sexsexsex: interview with dave cooper (swf 2019)

Thanks to the Canadian Embassy, the Singapore Writers Festival are receiving some cool comics guests for the last 2 years. (in fact, Canada is the country of focus for this year’s SWF) Last year, it was David Collier, quintessential down-to-earth Canadian artist whose appearance in Singapore even got Lat to come down from Ipoh to catch up with this old friend of ours.

I interviewed Collier here:

http://singaporecomix.blogspot.com/2018/10/swf-2018-interview-with-david-collier.html

This year, it is alternative comics provocateur of the 1990s and 2000s, Dave Cooper, who will be coming to town. A rather odd choice for a guest as only old time fans of Fantagraphics Comics (Dave’s publisher) will be familiar with his comics like Suckle, Weasel, Crumple and Ripple. They are fantastical tales of people who are overwhelmed by sex, society, technology and … women.

Some have stood up to rereading like Ripple, which can still make you stand. (Dave is doing a lecture on sex comics at SWF) But Dave has been off the comics grid for some time. He became a fine art artist, a children’s books artist and got into animation for the past 10 years. These are all interesting projects, but thankfully for his comics fans, he has returned to comics with Mudbite (2018), a book collecting 2 new Eddy Table (Dave’s alter ego) stories, Mud River and Bug Bite. Sex and all its bodily fluids return in a big way in Dave’s comics. Maybe he should have a meeting with the minister of population here to talk about sex.

I did an email interview with him and the first question I asked was …

What is the obsession with sex?

Good question. I’m exploring that very question as I write the lecture for the Singapore Writers Festival. I won’t spoil it for you, but it seems to all come down to a number of imprinting experiences I’ve had since childhood, pared with a strange absence of stigma around using sex as a central theme. It just seems to be the thing that drives my work. I find writing and drawing really exhausting most of the time, I’m not the type to doodle constantly in a sketchbook for pleasure. Drawing is more like pushing a car up a hill. But I’ve found from experience over the years that as soon as I insert sex into the equation it’s like I’ve put a key in the ignition.

I just reread Ripple, about the perfect orgasm. After all that build up, we never get to see it. What is it like? Have you experienced it before?

Ha ha! At the time of writing that, it was only a plot device, I’d never experienced it first hand. It was a highly amplified, exaggerated version of the bliss you can feel the first time.

Underground comix artist, Robert Crumb is obviously a big influence for you. But he recently came under heavy backlash in light of the #metoo movement. Any thoughts on that? Are you worried about your portrayals of the female body and physique?

I’m not informed on the Crumb thing. But as for my work, I do wonder how the new generation processes this kind of intentionally provocative and morally ambiguous work. Only time will tell. I can say that the only feedback I ever get from women is enthusiastic. That’s always been a hugely gratifying thing for me. It tells me that my work is often understood, and that my loving sentiment comes through all the confusion.



Do you see yourself as part of the underground comix tradition or linage?

I never feel like a part of anything. I never have. Comics, painting, animation, filmmaking. I’m lucky that my work is well regarded and I love these communities, but there’s something about my personality that keeps me feeling a bit on the outside. Maybe it’s from feeling the black sheep in my own family as a child.

When you were starting out, was there like a Canadian alternative comic artists scene? Drawn & Quarterly and people like Chester Brown, Seth, Julie Doucet and Collier.

Nationalism is another where I feel apart. I’ve never thought of myself as “Canadian” per se. If anything, I may have felt a bit less connected to those authors because I imagined some sort of expectation. I love all those artists you mentioned but their Canadian-ness was never a factor that drew me to them.

Your stories deal with the dissonance between pastoral and civilization, nature and technology, desire and morals, and the child and the man. Do you see the world in such dichotomous terms?

As a person, no I don’t. But when I write and draw, I always seem to slip into these patterns. I’m transported back to my childhood in the woods of Nova Scotia where I became obsessed with nature, with things growing from the earth, or with the way my father could build machinery out of raw metal and wood, or to my pubescence when my obsession with the female form began. I sink under, into a world where exploring all these ideas was an escape, a place where I could feel like I controlled things and my explanations were law.

You moved from comics to music, back to comics, then paintings, children’s books, animation and comics again. Are you ADHD?

Absolutely! Not formally diagnosed, but I definitely need the constant thrill of new projects, unfamiliar challenges. It creates a spark that is absent when I’m doing the same kind of work day in and day out. Initially it happened within the discipline of comics- I’d change my drawing style from book to book. But eventually I started craving the challenge of jumping from one discipline to another. The latest is live-action filmmaking, and after that possibly sculpture.

You moved into animation and you brought along your alter ego, Eddy Table. Eddy is your most enduring character. What makes Eddy so versatile?

He’s just a guy that I never get tired of visiting. I can’t explain it. I just like drawing him. And the fact that he is my alter-ego for my own dream stories, and nonsense stories means that I’ll never run out of stories for him. I don’t enjoy writing real stories with serious intentions and structure so making Eddy stories is always enjoyable.

Eddy gets to do lots of fun thing. Are you Eddy?

Yes. He started as a stand-in for my dream stories. I wanted to use an actual dream, but cartoonize the visuals. I thought it would just make the whole experience more universal if the protagonist was a cartoon character.

Any connection between Eddy Table and Ed the Happy Clown by Chester Brown?

No, that would make sense though. Ed the Happy Clown was one of the most seminal works for me at that time. But no, Eddy Table comes from the word “editable”, meaning easily changed- in other words, malleable to my needs as fickle artist.

Eddy has new adventures in your new book, Mudbite. But Eddy is also the hero in your short animation film, The Absence of Eddy Table. Now what is exciting is that Eddy is voiced by Mike Patton of Faith No More! Was it a kick to work with Mike Patton?

It was comically mundane actually. Our composer is friends with Mike. We asked if he’d consider doing a voice in exchange for us re-purposing footage from our film to make a little music video for him. We never got to meet him, we just sent the movie and soon received his tracks. The director was thrilled, but he had a couple of “notes”- places where he’d like a take 2. Mike’s response was, “there’s no take 2”. Ha ha! Anyway, we were beyond thrilled to have him attached to the project, his work was phenomenal.

What is your process like these days? Still pen and paper or a mix of digital now?

I use digital only for colouring and lettering, and in fact, I'm starting to get a bit fed up of using it to colour. i think i may just go back to black and white drawings, i usually prefer them. Drawing on a computer is something I avoid. I love soft graphite on letter paper, I love ink on strathmore, I love oil paint on canvas. These are visceral experiences for me that I don’t want to give up for expediency. I draw on a computer if there’s a nasty deadline and there’s no other way.

Can tell us more about your new projects, Pillowy and Squash?

Pillowy is the most beautiful publication I’ve ever been associated with. It’s a 400-pg retrospective. All the work I’m still pleased with from the past 30 years. When I look at it I still can’t believe my luck that Cernunnos Publishing would put so much love and care into a book about my work.

Squash is my first foray into live-action filmmaking. A 4-minute film about a jiggly, obsessive woman and her giddy self-gratification. It’s highly stylized and I think it will make a great first effort. Making it was a thrilling challenge. My first day on set as a director I was gratified by an overwhelming feeling of belonging and confidence.

What’s next for you?

I always answer that question with “more of the same, I hope”. I love my career and I just want to keep pushing myself to dig deeper into the same themes that have always motivated me. Bigger paintings, longer films, maybe sculpture. I just love it all and I want to keep finding ways to make it fresh for me.

What have you heard about Singapore?

No chewing gum?

Some say we are really uptight. But then one of our ministers said you don't need much space to have sex and make babies. What do you think of that? Can ripple be achieved in a small space?

Just enough space for two people. Or just one in a pinch.


You can find Dave’s programmes at SWF here:
https://www.singaporewritersfestival.com/nacswf/nacswf/author-speaker/Dave-Cooper.html

I am moderating a panel on Outsider Comics with Dave, Ye Zhen and Weng Pixin on 3 November, 3 pm.

https://www.singaporewritersfestival.com/nacswf/nacswf/programme-listing/festival-events/Outsider-Comics-.html

You can watch The Absence of Eddy Table here:
https://vimeo.com/blog/post/staff-pick-premiere-the-absence-of-eddy-table-by-rune-spaans/