Our first exposure to Maré Odomo was through his excellent Letters To An Absent Father series of minicomics that chronicles Pokémon protagonist Ash Ketchum’s one-sided correspondence with his father, who is conspicuously absent in both the Pokémon video games and television show.
Letters appealed strongly to our base love of all things Poké before we even had a chance to think about it, but after a little while we realized that Odomo’s got quite the interesting and personal piece of pop art on his hands, and that his other comic work was great, besides.
(I don’t know where else to cram this fact, but Odomo is also a proud vegan. I haven’t yet made his recipe for tofu scramble at the bottom of this interview, but it looks good to me. — Joe)
Whose Fault Is That: What is it about illustrating as a medium that captivated you, originally? Do you have any early memories of illustration or cartooning that you think might serve as turning points?
Maré Odomo: I consider myself a cartoonist first, and an illustrator second. So I’m just going to pretend you said “comics” instead of “illustrating”. Because that’s going to be a more interesting answer anyway.
You don’t need fancy equipment to make comics. It’s just paper and a thing to draw with. You don’t need expensive software or render farms or whatever. Anyone can make comics. Not everyone should, but they can if they want to.
WFIT: Sorry about the comics/illustration distinction. This might be well-worn territory for you by now, but what would you say are some significant differences between the two?
MO: Oh, well it’s just that comics are (usually) a combination of words and pictures, and illustration is more about making an engaging standalone image. It’s not that comics rely on the story or the writing. But they work with it. Illustration is straight-up PICTURE and you have to grab people’s attention in a different way. That’s about it. I’m just not as confident in my illustration skills.
WFIT: Would you say standalone writing is something that interests you?
MO: Oh yeah, definitely! I wrote a lot in high school, because I was self-conscious about drawing, and I just like typing in general. There were lots of bad poems and short stories. And I blogged a lot back then. I wanted to be a writer for a while, but I gave that up for some reason. I don’t use fancy grammar. Didn’t do well with essays. And that’s all they teach you in high school.
The first comic to get me excited about making comics was James Kochalka’s “American Elf”. That was my initial big turning point. I was like, “WHOA. YOU CAN MAKE COMICS ABOUT REAL LIFE?”
I love all kinds of comics, but autobio was so digestible and fun and empowering. There’s a reason so many people do it.
WFIT: Elf Comics, particularly the early years when he and Amy were just dating, is killer. This is pretty much strictly for me (see also, the forthcoming Pokemon Snap question), but do you have any recommendations for good diary comics that might slip under an average reader’s radar?
MO: Yeah, it’s crazy to see Kochalka’s relationship pan out. When he starts having kids, that was really special. I was worried about him… changing. But he’s still the same dude, for better or for worse.
WFIT: Definitely. My favorites are still the really simple comics of his that aren’t really about anything.
MO: Um. John Porcellino falls under the radar a little. He’s been comicking since ’89, though.. He’s still pretty underground. Gabrielle Bell? She’s blowing up, though.
WFIT: Drew Weing’s was really good when he had it going back in the day.
MO: Oh, yeah. I used to follow his stuff for a bit. His wife’s really talented too, Eleanor Davis. They both deserve a lot more attention. Oh! Laura Park had a recent run of really touching autobio comics.
WFIT: What are some other artists, popular or relatively unknown, that you consider to be the best working today?
MO: Katie Turner, Angie Wang, Hellen Jo, Shaun Tan, Jillian Tamaki, Michael DeForge. I got a chance to see Dustin Harbin‘s inks in a photoshop file, recently, and it totally blew me away. Same with seeing Paul Pope originals in-person. Kate Beaton is a funny lady. And Ryan Pequin is a funny dude. And Anthony Clark of Nedroid, he’s awesome. Corey Lewis is amazing to see draw, too. I should stop here. This is getting too long. I could go on and on, though.
Oh, but hey. Let’s throw in some non-comics people too. Like Frank Chimero and Olly Moss. Those dudes are rockstars.
WFIT: Have you taken inspiration from any unexpected areas aside from videogames? If so, which?
MO: I want to make a comic about “You’ve Got Mail” eventually. And Gilmore Girls.
Part of my thesis project was about trying to make comics adaptations of hip-hop songs. Trying to capture the style and the feeling. I feel like hip-hop gets a bad… rap. (God, what a terrible pun. I didn’t mean to say that, I swear.) It’s not all gangster gangster and top 40 junk-in-the-trunk-stuff. It can be sensitive and intelligent and political and powerful. If I were a rapper, I would make… the best raps. About Pokémon and… other cool things. I was trying to freestyle through comics for a little bit, but they were so bad.
Also, I wish I could b-boy. Breakdancing is so cool.
My writing style is very much a result of all the time I’d spend on the internet, though. I try to write comics like a twitter update. Short and sweet.
Kevin Fanning was a big influence on me, in a lot of aspects, including the self-publishing/web-publishing thing. That dude just GOES FOR IT. And he freakin’ KILLS IT. I’ve been reading his stuff since I was like 14.
WFIT: Lots of the comics you post on your blog are more abstract (content-wise, if not art-wise) than Letters to an Absent Father. What would you say causes you to find your work leaning one way or the other?
MO: I stopped making daily comics a while ago, to make more time for bigger projects like “Letters”. But my brain is still wired for composing little comic poems about my day.
WFIT: What in particular do you find satisfying about them?
MO: I’m picky about what words I use. So it’s like a little puzzle that I have to figure out. And there’s no right or wrong answer because I’m the only who’s really going to care. I do the same thing with tweets. I spend too much time writing and backspacing for 140 characters.
What I love about twitter is that the character limit makes things so bite-sized and accessible. And these little things add up and you can really get to know a person that way. I appreciate good tweets. They can be sad or funny. Whatever. It’s a powerful medium.
They stay in my head until I put them on paper. So I just jot them down real quick. Get them out of the way. And it’s nice to be able to work on something that isn’t going to be criticized and spread around on the internet. It’s low pressure.
With things like “Letters”, I don’t post a strip until I’m either really happy with it, or I’m sick of working on it. It’s a multi-day process. I’m a slow worker. And it’s not that I care so much about how other people are going to respond, it’s more that I don’t want to see it being posted in other places and having to live with all my mistakes.
WFIT: What’s your favorite piece of illustration you’ve ever done?
MO: The fake MC Paul Barman poster might be my favorite. It’s so wonky and weird. I was still figuring out how to use my tablet. It was good learning experience. Honestly, though, I’m a cartoonist first and an illustrator second. It’s still difficult for me to make a drawing interesting without relying on words or the context of a story. And I normally draw at a really small scale. Working too big is awkward for me.
WFIT: What’s so cool about Bulbasaur? With all due respect, he’s my least favorite of the original three.
MO: One of the things I like most about Bulbasaur is that he’s got those crazy long vines, which were pretty useful in Ash’s adventures. They caught things during tornados, or slapped things around, or acted as a bridge. And in Japanese, his name is “Fushigidane”, which basically means “I’M WEIRD, YUP”. (This is the best thing ever. — Ed) He’s freaky but he’s cool about it. He embraces it.
Plus, he was my first pokémon. And like Ash, I have abandonment issues and an irrational sense of loyalty. So there’s that.
WFIT: On a scale from one to ten (ten being the most), how much do you want a new Pokemon Snap game?
MO: Hmmmm. Well, I’d rather they made a game where you just went on adventures with your pokéfriends… and didn’t even battle. But if they made a new Pokémon Snap, I’d probably buy it immediately. Especially if it’s for the 3DS. And it has some augmented reality feature. Sometimes I don’t know I want something until someone tells me I do.
WFIT: When you were creating Letters to an Absent Father, did it occur to you that it might take off in the way that it has?
MO: No way! I had no idea. It was Vonnegut or some dude that said “write for yourself”. Or something like that. Like, don’t try to please anyone but yourself. So that’s what I did. I combined three things that are important to me (Pokémon, daddy issues, and comics) and didn’t expect anyone else to care. I don’t consider myself a normal person, so it’s freaky that so many people can relate to what is basically my life. It’s a little sad, but it’s beautiful too.
My comics teacher/mentor, Ellen Forney, said that it’s sometimes the specific details that are the most relatable—probably because they feel more real—and I guess it’s true.
When it started taking off, though, I was surprised at how little backlash there was. I keep expecting hatemail, telling me to get over it and grow up, but I haven’t gotten any yet.
WFIT: Have you considered longer-form comics? The serialized Letters work well, it seems, but would you ever consider telling a single, long-form story?
MO: I have, but I’m real bad at working on things for longer than a few days. I lose interest. It’s probably just that I haven’t hit on a good idea, yet, though. I need to read some books on creative writing or something. It’s definitely something I want to try.
WFIT: Give me a quick example of a vegan recipe I can bang out as a lazy and often-broke herbivore.
MO: TOFU SCRAMBLE:
1 block of extra firm tofu
& whatever. (Veggies and oil and stuff)
SPICE MIX:
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon thyme, crushed with your fingers
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1 teaspoon salt
Okay. So you take this tofu. And squeeze it a bit, over the sink. Get some moisture out. And then wrap it up in a towel or some paper towels and put something heavy-ish on it. And just let it sit.
While that’s happening, you chop up your onions or whatever. Put them in a frying pan (don’t forget the oil!), medium-high, get those dudes sizzling.
Add some more veggies. Mushrooms, and broccoli. I like using the frozen bags of pre-cut peas & carrots & green beans because it saves me a lot of time. And they’re cheap. So you’ve got all those veggies. Oh, leeks are good, too. What else? Spinach? Kale? Potatoes, if you’d like. But that’s gonna take a little more preparation, probably. You can figure that out on your own.
So the veggies are going. Add some garlic. When that’s lookin’ pretty good, add all those spices at once. And mix ‘em in for 15 seconds. Then add 1/4 cup of water. And set the heat to HIGH. This is called deglazing. It’s fancy.
Don’t burn your food, but wait until there’s not much water before adding the tofu. There’s going to be some moisture in your tofu still, and you don’t want the scramble to be too wet, unless that’s what you’re into? (But if it’s too dry, you can add more water.)
And don’t keep it on high. Go to like… medium high? It won’t take too long to finish the scramble, but, like I said, I don’t want you to burn the tofu.
So when you add the tofu, you unwrap your block from the paper towel cocoon or whatever, and start crumbling it with your hands over the pan. Then mix it all in and the spices will make it all yellow and magical. That’s pretty much it.
The recipe that this is based off of also adds “the juice of 1/2 a lime” but I never have limes handy. So I don’t know if that’s good or not. And 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast, but that’s not really my thing.
It also mentions guacamole and salsa. Which are good things, but not necessary, and kind of a hassle. I like having some toast with my scramble, though. Because it’s easy.
You should also throw some flax seeds on that stuff, though. FIBER. Get your Omega 3 and 6 on. Yeah buddy.
Joe Bernardi interviewed Maré Odomo in August 2010. Maré’s website can be found here, his Tumblr can be found here, and you can follow him on Twitter here.