Of Recent Importance
From a particularly fantastic recent episode of Inkstuds:
Ken Dahl: Comics have such a great ability to deal with those subjects, you know, with secrets. The problem with secrets is that there’s always another side to…this horrible thing. I feel like, telling the other side of something horrible is really…that comics are good for that, because you’re able to focus on every little thing. It’s like, if you lose an argument with somebody at a restaurant or something, and you’re walking home, and you’re like, ‘You know, the only reason I lost that argument is because I don’t know how to talk,’ all right? But you know you were right. You were right, but just, the rhetoric wasn’t there somehow. So I feel like comics are like, this medium for the slighted and the introverted. Like, the people who just don’t get a fair shake in things, because we can go back and examine every little thing that happened, and show exactly how, you know, things really were. I mean obviously no one can ever show “how things really were”, but we can at least reframe everything in a way that makes things more human. I wanna say more like, like, in a way that people would agree with me, but that’s, y’know, I’d hate to think that that’s the only reason I’m doing it.
Robin McConnell: I was thinking it’s kinda going more towards…the way you envisioned things.
Ken Dahl: Yeah, I guess that’s inevitable. But I mean, I really try hard to make it… I mean, I’m saying all this like I’m drawing comics to make myself look better, but then I think back to “Monsters” and most of it is making myself look like fucking horrible, like really bad. And I tried to fictionalize it all a little bit, and I keep saying, y’know, “the character Ken Dahl did all these things,” and the book isn’t exactly autobiographical, but basically it’s stuff that happened to me and that I did, and, um, it feels really good to put stuff out on the table.
…
Ken Dahl: I love reading comics that have way too much information. Those are always–to me, those are always my favorites. Although weirdly, I don’t really like Joe Matt. I mean, he’s okay, but almost too self-conscious, you know? It’s like the only reason he’s doing it is like to…but, it’s…but I’m probably more similar to Joe Matt than any other cartoonist I can think of, so I, really–maybe that’s why.
July 27th, 2010 at 6:24 am
I don’t get Dahl’s jump from secrets (which I was really interested in reading about) to winning arguments (they don’t seem to be the same thing…)
July 27th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
oh my god athena, did you actually transcribe all that yourself? that is impressive. thanks for mentioning the interview, even though it is AGONIZING to see my bumbling, garbled, moronic ranting in plain text. how many times can one person say the word “like”? i was really like, hyper and like, nervous that day. it’s amazing how i actually cut MYSELF off dozens of times just in this one little sampling. poor robin.
sarah: believe me, you’re not alone. i was basically incoherent that whole interview. i’m surprised no one called a substance-abuse hotline after hearing that interview.
i think i just completely jumped trains from trying to force out “comics are a great medium for exposing secrets in minute detail” to “comics are also a great medium for people who can’t talk right and are terrified of direct social interaction of any kind.” but in a way i guess i made at least the last half of that pretty effing obvious…
September 1st, 2010 at 11:38 am
Mom, whatever! The “secrets” thing is about using comics to divulge all the hidden stuff at play in a conversation/argument/etc that you can’t say out loud. I think about this all the time when I’m making comics: how there are so many things that, if I were to try saying them out loud, would just make people look at me quizzically, but when I work them into a comics, make people nod knowingly in agreement.
Ken Dahl, HELLO! I loved that whole interview with you, and had fun transcribing it. Not a word of it was garbled or moronic. Ironically, you kind of proved your own point perfectly–you probably would’ve had an easier time saying all that in a comic.
Speaking of which, I recently bought your “Welcome to the Dahlhouse” collection. It was a really fun read. The comic about prison was especially great. I’m looking forward to reading whatever it is you’re working on now.