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Jonathan Case
180 Plays2 years ago
I’m Jonathan Case - a cartoonist from the great Pacific Northwest. I love to make art, to write stories, and to go on adventures with loved ones - especially if there’s a hammock involved. Daddy’s sleepy.
Stuff I’ve done:
My 2015 graphic novel, The New Deal (author/artist, Dark Horse), was a nominee for the Reuben, Harvey, and Oregon Book awards for best graphic album. In 2012 I snagged an Eisner award for Green River Killer, A True Detective Story (Dark Horse). My other books include Dear Creature (author/artist, Dark Horse), Batman ’66 (artist, DC), Superman: American Alien (artist, DC), and Over the Garden Wall: Distillatoria and Over the Garden Wall: Circus Friends (author, BOOM!). I’m currently working on a new graphic novel, Little Monarchs (author/artist, Holiday House), which is a sort of a joyful post-apocalyptic adventure book for kids.
In addition to comics I paint murals, create book covers, and illustrate for print. You can find some of that up on walls around Portland, Oregon (our current home base).
My chief adventuring partners are my wife, Sarah, and our two daughters, Dorothy and Miriam. Our son Otis, who we lost in 2016, tags along in spirit.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Art Slice Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
When you walk through an art museum, what happens? You see some interesting things, you see some not so interesting things, and if you're like us at all, you're probably a little bit sleepy. Well, grab a cafecito and listen up. It's Art Slice, a palatable serving of art history.
00:00:15
Speaker
We are both artists, so we look at art history through that perspective. We cover the artists you know and those that have been ignored for so many different reasons. We look at the context of the time, we compare it to today. We don't dumb anything down, but, and this is a big but, we like to have a good time, okay? Nos gusta to goof around, all right? We have hungry pantry buns that might startle you. It's a long story. We feed them our materials.
00:00:39
Speaker
Art is just a visual language that is open for anyone to interpret. So if this all sounds good to you, join us on Art Slice, a palatable serving of art history.
Incorporating Life Changes into Art
00:00:51
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing. Creator and host, Ken Zalante. Editor and producer, Peter Bauer.
00:01:06
Speaker
The reason that I wanted to incorporate those elements into it was I was going to have kids 12 years ago. I was getting ready for that change in life and I thought I need a way to connect with
00:01:24
Speaker
my children so that I can still stay on my artistic mission, but I can kind of bring them into it. I can bring kids out on adventures with me. I can have some adventures myself. Maybe I'll grow as a person. Maybe be prepared to be a better dad. You know, learn practical skills and then put some of those practical skills into the book so I can pass it down to my kids.
Monarch Butterflies and the Natural World
00:01:50
Speaker
I can pass it down to other people's kids.
00:01:53
Speaker
And the more I worked on the book, the more reality made it in there. And then by the time the book came out, monarchs were struggling in a way that they weren't even 10 years ago when I started developing ideas for the book. And so it became
00:02:19
Speaker
one of my goals is to give back to the monarchs, I guess in some way, because I felt like they'd given me so much. They'd given me a mission and a curiosity to follow. And they're fascinating and they touch a lot of different points of
00:02:37
Speaker
the natural world and science and things that are just good talking points, I guess. So they're an easy way to engage people's fascination because they are just really fascinating creatures. And so, yeah, I guess it's part and parcel of my ideas around the book to invite other people into, well, what does it mean to get fascinated about
00:03:05
Speaker
the natural world and what can you find out there? What's similar and what's different from how I've recorded it in the book? Excuse me. Yeah, what's similar and what's different versus how I've recorded the places with illustrations and kind of transform them in certain
Creating 'Little Monarchs' - A Climate Story
00:03:26
Speaker
ways. If you were to go to the Oregon Coast yourself,
00:03:30
Speaker
You can go and track the characters progress step by step and you'll see those mountain ranges and The coastal vistas, but they might be a little bit different So it's just kind of an invitation in all different ways to kids and families Yeah, yeah, and we're talking to Jonathan Jonathan case and Jonathan case talking about little monarchs
00:03:58
Speaker
uh... jonathan's and eisner award-winning cartoonist and uh... love a lot of the work that he's done including dear creature uh... the new deal which i get a nice limited print from uh... have that framed batman sixty-six and over the garden wall and some uh... followed your work like i mentioned uh... for a while jonathan i really uh... love digging into the point of uh...
00:04:25
Speaker
just talking about the story and talking about the science within it and mentioning what excited me about the book Little Monarchs was for me as having a curiosity and not knowing much about the topic and some of the science behind the Monarchs.
00:04:48
Speaker
the details of place with the compass, the feel and the look of a book that is to be used in the field and to be active and to be connected to nature. So I heard you use the word invitation. I also felt that within the book with regards to the places that you visit and the curiosity or family curiosity and adventure
00:05:17
Speaker
that could go into it in a very tough environment and with the effects of climate change. So there's so much in your work. But I wanted to ask you, Jonathan, about the story and about creating the book and talking about the monarch as a driver of what you're trying to do
00:05:46
Speaker
in your work?
Art as Communication and Experience
00:05:53
Speaker
Well, I guess saying it again a different way maybe, I really just want to communicate with people. I want to communicate with people in my work and invite them into new experiences. I guess that's why any of us writes or draws
00:06:16
Speaker
We're trying to communicate and create something that wasn't quite there before, even if it's a part of some history or a tradition. And with Little Monarchs, I had spent plenty of time in my career leading up to that point
00:06:36
Speaker
when I was getting ready to do the book, thinking about other people's work and thinking about other people's stories and how could I take this from that thing that I love and this from another thing that I love. And when it came time to start little monarchs and it came time to start thinking about myself as what kind of a parent would I be? I guess the outdoors called to me and the idea of having some of my own adventures called to me
00:07:05
Speaker
I guess putting experience first rather than drawing from other people's stories so much. And with that,
00:07:21
Speaker
that experience first kind of creative process, that's also what I want for the end result is for, yeah, for parents, kids, families to be invited into the reality that's sort of referenced in the book, hopefully referenced thoroughly, you know, and in a way that just
00:07:43
Speaker
stirs imagination. I didn't want to do a book that was just educational. I wanted to do a book that was about characters and those characters can kind of become like imaginary friends. They were that for me when I was out in those real places, thinking, okay, what would they be doing at this part of the country? And then, you know, you can follow them too as a reader, you can follow them into those real places and use them as guides, sort of.
00:08:13
Speaker
One of the things I noticed, Jonathan, in the book was something that I learned in reading about the monarchs was the nature of travel and generations and change.
Monarch Metaphor: Memory and Instinct
00:08:28
Speaker
And so in learning about that type of migration, which I had never heard of, of like multi-generational, it's just not a knowledge that I had,
00:08:38
Speaker
and maybe think about time so differently and to think about that undercurrent of thinking of the slow travel and slow movement. And I was wondering if that was kind of a big underpinning for you as far as the perspective of looking at that time can move like that or that
00:09:05
Speaker
Things aren't immediate like we think a lot nowadays. Well, I think about generational memory, I guess, maybe that gets to your point a little bit, the idea that we have inherited more than maybe we give credit to our ancestors, you know, like
00:09:29
Speaker
in the same way that they say your health as a grown adult is sort of related to what your grandmother ate, her nutrition, I think maybe experiences, good and bad, sins of the fathers, all of that probably plays a much greater role in our natures and in the people that we are. And it's not just like these basic,
00:09:59
Speaker
biological building blocks. I think it is related to something more close to our spirits, our experiences that are passed down almost.
00:10:18
Speaker
Because if you think about how the monarchs work, it takes them those four generations to complete the migration. And by the time you're at generation four, those are thousands of miles from where their ancestors started. But somehow they know how to go back to this little grove, maybe on the coast of California.
00:10:39
Speaker
And no mother or father monarch says, oh yeah, just go this way. Turn right at the stop sign. They just have that knowledge in them at a genetic level, I guess. And it's pretty amazing. It's something that I didn't put into the book, but I've only heard later and I'm not sure.
00:11:02
Speaker
the source on this, but I've heard that there used to be a mountain in the middle of Lake Michigan. And when the monarchs, the Eastern monarchs are flying across Lake Michigan, they go around that mountain top. They're avoiding the, you know, going around the mountain that's no longer in there. Oh my goodness. What a marvelous thought in reality. Wow. That's just absolutely incredible to just to think about.
Balancing Art and Family Life
00:11:29
Speaker
uh... part of part of that part of that wonder and um... it on thank you so much uh... effort for talking about that like i said folks common reading a jonathan's book it's it's very inviting engaging and um...
00:11:45
Speaker
uh, visually in the stimulating thoughts, you'll find yourself kind of caught up in, in, in, in the story and in, in the monarchs. I wanted to ask you something going to talking more generally about art, uh, Jonathan, I was really interested in, you had mentioned about, uh, you know, the, the influence of, uh, you know, having a family and, and your children in, in trying to capture a place and, and experience.
00:12:16
Speaker
I think a lot of times artists can struggle with the kind of the solitary nature at times of that art is thought to be within. And also more of a community, more of a value within the family. Was it easier for you to make that conscious choice to kind of be like, well, I'm gonna have a family and then I'm gonna integrate
00:12:43
Speaker
My art and try to adapt within that not leave it behind but have it be lived, you know for for you and yours I think it's relatively easy to make the choice and it's probably harder to live it out in the way that you envisioned it You know in your own personal dreamscape things can just seem yeah really all very put together and then when you get out there you realize oh i've got a lot more to contend with than I had bargained for but
00:13:15
Speaker
Yeah, art can be a very solitary, even selfish, self-oriented kind of practice. So if you can build something into your art, into the process of your art that points you back out into community, especially for your research phase or your
00:13:37
Speaker
you know, gathering the pieces to put something together in your little castle where you have to be locked away sometimes for years. I guess it's kind of a seasonal thing. But yeah, the daily rhythm, I guess now I don't have a dedicated studio space and part of that is just
00:14:02
Speaker
that I enjoy kind of being in the house, hearing my kids running around when they're home from school and kind of the background noise of that keeps me company. Because otherwise, yeah, I'm making these kinds of books. I can't do that when I'm writing, but when I'm drawing, I like having that openness to what's going on. It would be pretty lonesome otherwise.
00:14:31
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Thanks for inviting us into kind of just the environment that influences what you create. So Jonathan wanted to ask one of the big questions that was interested in your answer. What is art? What do you think art is? I think art is our attempt to commune with
00:15:00
Speaker
whatever our sense of the divine is, honestly. I think it's a way for us to play and get lost in the ever-expanding efforts of creating. The creative process is going on with or without our help at all times.
00:15:25
Speaker
The universe is expanding and creating more and more seemingly at an accelerating pace that makes no sense to us with the set of tools that we have to interpret physics and all of that. But for whatever reason, we're a part of a creative process. That's the default.
00:15:54
Speaker
Art is just one way that we get to join into that I guess and be Conscious of it in some way maybe yeah Yeah, hey Jonathan. Have you always seen yourself as an artist? I usually dig in and kind of on the identity question I mean have you always seen yourself as an artist or when you saw yourself in as artists what changed in you like why were you an artist then I
00:16:23
Speaker
I've always known that I was or wanted to be an artist since I was little. I never really had any ideas about doing anything else. It didn't really matter too much what the expression was, whether it was drawing or acting or writing. It's all kind of the same, you know, just dedication to creative impulses.
00:16:51
Speaker
I didn't have any kind of aha moment. It's just always sort of been that way. Yeah, it kind of felt it that way.
00:17:01
Speaker
And I really enjoyed listening to you talking about what art is and another follow-up just connected to that. And it's about your art as well, is the question of the role of art and whether that's changed if there are particular emergencies or crises that humans are facing now or felt to be facing now.
Art's Role in Times of Crisis
00:17:28
Speaker
Does the role of art change within that? Or do you think it kind of just remains the same over time as far as what art is supposed to do, its role? I think it's probably the same as it has been in the sense that hopefully, if we're calling it art with a capital A, that it shakes us out of old ways of thinking.
00:17:59
Speaker
maybe it also provides comfort in a similar and startling way where if we've been locked into an old way of thinking and we're just tired and worn down, I think great art can inspire new directions and it has a restorative healing nature to it.
00:18:21
Speaker
even if even if it seems Even things I was I was watching a show recently that was pretty brutal and I was you know, I was an anime and very violent and I was I was sort of put off by the violence, but at the same time it made me I
00:18:44
Speaker
so grateful that I don't have to live in that reality of violence in my own life. It kind of gave me some perspective for the day. I don't know that it was great art, but it definitely, it inspired a feeling in me afterwards, almost like a catharsis of gratitude that, that violence is,
00:19:13
Speaker
so much of human reality. And for whatever reason, in this moment in time, I was born into this place in this time where I don't have to experience that at the level that so many people do. So I don't know. I'm getting off on a tangent there, but I think art should inspire more than just to entertain. Yeah, a lot.
00:19:41
Speaker
I really like what you had to say about having that strong of a reaction to something that was on some level off-putting, the level of the violence. But it created kind of a positive effect in your head. And I think it's just a really cool question because if it's not art, it's doing some of the things that art is doing, is trying to do anyways to knock you around a little bit. The way you see it might not be 100% all the time.
00:20:12
Speaker
So yeah, I wanted to ask you, I followed your work, as I mentioned at the beginning. And I remember the Green River Killer and some of the other works they've done. I really loved Batman, the 66 and the New Deal. And I just wanted to ask you, is there a particular
00:20:41
Speaker
Realm that that you feel like most comfortable as far as the storytelling goes because I got your book and at first I was like Oh, it's Jonathan case and I was like
00:20:50
Speaker
And I was like, wow, what is this? And I was just really drawn in, but it made me question. I was like, what did I expect from Jonathan Case? And is there something you feel that you really connect to, whether it's the characters or the stories that you've done? Well, I think maybe what you're getting at there is that
00:21:12
Speaker
I don't seem to have one way of doing things. I tend to dabble in a lot of different modes of storytelling. And I guess I just do that because it keeps it fresh for me. And as I'm going through different chapters of my life, I tend to want to explore new territory.
00:21:44
Speaker
So even in the way that I draw, I tend to draw a little bit differently with every project. And that is not a great thing in terms of being a commercial artist with a distinct brand, but it's a good thing for me as
00:22:03
Speaker
somebody who wants to just continue exploring. So I guess that's mainly what I want to do is just explore new territory and keep pushing myself into new and hopefully enlightening directions. And whatever the story is of the moment, hopefully it's doing that for me.
00:22:31
Speaker
I wanted to ask you, the show podcast covers a lot of different areas, but it's definitely a Pacific Northwest podcast, at least it feels that
Genuine Representation in 'Little Monarchs'
00:22:43
Speaker
way to me. I'm originally from the East Coast, but I've learned so much and sought to absorb what I see that's in the Pacific Northwest.
00:22:55
Speaker
I see that a lot in your art and particularly within Little Monarchs. I love the Oregon coast. I love the ocean. And just seeing some of the places within the book, it just felt really intimate and gave that sense of place that is really difficult for an artist to do. And I think you did it. How the heck did you do that?
00:23:23
Speaker
to bring it in. I mean, I felt I could smell the Oregon coast right there. I could feel it a bit, like how'd you pull that one off? Well, a lot of that is probably just the fact that I grew up on the Oregon coast for most of my childhood. So that sense of place is just a reflection of, again, my own experiences. But with Little Monarchs, every single location in that book is
00:23:53
Speaker
a place that you could go yourself. So it has not only the references, like the visual references, but you can actually map the coordinates out and follow along the character's route step by step. And that was really important to me because there's nothing worse than being a local and then watching a movie or reading a book and thinking,
00:24:21
Speaker
They're talking about this car going down this road and I know that you can't go down the road that direction, you know? And I'm pulled out of the story. It's a little thing to say like, okay, that happens as a local and you're taken out of the story.
00:24:37
Speaker
But the bigger work that can be done is if you really dive deep and you try to bring as much as you can from what's really there into the story. It multiplies the work of writing something because you can't just choose to have a scene set in any old scenario. You're beholden to the environment, but it also provokes
00:25:06
Speaker
I mean, the limitation can provoke its own creative solution, I guess, and its own idea that wouldn't have come to you just out of pure imagination. And having those kinds of constraints can be good as a storyteller. Mostly I want people to feel like
00:25:34
Speaker
This is a book that does take place in a world that they either recognize or that they want to explore more of themselves. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. I think one of the things I appreciate about you telling some of the story behind this, but even in particular, thinking about the images of the monarchs and the question of like,
00:26:03
Speaker
How is it that there's this record of where to go and what to do that seems of so long of time and even recognizing objects no longer there within the patterns such a...
00:26:17
Speaker
just such a deeply profound and mysterious thought that as a philosopher shit, you know, it's like, you know, that's that I really dig that. OK, so Jonathan, Jonathan Case here, we get the big question for him. Why is there something rather than nothing? That's that's the big question of the show.
00:26:46
Speaker
I was just a couple days ago listening to some scientists talk about the Big Bang and how big a bang it really was. It's some crazy idea, like everything expanding from the point of a pin to the edges of the universe in some ridiculous fraction of a second.
00:27:11
Speaker
to the millionth power, just that short amount of time and the energy of all of that and the heat of it conjuring all these galaxies. It's incredible. I don't know why that happened.
00:27:33
Speaker
But as an artist, my meaning making that I do is to say I'm going to join in with that creative process. And even if I don't know the why, at least I'll be part of the dance. You know, so many people say in the face of grief,
00:27:54
Speaker
Well, you'll know one day, you'll know why this happened one day, but I'm not positive that that's how it works. I think maybe in the end you just accept that that was part of the dance. I love that, man. It's great talking here to Jonathan Case and
00:28:18
Speaker
Hey Jonathan, before we let you go, I really want the listeners to be able to connect to the different things you have created and what you've got going on. I don't know if you do signings or anything along those lines, but just how do folks find your great art? I mean, honestly, your award-winning art and just the great work you do. Where do they go?
Where to Find Jonathan's Work
00:28:42
Speaker
I have a website, JonathanCase.net, and you can just Google Jonathan Case Cartoonist and you'll find my websites, my social media accounts, and I post stuff there every once in a while.
00:28:59
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm taking a little bit of a break from signings this fall, just kind of staying home and kids are back in school and that kind of thing, but that's given me a chance to get back to some good work. I'm working on some stuff for DC right now for Bat Girls. It's one of those bat people things. Yeah, love it. That's going to be a fun thing to do for a couple of months.
00:29:30
Speaker
Yeah, we'll see. Next year, I'll have some more book events. I've been invited to the Tucson Book Festival. So I'm going to go and do that and maybe a few other things. So we'll see. But yeah, Google is the way, I guess. Google is the way. Well, you definitely, and thanks so much again, kind of for the peek in and the thinking, honestly, you know, behind the art and
00:29:58
Speaker
and the things you do. I really appreciate, you know, what you create and I encourage everybody listening. Just just just fantastic world, you know, kind of worlds in place that Jonathan brings in and just just stupendous work on the recent book. I love how
00:30:21
Speaker
It feels lively and active and living and forward thinking. I just wanted to thank you for it. So thanks, Jonathan, for coming on the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast. Thank you so much, Ken. I really appreciate your thoughts and all of the kind things that you've said. And the conversation is good. Thanks so much, brother. You take care. You too.
00:30:53
Speaker
This is something rather than nothing.