ISakQJafR1caEQWY_UK5sIirsw3lfaJS-VF5WOyySNM Creator short profile:
– Name:
Bruce Mutard.
– Location:
North of the map of Tassie.
– Creative style:
Moderate to high figurative representation, or, ‘realistic’ in laymen’s terms. Non genre as a writer.
– Website/s:
www.brucemutard.com
– Bragging rights(Featured work/collaborations):
4 graphic novels: The Sacrifice (Allen & Unwin, 2008), The Silence (Allen & Unwin, 2009), A Mind of Love (Black House Comics, 2011), The Bunker (Image Comics, 2003) and a collection of short stories, Stripshow (Milk Shadow Books, 2012). Short stories in Overland, Meanjin, The Australian Book Review and Tango among others. and has illustrated several books for Macmillan Educations’ Stories From Australia’s History, series, written by Melanie Guile. Conducted comics workshops and given talks at Melbourne Writers Festival, NMIT, University of Melbourne, Monash University, and presented papers on comic theory at Oxford University, Loughborough University and University of Arts, London.
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OV5ZWOep0kyDxp3OSwRdErOoKNURSCppqdolB5bad8UCreator continued profile. Let’s get a tiny bit personal:

– What are your goals as a creator?: To create comics that have depth as well as breadth in content and form. Always seeking to push the boundaries of the medium. There’s still plenty of unexplored territory there, especially in nonfiction. I prefer to create comics that require readers to work hard at unpacking the detail and meanings I have loaded into them. Above all, I want to create comics where readers must read the images in order to get the most out of my work. That’s why I say I write with images.

– If you could have any power from a Comic character, what would it be/why?: I do fantasise about great strength – perhaps from being bullied a lot in school. No need for x-ray vision. What’s the point of looking at skeletons everywhere?

– Where there any defining moments in your life that have influenced your creative style?: Antonioni’ L’Eclisse. Godard’ Contempt and Masculin Feminin. Jaime Hernandez’ drawing. Serpieri’ Druuna (fabulous drawing even if it is misogynistic shit as a story). Crumb’ My Troubles with Women part 2. The strip that made me want to draw comics.

mWaP41b3YfrWWZOWuyQeF88-ebu2L53X96FIAyyVJHg.
– Favourite Comic artist of all time/why?:
 Tough one this, but Jaime Hernandez was always the one I measured myself against – especially for the simplicity of his figure work. For background detail, Herge and his many assistants. – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Hernandez

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– If you could collaborate with anybody, who would it be and why?:
It would have to be a writer I think, which is usually where I collaborate by drawing (which is the same as writing when it comes to comics). I have this fantasy about working with Alan Moore to draw Big Numbers from scratch. That book was on track to be his best work I think. – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Moore

AtpqLg2Vy5t-u4rs3ZgE7J9tR--sqhXwqzNbbOYliZs– Favourite Comic writer of all time/why?: Boring, but probably Alan Moore for his audacity and variety in his work. Faves are Big Numbers, Top Ten, Promethea, V for Vendetta  and Watchmen, possibly in that order. He is a fanboy at heart, so he mines the comics he grew up on a lot, which is not what I grew up on. So he’s like most authors, hit and miss. But when he hits, he really hits it right. May over-write from time to time.

– What do you prefer to snack on when creating a masterpiece?: Fingernails.

– If you were to hang out with any Comic character for a day, who would it be and why?: Tintin. Then I’d catch him in the shower and see if he is as sexless as he is in the book. Not even a glance at a woman. In fact, women hardly appear in the Tintin books at all, do they? Madame Castafiore, is a figure of ridicule – the Cacofonix of Herge’s world. What is it that Herge, Goscinny and Uderzo have against singing? Come to think of it, Asterix is just as sexless. At least Obelix had balls, since he was in lust with Panacea and Mrs Myopia Geriatrix. Not sure how he’d go having sex, though. One thrust would be… er… let alone being on top.

9gIobyszyzWLUABMXlo9JF0FpfKRsqUYgApp52ID2yg– Do you collect anything?: No. I just get things I like.

– Toilet paper over or under in your household?: Could be either. 

– Likes: Human creative endeavours be it any art form or where the imagination has to be used. It could be varied as dance, musical theatre, music (of all sorts), circus acts, literature, both fiction and non-fiction, sciences, engineering (you wanna tell me that bridges and old train engines are not aesthetic?). One might be romantic and describe creativity to nature, but unless you’re theist or deist, there is no agency. Nevertheless, the evolutionary impulse to strive, to adapt, to improve, seems to be the fount of our intellectual creativity.

– Dislikes: Racism, misogyny, homophobia and lots of those sorts of ‘isms’. Basically disrespect for others where undeserved.
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8QhcwDYkEUiJykW0pGePTDA8tv9lGYOBkXyuQgHuP88– Favourite joke: That’s a joke. I’m an ad-libber and pun-man, visual and written.

– Any thank you’s/shoutouts?: Well, if I won a Nobel/Pulitzer/Astrid Lindgren/Booker prize, I would probably say this: To all the comics giants whose shoulders I have stood on to see further. To the Melbourne and Australian comics community who’ve been great friends and support. To my mum for logistical and moral support through the long years of being unknown and almost giving up – several times. Finally thanks go to my wife, whoever she is, wherever she is; I hope I find you before I get too old. Time’s running out.

 

– Thank you to Bruce for his interview – Ness 🙂

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