An Interview with Molly Crabapple: Part Two (In which John Levaitt joins the party!)

Posted on March 9th, 2011 - 09:05 AM by

Last week the blog at comiXology brought you an inside look at Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-art school and the first part of our interview with The Puppet Makers and Scarlett Takes Manhattan co-creator Molly Crabapple. Today we’re keeping the ball rolling with part two of our exclusive interview with Molly Crabapple as this time she is joined by her Dr. Sketchy cohort and comic book partner in crime John Levaitt the current creative director of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art school.  For part one of the interview scroll further down this page; for part two simply keep reading!

comiXology: Thanks for joining us John, our last question was on Puppet Makers? Care to share any insight on how the project came about?

John: Sci-fi and French History are both big hobbyhorses of Molly and I, and we felt the Sun King’s Court felt like something out of science fiction anyway. Plus, who wouldn’t want an excuse to draw all those baroque gold fripperies.

comiXology: Cool, now what have been some of your influences both in comics and out, what would you recommend folks read these days?

Molly: Right now I’m obsessed with Joan Sfar, the French comics creator who did The Rabbi’s Cat, The Little Vampire, and Klezmar, and who directed the new Gainsbourg movie.  His stuff is so tender and human and anti-authoritarian and whimsical that you find your face contorting into emotions you thought you had long since buried.  In comics, I also love Kevin O’Neill, Marjene Sartrapi, The Sandman, the usual suspects.

Outside: Toulouse Lautrec, Aubrey Beardsley, scathing political cartoons from the time when political machines ran New York, and popular illustration, like the stuff on matchbooks and the back of cubes of pool chalk. What should you read?  Joan Sfar.  Yes, read Joan Sfar, so I can gush to more people about him.

John: I’m currently in lust with Jason Lutes’ Berlin books.

comiXoloy: If you guys could travel back in time to any particular era what would it be and why?

Molly: I’m not too big on time travel.  God bless birth control, and the internet. It’s much more interesting to cull the coolest aspects of
an era while leaving the suppurating syphilis sores behind.

John: I think as long as you’re at the top of the social heap, any time is fine. Unless you’re in one of those places where the top people get sacrificed to keep the sun shining. Then not so much.

comiXology: Now you’ve gotten to step into the world superhero’s in the past in addition to some of your more recent independent work. If you could have a superpower yourself what would it be? And for that matter are their any mainstream characters out there right now you’d like to work on?

John: Telekinesis seems like the most practical, but I don’t need another excuse to never get off the couch. I’ve always wanted to write Dazzler, actually. But as a Edena Monsoon-esque washout. Faded Disco Queen and all that

Molly: I wouldn’t sleep.  Just work.  Can coffee be a superpower?

comiXology: With books like The Puppet Makers and Scarlett Takes Manhattan available for digital download right now, do you see the digital marketplace as a viable way to get your work out to people?

Molly: I do!  comiXology is an amazing platform, and I think your interface for reading comics is extremely elegant.  However, I got to say I’m pretty old school and don’t have an ipad or a kindle.  I like to have books I can drop.

John: Completely. I think the digital marketplace is going to blow up comics in a huge way. And just for vanity’s sake, I love the way my stuff looks on an iPad.

comiXology: Alright last question. What can readers expect from you in the future got anything in the works that you could tease us with?

John: We’re currently working on another graphic novel that one of my friends described as “Like the Music Man, but evil.”

Molly: Me and John recently signed up to do a new graphic novel with First Second Books, titled Straw House. It’s the tale of an immortal carnival that brings truth, and destruction, on a small rust belt town in the 1950′s.  We hope we to do a good job.

comiXology: We have no doubt it will be great, thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions guys!

Molly and John’s books can be read both in print and exclusively through comiXology. Check out their awesome comics along with over 6,900 others and don’t forget to check  back often for all the latest updates on new comics coming out, new sales going on and brand new interviews with folks creating comics on the cutting edge!


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