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Your online, weekly published webcomic www.dorktoescomic.com is mainly autobiographical. Why did you make this choice instead of, for example, fiction?
Well, drawing autobiographical comics was kind of a reflex to me. I've been making small autobio-comics since I was about 16, just flopping daily funny stuff into a comic. About 3 years before starting Dork Toes they had become a pretty steady occurrence. I'd like to make a fiction comic too, really, but I'm too critical of myself at this point, since I would want it to be perfect and have a complete storyline written out before I start. And that just keeps getting delayed.
Could you describe, if you wish to share this information, in what direction you see your webcomic evolve regarding content?
I don't know really. I hope it kind of stays the way it is, comics every tuesday about stuff I think about and that happens around me. Maybe I might focus a little more on less literal things that happened and more ideas and observations. But there are no set-in-stone ideas, I'm just planning to let it find its way.
Do you think in the future you will make a work of fiction?
Yes, I hope so! I have a couple of pages of a script lying around. The basic story is already getting revisions in my head but I still don't have a full plot thought out.. I'm currently starting to design more and more original characters which makes me immediately imagine short stories about their lives. So yeah, I'd like to do something in that direction too. Don't ask me when though.
Do you think that the fact that your work is about yourself has an influence on the way people perceive you as a person?
Well they might think I'm egocentric (laughs). It probably does though, but I don't really want to think about that. I already have a pretty strong censor in my head that holds back the comics of which I'm not very sure if they will be well understood, or that are just too complex. But I hope to override that 'censorship' a bit more in the future, regardless of how it makes people perceive me.
Could you tell us something more about the work you are planning to publish in this magazine?
Honestly, I don't really know that myself! I have the beginning of a small fiction story here, but it needs some more ‘fleshing out’. There's Snail Adventures of course, my favorite, sad, lonely gastropod. And there'll be some other cartoonish stuff along the way. Pretty much anything I like and can think of. The magazine's concept is really free and doesn't need a specific theme to work by so you'll see a bit of everything.
How did your drawing style evolve, throughout all of your Dork Toes comics? Is there a style you now prefer?
Well I have started hatching with pen more a while ago and that had a very pleasant visual effect on my comics. I think everything's a bit more solid than it was in the very beginning, and I like the ink and watercolour, though I do think there'll be some more comics in digital colour too, in the future.
When you are dead, would you like a Robot, that has your brain implanted, to continue your work?
No! I mean.. It would be super awesome to be a robot, but honestly, you need to know when to stop, especially as an 'artist'. I kind of see being dead as a good stopping point. Also, I hope to die when I'm old and I don't think a senior citizen would be the best person to appreciate an awesome robot body.
Imagine a Nazi-like regime that completely destroys all culture on earth, including your own comic. What would you do with all the free time, now torn away from long hours of drawing?
I only spend about 10 hours a week on my comic really, so there's not that much to fill up. No seriously though, I'd want to be part of the resistance and try to overthrow the oppressive regime. Probably by making rebellious comic zines exposing their military secrets. Or something.
And the last one: Imagine a world where technology has brought us to the point where a smell can be put on the paper of your comic. Unfortunately your publisher only has enough funds to let you choose one single smell. One smell to accompany the reader when immerging in your comic… What smell would you like this to be? The smell of Dork Toes?
A fart every 7 comics.