Dro-Mo, you are pretty mysterious. What information would you be willing to give our readers about yourself?
You’ll have to say the password before I can disclose any information. Due to my mysteriousness, I wear dark glasses and a heavy overcoat when drawing.
Do you ever use colors?
I use black and white and that’s plenty. My cartoons are all about creating a great deal with very little – that’s why the dro-mo character has no expression.
… Wait, I thought you were Dro-Mo.. Now you say one of your characters is.. Who is that Dro-Mo person?
Dro-Mo is the cartoon, the character and anything which lies within the panel. And it’s a word that doesn’t mean anything. No, I don’t understand it either.
On your Website, you display a list of artists that influenced you. I think I see the connection between your art and cartoonists like Miroslav Barták and silent movie stars like Buster Keaton. There are three names, however, I couldn’t really relate to your work… How do George Grosz, Uderzo & Steve Bell fit in there?
I’ve admired Grosz for many years; biting satire and a fantastic pen line. I loved Asterix when I was younger – and I still do. I used to copy out Uderzo’s work during long afternoons in my childhood bedroom. Steve Bell is one of the best political cartoonists about and has skewered many politicians with simple but devastating caricatures. In some way they’ve all fed into my thoughts and approach to cartooning.
The cartoons in your blog use captions. How important are they for you?
Not really. I prefer no captions but I now use them on the blog so that there’s something to read when links are posted on Twitter.
I noticed that you often construct elaborate spaces in your cartoons, even though they may seem simple at a first glance – take the cubicle cartoon, for example..
That one took quite a while to plan out. Because I don’t use words, the relationship between the characters and the surrounding space is very important. I don’t produce many drafts but I usually sketch out an idea and then leave it for a day or two while I think about it. I work out variations in my mind and then come up with something and things usually fall into place.
In March you wrote that your cartoons were going to be syndicated by Creators Syndicate. How is this coming along?
Oh, dro-mo is in development for the first two years and then the syndicate will start selling it. It’s early days yet but hopefully all will go well
How did this syndication thing start? Did they approach you or did you apply?
I approached a number of syndicates and publishers with dro-mo but Creators were the first to offer a deal. I simply sent off a letter with examples of the cartoon in the format they wanted and they seemed to like what they saw.
What does “being in development” exactly mean? Do you just stock up on cartoons?
Basically, it means giving me time to build up a profile on the Creators website and a stock of cartoons before dro-mo is offered up for publication. It also allows me to get used to the syndicate’s way of working before the serious work begins. At the moment I’m producing three panels a week; after two years it’ll increase to five – yikes!
Thanks for your time!
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