Author: Rick Marshall

Somewhere out there are several hundred people with drawings of their homes rendered by Tony Millionaire. I would very much like to find them.

Nick Main at Playback recently posted this interview with Tony Millionaire (a.k.a. Scott Richardson), the creator of the wonderfully old-timey, yet very much adult-oriented Sock Monkey, Maakies and "The Drinky Crow Show."

Sure, they talk Krazy Kat, toning down his Sock Monkey subject matter now that he children, and bringing "The Drinky Crow Show" to Adult Swim, but they also spend quite a bit of time discussing the different ways Millionaire has made ends meet. According to Millionaire, one way a struggling artist can earn a decent buck is by going door-to-door and sketching pictures of homes for their owners.

Yeah, I really liked doing that, because when the job is: "Here’s a house. Draw the house. Don’t screw around with it. Don’t make it arty. Don’t think of a great angle for it. Just draw the house." That’s how you really learn how to get a sense of gravity in drawing. Because you’re not really trying to do anything except draw itself. You’re not really trying to have a great concept or any other thought behind it. Sometimes I would cut the house off or try to put it at a more interesting angle, coming from behind a tree and somebody would say "What? You didn’t put my daughter’s bedroom in there!?" So I’d have to do it over.

Something you probably won’t earn much money doing, however, is running around naked in cemetaries. It might be liberating, but it usually doesn’t end well. Just take his word for it:

Did you ever go back to the South?

Yeah, but never for any crime worse than being loud and drunk…with my pants down. I say with my pants down, because one time I did actually get in trouble for running around in a cemetery naked. But that was actually worth it because they let me out the next morning, and the cemetery at night is a great place to run around naked.

On yesterday’s edition of "Fresh Air," Terry Gross interviews Adrian Tomine (Optic Nerve) about his latest project, Shortcomings.

From the book’s plot synopsis, courtesy of publisher Drawn & Quarterly:

Ben Tanaka has problems. In addition to being rampantly critical, sarcastic, and insensitive, his long–term relationship is awash in turmoil. His girlfriend, Miko Hayashi, suspects that Ben has a wandering eye, and more to the point, it’s wandering in the direction of white women. This accusation (and its various implications) becomes the subject of heated, spiralling debate, setting in motion a story that pits California against New York, devotion against desire, and trust against truth.

You can listen to the 20-minute interview here on NPR.