Michael DeForge

When I first saw images of Michael DeForge’s artwork, I was delighted by two things: his apparent precision in his craft and the narrative subject portrayed. Working out of Toronto, Michael always knew that art was his calling and proceeded to build a catalog from a very young age. Black and white ink drawings, cartoons and splashes of colour decorate the love of his medium.

When did you start making art? Was it something you always thought you’d make a life out of it?
Yeah, I’ve been drawing since I was a kid. I wasn’t sure if I could make a living out of it, but I always knew I wanted to make cartoons.

What is your favorite medium to create art with?
I usually prefer to work in black and white, with ink on paper. I like painting, but I’ve always just been more comfortable that way. For comics I need to use my wacom tablet. I have to keep it digital for comics because I make too many mistakes, and I’m pretty OCD about getting everything really perfect and precise for that.

Do you get fun ink smudges on your hands when you work?
I would for a while, but now I always keep a sheet of paper under my hand when I work. I’m pretty anal about all my lines being clean, so I’ve been trying my best not to smudge anything.

If you weren’t creating art, what would you be doing?
I try not to think about that. I don’t really have many real skills and I’ve always been pretty one track about artwork. Maybe I’d pursue music more seriously, or something else as impractical as cartooning.

What do you do musically?
Nothing really serious. I’ve been arranging MIDI compositions lately, that’s been a hobby of mine. I did a fake video game soundtrack about a year ago with MIDIs. I might eventually turn it into a little mini comic and release it as a CDR.

Your art has elements of distortion and exaggeration that at times appear psychedelic and/or nightmarish. Did you art always have these elements?
I think I’ve just always been informed by artwork like that. The distortion and exaggeration probably just comes from the fact that I learned to draw by imitating cartoonists I liked, and trying to figure out what stuff worked and what didn’t. I’ve been told my art looks psychedelic, but I never really had a particular interest in psychedelic art. I think all this stuff happens gradually for me, I try not to be too conscious about what “style” I’m drawing in. If there was ever a sort of catalyst in how I looked at art, it was the way I approached design, and poster making-specifically. I started seeing Seripop’s work, and then Art Chantry’s, and then some of the artists from Fort Thunder, and that definitely changed the way I thought of design.

Changed by way of inspiring or changed by way of showing you a different POV?
I hadn’t seen any design like it before. I especially appreciated Mat Brinkman’s posters—I look at the way he approaches posters and the way he approaches comics, and he’s really figured it out. He has this very precise language teased out, and one that was very specific to the scene he worked in, and that appealed to me.

Repeated images of childhood characters from comic books, cartoons and video games appear in your creations. Are those resources a main source of inspiration for you? Or is it a creative commentary on the adult reflection of such things deemed nostalgic?
They’re influences on me. When I redraw a specific character or symbol or whatever, I’m not doing it to comment on nostalgia or anything. I’ll incorporate them for a reason, but nostalgia has never really concerned me. I’m probably not far enough away from those influences to be nostalgic about them.

Do the reasons change depending on the drawing?
Yeah. If I’m appropriating an image, I try to be thoughtful about what I’m using it for

You seem to equally work with using colour and using black and white for your colour choices. Does the use of colour or non-use of colour speak as chosen elements within each piece?
I usually think in black and white when I’m just making the drawing, and I’ll add colour if I think it needs it. There are a few exceptions, but that’s usually how it goes. For commercial illustration it’s different, since colour is a necessity for most gigs. In that case I try to make loose colour choices pretty early on in the process.

When you need to go to your happy place, how do you get there?
I just read a lot of comics

What are your favourites?
Peanuts, Hideshi Hino’s horror comics, Mark Newgarden, Jack Kirby (especially his Seventies output,) Mat Brinkman’s Teratoid Heights, Igort, Chester Brown. I think I have pretty eclectic buying habits, but that lot is usually the stuff I come back to most.

You live in Toronto. Name three things that you love most about the city.
The Beguiling comics store, Bitondo’s Pizza, Noble Chinese Restaurant’s dim sum.

You also create comic books. Is there a different process when creating visuals combined with words/dialogue? Do you write the comic books you draw or do you just draw the images?
I write the comics. I have to write and lay out the page at the same time. I’d have a hard time working from a script since I’d have to adjust so much of it later when working out the pacing on the actual page.

Do you enjoy the writing part of the comic making process?
I do! Comics are a visual medium, so it’s really not straight writing—working out what happens on a page is more about rhythm and design. I think most cartoonists are even conscious about how the placement of a word balloon affects the dialogue inside in. I’m sure it comes more naturally for people who have more comics under their belt, since I really don’t have a lot.

What was your best/worst/most awkward moment of today?
There’s a late night radio show I call into every week called Night People on WFMU. I was on the phone with them from about 3:30 am to 6 am. The whole thing was such a rollercoaster ride of emotion, it’d be hard to pick just one instant!

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Words: Danielle Sipple