BV: What are some recent projects you are working on? Do you have another comic book planned?

FG: Um, I'm still doing some stuff for Cosmic. A series of five shirts. My friend Liz Baca is designing and I'm doing the drawings on for spring 2000. Then I've got this secret project, stuff I'm starting to work on myself for spring, these high concept handbags and dresses that are all made out of felt and fur and paper. I think the first items are gonna show up at 'Reading Frenzy' in Portland for the holiday art show, that'll be more wintery stuff, and some paintings too. I wanna make more T-shirts soon, my roommates are getting a 4-color silk-screen press, so that'll be when it happens, maybe a few months. I'm doing a ton of little paintings that I wanna sell on the website, and cheap too! I've done a few new comics recently, and mostly sent them off to be in different anthologys, i want a new bomb pop to happen, but the business part of it, dealing with the printing and distribution and stuff was such a pain in the ass, I want someone else to publish the next one, but I'm not sure who to ask just yet. in the meantime, I'm working on some little art books with hand sewn covers, and adding to the coloring book for delinquents...

BV: Do you spend much time on the Internet? How do you feel about the whole WWW?

FG: I don't think I spend a lot of time on the Internet, compared to most people ... like an hour every other day or so, I guess. I pretty much just handle all my email, and maybe check some of my favorite spots to see if there's anything new. I spend a little too much time on Ebay, which has validated a lot of my really stupid collections, and turned each one into a problem - like i used to have 2 cool old 50's stuffed poodle radios, now i have like 12 of them and started buying ones that weren't even radios, just stuffed poodles, and pac-man stuff, now I've got way too much pac-man stuff for my own good, and those 3-D Lenticular prints, and the kids books that had them on the cover...all in all I think the Internet is a great thing, it opens up so many lines of communication that would have been way too difficult before - who's that sci-fi writer who runs an empire from the mountains of Sri Lanka? I can't remember his name, but stuff like that is amazing. I'm totally scared of the whole message groups and chatting aspects of the Internet, but for like 12 year olds who are into punk rock or whatever, and alienated in their surroundings, there is this whole world of kids to talk to, which I can't even imagine having when I was a kid, so I think it's great for them. I love the universal location it provides too, like I could be anywhere now, but I've got my email and website in one place, and can check up on it from any library in the country!

BV: Could you give some insight on how you like to work? Do you have a favorite kind of paper, pencil, ink,etc...

FG: Um, let's see, i usually use smooth Bristol board to draw on, but lately I've been really liking vellum too, except that it smears up easier, and somebody's bound to accidentally rip it somewhere down the line, but it looks so good! I use brushes that are between a 0 and a 000, really small cause I usually work the exact size of the page, but still wanna get detail, and either 'superblack' or 't-100' inks...

BV: What fonts were used on the cover and in Bomb Pop?

FG: The font on the cover is cut and pasted out of an old Letraset font book - I think it might be 'Pixie' though. All the other stuff is mostly rub on letters - I did this way before I had a computer, and wouldn't even have wanted to go down to Kinkos and typed anything out. I was totally hard-core pro rub on letters. I would find them in thrift stores and old office supply places, buy them all, and horde them like crazy. I love that stuff. I would also collect old typeface catalogs, and Xerox them to cut and paste titles and stuff. I still keep all the pages that I haven't found the font yet to put on the computer. One day I might just have to make them all myself - is it easy? I did this total 360 from being a total neo-luddite, to buying an iMac like 6 months ago, so I'm new to this whole tech thing...coincidentally though, I think I bought the iMac pretty soon after my supply of rub on letters ran low...

BV: Do you do any of your work on the computer? What programs do you like to use if so?

FG: I do a lot of my actual 'work' work on the computer now, which has kind of created this whole new style, like there's all this stuff i did for 'Yum Pop' that you wouldn't even recognize as my style, this hyper-cute cartoony kind of style, characters that are like popsicles and lollipops with faces, and cats from outer space. all that stuff was done in 'Illustrator', mostly. Sometimes i draw stuff by hand, and then scan it in to color it, that's also in Illustrator, via Streamline. and i like Photoshop to blend drawings in with actual photos really convincingly. I want to learn some of the 3D stuff, but everytime somebody copies the programs for me, it doesn't work right...

BV: What inspires you? (!! kind of a vague question ; P just whatever !!)

FG: I'm inspired more than anything by Japanese fashion magazines right now, my friend Liz has to buy them for me now and mail them to me every month, I'm having withdrawals from the Japantown center in San Francisco already...and by these 60s kids books, 'puppet storybooks' where they built all these little sets by hand and photograph them, like houses made of candy and stuff. I started doing some stuff like that for 'Yum Pop' too, and want to do more, like animation or videos or whatever. I'm inspired by kids who live in really crazy places, like tree houses or houseboats, barns or whatever. punk rock kids who start their own farm, stuff like that, and kids who drive really messed up cars or insane looking bikes - like I saw this indie rock girl in a really jacked up firebird, and a bunch of kids drunk in cowboy hats driving a smashed up Pinto. I love that, I've never paid more than $100 for a car, so when I see that, it's like a secret handshake or something. I'm totally inspired by crackpot theorists, too - like the guy at the bus stop who is so exited about these really messed up ideas or inventions or whatever, and can't stop talking - those people make my day.

BV: You mentioned in the intro of Bomb Pop that you were in a band called the Lou Garou and you played Vox organ. Are you still involved in that? Was this your first time being in a band and how was that?

FG: The Lou Garou has become a secret and an enigma...we started out as French pop, and ended up as 220 b.p.m. psychotic French high-concept synthesizer pop with samples. We went through 9 different drummers in probably as many weeks, for reasons like being a dumb mod, quoting too many French philosophers in a magazine, dating someone in the band, listening to garage rock, and so on. We became a two piece, with a trusty drum machine, at least 7 keyboards, and shower stall vocals. A million songs are 90 percent recorded, so we're ready to take over the world. I traded in my Vox for a Farfisa for maximum portability, and now am looking for one of those glossy red Sears 'panther' organ instead. my first time being in a band ever was in an art rock jug band when I was 17. We played parties at punk houses and confused everybody, and the Lou Garou would do the same...

Thanks for the interview Fawn! Please visit her website :
No Candy!

Images used in this interview are ©1999 by Fawn Gehweiler