics you’ve done?
I did cartoons for my junior high and high school newspapers, and then worked on the college paper when I came to the university. There were some incredible cartoonists already working there, notably Greg Scott (later the art director at Rolling Stone [Magazine]) and Shelley Thornton (now an amazing doll-maker). I dared to aspire to be about half as good as they were. And the underground comic scene was just blossoming — we’re talking 1970 or so here. I started contributing to the local underground newspapers. I did a continuing strip called Telegram Sam — he was a bearded anarchist and mad bomber who usually succeeded only at blowing himself up. I lifted the name from Marc Bolan and the look from an early Porky Pig cartoon. In these days of real terrorists, he looks kind of unfortunate in retrospect. In 1974 I put out Telegram Sam in his own comic. Followed that up in 1976 with Comix Trip. Its cover showed Fritz the Cat, Nard & Pat, Snappy Sammy Smoot, Fat Freddy and Cheech Wizard looking apprehensive as the Grim Reaper came in the room. The caption read, “Underground comics are dead,” which turned out to be an unhappy choice since the underground comics distributors therefore declined to carry the book. The guy who financed it for me, Lee Aronsohn, kind of took a bath on that one — but since he’s now the co-creator of the hit TV show Two and a Half Men, I guess he’s doing okay. Comix Trip included some stuff of my own, and some from other local artists. There’s even a page of cartoons in there by Ted Kooser, who spent the last couple years as Poet Laureate of the United States. Who knew? After that, I did a series of small Xeroxed comics called “Stewart’s Two-Bit Comic Book” and a few superhero things using characters created by local fans.
A few years ago I joined the Comic Creators Network in Kansas City and did a mini-comic for them (as well as having stories in their first three anthologies). And I recently was included in CAG [Anthology] #5 from the Comicbook Artists Guild.
I’m working on a tribute to George Carlson’s Pie-Face Prince of Old Pretzelburg strip. When that’s done, I hope to have enough material to publish a full-size comic of my best stuff to sell at shows and stuff.

Have you studied your crafts anywhere or are you simply self-taught?
Self-taught.

What got you into teaching? Do you still do it?
There’s a local program called Bright Lights that offers summer courses for grade school and middle school kids. They asked the proprietors of the local comic shops for recommendations on who might teach comics, and they both recommended me. I’m reasonably articulate and just enough of a show-off to go for it. I taught for Bright Lights for 10 years. Recently I’ve made presentations at a local grade school that has a comics club for their fifth graders, and I was a presenter at the Nebraska Book Festival at Nebraska Wesleyan University a few months ago. You stay around long enough you go from “young whippersnapper” to “gray eminence” before you know it. If somebody wants a talk on comics and can’t get Bob Hall (longtime comics pro and local theater director) or Paul Fell (local editorial cartoonist), I’m usually third on the list.

Talk about Captain Comics; what is/was his mission and what was/is it like being his similarly-proportioned friend?
Captain Comics was my alter-ego when doing Summer Reading programs at libraries for kids. I’d dress in galoshes, purple shorts, a bicycling singlet over a long-sleeved orange t-shirt, a cape made from a bed sheet, Playtex gloves, a domino mask and a yellow hard-hat with cardboard wings taped to it. Very professional.

Does the Captain still make appearances?
I tore the t-shirt and I’ve gotten too big for the purple shorts. Not fair — stupid Hulk never tears out purple shorts!

How did you get involved with the Comicbook Artists Guild (CAG)?
One night at a party our eyes met across a crowded room.

What have you done for CAG?
A couple of one-pagers in CAG [Anthology] #5. There’s talk of a longer story for an upcoming book. Hopefully I’m an asset to the local chapter here in Nebraska.

What are some of the projects you currently have going on or coming up?
The Carlson story, entitled “The Moon-Faced Monarch of Matzohville” and then, hopefully, the self-published comic.

What is your dream project?
Well, I’d love to make it into something published by Fantagraphics or Top Shelf.

What advice would you give anyone looking to break into the field?
Follow your bliss — write and draw stuff that appeals to you, don’t paint yourself into a corner trying to ape the current trends. Learn to draw things, not just poses.

Anything else you’re working on? Free ad space:
I’ve blathered enough about myself. Try these Web sites:

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