Speaker 1: You are listening to Something Rather Than Nothing. Creator and host,
Speaker 1: Ken Velante. Editor and producer, Peter Bauer.
Speaker 2: Hey, everybody.
Speaker 3: This is Ken Velante with the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast.
Speaker 3: And I am very pleased to have Jay Webster Sharp
Speaker 3: reaching Gemma from New York. And Gemma is an illustrator
Speaker 3: that I encountered on Instagram that had such a visceral
Speaker 3: impact on me, the illustrations.
Speaker 2: And powerful images.
Speaker 3: And I just kind of got drawn into these images,
Speaker 3: which is why I reached out to you, Gemma.
Speaker 2: And I'm just so pleased to have you on the show.
Speaker 2: Welcome on to Something Rather Than Nothing.
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me. I, uh.
Speaker 3: There's, there's a couple like bigger typical questions that I
Speaker 3: tend to ask guests, um, that I like to explore,
Speaker 3: like their identity as artists. And, uh, my first question is,
Speaker 3: was there a moment you saw yourself as an artist
Speaker 3: and identified as an artist? Was it, did it happen
Speaker 3: as a moment or has that happened or what's your
Speaker 3: feelings on that?
Speaker 4: I feel that it was something that I just kind
Speaker 4: of grew into from being a kid and, um, knowing
Speaker 4: like when you're about seven or eight wow i'm really
Speaker 4: good at drawing because it's better than all my classmates
Speaker 4: drawings and paintings and stuff and being worried if a
Speaker 4: new kid joined the class who could draw pretty well
Speaker 4: because it meant that my place in that class has
Speaker 4: been the good drawer it was in jeopardy and that
Speaker 4: makes me sound mean but i i wasn't at all
Speaker 4: i think um I think I decided when I was
Speaker 4: about 13 that I was going to be an artist
Speaker 4: because that was about the age that I realized that, oh,
Speaker 4: this is something that you could do as a living.
Speaker 4: And I would read a lot of artists' biographies and
Speaker 4: get taken to art galleries in the nearest cities and things.
Speaker 4: So it kind of felt like it was something that
Speaker 4: was doable. And that's kind of what I aimed for
Speaker 4: from about 13.
Speaker 3: So when you're in, when you're in class, when you're younger,
Speaker 3: was there something like you were intuitively drawing or processing out?
Speaker 3: Like for myself, I do geometric geometric patterns like in repetition.
Speaker 3: And that started when I was a kid. It's just
Speaker 3: something I like to do. Was there, was there a
Speaker 3: types of things that kind of emanated from you when
Speaker 3: you were younger?
Speaker 2: Uh, just like flowing out of you.
Speaker 4: I think you talk about repetition. I think I was
Speaker 4: very good at the way I taught myself was, um,
Speaker 4: to copy things that I found, copy drawings. And I
Speaker 4: had colouring books that were... I had a great colouring
Speaker 4: book that was a fellow's name, Russo, did all those
Speaker 4: jungle scenes. And there was a page and it had
Speaker 4: the tiger coming out of the jungle and the tiger's
Speaker 4: got this manic look on its face. And you're drawing
Speaker 4: it as a kid and thinking, wow, you know, this
Speaker 4: looks crazy. And also... I come from a working class
Speaker 4: background and I would get a lot of praise if
Speaker 4: I could, if I copied something and got it as
Speaker 4: correct as I could, I'd get praise for that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Because I, you know, I came from a family that
Speaker 4: was more responsive to, you know, more of the kind
Speaker 4: of like realist looking stuff, not so much abstract work.
Speaker 4: and sculpture and things. And so I felt that looking
Speaker 4: back now, that was the direction I was encouraged in
Speaker 4: because that was the kind of artwork my family could understand. Yeah.
Speaker 2: It was like that.
Speaker 3: There was like a value within. I, I, I think
Speaker 3: I know in my mind, what, what you mean is
Speaker 3: like within the kind of, um, um, work in that
Speaker 3: like you had done it really well like you had
Speaker 3: done the work really well like as opposed to something
Speaker 3: in the environment where it's like super you know imaginative
Speaker 3: creative like you did the work well what was like
Speaker 3: what was like when you when you uh were you
Speaker 3: know doing art when you're younger like what was the
Speaker 3: reaction like what was your environment like even in school
Speaker 3: did you feel like there were positive cultivations of it
Speaker 3: or it was like your secret your secret love.
Speaker 4: No, it was very, I mean, knowing what I do
Speaker 4: now about art lessons in British schools, I think I
Speaker 4: was very lucky to get the art education I had
Speaker 4: in the primary school and secondary school that I went to. Um,
Speaker 4: it was way more involved, um, very encouraged. Um, you've
Speaker 4: got to look at lots of different artists and, um, Now,
Speaker 4: it isn't like that at all. It didn't feel like
Speaker 4: something I had to keep secret. It didn't feel like
Speaker 4: something that wasn't considered proper. And I never met anyone
Speaker 4: who didn't take me seriously in my career goals. I
Speaker 4: never had anyone tell me that I couldn't do it
Speaker 4: or that it was unrealistic, even though I never knew
Speaker 4: anyone who had gone that direction it to them, I
Speaker 4: seemed capable of doing it. So I was encouraged.
Speaker 3: You moved into, um, I believe like portrait, uh, painting, uh, and, and,
Speaker 3: and for context to the listeners, um, uh, Gemma's Gemma's work, uh,
Speaker 3: moving more.
Speaker 2: Into kind of, uh, general sequential, uh, sequential art.
Speaker 3: And I'd read more from a portrait painting. Within that
Speaker 3: period of your art, were you enjoying that? Was that
Speaker 3: exactly how you saw yourself? And related to that, what
Speaker 3: was the transition to the type of thing where I
Speaker 3: can find your book in the comic book store and
Speaker 3: just be like, whoa, who is this? Which was my experience.
Speaker 3: So from the work that you were doing into more
Speaker 3: of the comic space?
Speaker 4: Well, I'd had exposure to comics when I was a kid.
Speaker 4: When I was a teenager, that turned into Dan Clowes
Speaker 4: and the like. Oh, yes. Even though I was a painter,
Speaker 4: I did see comic work and graphic work and paint
Speaker 4: work as kind of belonging to different worlds, really, when
Speaker 4: that wasn't the case. But I'd gone to university with
Speaker 4: the aim of being a portrait painter. That was what
Speaker 4: I was interested in and what I could do well.
Speaker 4: But I just didn't have the personality, the confidence to
Speaker 4: carry off that kind of career. And, of course, I
Speaker 4: didn't know that until I'd left university and tried to
Speaker 4: make a go of it. And it just didn't work.
Speaker 4: because I wasn't the type of person to push myself
Speaker 4: forward or make connections and it kind of I really
Speaker 4: tried to stay on that track for a long time
Speaker 4: and I kind of tried my hand at like textile
Speaker 4: sculpture and and then I kind of dip into drawing
Speaker 4: and think oh no I shouldn't be doing this I
Speaker 4: should be doing painting because that's what I went to
Speaker 4: university for and take took out a student loan for
Speaker 4: and I'd always go back to the painting and then
Speaker 4: that wouldn't work and I just spend I spent a
Speaker 4: good few years kind of yo-yoing back between drawing and
Speaker 4: painting because I couldn't do and I still can't I
Speaker 4: can't do the two things both at the same time
Speaker 4: two different things so I can't paint and draw it's
Speaker 4: got to be one or the other And I had
Speaker 4: a go at making comics back in about 2009. And
Speaker 4: it kind of worked. And people liked it. And then
Speaker 4: I fell out of that and went back to painting.
Speaker 4: From where I am now is where I began back
Speaker 4: in May 2021. And now I've just made this my career.
Speaker 4: And it feels like it's kind of worked. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 3: The book you put out, The Scrapbook of Life and Death,
Speaker 3: first of all, in my experience in reading it, I
Speaker 3: just really try to, you know, in talking aloud, like
Speaker 3: in audio and speaking with you about death, Um, you know,
Speaker 3: the world of illustration that you do, I just want
Speaker 3: to say like my art experience, like my experience of
Speaker 3: that recently and going through that, it pulled me so
Speaker 3: deeply into a text, into, uh, into the pages, into
Speaker 3: the lines, into the illustrations that, uh, it just, I
Speaker 3: don't have the words to describe it, but it was,
Speaker 3: really moving into that world. I think there's this fascinating,
Speaker 3: deep eccentricity that I didn't know other people enjoyed or
Speaker 3: would enjoy about the idea of what people collect or
Speaker 3: collect a lot of or what they pick out from
Speaker 3: the environments around them and like the curious, the strange
Speaker 3: of like, I can't believe that happened. And, and, and
Speaker 3: it's in that world, um, uh, that you do, you know,
Speaker 3: the recent work scrapbook of, uh, life and death. Um, and,
Speaker 3: What is it about what people collect, or in the
Speaker 3: instance of this book, what somebody else collects that launched
Speaker 3: you into this project, the eccentricity of collection? What brought
Speaker 3: you to that space?
Speaker 4: Well, my book is kind of from a book that
Speaker 4: which was filled with all these newspaper clippings, this fellow,
Speaker 4: George Ives had compiled. You get hoarders, you get collectors
Speaker 4: of baseball cards and film memorabilia and autographs and things.
Speaker 4: And it's like people... people trying to find an anchor
Speaker 4: for themselves in a world that isn't maybe particularly as
Speaker 4: friendly to them as it could be. It's about not
Speaker 4: having control maybe over parts of your existence, but then
Speaker 4: you can come home to this world you've made of
Speaker 4: your own and filled with things of yours. Um, Spaces.
Speaker 4: I'm interested in spaces. I'm interested in what I can
Speaker 4: show in the space in a panel. I'm interested in
Speaker 4: the spaces people inhabit, the worlds of their own that
Speaker 4: they make. And that's really interesting because it says so
Speaker 4: much about the people.
Speaker 2: Yeah i really like oh sorry no no go ahead
Speaker 2: please no.
Speaker 4: Not that this has anything to do with hoarding or
Speaker 4: collecting but i think about i think about the documentary
Speaker 4: and by the mazels um gray gardens a lot and
Speaker 4: the space that um little edie and big edie inhabited
Speaker 4: with all those cats and raccoons and Their house falling
Speaker 4: down around them and it's just filled with trash and rubbish.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: I think about them and that world. That's a great documentary.
Speaker 4: I watch that so much.
Speaker 2: Thanks for the recommendation. Have you ever seen that?
Speaker 3: I haven't.
Speaker 4: Oh, it's on YouTube. You should go watch it.
Speaker 3: I definitely will, right after this.
Speaker 2: How'd you get into Fatty Arbuckle, right? I could say
Speaker 2: that for myself.
Speaker 4: I don't even know. It's kind of like the life
Speaker 4: I've had and just picking up bits and pieces here
Speaker 4: and there and kind of knowing that I know of
Speaker 4: people and events before I even really know of them
Speaker 4: just because I've I encountered them by chance, just like,
Speaker 4: it's like I've always known who he was without knowing
Speaker 4: anything about him. So I obviously went to an antiques
Speaker 4: fair and saw something or read something on the internet
Speaker 4: when I was, you know, probably reading about Buster Keaton
Speaker 4: or something. Mostly it was, I was watching, there's a
Speaker 4: documentary series on YouTube that's about eight episodes long and
Speaker 4: it was made in the late 70s, early 80s. And
Speaker 4: it was about the beginning of Hollywood, back when silent
Speaker 4: filmmaking moved from rooftops in New York across to California
Speaker 4: because the sun was out all the time. And everything
Speaker 4: that's Hollywood now used to be like orange groves. And
Speaker 4: there's an episode of that. Most of the episode is
Speaker 4: about Fatty Arbuckle. It's a story that I've definitely heard
Speaker 4: snippets of over the years, because if you like true crime,
Speaker 4: you probably know something about it. If you like old Hollywood,
Speaker 4: you're going to know about it from that.
Speaker 2: Scandal, scandal.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Media.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Trial by media. Practically one of the first ones
Speaker 4: as well, and and just his associations with other people
Speaker 4: of the time, like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. And
Speaker 4: I just thought it was such a, it's still a
Speaker 4: story that people have very strong feelings about, you know, today,
Speaker 4: a hundred years down the line, practically. And I just
Speaker 4: wondered if I could tell it in the way that I,
Speaker 4: you know, cause I make wordless work. So this guy
Speaker 4: was the star of silent films. And I, I thought,
Speaker 4: I thought I'd have a go at kind of telling
Speaker 4: this story in a silent way.
Speaker 3: Your depictions that I've seen on, on Instagram are, they're beautiful.
Speaker 3: They're beautiful. They're, they're, they're absolutely beautiful. Um, there's a,
Speaker 3: there's a reality, there's a deep reality to the expression in, in, in,
Speaker 3: in the face. I think like when I think about
Speaker 3: that case and I don't, I've been throughout my life,
Speaker 3: I've dipped in and out of it. I've been fascinated
Speaker 3: by the idea of Hollywood and that brightness and like
Speaker 3: the underbelly. And I know that's been like, at least
Speaker 3: in our American culture, been like, really develop, but I
Speaker 3: grew up working class kid in Rhode Island. And for me,
Speaker 3: Hollywood like is the other side of the U S
Speaker 3: and actually represented like, cause I love movies so much,
Speaker 3: these kind of like unreal fantastical elements.
Speaker 2: Like it was so far away. It was bright. The, it,
Speaker 2: it did.
Speaker 3: Glitter and people were different, you know, it's a, so
Speaker 3: it had that compelling piece, but I'm also, I, drawn
Speaker 3: by the tragic and dark and, um, the black Dahlia
Speaker 3: murders and the, the, the way you look at these
Speaker 3: stories and even the way they were written about, which, um,
Speaker 3: you know, say in the clippings and stuff, uh, the
Speaker 3: way they're written about is so different and feel so
Speaker 3: different words and, and, and sensation that, and it's so
Speaker 3: long ago, um, Where, like you said, there's still this
Speaker 3: controversy around Fatty.
Speaker 2: You are buckling.
Speaker 3: You think about it's a century ago and we're thinking
Speaker 3: about video, right? And, and, and, and film, um, I'm
Speaker 3: telling you directly, I'm most excited for.
Speaker 2: The Fatty Arbuckle work.
Speaker 3: Are you talking about it at this point as far
Speaker 3: as timetable or general aspirations for that work?
Speaker 2: Because if you do, I'd love for you to indulge me.
Speaker 4: Oh, well, there is someone who wants it. I don't
Speaker 4: know if I can talk about that, but yeah, it's...
Speaker 4: It should be available at some point.
Speaker 2: That's good.
Speaker 4: I've nearly finished. I mean, it's taken... I was actually
Speaker 4: quite shocked when a few weeks back, I looked to
Speaker 4: see that I actually began this. It'll be like two
Speaker 4: years ago in November. So I've been working on it
Speaker 4: for longer than I thought that I had been, actually. Wow.
Speaker 3: What was that feeling like when that hit you, given
Speaker 3: the length of time and what was in your head?
Speaker 2: What did that feel like?
Speaker 4: Well, actually, I was like, oh, I should have done more, actually.
Speaker 4: It should be longer if I've really been working on
Speaker 4: it for this long. But the way that I draw,
Speaker 4: it's great because it looks so great. But at the
Speaker 4: same time, I work as fast as I can, but
Speaker 4: it's just not quick enough.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited. And you said somebody wants it. Absolutely.
Speaker 3: Just for any, in general, any publisher, anybody thinking about
Speaker 3: the space for this. I see the, just, you know, online,
Speaker 3: I don't, you know, and I've talked to other folks
Speaker 3: who are fans of yours. I'm in the kind of
Speaker 3: like Portland, Oregon, around college. and comic book stores. So
Speaker 3: like deeply excited and, and, and fascinated base of like,
Speaker 3: even people that I know out here. And I've seen that, um,
Speaker 3: I mean, at least online through the reaction to work
Speaker 3: where it's like considering, uh, something significant. And, and, I
Speaker 3: feel blessed in the Portland, Oregon area because I've been
Speaker 3: a huge comics nerd my entire life. And I didn't
Speaker 3: know when I came out here, I was like moving
Speaker 3: to a Mecca of like multiple comic book shops, multiple
Speaker 3: like creators and zine and independent culture. So it's been
Speaker 3: a real thrill. Can I tell you one thing about
Speaker 3: my collecting Gemma of comic books?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I, for years I've had my comic books and
Speaker 3: I got enthralled by the idea of like, I'm turning
Speaker 3: 54 next month. And like, I was getting comic books
Speaker 3: since I was in diapers. So the idea is something
Speaker 3: like in a half century, an obsessive type who loves
Speaker 3: his comics for comfort, imagination, tactile enjoyment. How many have
Speaker 3: I acquired? So, I get this app where I'm taking
Speaker 3: photos of the covers and then adding a little detail
Speaker 3: of what issue I own. So I'm going issue by issue,
Speaker 3: snap by snap by snap. And I think the total
Speaker 3: amount for my estimation right now, I'm about a quarter
Speaker 3: of the way through my collection, is $ 6, 500. individual issues.
Speaker 3: And you could say, Jim, I was like, Oh, you know,
Speaker 3: I've seen some people collect some, you know, I love
Speaker 3: that as a fact or like a material piling up.
Speaker 3: I'm fascinated by my piling up because as I go
Speaker 3: through it, I can tell you that my therapist told
Speaker 3: me it was my number one form of meditation. So
Speaker 3: as I'm going step by step, touching and feeling the
Speaker 3: things that are like the worlds I've had since a
Speaker 3: little kid, like, It's all good for me. The other piece, though, Gemma,
Speaker 3: is I got two bookshelves that are filled with properly
Speaker 3: bound and collected graphic novels. So it isn't like those 6,500
Speaker 3: issues were enough when I had a little more resources
Speaker 3: maybe over the last 10 to 15 years to indulge
Speaker 3: in manga and graphic novels. I'm like... I didn't replace
Speaker 3: one with the other. They just both compiled to such
Speaker 3: a massive degree. So as I'm talking to you, you know,
Speaker 3: and in doing this interview, I think it's kind of
Speaker 3: funny because at about midnight last night, I'm over there
Speaker 3: sitting on my recliner with my happy pile of comic books.
Speaker 3: So that was my experience.
Speaker 4: Well, I wish I owned that many. um uh alas
Speaker 4: i i don't have the funds to uh buy everything
Speaker 4: that i want to buy um but god that sounds
Speaker 4: like that's an amazing number to own that's great.
Speaker 3: If the uh shipping rates rates weren't so high and
Speaker 3: these things didn't weigh a thousand pounds i'd I don't
Speaker 3: know if people put them out by freight or ship,
Speaker 3: but maybe that sounds like a curious adventure that we
Speaker 3: could create related to the podcast. Let's see if the
Speaker 3: freight sent across the seas.
Speaker 2: Arrives.
Speaker 3: I've got to ask you one of the big conceptual questions. Gemma,
Speaker 3: it can be annoying, but I think it's a cool question.
Speaker 2: What is art?
Speaker 4: Um.
Speaker 4: Oh, it's freedom.
Speaker 3: Um....
Speaker 4: It's a search for and indulging in an identity and
Speaker 4: finding yourself. Um....
Speaker 3: Do you think the role of art has changed at all?
Speaker 3: The world feels different now. 2026, sometimes when I'm talking
Speaker 3: on the show, it's like a lot of times human
Speaker 3: beings create meaning out of the dangers that they're around.
Speaker 3: But politically and otherwise, in conversations I have with people,
Speaker 3: things feel different. And it caused me to wonder, is
Speaker 3: the role of art any different now than it's been,
Speaker 3: or is it just doing its thing like it has?
Speaker 4: I think it's more important now that people have access
Speaker 4: to the ability for self-expression and understand art being used
Speaker 4: for protest. and art art is what you know teaches
Speaker 4: you about the soul and how to have empathy and
Speaker 4: with what's happening in the world you know there's a
Speaker 4: lot more if art was a person there's a lot
Speaker 4: more on its shoulders now hmm It has a bigger
Speaker 4: job to do. And it feels like there's never been
Speaker 4: less resources in the way of, like what I was
Speaker 4: talking about, schools here do not, I mean, you know,
Speaker 4: there's been prime ministers we've had here in this country
Speaker 4: lately who just, they don't see the value in an
Speaker 4: art education. There's universities here where certain courses have just
Speaker 4: been removed and those courses are creative writing and even
Speaker 4: i was going to do a comics phd uh maybe
Speaker 4: about a year and a half back and i was
Speaker 4: there's not many universities in this country that do it
Speaker 4: and i was contacting the ones that did and um
Speaker 4: the professor of a university down south i um i
Speaker 4: gave her a kind of outline of what i was
Speaker 4: planning to do and she said oh this is great
Speaker 4: but we're gonna have to put this on the back
Speaker 4: burner because i might not have a job in a
Speaker 4: few months and this course might not be here um
Speaker 4: yeah the role of art yeah it's got a lot
Speaker 4: on its back and it's probably going to be fighting
Speaker 4: to survive.
Speaker 3: Yeah The loss of artists and creatives and seeing the
Speaker 3: attack upon the education system in general, higher ed. It's
Speaker 3: also good for somebody to tell you what's going on.
Speaker 3: I remember when I was applying for.
Speaker 3: By day, I'm a union organizer. When I was applying
Speaker 3: for programs, master's studies at the level of doing research,
Speaker 3: labor representation you know just being smart labor rep i
Speaker 3: contacted one of the programs that was in milwaukee wisconsin
Speaker 3: he was like yo ken they you know this is
Speaker 3: this is turning over to management sided hr program so
Speaker 3: don't even apply you know what i mean it's like
Speaker 3: yeah it's nice for somebody to like you know it's
Speaker 3: it's sad right like that wasn't happy news but it's
Speaker 3: like where somebody just says hey um prognosis not good
Speaker 3: it doesn't mean like you shouldn't try or figure out
Speaker 3: your way but here's what i know from where i
Speaker 3: am and uh i see a lot of that uh
Speaker 3: so um i've been fascinated by the those type of
Speaker 3: i don't know if they call them sequential art comics
Speaker 3: and and otherwise um Are there any programs that you're
Speaker 3: looking at, or is that just kind of under threat
Speaker 3: in your head?
Speaker 2: Don't go.
Speaker 4: Do you mean, am I aware of anything in this
Speaker 4: country that's kind of.
Speaker 3: Yeah, are you still interested in pursuit around that area?
Speaker 3: Or do you see it under such direct threat where
Speaker 3: it's like, I'm not sure about that idea?
Speaker 4: Well, I'm not doing the PhD anymore just because that was,
Speaker 4: I think, part of... Whenever I get... I do have
Speaker 4: insecurities doing the comic stuff the same as I did
Speaker 4: doing the painting. Only now I kind of have the
Speaker 4: idea of, oh, I'm not good enough to do this.
Speaker 4: I can't make a living at it, rather. So I'll
Speaker 4: try teaching. And then I think to myself, no, you
Speaker 4: can't teach. The only thing I can possibly teach is
Speaker 4: teaching someone how to draw exactly like me. No, what
Speaker 4: are they gonna do with that?
Speaker 3: If you could pull that as a fan, if you
Speaker 3: could pull that off i know i know how as
Speaker 3: a fan if you can pull that off but yeah
Speaker 3: yeah that's.
Speaker 4: Then i tell myself off and say what you're doing
Speaker 4: don't ruin anyone else's life um so i do have
Speaker 4: because this country i think has a very funny thing
Speaker 4: that It's probably just me that thinks like this. But
Speaker 4: unlike America, where sequential art is like a proper art
Speaker 4: form and it's respected and taken seriously, this country, I think,
Speaker 4: in order to give legitimacy to something, they've got to
Speaker 4: put it in the world of academia and then it
Speaker 4: will legitimize it and then you can like it and
Speaker 4: study it and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Again, I think that's like a class thing and stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 4: like in order for it to be taken seriously, it
Speaker 4: needs to have like university departments behind it and things.
Speaker 4: And that's not the case at all.
Speaker 3: All right, Gemma, I got the titular question of the show,
Speaker 3: Something Rather Than Nothing podcast here. Why is there something
Speaker 3: rather than nothing?
Speaker 4: Because there's always a residue or a byproduct that branches
Speaker 4: off into different things. And with comics or sequential art,
Speaker 4: it'll branch off into different modes of storytelling or inspiration.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Gemma.
Speaker 3: What comic books you freak out on? What are your favorites?
Speaker 2: Tell me.
Speaker 3: No, tell me like, tell me somewhere like your brains
Speaker 3: dropped in and like, this is, this, this is it.
Speaker 2: This is me.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know.
Speaker 4: I can tell you that I've just bought Katie Scali's
Speaker 4: new book, Heaven. And I'm about halfway through that and
Speaker 4: I'm really enjoying it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: It's the thing where, you know, I'm one of these people,
Speaker 4: I make lists of things, things I like, things I
Speaker 4: want to see, films I need to buy and stuff
Speaker 4: like that. And then I get asked what's my favourite thing.
Speaker 4: My mind just goes blank.
Speaker 3: It's one of those questions. For me, I've been doing
Speaker 3: this show for seven years. Because even I get flummoxed
Speaker 3: when somebody asks me. It's almost like an overriding curiosity
Speaker 3: that pushes my mind in.
Speaker 2: One thing I really want to make sure of.
Speaker 4: Is.
Speaker 3: that if you could let, um, let the listeners know, uh,
Speaker 3: let everybody know how to encounter your art that I,
Speaker 3: you know, like I've expressed, you know, I just, it's
Speaker 3: really moving. I, I, I just, um, just adore it.
Speaker 3: And it, it, it just, it just lights up my
Speaker 3: brain and it's, it's a great feeling.
Speaker 2: That's me.
Speaker 3: But for others who are interested, where can folks find
Speaker 3: your art and what you would like to present?
Speaker 4: I have a big cartel shop, Jay Webster Shop, and
Speaker 4: you can get issues one to four of my single-person
Speaker 4: anthology called Fondant from there. I'm doing a couple of
Speaker 4: reprints of things that I haven't had in print for
Speaker 4: a while. they should be on the website around October
Speaker 4: in time for a big comic con here called Thought
Speaker 4: Bubble that's in November.
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
Speaker 4: One's called Jade and Her Schizophrenia, which is my sister's story.
Speaker 4: She got diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in February 2013. So
Speaker 4: she wrote down what happened to her because.
Speaker 2: She went missing.
Speaker 4: She went to the Ecuadorian embassy in London to go
Speaker 4: be with Julian Assange. So she wrote that and I
Speaker 4: drew it. And another one, not that I've forgotten the
Speaker 4: name of my comic, it's about a guy who partially
Speaker 4: survived a nuclear reactor incident back in the late 90s,
Speaker 4: early 2000s.
Speaker 2: No way.
Speaker 4: And I can't.
Speaker 2: It was only a little one.
Speaker 4: It's only little A5 that I did. But that's not
Speaker 4: been in print for a while.
Speaker 2: I quite like that one.
Speaker 4: I should have printed that before. So those will be
Speaker 4: coming on the website, well, the Big Cartel shop in October.
Speaker 4: But my fondants are all on Big Cartel right now.
Speaker 4: And you can get The Scrapbook of Life and Death
Speaker 4: from any good comic shop or bookshop.
Speaker 2: Absolutely beautiful, beautiful, uh, beautiful volume.
Speaker 3: Um, I, uh, uh, there's, there's something about the core of, of,
Speaker 3: of your work. And like I was talking about in, um, in,
Speaker 3: in collecting and seeing how things are compiled and that,
Speaker 3: that really connected, uh, uh, with my experience and just
Speaker 3: like the curiosity around the bizarre and finding like, um, uh,
Speaker 3: space for that. I think you open up a lot
Speaker 3: of space for people to kind of like look and see. And, um,
Speaker 3: it really helps particular minds kind of, uh, uh, uh,
Speaker 3: see the story, see the, the, the big story that's there.
Speaker 3: So I just wanted to thank you for everything, uh,
Speaker 3: you do Gemma and, uh, and and also like i
Speaker 3: said it is truly an honor for me to have
Speaker 3: you on uh on on this show and just so
Speaker 3: you know sometimes like as an artist it's like hey
Speaker 3: what's going on who's out there i i bump into
Speaker 3: a conspicuous amount of people who know your work own
Speaker 3: your work and i know it's portland oregon but still
Speaker 3: that's a long way from where you are so just
Speaker 3: so you.
Speaker 4: Know that's great to hear and People have been so
Speaker 4: nice about some of the things I've drawn. I feel
Speaker 4: very lucky in that I've not really had, I've not
Speaker 4: had any complaints. Someone who had my work in their
Speaker 4: anthology had a complaint. So I've only had one. But
Speaker 4: I'm so glad people like the work and it makes
Speaker 4: me feel like I'm going in the right direction of
Speaker 4: things and.
Speaker 3: Yeah I got one more question that's stuck in my
Speaker 3: head and it's a little out of sequence but it's
Speaker 3: a quick one you mentioned Thought Bubble I go to
Speaker 3: the comic shops here I don't know that much about
Speaker 3: it but I get the results of it publisher publishes
Speaker 3: kind of like the best of out there so we
Speaker 3: get it out here in the US I don't know
Speaker 3: how far thereafter but So I know it's a big thing,
Speaker 3: but I don't know that much about it except by
Speaker 3: the larger comic that pops out.
Speaker 2: What's Thought Bubble?
Speaker 4: Thought Bubble is the biggest comic con in the north
Speaker 4: of England. And it's in a spa town in North
Speaker 4: Yorkshire called Harrogate. And it happens at this big conference center.
Speaker 4: And there must be... about close to a thousand tables
Speaker 4: it must be 800 to a thousand it must be
Speaker 4: and it's for uh a weekend mid november every november
Speaker 4: and prior to that there's a week of um exhibitions
Speaker 4: and activities and things in the lead up and it
Speaker 4: has um panels and talks and workshops and guests um
Speaker 4: and i i been lucky enough to have a table
Speaker 4: there again this year which is great uh it's only
Speaker 4: about an hour 20 minutes away from me so so
Speaker 4: that's really good as well um yeah it's uh yeah
Speaker 4: it's great.
Speaker 3: That's wonderful to hear uh we got in my my
Speaker 3: area with the rose city comic convention in portland in
Speaker 3: the beautiful, very large one that I went to once
Speaker 3: that I really enjoyed the Emerald city comic-con in the big,
Speaker 3: beautiful city of Seattle, Washington, about three hours North from, uh,
Speaker 3: where I am. So, um, thank you for indulging me
Speaker 3: on that. You know, I love my cons and, uh, and, uh,
Speaker 3: kind of taking a stare and it was great to hear, um, that,
Speaker 3: that you had a spot there. So, um, everybody, uh,
Speaker 3: Jay Webster sharp, um, fine on Instagram, Gemma. Um, it's, it's, it's,
Speaker 3: it's been a great pleasure. I would say that, uh,
Speaker 3: this is, a humble offering from this independent podcast in
Speaker 3: the strange state of Oregon to a hungry, hungry crowd
Speaker 3: for what you have to say and some of your
Speaker 3: thoughts about art. So again, thanks. And just really great
Speaker 3: connecting with you, uh, over there. Keep, keep, keep digging in. Cause, uh,
Speaker 3: a lot of us, uh, fans out here are really enjoying, uh,
Speaker 3: your explorations.
Speaker 4: Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm not very
Speaker 4: fluent verbally. I don't talk to many people on a
Speaker 4: day-to-day basis. And sometimes I hear myself speak and I think, oh, no,
Speaker 4: you sound like that. And, yeah. Yeah. Thoughts in my
Speaker 4: brain don't come out the way they're supposed to sometimes.
Speaker 4: But thank you so much for being patient with me.
Speaker 3: Look, look, I'm in a position of being enthralled. And so,
Speaker 3: you know, this is how we record it. So it's
Speaker 3: a perfect episode. And everybody check out the work, whether
Speaker 3: you look at it online. But think about getting in
Speaker 3: that printed form. Check out that big cartel and Gemma.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. And thank you for your art.
Speaker 4: Thank you. You're welcome.
Speaker 1: This is something rather than nothing.