In-Depth Interview with S.P. Burke

So by now you’ve seen (I presume) my video interview with S.P. Burke, creator of the webcomic “Oh Goodie!“. Well, this guy is so awesome that I also wanted to do a print interview with him. It really sheds some light on “Oh Goodie!” and on his creative style in general. Enjoy!

When did you start drawing your comic?  Why did you start drawing your comic?
I started when I was 17.  Spring of my junior year, if I remember correctly.  Like many webcomic artists I was inspired by the success of “Mega Tokyo” and “Penny Arcade,” so I thought, “maybe I should try that.”  So I came up

S.P. Burke

with this simple comic, based around my friends at the time.  My friend Jeff created a site and it just went from there.  Then I went to college and it kind of fell by the wayside, but I kept thinking of new stuff for the characters do to, or stories I could tell.  Once I graduated and moved home, I kind of fell into that post-graduate malaise we all fall into, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.  Then I thought about all the stories I had saved up and just started the website and story from scratch, completely rebooted it.  It’s been running ever since.

You also do stand-up comedy. Do you take jokes from your routine and put them in your comic and/or vice versa?
A few, but not as many as you’d think.  Stand-up kind of allows me to express a comedic side that the comic can’t, in terms of audience reaction and jokes I tell.  My opening line for a while has been: “My girlfriend and I just took our relationship to the next level.  We took a pregnancy test and it came up negative.  Isn’t that a beautiful moment?”…Yea, I dunno how that’ll fit into the comic any time soon.

Do you have a political agenda in writing “Oh Goodie!”?
Not really.  I did a few political comics during the high school run, but I lost interest around 2004 after Bush got re-elected.  I like to think my politics have become a bit more nuanced than far-left or far-right, so I don’t like to be didactic pushing a certain agenda.  Plus you gripe about nothing but politics, you date your work very quickly, and I want my comics to at least try to be timeless.  My only criteria is this: if the rights of a sentient tax-payer who isn’t breaking the law is being infringed on, I’ll call bullshit.

Do you consider yourself a feminist? I detect feminist over/under/in-between tones.
I was raised primarily by my mother, so I’ve always had feminist leanings.  But I’m a bit embarrassed reading comics from my high school days, because you could just see what a horny teenage geek boy I was.  So when I started the current “Oh Goodie!” run I made it a point to have my ideology straight when it came to how I portrayed women.  I read a lot of stuff by Jessica Valenti, who presents a lot of great insights on modern feminism and engenders a lot of discussion on her blogs (feministing.org).  I still draw sexy ladies on occasion, but I try to compensate by making every character (inluding the women) as three-dimensional as possible.  I think some creative people have this problem, where they want to create interesting characters but still kind of give in to their baser desires.
Actually this conflict I had kind of informed how I approach my female characters and how I portray them.  They all kind of represent different sides of myself when it comes to my relationships with women.  Aiyeese, for example, is mostly unconcerned with sex so it’s not important to her.  Shira, by contrast, is VERY sexual, bordering on being a female chauvinist.  Shizuko is awkward so she has a hard time expressing herself sexually with actually people, so she does it through fan-fiction and doujinshi.  And Koriko is just content and happy to be herself.

Are the characters based on people you actually know?

Yes and no.  The initial batch in the high school version were.  A lot of people ask if James is me, and I tell them he’s the 17 year-old version of me, warts and all.  Lee is based off my friend Jeff Chow, who helped me build my first website.  But nowadays most of the characters are amalgams, along with just my own invention.  Aiyeese’s core is my friend Mojdeh Stoakley, who’s an independent musician here in Chicago (themojdehproject.com), but other aspects of her personality include Elanor Smith and Stefanie Taylor, two actress friends of mine here in the city.  What’s unique about those three is I’ve been real close with all three of them, but nothing romantic has ever really developed.  So that’s kind of informed James and Aiyeese’s relationship: they’re not really attracted to one another, so they feel relaxed when they’re together.

Have you always been good at drawing?
I’ve always had the aptitude, if that makes sense.  I remember I was drawing at a very early age.  But there’s always stuff about your art you can improve on, even if you don’t think so.  If I were to give advice to anybody who wants to be a serious artist, I’d tell them to learn the hell out of proper perspective and proper human anatomy.  When I was a horny teen I had a real problem with what you call “basketball boobs”, which is wear the artist draws females like they have two basketballs grafted to their chest for breasts.  I was lucky to have teachers who beat that into me, but some artists don’t regard it at all.  My art is still very stylized and the proportions are often exaggerated, but they’re not impossible.

Are you familiar with Ellen Forney‘s work? Your stuff looks a lot like hers… but I like yours better!
I was not actually before you brought it up!  To me her art is like a combo of Dan Clowes and Alison Bechdel, whose work I am a fan of.  I love wild edgy black and white comics like that, so I’ll have to check out more of her work.

Where do you see the comic going in the future? Print comic? TV pilot? FEATURE FILM?!
I’ll be compiling and self-publishing all the comics I’ve drawn so far at the end of the year into a bound volume.  Aside from the comics it’ll have unused comics, sketches, and notes from myself.  I even have a title: “Oh Goodie! Vol 1: Introduce Yourself”, named after the Faith No More song.  I also hope to re-design the website and find a way to sell my t-shirt designs for cheaper.  I don’t like to sell anything for over $20, aside from originals.
I dunno about a TV show or a movie.  One of those 15 minute Adult Swim shows might work, cause I can get right to the point and not add extra story until you’re sick of it.  The only way I’d consider a movie is if it were animated like the film Persepolis.  I think that style would be perfect for my work.

What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?
Ben and Jerry’s Cinna-Bons.  Every bite is like a tiny hug.

How do you draw/upload the comic? It’s so crisp!
The comic itself is 50% analog and 50% digital.  The bulk of it is drawn on Canson Fanboy Bristol with Speedball Super Black ink.  The average strip is 9 inches wide, shrunk down to

A recent panel from "Oh Goodie!"

800 pixels wide for the site.  My primary tools are Windsor Newton #2 brush, a Faber Castell F-tip pitt pen, and a Staedtler 0.1mm pigment pen for really thin lines.  I scan it into Photoshop with the Black & White setting so it doesn’t pick up any of the blue line pencils I use before inking.  The lettering is digital, based off a font I myself created.  I also add little details with my Wacom Tablet.  The little white streaks in Aiyeese’s hair?  All digital, FYI.

What advice would you give to someone who is interested in getting their stories out there?
Try to make sure it’s the best story you can make it.  Are your characters three-dimensional?  Do you have some idea where you want the story to end up?  What’s the ultimate point you want to make?  If you have strong foundations like this, I think it’ll encourage you to keep going and you won’t give up so easily like so many webcomic artists do.

We met at the Chicago Comic Con. Do you go to a lot of Cons? Which ones are your favorites? Do you get a lot of new readers from Cons?
I had hit exactly three cons before you met me in Chicago, but I’m hitting three more this fall in various places around the Midwest.  My next one is the Cincinnati Comic Expo on Sept. 18th.  I’ll be there with Eric Adams of “Lackluster World.”  I’m hitting a bunch of small press shows, which I think are more my speed than bigger events like the Chicago Comic Con…and we’re guaranteed our disgraced former governors won’t be signing autographs there.

There’s a lot of sexual tension in your comic. The characters are in high school. Do you think this aspect of the comic is realistic?
It certainly reflects my high school experience, which informed the story.  But really, I’m not necessarily concerned with reality.  I’m concerned if it fits for the characters.  I will say all my characters are in that stage where they’re either really brazen sexually or they’re really nervous and awkward, which makes for a lot of humor let me tell ya.

Who are your favorite comic creators?
When I was developing my current visual style I was on a real kick split between Marjane Satrapi and Jaime Hernandez.  I loved how they made black and white drawing really seem like an art, and I love how three-dimensional their characters are.  But I also really love Bryan O’Malley, and still have a soft spot for Jhonen Vasquez.  If we’re talking mainstream though, I can’t get enough of Amanda Conner.  Her recent run on “Power Girl” is everything comics should be: fun, sexy, and awesome.

Who/what are your favorite comic characters?

One of my favorite characters of all time though (and you’re not gonna believe this)…Sailor Moon.  And not just because she’s a cute teenage girl fighting monsters in a short skirt (although that helps).  It’s because of one reason…she’s a total crybaby who runs away from a fight.  When I first saw that, I thought that was awesome.  Stuff like that makes your characters relatable and interesting, not to mention entertaining.

Do you think that most great characters are kind of based on the creator?

I think the best stories are the ones where the creator lets their life experiences inform whatever situation their characters are in.  I guarantee someone who came up with a really complex interesting story was probably very interesting themselves, and led a very interesting life.  Old-fashioned imagination works too.

How did you develop your artistic style? Was it a lot of trial and error, or did you just start drawing and that’s what came out?
It was a ton of trial and error.  What you see on the website is probably six solid months of weeding out everything that worked and everything that didn’t before anything even made it online.  I’m disgusted even looking at my work from a year ago, nevermind eight years ago when I first started drawing comics.  I refer to it as a constantly evolving process to start sucking less…that’s not pessimistic at all, is it?

Is cartooning your passion in life? If not, what’s your passion? The thing you can’t live without and wouldn’t WANT to live without?
Cartoons are what I’m best at.  My real passion is rock music, and I think that comes across in most of what I do.  That’s why I try to write music reviews whenever I can, and I’m hoping to record some music in character as The Filthy F@#$ing Fairies.  Which means you may hear “If You Wanted A Slut, You Should’ve Dated Your Sister” someday soon.  Move over “Stairway”!

You can read S.P.’s comic at OhGoodie.net. (And you should.)