With the upcoming Kick Starter success Pawn Shop about to be released (in March), We The Nerdy had a chance to chat with artist Sean Von Gorman.
We The Nerdy: How did you and Joey get together on this story? What intrigued you about the story?
Sean Von Gorman (SVG):
We met on the Internet, like all kids are doing these days. Joey posted a call for artists over Twitter for some Horror Anthology. My stuff wasn’t quite what he had in mind for that particular project, but he asked if I would be willing to read a script he had been working on that he thought I would be a good fit for. So Joey sends me a couple of pages of something called Pawn Shop. My first question was could we change the name to “Porn Shop”. He said no, I said are you sure it would sell more books, he said maybe.
The thing that attracted me to the project was Joeys’s ability to describe the character and what he describes as “The Feels”. The book has almost no action, or any other sort of convention comic hook, just feels.
We The Nerdy: What is it like for artist doing work on a kick starter project as opposed to a traditionally published book? Is your job any different or business as usual?
SVG: Absolutley, in the case for many projects today it means the difference between making the book and not making the book. Kickstarter and crowndfunding in general have changed the landscape for making comics on an Indy level. Before we brought it to Kickstarter we went the traditional route and pitched the project to a few different companies and although we got some very positive feedback from publishers it wasn’t something they wanted to take a risk on publishing. So after a few rejections we decided to try a different approach. At the time Joey and I had fairly sizable followings so we figured crowd funding made sense. Looking through our emails from that time I can say my exact words we “I’m Sean Von Gorman, your Joey Esposito. Let’s just Kickstart this Shit” We were simply overwealmed by the positive reaction we got from the people who backed the project. We were thinking hey maybe we’ll raise $7,000 and we’ll make the book. At the end of the campaign we raised over $10,000!
We The Nerdy: The story deals with the city of New York on a personal level almost. What is your connection to the city? Do you feel a certain way about New York? Does it make it easier or harder to draw a real city with such famous landmarks?
SVG: I am born and raised and currently reside in Brooklyn so I have very intimate connection with this city. It definitely makes me carful as to my approach for portraying some of the better known landmarks. My initial approach for the book was to use actual pictures as the back drop for the story. The idea being most people only ever see New york in pictures. And its something you see predominately in the first chapter but then as work continued on the story the characters take the spot light and almost overshadow their surroundings. The feels are immense!
We The Nerdy : Which of the 4 main characters was your favorite to draw and why?
SVG: It’s a tie between Harlod and Jen. Harlod is the soul of the book. If not for those first few sketches of Harlod the book would exist in the form it does now. Jen is so much fun to draw, she’s a total Bad-Ass!
We The Nerdy: There are a lot of aspiring artists out there still struggling with getting into comics. If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring artist what would it be?
SVG: Don’t be afraid to show people your art. Its super important to develop. Make a portfolio, and a business card. Go to cons or shows and meet other artists and show them what you do. Many artists are more than happy to give you some tips or some constructive feed back on things you might need work on. Being an Illustrator can be such a solitary existence if you focus only on making art. Meeting people is just as important to any career you would want to have. I recommend going to local Drink and Draws. If you live in NYC The Dare 2 Draw at society of Illustrators is a great way I meet other artists in a super positive atmosphere. And if you haven’t already seen it check out Neil Gaiman’s “Make Good Art” speech. It’s literally a sack of Gold Nuggets of great advice
Pawn Shop will be available in March but feel free to pre-order it here : http://joeyesposito.storenvy.com/products/5025955-pawn-shop-tpb-signed
Check out our Interview with Pawn Shop writer: Joey Esposito : https://wethenerdy.com/joey-esposito-talks-pawn-shop/
Check out our review of Pawn Shop: https://wethenerdy.com/comic_book_reviews-detail/pawn-shop-graphic-novel-review/
