Cartoons and Comics

Entrepreneur Lee Francis is the “Indiginerd” mastermind behind Indigenous Comic Con (aka IndigiPop X) and Red Planet Books & Comics. Dr. Francis dishes on cultivating Indiginerds, supporting community and how his niche bookstore thrives in the retail ocean.

For the last few years, I kept checking for accessible foreign editions of some of these books. I reached out directly to Reza Dalvand, the illustrator of Ace, who put me in touch with his publisher in Iran.

Zine fests make small cracks in the foundation of authoritarian, nationalist, dictatorial power that hides under progress of the digital age.

Inevitably someone is going to compare your work to someone else’s. And when someone says, “This reminded me of your work” it’s hard to know what they mean.

If I look tired, I probably am, and therefore I am either: A) grumpy or, B) not wearing eyeliner, and well, screw you either way. If I am angry or anxious, maybe I have my reasons, and a chill pill isn’t what I need.

How come those graphic-y novel pictures fail to deck the walls of high-class galleries and command the same big bucks? What do we need to do to get taken seriously around here?

I draw comics. I make books. I’m doing what I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid. No, I didn’t “arrive.” There was no “big break.” It was more of a slow gradual climb up a steep hill that’s just starting to level out.

You and I can continue to snooze our loud and buzzing iPhones, skip a shower and eat half of a granola bar for breakfast—but it’s time to wake up and stop snoozing our feelings, our art and our common future.

Facilitating connections between other people makes you a valuable member of business and society, which will eventually, theoretically, and if you believe in karma, pay off.

Skip steps 1, 4 and 5. Replace 3 with helium balloons, and get out of your stupid, too soft, bed. Pity parties are a fucking bore for everyone; no one wants your smelly complaints to stain their Saturday.

That Clooney lovin’ asshat is gonna keep underpaying people with talent, people who spend hours and hours thinking and inventing and creating and perfecting, and it’s just not right.

This is a lesson you have to keep teaching yourself if you want to be any good at all. And the thing about it is, you have to think you’re better than you are, before you can realize that you aren’t.

If you want to portray movement in illustration, studying great animation can be as valuable as studying a great painting.

We need to consider illustrators the true collaborators that they are. It’s not about where their name ends up on the cover, but how we treat their contribution.

There is bad art and good art and mediocre art and popular art and exploitative art and “serious” art and not-so-serious art and if you insist, “fine art.”

About seven years ago I did an illustration for an Oz convention. Oz conventions are to Oz fans what Star Trek conventions are to Trekkies.