An Interview with November Garcia

I started following November Garcia on Instagram about a year ago, and her comics first made me laugh. Then, I was drawn to her style - even her flatulence is expressive! But, she’s much more than farts - read on to hear from the artist herself:

1. Describe your comics journey--how did you get into making comics?

As far back as I can remember, I always drew. At one point, I was scribbling little stories that were a lot like Archie, except they were all talking dogs (other kids did that, right?). Then in my early 20s, Peter Bagge's HATE changed my life. Being in my early 20s and believing I was destined for greatness, I made a comic that I printed at Kinko's, which I then duly submitted to Fantagraphics. Head full of hubris, I thought, "Buckle up, world! Prepare to get yer minds blown!!!" Of course, it was really just awful work.

In my early 30s, I did a comic about the horrible Opus Dei-run school I attended for high school in the Philippines. I posted it on my blog and it went absolutely viral in the country. Current and former students of the school came out of the woodwork to tell their own traumatic stories in the comments section. The Jesus warriors came out swinging for The Lord. Online fights broke out. (This was before the height of social media—oof, I'm really showing my age here).

I started regularly posting comics and came upon Hic and Hoc on Tumblr. I submitted some subpar, angsty stuff to Matt Moses, who saw some modicum of potential — and gave me some crucial advice for improving my comics. He published my first comic and now here we are!

2. How did you develop your voice/unique comics style? A lot of your comics are autobiographical: how do you decide what to write about?

I used to draw these pantomime comics about a character that I'd named "Bean". It was very much "inspired" by psychedelics and there was really no effort that went into the writing of it.

My first autobio comic was about my first $7.50/hour job in the US at Blockbuster where I got held at gunpoint during my first week (I redid this story for Foggy Notions). I guess I never particularly enjoyed the act of writing — so it was just easier to write about my experiences. After I got the hang of it, I just mined content from my day-to-day. It's really a case of "Write what you know". The process just gets a little easier as I go.

The easiest for me to do are "pun" comics, like conversations I've had with my mom. Sometimes I'll dig into darker life experiences which make for good stories but are never as fun to do. These days, however, I'm so sick of talking about myself that I'd rather just draw with no context.

Maybe it's a phase....who knows.

3. What are the joys and challenges of working in comics?

Oh boy....ask any indie comic artist and they will agree that the challenges outweigh the joys, hahaha! I personally find that the amount of work put into making a comic is never commensurate with the rewards reaped. It's such a neither-here-nor-there kind of medium. It has components of literature, film and fine art but hardly ever gets the same regard and almost never the same pay.

I spend hours making something that can be read and forgotten after a few seconds. So why bother? It gives me a bit of joy to tell my story, I guess. I HAVE met so many amazing people in the indie comics industry and forged many lifelong friendships and that is probably the biggest joy.

4. Are you working on something now or have anything coming out?

I have a book coming out next year called Complete and Utter Malarkey with my publisher, Birdcage Bottom Books! It will be a compilation of every (decent) comic I've ever made, plus a lot of bonus material. It will be translated into French and Spanish and published by Bang Ediciones as well.

Check out more work at - https://novembergarcia.com