An Interview with Christopher Sperandio
In my work, I’m trying to achieve an outcome: to defeat fascism. I don’t take any joy in it. Those fuckers have taken years of my life.
When I (Nora) moved to Houston, I wasn’t sure what the comics scene was, or where to find it. Then, Amaris sent me a notice of an event I had just missed—Art Spiegleman, among other comic creators, scholars, enthusiasts, had headlined a comics conference on the campus of Rice University, where my husband (a college football coach) worked and the reason for our move. I saw that a thing called “CATS” had hosted the conference and was located at Rice, so one day, with my three month old son in tow, I took the elevator to a corner of a new art building. The air smelled of sawdust and paint, and a steel and glass corridor ushered us to a spot with a colorful comic sign advertising CATS: The Comic Art Teaching and Study Workshop. I pushed my stroller tentatively into a bright room full of comics. And there was Chris Sperandio, director of CATS and professor at Rice. Chris greeted me, answered my sweaty (did you know it’s hot in Houston?) newcomer request for local comics info, and also showed me the ancient newspaper comics he was about to reveal to his students. He encouraged me (and my son) to return, and on subsequent visits, I saw awesome student comics, Blondie strips in their first form, and more treasures of CATS. I also got to know Chris’ art, which is bold, political, and just what we need at this ugly, violent, frightening cultural moment.
We are pleased to share his work and thoughts with you today.
Describe your comics journey—how did you get into making comics?
When I was a kid, I wanted to be a director. I had a Super 8 camera, and I made comedy and science fiction films with my friends. There was a lot of strife in my house, and I was a terrible student and pretty antisocial. A standard origin story. I made it into college (barely) to study art, but they didn’t have film, so I turned to drawing. My drawing teacher told me to stop looking at comics. I didn’t listen to him.
How did you develop your voice? Politics comes up in your work—what does the comics medium provide in revealing and interrogating this world?
I really only quit giving a shit what anybody else thought when I got tenure. Now I say what I want. That doesn’t stop the narrow-minded and pedantic colleagues from fucking with me, but now I don’t have to pay them any attention. I have more followers on Instagram than they do. Having said that, I don’t care about an audience. It’s a cliche, but I make what I make for me. If other people are on board, great. If not, the exit is behind you.
What are the joys and challenges of working in comics?
In my work, I’m trying to achieve an outcome: to defeat fascism. I don’t take any joy in it. Those fuckers have taken years of my life. I’d much rather draw and paint other things, but I wouldn’t sleep at night knowing that I didn’t get up each morning and fight. The US government paid my father $500 a month to shoot Nazis. Fighting those creeps is the family business, I suppose.
As the director of CATS at Rice University, what do you hope comics can give students?
I started the Comic Art Teaching and Study Workshop as a drawing resource for my students. I bought some cheap original comic art pages to show them what this kind of drawing looked like. The collection has ballooned to $1.5 million, and I’ve added a Risograph printer with 11 colors. Our new space at Rice University is a research and book production facility. Students get the full gamut, from history to making. I’ve produced three books and two films out of the collection. All with no budget. Zero dollars from my department.
Are you working on something now? Anything you want readers to know about?
I’m never not working, lol. Right now I’m in the middle of an 11-week trip to Japan. I’ve been learning how to make washi—Japanese paper made from the mulberry tree. While I’m traveling, I’m keeping a set of drawing and painting journals. I plan to publish these pieces in a little volume in August.
I’m going to have a small solo museum show in Portugal in October—a survey of my drawings and paintings since 2020. There will be a 160-page book accompanying the show. I’ve made 6,000 drawings over the last six years. This book will present less than a quarter of those pieces.
Finally, I’ll be having work in a show at Galerie Met in Berlin in December. It’s something that my former student, the artist Rexy Tseng, is organizing. His work is pretty out there. I hope that what I show matches that energy. But maybe not. I’m pretty tired from fighting all the time.
If folks want to find me on Instagram, it’s @pinko_joe—but I never know if I’ll be getting kicked off one day to the next, so I mirror my posts at PinkoJoe.com. Finally, I have a newsletter that I’m about to reinvest in heavily, it’s on Substack for now at
