My cartoon is new to the web and comic world, so finding another cartoonist with the same interest is exciting. It’s great to enjoy what someone else is doing and learn from them. I guess all cartoonists try to figure out how others are creating and if we are doing things right or wrong (even if there isn’t a right or wrong way, yet apparently with some rules). So I was excited to talk with Jeremy Billadeau, a fellow cartoonist who is genuine and hard working. Jeremy is the creator, writer and artist of the web comic “Skipper” and the new “Morbit Orbid” comic. So let’s meet Jeremy Billadeau and his creation Skipper.
David: It was great talking with you today Jeremy. One thing I love about talking with you is that you are so down to earth. Tell me a little about how you got started as a Cartoonist and how Skipper got started.
Jeremy: It was a pleasure to talk with another cartoonist David, as I’ve mentioned I don’t get that privilege enough and as far as being down to earth, it helps when the person you’re talking to is also.
Actually Skipper is the one that started my becoming a cartoonist again; I had put my art away for many years to pursue life in many other directions, despite cartooning and art being my defining thing while growing up. Those that knew me, friends and family alike, while growing up and throughout my schooling years, felt that’s what I’d become, an artist, a cartoonist, they never bothered asking what I thought I’d become when I ‘grew up’ because that was it. No one really knew how to help me pursue it and I kind of lost my way after high school, although I did nothing but draw for a few years, it never developed into anything because I didn’t know how to pursue it and felt at the time I’d never be able to make anything of it anyway, which I’m still not sure, most likely never will be. Anyways, my art for many years got lost in the shuffle of life. Then while soul searching after years of trying my hand at everything else, I finally woke up to that fact, that no one expected me to do anything else but to have become an artist, a cartoonist or to have pursued my artistic talents successfully. I came to the realization, or rather finally came to terms with the fact that I was a cartoonist, always had been, and was suppose to be. And what had spurned this new soul searching was Skipper surfacing on a piece of paper. I had been messing around with a character after years of not drawing, The Dreaded Dead Hobo, who didn’t talk, so I had felt he needed a sidekick for some time, but then one morning I awoke with this picture of a dog with a sailors cap on and the name that kept resounding while I rushed to my drawing pad to draw this image in my mind was ‘Skipper’. I quickly sprung from bed and drew this new character, on all fours at first. He had sort of a gruff attitude, a tell it like it is persona and after drawing him in a sidekick role for a few hours it quickly became apparent that Skipper was no sidekick, he just blew DDH away. I drew a few single panel gags with Skip standing upright a few times and he took over from there. The rest of the characters Mitzy the rat, Lulu the squirrel and Tozo the turtle, were born soon after during Skips first week here on earth…
David: When did you decide you wanted to take the path of a Cartoonist, and is there a character of yours you most identify with?
Jeremy: I started drawing Skipper, full time, with the purpose of making it a feature and my being a cartoonist, fittingly enough on Labor Day a little over a year ago, maybe two. It’s funny, the very day we are to rest from our labor I start what I hope will become my life’s work. Anyone that knows me would say that’s par for the course for me. If there’s any of my character’s that best personify me, I wouldn’t know which it is, but I know all of them do to a great extent, I mean they have to, one can only write or express with any accuracy things they know, so in that everything to an extent must be me, but at the same time these character’s are themselves. For instance there’s things that Lulu says or does that I’d never do, at least I’d hope not and Tozo’s low self-esteem is something we both would have shared when I was younger, but now that’s not a component of my personality. So some of their characteristics draw from things I’d like to say or what I think someone with a different personality would say and other characteristics draw from my past, but I do hear Skips voice, more than the others while just walking around in everyday life, so if I had to pick one it’s him. Now the Morbit Orbid cast is a whole ‘nother ball of wax and is still too young to say who might carry my persona more.
David: You also have started Morbit Orbid. Is this going to be something you do as a side project to Skipper? And is the plan to do it weekly, daily, or just as it comes to you?
Jeremy: Morbit Orbid (MO) is an anomaly. A week before this last Christmas, I awoke again, that’s where I got most of my best ideas, in bed. Anyways I had awaked to this idea of the earth and the sun talking to each other and quickly drew some stuff. Much like Skips birth it snowballed itself seemed to write itself and the premise possibilities seemed so intriguing and never ending that I had no idea where it would go. I mean it’s an entire universe with talking planets; it’s pretty infinite stuff, where anything goes. But unlike Skip I called upon friends in the industry to help me figure out what I had. That and through my experience prior with the whole development process with Skip I was able to craft (MO) much faster, but despite, feel I may have launched it a bit prematurely, although that’s worked itself out a bit here as (MO) is entered in a contest right now and that should certainly help me develop it more. So, although I had intentioned when I had launched it, to update like most web-comics every Monday, Wednesday & Friday, I’m postponing any regular posting schedule until after the contest to keep the material fresh. But afterwards that’s most likely what the schedule will be if not more, and they’ll be plenty of material by then. Everyone that heard the premise got really excited about it, and I’m sure they’re a little put off by my having to postpone it, but it will be well worth it when it finally comes out! I still plan on posting some strips and other stuff in the mean time, so it’s still worth a visit to the site I have set up for it.
David: There are so many comics and web comics out there right now. The internet has given us the freedom to do it ourselves. With so much out there who are your all time hero’s (that is past and present)?
Jeremy: There’s a Charlie Brown Christmas book somewhere that is the grubbiest thing you’ve ever seen, despite barely being able to walk it went everywhere with me, I loved that book and there’s a homeless man somewhere with a blanket that my mom had knitted for me before I was born, that while growing up as a child I use to use just like Linus would use his. So that’s a dead give away to who my earliest influence was. But I was an ardent strips reader, and really appreciate all of them. Blondie’s crispness in the ink line, Garfield’s simple humor, Doonesbury’s unabashed wit and how much could be said for the older masters of the craft, Caniff, McCay, Kelly, McManus, there’s just so many to even name. But if I had to pick three strips from the past that influenced me the most it would be Peanuts, Bloom County and Calvin & Hobbes. Those are the big guns from the funny pages, but the web has so many new talents and some really interesting new strips that go in avenues those guys never dreamed, and some they might never have wanted to dream of. It’s hard to keep up with them all but I do my best, I’ve drawn a couple guest spots for David Reddick’s Legend of Bill which definitely has it’s own demographic but still a very fun strip and I like my other cartoonist friends work, but the one that really has me and who is an absolutely amazing talent, is Rina Picollos ‘Velia Dear’, it’s just a very honest strip that has a great deal of mature bite to it and just so happens to be drawn by a great artist. I keep up with that one.
David: Last but not least, here’s a fun one and it may tie in with the last question. If you could be a cartoon character for one day, who would it be, what character do you identify most with?
Jeremy: This is by far the hardest question I’ve ever been asked, and was just fretting about it the other day with no conclusion. I was hoping to never have to address it, but yet here it is!.. What character would I most want to be for one day?.. Typical stall move, repeat the question. When I was younger it would have been a much easier question, but now from a creators point of view, where you realize how much goes into these characters, I find it much harder to deliberate. But to just have fun with it, I’d have to say I looked up to Linus so much when I was a child, his intelligence, his flashes of mastery, his sincerity, his sensibility, his hair, his blanket, I think for one day I would have liked to be him and I mean that sincerely. I know it’s a little odd for an answer, but hey, cartoonists are odd.
I definitely appreciate having you on the blog and it was fun and insightful to talk with you. You can find Jeremy here at :
http://www.facebook.com/pages/SKIPPER/124838437529747?ref=sgm
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