Big Questions, An Interview with Anders Nilsen

Anders Nilsen: As far as the two parallel stories... Dogs and Water went through a lot of changes. It was originally a 75 page story and a huge mess, all over the place. As it happened it was too long to fit into the anthology Chris (Oliveros, the publisher at Drawn and Quarterly. The anthology was the first Drawn and Quarterly Showcase) had meant to put it in, so I got an extra year to figure out what it was actually about. I ended up throwing away about 25 pages and drawing 40 more, re-arranging much of what was left. The water sequence I now think of as a dream, mainly just highlighting the ridiculousness of the protagonist's situation. It also serves to provide a little bit of humor in what might otherwise be an unrelentingly heavy story. A little humor and to heighten the stakes as well, toward the end. It allows me to give a little commentary on the actual events, the play within the play.

KA: Animals again play a major factor in Dogs and Water but they aren't anthropomorphized as they are in Big Questions. Why did you choose to go in a human direction?

Anders Nilsen: It was just the source material. It was closer to being self-referential, I guess. The original story has a bit more to do with the dogs. That was the hardest part to let go, but it just didn't work with what was strongest about the story.

KA: Finally, I'd like to say that I find Dogs and Water to be a quietly ingenious work. By that I mean, there's a simplicity in the illustration which seems to hold just beneath its surface an unarticulated profundity. You're setting a dangerous precedent for yourself, I think. Conveniently though, options and opportunities to do such courageous work like yours seem to be opening up everywhere for comic-artists. As the genre gains more wide-spread appreciation artists like Adriane Tomine have seen their commercial work become more prolific while others like Marcel Dzama and Chris Ware have been embraced by the fine arts community, with their works hanging on gallery walls and in exhibitions. In short, do you have aspirations beyond the comic-form?

Anders Nilsen: Yeah, all kinds. I mentioned that I still do installations on occasion. I have ideas about t-shirts and tattoos, film. I just did a skateboard. I'm actually thinking about publishing a little bit, though I don't know how far I will take it. Cheryl was an artist, very prolific, brilliant, but not very good about getting her work into the world. I would press her to let me take her work to small press shows and it would sell out instantly, but she would still resist, sure it was a fluke, or that no one would appreciate it. Now, unfortunately, she can't resist. In particular she made books - not comics, but what would, I guess, have to be called "artist books," though that's almost as bad as "comic books." I want to figure out a way to get some of that stuff out into the world, doing some of the books as small editions, but also doing a larger book documenting some of it for which individual editions would be impossible. I have one other friend whose work would be really well suited to being a book. I'm very interested in use of the book as an art form. Words and images in sequence. Comics brush the surface, but it seems like an oddly under-utilized medium.

About Dogs and Water, I'm glad you see profundity under the surface. The whole time I was working on it I was worried I was the only one who would notice. I thought it would just be quiet and boring for everyone else.

KA: Last question: Why do so many of you comic artists live in Chicago?

Anders Nilsen: I really have no idea. It's been suggested that comics may be in some way particularly suited to the Midwest, but I can't quite recall the reasoning. Humility. A lot of time inside in the winter, might as well draw. The protestant work ethic. A distrust of/lack of entre into the bi-coastal Cultural Establishment. How do those sound? Comics is definitely not about impressing people. which I would say is a kind of midwestern characteristic. We tend to not be very impressive. All those skyscrapers downtown were built by East-coasters and Europeans.