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ArtComicsGraphic NovelsInterview

The New Comics: John Cardinal/MONSTA

written by Guest Contributor April 2, 2015

SS_monsta.inddSS_monsta.inddSS_monsta.inddSS_monsta.inddSS_monsta.indd

MONSTA, “Toonstone”

JOHN CARDINAL uses the alias “MONSTA” because it makes him feel like a superhero. He is the publisher at Tryptic Press, best known for Chroma, a Boston-based art annual. John has a BFA from Montserrat in Illustration, and can be found online through his personal website at Monstaville, as well as through Tryptic Press.

ON VARIETY AND SCHIZOPHRENIA

005There’s a variety and a schizophrenia to what I do. When I go by my real name, it’s the PG stuff — children’s books, clean stuff, corporate stuff. MONSTA has been my name for all the stuff I do that might not fall into that realm. Under MONSTA I can do fine art, I can do rated-R things, crazy things. I have children’s books like Thomas and the Tiger-Turtle, which is funny, but when I want to draw a skull girl covered with blood, well…

The restrictions are on my real name. The things I sign with “John” I make sure are clean. I kinda like the idea of having a pseudonym, having a show where they don’t even know it’s me. When I do children’s book signings, I only bring stuff I do as John. When I do a show as MONSTA, I could bring children’s books, but it creates a weird table.

I’ve always approached my work looking for the right line. I get an idea in my head, and I don’t decide a medium I’m gonna use — I’ll use whatever pen is around in order to get the look. I might paint it, I might Photoshop. Whatever makes the line, that’s what I use. That’s how I approach the MONSTA stuff.

With the children’s books, I pick a traditional watercolor, or a comic style. I narrow the focus. But when I do the other stuff, that’s whatever gets the line out.

ON PUBLISHING AND PROJECTS

Chroma_Cover_Final_400wTryptic Press is me and artists Andy Houle and Michael Crockett. Our first idea was a small book called Tryptic, something to sell at Boston Con. We got to talking and the idea for Chroma came up — to create a book that featured the people we know as a promotional piece, like Sparrow or Juxtapose. Our goal is to find people who are doing good work and then put a spotlight on them.

I have a direction I’m moving towards, and anything that fits into that, I take on. I want to quit my day job and do comics and fine art stuff. I’ve had a couple of projects in my brain a long time, so anything that TG_Cover_sm_400wtakes me there I take on, anything shiny and new. But I concentrate on little projects. I don’t want an ongoing project with any big publishers — but if Spider-Man came along, I’d draw it in a heartbeat!

Super-Secret Heroes is something I worked on with my children. It’s going to be a much bigger project, but I’ve worked with my children to create the stories. It’s great having character sessions with my kids. The Guys is a creator-owned book i did with Lawrence Rosales about the heroin massacre of Plano, Texas. He’s from there. We did issue one in 2013, but now we’re going to start putting it up as a webcomic, a page a week.

Other than that, I’ve done two books through a children’s book publisher, and I’m the pre-press coordinator for a greeting card company. I do file prep. I’m the geeky graphic designer.

ON DIRECTION AND MISDIRECTION

DOD_smWith “Toonstone,”  a friend of mine named Harry Moyer wanted to do a western-themed online anthology called Saddle Sore, and reached out to a sketchblog I host on 11 O’Clock Comics. I liked it and I had a dumb idea for it. Sometimes you have funny ideas, and you gotta get ’em so they don’t live. I figured, “Hey, you could almost reject it for being goofy or whatever, but it’s just too cool.”

I guess I’m like that a lot. Somebody locally asked me to do something for a charity event surrounding Day of the Dead.  They had seen my children’s book–so I didn’t give them anything like a children’s book. I did a hairy-pitted Day of the Dead girl looking at crickets with a Dr. Death guy behind her. They loved it, but I’m sure it wasn’t what they expected. I’m not gonna give you what you expect! I just sat down and this was what came out.

For example, a friend asked me to do a piece for a zombie-themed art show, so I said sure — I’ll do zombies attacking Times Square. Like that’s the smallest thing I can think of! (laughs)

But I guess each thing I do has a story. I think any good illustration has a story.

Zombiecentral_sm

 Zombie Central (click to expand)

 

Want to be considered for future installments of The New Comics? Send your best work to Comics Curator Keith McCleary via the Entropy submissions page.

The New Comics: John Cardinal/MONSTA was last modified: June 11th, 2015 by Guest Contributor
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