FEATURING AN

INTERVIEW WITH
GILBERT HERNANDEZ
PLUS COMICS FROM
THE BEST INDIE
TALENT AROUND
J
U
N
E
/
J
U
L
Y
2
0
1
3
I
S
S
U
E
#
5
F
R
E
E
It may be tempting fate, but I think summer is here.
Cider adverts are back on telly, puffy-nippled Alpha males
are rolling topless through the streets and our local park
attendant has already deposited his rst bollock-the-disposable-
barbie commission.
Whats more ELCAF comics festival is upon us. We nally
get to catch up with a load of the artists whove blessed our pages
and hopefully meet a load of you guys too, so do come and say
hello. Well be the ones with red sweaty faces carrying bagfuls
of free comics.
Speaking of this months comic, we were honoured when
Gilbert Hernandez agreed to speak with us openly on comics and
the industry that peddles them. Take it from a hack whos sat
through too many PR led interviews to count: its a rare treat when
an artist of Gilberts experience opens up beyond vague anecdotes
and book shilling.
Anyway, I rambled too much last issue and so in the name of
brevity (and rapidly declining sun) Im off. Weve some excellent
comics for you this issue and we hope you enjoy reading them as
much as we did putting them together.
To the sun!
DANIEL HUMPHRY
Editor, OFF LIFE
COMICS
Pages 2 27
GILBERT HERNANDEZ
Page 15
YOU HAVE BEEN READING
Page 28

EDITOR
Daniel Humphry
@Daniel_Humphry
ART DIRECTOR
Steve Leard
@SteveLeard
COPY EDITOR
Lucy Rice
COVER ART
Joseph William
@JoeWilliam88
DESIGN
wearerandl.co.uk
OFFLIFE.CO.UK
INFO@OFFLIFE.CO.UK
@OFFLIFE_COMIC
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
15
From the start of your career youve created
comics that, at least emotionally, are very
grounded in reality. What drew you towards
that side of the comics medium?
Well, growing up I started reading kids comics
like Archie and Richie Rich. They seemed to be
just as entertaining as superheroes and were a
little more down to Earth.
When it came to making my own comics, the
superhero formula didnt feel right if what
I wanted to do was tell stories about people.
The kids comics like Archie did, they were
really just about hanging out, and so they really
inuenced my style of telling day-to-day
stories. I just brought them to a new audience
of adult readers.

FOR OVER 30 YEARS GILBERT HERNANDEZ HAS BEEN CARVING

A NICHE AWAY FROM THE SPANDEX AND SUPERPOWERS OF
MAINSTREAM COMICS. HIS WORK HAS BEEN PRAISED FOR ITS
STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS, PERSONAL STORYTELLING AND
HANDLING OF REAL LIFE ISSUES.
OFF LIFE SAT DOWN WITH GILBERT TO DISCUSS WHY HE DUCKED
WHEN THE COMIC INDUSTRY WEAVED, AND HOW HE FEELS ABOUT
THE DIRECTION THAT COMICS HAVE TAKEN.
16
17
Like many of todays indie artists you didnt wait for
a publisher and instead just started putting out work.
Did that shape your style?
I suppose it did. At the time I really appreciated
underground comics, their no holds barred stories and
attitude. That freedom and honesty really inuenced
my approach to comics. Like if they could get away
with what theyre doing maybe I could too.
The freedom with creator owned and indie comics
means that Im not really edited. When I work with
a DC or Marvel there is a lot of editing and it loses
some of that personal expression.
Its well documented that the West Coast punk scene
was an influence on your work. Can you see a trend
in what is now influencing younger artists?
I think the late 80s explosion in indie comics is really
the inuence on this next generation of artists. Its great
now that a lot of indie comics are getting press outside
of the comics world, simply because it helps artists to
look at the bigger picture.
At the same time, if comics get too insular, too
much about the indie scene and just indie audiences,
then the whole thing starts to eat itself alive. Thats
what kills a lot of creativity. Being popular and out
there doesnt mean you cant have a personal vision
just look at Dan Clowes. I guess any cartoonist worth
his salt just has to put up with those pressures once
your work is out there.
Do you think theres too much replication of the
indie styles that artists like you, Clowes and Tomine
have helped popularise?
That might be true. I notice that the best work lately is
shorter material, more experimental and more
confessional material. But what there isnt a lot of is
ction with original characters and long stories. Me,
Tomine and Clowes do it but very few others do.
Thats something I miss. Theres a lot of
confessional and autobiographical comics and small
experimentation but not a lot that goes past that.
I wonder if this current generation is just about
possibly replicating. Thats not a bad thing when you
start out, but you have to nd your voice.
Speaking of autobiography, your latest book Marble
Season goes back to yours and your brothers
childhoods. Why did you want to revisit that period
of your life?
I hadnt connected to my readers with a personal story
for quite some time; Id been doing a lot of crime and
horror and melodrama. In my early Palomar
stories there were lots of small personal tales about
peoples lives and they had a bit of my life in them
but Id never done a story of things that actually did
happen to me.
Is there a message youre trying to tell about your life
within Marble Season?
Its probably more about all of our lives. Back then all you
care about is pop-culture and what youre doing the next
day. Youre pretty much the master of your own
universe. I wanted to put across a normal childhood
from a childs point of view, and for me in the early
60s we didnt have iPads or Netix or any of that instant
gratication stuff aside from watching a show or reading
a comic we were just outside with our imagination.
I can see how that childhood has been clipped a
little bit because of modern technology and instant
entertainment thats probably why its harder and
harder to get young people to read comic books.
Its no secret that the comic medium is often criticised
for its portrayal of women. Your work, however, has
always been praised for its strong female characters.
Was that an intentional effort?
A lot of the kids comics I read emphasized teenage
girls, if it wasnt a story about Archie then it was about
Betty and Veronica theyd have stories without boy
characters and that was normal to us. With Love and
Rockets, it seemed natural to have women characters.
People dont seem so interested in female characters
or even female artists in mainstream comics. Perhaps
its a bit of a boys club.
At least your work is demonstrating how female
characters should be treated.
Well, yeah, but at the same time it might have hurt us. My
brothers and I have never really broken through

18
as cartoonists, weve always done ne and had good
support from out readers, but its never gone past that.
I wonder if perhaps thats because some of our main
characters are women or Latino maybe thats a block
for some people.
Is that disappointing?
A little bit. Ive always expected the rest of the world
to be a little more open minded, but coming from the
way politics in America are, we can obviously see thats
not true.
Youve been creating comics for over 30 years now.
Are you happy with how the medium and the
industry has shaped up?
Im just glad its still there so that Ive got somewhere
to go! Its difficult to know what to say about how the
art form has grown up. The best thing I can say is that
theres an opening for an artist with a different point
of view to make a real splash. Theres a door open, a
road to travel on which wasnt there in the 70s or 80s.
Thankfully, comic books will never go back to being
one thing, and theres gotta be somebody around the
corner to do something new with them. I just hope
its soon so that Im still around to enjoy it.
What do you think needs to happen for comics to
gain a better standing?
Everybody should just stop buying all the other comics
and just buy mine thatll save comics! No, seriously,
more exposure to indie comics and no more to
mainstream comics they get enough with all the movies.
Do you think the mainstream comics that do gain
exposure perhaps hurt the entire comic medium?
It hurts comics in the sense that they could be more
than just that. Im just as happy as anyone with a movie
like Avengers, I mean what a matinee movie, but it
does emphasise thats what comics are and thats the
best they can do. We all know theres so much more,
but I guess its easier to go watch a spectacle at the
movies than it is to pick up a book.
YOU CAN READ MORE ABOUT GILBERT
AND DISCOVER HIS BACK CATALOGUE
AT FANTAGRAPHICS.COM
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
YOU HAVE BEEN READING
ANA GALVA
HAPPY NEW HOME
@ANAGALVAN666
PAGE 2
TIM BIRD
OFF SEASON
@PSEUDOBOY
PAGE 4
CATHERINE PAPE
GIRL SAILOR
@CNPAPE
PAGE 6
EMIX REGULUS
WHYBALLS
@ORIGAMISHIP
PAGE 19
28
DAN BAILEY
DAVE
@RUBBERPENGUIN
PAGE 8
LUKE DROZD
THE COLLECTOR, THE
CLOWN, THE FLY &
TECHNICALLY DEAD
@LUKEDROZD
PAGE 22
STEVE TILLOTSON
THE MOVIES
@BANALPIG
PAGE 9
SAM ALDEN
REMINDERS
@SAMALDEN
PAGE 23
SALVATORE
GIOMMARRESI
RAIN
@SALUTIOAKVILLE
PAGE 10
JOHN CEI DOUGLAS
@SHOTFORMEAT
ALESSANDRA GENUALDO
@AGENUALDO
TAN LINES
PAGE 24
HENRY BOON
WHAT GOES UP
@GET_0NE
PAGE 12
JOE LIST
HATRED
@JOELIST
PAGE 13
INTERVIEW
GILBERT
HERNANDEZ
PAGE 15
ISSUE#5
OFFLIFE.CO.UK
@OFFLIFE_COMIC