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Great new episode with JACK KENT! This episode was so much fun!!
‘Sketchy People’ is the people-watching-comic by Jack Kent. Hailing from Portland, Oregon, Jack draws the residents of his hometown and beyond.
This project started in 2016. Jack's caricatures are drawn in a wacky pen and ink, cartoonist style. Portland’s sketch flag flies high and proud in each volume of ‘Sketchy People.”
Who qualifies as "sketchy"? Good question. It could be what someone is wearing, or doing, or saying. Jack keeps his sketchbook close 'cause Sketchy People can be anywhere. You could be next!
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Transcript
00:00:01
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing. Creator and host, Ann Valente. Editor and producer, Peter Bauer.
Introduction to Jack Kent and 'Sketchy People'
00:00:16
Speaker
Hello, this is Ken Vellante, host of Something Rather Than Nothing podcast, and this week we have a podcast with Jack Kent, sketch artist, artist, cartoonist, known recently, you know, for his sketchy people collections in individual sketchy people drawings.
00:00:41
Speaker
which capture the fascinating, mostly the fascinating and interesting visuals you can find in Portland, Oregon and other places. I think it's pretty universal, but a really great conversation with him about that and about music. He has a lot of
00:01:05
Speaker
Revealing things to say and we actually talk a little bit of Twin Peaks and the show episode practically starts with an exploding penis story a true story a shocking story and
00:01:19
Speaker
And I'd have to say that it remains sketchy. Really the sketchiest podcast of this series so far. Without further ado, Jack Kent.
Meeting at Portland Convention
00:01:42
Speaker
There's an independent
00:01:45
Speaker
scene and comic show in Portland this summer where I met Veronica Casson and I knew Ethan Slayton who is there as well so Jack you're like it comes in trees you're the third you're the third one from that from that convention hey man I love it it's a you know like three dog night you know three amigos
00:02:09
Speaker
You know, all the good stuff, all the good trios. You know, Rush, that's a kick-ass band with three members. So, you know, we'll keep it going. So I'm super stoked to be here. Thank you so much for having me on, Ken, and can't wait to talk more and see what you got.
Origins of 'Sketchy People'
00:02:22
Speaker
And I like, you know, I like, I love sketchy people. I love the sketchy drawings, but you know, you mentioned Three Dog Night. Why don't we start off, you know the sketchy story about the lead singer of Three Dog Night?
00:02:36
Speaker
Remind me again, I know it's something interesting but I've got so much feedback through the ears over the years and I'm going to need a refresher on the good old Three Dog Night. The lead singer for Three Dog Night was having so much sex that his penis split in half.
00:02:56
Speaker
That sounds like something out of Hellraiser and I'm actually very frightened by that. Yeah and it was he was repaired and everything but um so I mean you have I mean we're talking sketchy stories sketching people sketchy people right so I mean once you mentioned Three Dog Night I'm like I don't know I don't know if I'd have an opportunity to drop that into the podcast. Yeah it's really interesting I mean with that type of story from the lead singer I wonder where you know
00:03:22
Speaker
You know, one is the loneliest number. I mean, you know, that's a very weird mathematical equation, having so much sex in a band called Three Dog Night. And then one of your biggest hits is, you know, one. And yeah, that's, you know, sometimes sketchy stories take a sketchy ride. And that sounds like one of them. That being that there's a lot of sketchiness of it.
00:03:43
Speaker
Involved with them, but of course you're the name of your series sketchy people Which you would which when I met you I was looking through it and I and I just I just I just love and If in general, I would just wonder if you could describe Just like what you're doing with the series Why you said hey, I got to start this up and just you know the I call it a project I don't know if you do about like, you know, how'd you start the project? Yeah, it's a it's a project that I
00:04:12
Speaker
landed in my lab by accident. I was on the max train and there was a gentleman on the train and he was just kind of being sketchy and talking weird and playing a video game and what he said was just something I had to jot down. It was such a weird moment and then I got that
00:04:34
Speaker
drawing out and then you know all of a sudden I kind of saw somebody else and I had to draw them and then you know I got about a stack of five or ten drawings and then I realized I think this is a series I think this is a project and then the more I people watch and the more I draw them
00:04:51
Speaker
My little radar comes up and my sketchy radar is out there and I'm looking around corners and I'm listening to conversations and just seeing if I can hear anything kind of obtuse and out of the ordinary and then sketch it out and share it with you all.
Expanding 'Sketchy People' Across Locations
00:05:07
Speaker
and of course The sketch sketches that you do and and what you captures is that been Mostly in Portland, Oregon. Yeah, it's primarily in Portland I also travel quite a bit and you know sketchy has no boundaries. It's got no borders So I was in Grand Cayman recently and saw some down there Been to New York and saw some over there and went down to Joshua Tree this this earlier on this year and saw some down there so I
00:05:35
Speaker
You know, it's, uh, you know, even my family, I've sketched my family members, you know, nobody's safe. That's why the tagline is you could be next. So, you know, if you're out there, I might find you. Yeah. I saw that initially and, uh, it gave me pause to approach you because I wasn't quite sure, but, um, I, um,
00:05:54
Speaker
I realized in thinking about sketchy people that I did stay in a job for quite some time that I enjoyed. And one of the reasons why I enjoyed it, I worked about five or six years in a grocery store. And the grocery store, at least where I worked and what you would see in a grocery store is just, I found it to be unparalleled, the sketchiness. And let me add this one. I worked third shift as well. So, which was a 24 hour store.
00:06:24
Speaker
3 a.m. in the morning, you know, and the in the donut run at 3 30 a.m.
00:06:31
Speaker
Absolutely. There was a lot. There was a lot to see. Yeah, you got, you know, you got like, you know, clean, uh, sketchy on aisle four, you know, you got, they're all over, you know, I mean, and that's another great thing about this, this comic is like the time of day totally plays a line or plays a theme in, uh, what denotes and what dubs something sketchy. So yeah, like you're saying about the grocery store late at night, it's like, what are you doing here so late at night? And, um, you know,
00:07:00
Speaker
People are everywhere at all times. I would identify with when I was working in the store and I realized that at one point my co-workers had pulled off something where I was definitely identified as the sketchy worker in the store. And there was probably three or four of them were stocking shelves like I was. And the incredible part of it was that
00:07:28
Speaker
They had alternately told stories about me that were untrue to shoppers throughout the night. And they would also ask these shoppers to approach me. And they built up such a thing. So I had a night of interactions where everybody who came up to me looked very frightened.
00:07:46
Speaker
And scared and and finally I said, you know, what what the hell's going on? And I mentioned it and they they had been telling stories about me all night So and they're basically egging folks on just to go up and talk to me. So they're totally hazing you That's exactly what it's that's what you do a third shift in the oh, yeah Yeah, I mean I worked for free delay on on Midnight shifts and overnight shifts and yeah, I mean you you got to find something to do to kind of like mess with each other That's exactly what it was. Hey, um
Ethical Sketching Considerations
00:08:16
Speaker
What's the, have you ever seen things sketchy enough that you didn't draw them? They were so sketchy. Yeah, there's a couple of things that I've seen and that I haven't drawn before. Totally. Um, there is most recently, uh, you know, there's a, there's a kid at, at a comic show and he wanted to be a sketchy person. He kind of almost demanded it. I told him kind of how it works. You know, it's like, well, it's, it's something that you kind of have to be,
00:08:46
Speaker
You know, act in, quote unquote, your normal self, you can't just be like, hey, I want to be a sketchy person and draw me. It kind of doesn't work that way. But the dialogue he said, I mean, this kid's probably 12 years old. And, you know, what he said was something I was like, you know, I can't, it became sketchy, became too sketchy. It was like,
00:09:05
Speaker
He just went, this kid just went from 0 to 100 in a tenth of a second. And I was like, wow. So that was an instance where I couldn't draw that. But yeah, they're out there every every now and then. You went three dog night on you. Yeah, yeah, he did. And I had to decline drawing it. And was there another instance where it's kind of just like the type of thing you're like, oh, there's just too much.
00:09:33
Speaker
Yeah, usually, I mean, it's more of like a humanity thing and a morality thing that, you know, I've seen a lot of people, you know, like I was just out in Salem, Salem, Morgan today and I was driving and there's this guy and he had like three shopping carts stacked up.
00:09:50
Speaker
And my main question is that I ask myself is, does this person want to be doing what they're doing? And if I can sit there and kind of look at him and go, I highly doubt this guy wants to be pushing three carts the way he's doing it. And those are usually my guidelines of, you know, I'm not going to draw somebody that's
00:10:09
Speaker
you know what that might be struggling or that is they're not in in quote-unquote total control their uh their environment and what they're doing so those are the ones that all you know a lot of people will go oh have you seen this like homeless guy and he's dah dah dah dah and i'm like you know i've seen him but and he probably doesn't want to be doing that or she doesn't want to be you know over there doing that and those are the ones i usually
00:10:32
Speaker
I won't draw, but of course if you're only seeing somebody, if they're acting weird, you don't know what might be going on. It's kind of a fine line for me to pick out who I draw. Yeah, yeah. About the process, you see somebody, you want to capture it.
Capturing Sketch-Worthy Moments
00:10:58
Speaker
Do you go about that? Do you get into a position where you can not be seen and see that you're drawing them? Or how do you end up capturing what you want to capture about what you see? Excellent question. This is one that gets asked probably the most.
00:11:18
Speaker
So I'll start with the three criterias to become a sketchy person in my comic. And that is, it could be what you're doing, it could be what you're saying, or it could be what you're wearing or a combination of any of those. So usually if it's what you're saying, I can remember that quote and I'm going to be drawing that sketchy person, not so much what they look like, but I'm going to capture the mood and put their dialogue in the comic.
00:11:45
Speaker
If it's something that they're doing, usually I can remember what it was that they're doing and I can do a drawing that captures what they were doing. The hardest ones is what somebody's wearing because that's going to be usually high detail and
00:12:01
Speaker
That's going to take more time. I can't really just sit down and start drawing somebody. So if I can, I will ask them if I can just photo them and say, hey, I do a comic. It's about people watching, and I love your look. And everybody's been super responsive and been happy about it. So those are kind of the criterias and the steps that go about creating a sketchy person. Oh, thanks for that. Yeah, I could see how that question come up, given the unique nature of what you do.
00:12:30
Speaker
Us yeah, I was really interested in figuring out how you pull that together. So Jack when we first met I think we both have Twin Peaks tattoos owl cave tattoos. Yeah. Yeah The show over the summer in June. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely and You know Twin Peaks fans are I mean you you know them and you know how they can how they can be and and
00:12:59
Speaker
You know, I'm from the East Coast originally. And, you know, when I first started watching Twin Peaks, it was very other or even more so more otherworldly for me, because it was a very different topography and land in place. And, you know, I've always been drawn to the Pacific to the Pacific Northwest.
00:13:25
Speaker
And there are elements of the show, in my opinion, where Twin Peaks is just Twin Peaks. Parts of it is surreal and can appear anywhere. But there are parts that feel for me to be very steeped in the region.
00:13:43
Speaker
Given your love of Twin Peaks as well, do you end up ever seeing anything that seems inspired by Twin Peaks or anything that just harkens to that in your mind when you see it in town? Yeah, I think Twin Peaks is all about
00:14:01
Speaker
kind of having a vision that can see other sides of things. It really broadens your reception of things. And being able to watch people the way I do for this comic, to take what one would seem mundane and ordinary, the minutia of life. You could be sitting on a park bench bored out of your mind.
00:14:29
Speaker
you know, I always have something to do, and that is watching. And so, you know, knowing that kind of that, you know, dual vision of kind of the Twin Peaks show, it definitely has a correlation to what I do. And, you know, it's it's about it's about people. And it's about every walk of life in that show and the duality of everybody. You know, we all have
00:14:58
Speaker
um demons to fight we all have challenges to face we all triumph in jubilation we all go through strife so you know that's easily a correlation with that show and i feel that's a pretty easy thing for this comic to totally drive into because it's about public it's about every walk of life you know i draw everybody yeah and that does a quite quite incredible um yeah description i
00:15:26
Speaker
Within Twin Peaks, I found that, yeah, there is this otherworldly component of it, but there's a mundane, a super mundane aspect of it where people in all their uniqueness, where I think Lynch kind of places the lens on activities in an amount of time, almost like you're not supposed to. I think in season three, there's a scene where somebody's sweeping the floor in the credits and he doesn't lift up the camera for three, four minutes.
00:15:56
Speaker
For me, knowing Lynch's interest in meditation and Buddhism and just kind of like these very super mundane moments, and he doesn't avert his eye. And there's something you said about watching or looking where if you keep looking, you might see something else rather than one and a half seconds and let me look the other way. So there's an observational component that I'm
00:16:26
Speaker
that I believe you engage it. Does it feel a little bit like cinema, your process? Oh, absolutely. It is a trying to capture that shot.
00:16:37
Speaker
And if I see somebody that is walking or doing something, all of a sudden, your mind's eye, or not your mind's eye, excuse me, your vision, your actual vision, becomes the camera. And you're looking, and I'll be recording and observing and just kind of like, OK, this person's doing this. And I'm kind of almost in my mind trying to, as weird as it sounds, but telepathically direct them. I'm like, come on, do something. I know you got it in you to do something.
00:17:06
Speaker
You've got this and I'll watch somebody that I might think might do something magical. And that's what I like about this project is that a lot of people think that, oh gosh, you're just drawing like crazy people. It's like, no, I'm drawing people that can juggle. I'm drawing people that are doing amazing things. And sometimes I have to watch for that. You have to watch for it and you have to have to see it. And it's a different way of looking. Yeah.
00:17:37
Speaker
So, Jack, what were you like as a young child? Were you born with a sketchbook in hand, or what were you like?
Artistic Journey and Influences
00:17:46
Speaker
Luckily, my mother is a fantastic artist. She's a fine artist, a painter, a doll maker. And when I mean doll maker, it's very dark. Bones and driftwood. Growing up on the Oregon coast, we used just a lot of things that were around us.
00:18:04
Speaker
I started drawing at an early age because she was always creating and that was a great first step into art creation and comics. She would bring home Far Side Books and my friends would have, you know, do Calvin Hobbs and then you'd have a weird stuff like Edward Gorey and Reed Fleming, the world's most toughest milkman and all these kind of like alternative comics at a very young age.
00:18:33
Speaker
And that really started to seep into what I wanted to do. And, you know, that was probably my background as a kid and drawing quick with, you know, right off, right out of the gate. And luckily I was around a lot of friends who liked to draw and create. So we'd egg each other on and we'd create our little comics and we'd share our comics with each other. And that was really fun, you know, formative years of getting, you know,
00:19:03
Speaker
getting your feet wet in some comics.
00:19:16
Speaker
Language I noticed over time. Had you heard that? Maybe coming back in 2020. Yeah. Yeah, I saw Gary's post about the guy thawing out the the glacier with all the care and I am just I am so stoked I'm so ready for that to happen. So I hope I hope he's doing it for the right reasons. I hope he wants to do it I hope it's not
00:19:38
Speaker
you know, a syndication house pushing them with a big check type of thing. But knowing him, knowing his work, I would feel that this is his move to do. And I think all of us in the cartooning realm and beyond readers and everything is just stoked to see some new content from him because he was just such an obtuse genius and I'm ready. Yeah, it is. I hadn't thought about it in quite some time. And then I had seen that and I read about it. I'm like, man,
00:20:07
Speaker
almost like a natural it seems like a I hope it comes about but it seemed like a natural development like this is somebody we need this is somebody's work we need now yeah oh absolutely yeah I definitely hope we get to see it so um what uh what other forms of uh art do you uh you know do you do you dabble in or or in in in joy like what's what what do you interest when it comes to art forms um so
00:20:38
Speaker
I love comics and I create three comics. So we're talking about sketchy people and we'll stay on topic and on target with that. But I also do a single panel gag comic called Minus Tide. I do a daily strip style comic called Gulls. It's about seagulls. And you can see all of my samples over at my website, which is kentcomics.com. And that's C-O-M-I-C-S, Kent Comics.
00:21:06
Speaker
And I love drawing various comics. And I also love music. I'm a musician at heart. I spent a good 15 years of my life trying to be a rock star. And I play guitar every day and love creating music. So that's kind of my world of creation. Yeah. And yeah, thanks for mentioning the other work that you do.
Motivation Behind Creating Art
00:21:32
Speaker
I think I always want to inquire about
00:21:37
Speaker
you know, when I see artists, part of the thing is, and I think this part of our system is like we end up kind of pigeonholing, right? And then saying, well, this is this is what they do in this extent to them. And it can be very frustrating because, you know, you do other things and you have done other things in that kind of, you know, artistic mindset. I always find it very fascinating
00:22:05
Speaker
what artists do and have done or even be, you know, moving into. And the other, the single, are both the other ones you mentioned, are those both single panel comics, is that correct, you said? Minus tide is, Gulls is, can go up to about, you know, four or five panels. It's kind of like more of your, your Garfield or your Zits type of comic strip. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's great. And thanks for mentioning those.
00:22:32
Speaker
Have you ever asked yourself or you have an answer for why you create? I create because I've got a motor inside of me that does not stop.
00:22:44
Speaker
And I create because I want to do it for myself first. And I also want to make people laugh. So that's why I want to create. I want to create a product that somebody could look at and escape what they're doing for even if it's a split second. You know, that's that's why I create. So I'm going to personally ask you about that, like, as far as the process of where you continue to
00:23:12
Speaker
Continue to create you have that motor um you know I felt throughout my life that I have that that motor as well one of the things I haven't known just because I haven't done a lot of Art as far as like a way of breathing and processing And this is just sheer curiosity on my part if you do that You know to kind of deal with that motor
00:23:38
Speaker
What how do you know when you how do you know when you're done? Or like you've gotten to a point where you you need to as far as processing that stuff That's a really good question. I think you know knowing the motor thing for me the drive to do it is it's for me first and I keep telling myself that and it's a nice spot to be in because I
00:24:03
Speaker
As long as I'm having fun with it, and as long as I like what I'm doing, I'll share it with people. People want to come along the ride with me more the merrier, but even if it was just for me to do it, it's cathartic. Being satisfied in a cathartic execution of art is what I strive to do. And doing comics is nice because
00:24:26
Speaker
I get to you know, write a simple gag a silly joke and If it hits well, it hits well if it doesn't no big deal I got tomorrow to write a better one So knowing that I can keep coming back to the plate and try to hit that home run You know, I got unlimited at bats in this game and this game's got no timeline on it So that for me is why I do it No III like that. Um so
00:24:54
Speaker
As far as producing or have you done that a lot? I mean the the process you described for sketchy people you'd have a lot of time where you're doing it yourself and creating that you mentioned you'd played music and Did you do the music was it kind of like on your own you play? Did you play in a band?
Blending Art and Music
00:25:14
Speaker
It was it was full bands and I did you know, it'd be like three bands at the same time I've done you know, that's that motor thing that I have where I've done you know
00:25:24
Speaker
a gig with one band at one venue and then go across town and join my other band and do a gig over there. It never stops. It wore me down in the sense that I love playing music in a band and I did that for a long time. I love the collaboration with the bandmates.
00:25:46
Speaker
There was just moments that I can see something where I'm like, that could be better. There are certain lead singer things where I'm like, I can't do what you do better, but I could be a product better than what you're doing. And what I mean by that is if I had a lead singer that didn't have stage presence, it was always tough because I'm a performer at heart. I'm not the best singer, but I know I could perform really well.
00:26:12
Speaker
And that was always tough to see somebody who could sing way better than me But their stage presence where it should be there wasn't and that was always kind of a thing that nagged at me so fast forward to me doing these comics and me doing a Simple musical project. I'll get to that in a second. You know, I get to be the ultimate kind of director producer of everything and you know move things more forward of how I see them and
00:26:39
Speaker
And the reason why I pause on the musical thing is that I still do a band, but the goals comic that I do is a mix where there's three goals in the comic strip and they're in a band and they want to be floc stars. And in real life, I put my band together and actually record music. We have two two LPs out colored vinyl and everything where the music now actually exists. So it's a whole musical comic crossover. But
00:27:07
Speaker
We're not here for that. That's Kentcomics.com, goalscomic.com. You can see all of my seagull wackiness, but back to sketchy people. It's the motor. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I love hearing about the music as well. I've had some musical guests. I loved listening to music. I was just curious, what style of music have you predominantly played?
00:27:36
Speaker
More on the heavy metal side and hard rock side. I always tout that I was maybe born 15 years too late because all of my favorite musicians and bands, their heyday was totally done by the time I was of age and listening to what they were doing.
00:27:56
Speaker
I love the 80s heavy metal scene. That's my go-to. It's the one I know the most. I love the generic answer of I like everything. It's true. But if you were to go, what do you know most about what could you play the best and what did you play the best, it would be 80s heavy metal. Yeah. Yeah, I'm a big metal fan. And I love the giants that came out of that era, the heavy metal and speed metal.
00:28:24
Speaker
you know, Megadeth and Metallica and Slayer and all the other even more popular, you know, metal bands. It was definitely a great a great era. And yeah, I like that. Yeah. Now, you spend a lot of time, you know, you know, working on art projects and producing things.
Art's Subjective Nature
00:28:52
Speaker
One of the questions that I'm always asking guests is what exactly is is art? Do you have a working definition or an idea? You know, I think I had to go with the the old standby of you know, it's it's the eye of the beholder and You know somebody will call you know Something art and somebody will call that Trash and you know, you call one thing purple. They call it blue and
00:29:19
Speaker
It's all the eye of the beholder, and I can't really put a definition on it. It's a moving definition that it changes. It's like water. It will take the shape of whatever vessel you put it in, and that's really the only description I could put with what is art, because it's so subjective.
00:29:42
Speaker
Right. And yeah, I mean, there's plenty of theories when people talk about art that really rely heavily upon the subject, you know, subjective nature of it. And, you know, even the idea that they can be incredible pieces of art that are considered high art, you know, in one decade in the mere, you know, eight to 10 years later are, you know, viewed to be kitsch. And, you know, it's it's it's it's really
00:30:09
Speaker
outside the object itself. I think when I was studying philosophy of art formally in the class, we had Saturday Night Fever, which at the time was meant to be kind of like this big kind of like quasi tragic drama that's based around the disco. And once disco faded, the text that was left was kind of like, oh, it's Saturday Night Fever, right?
00:30:39
Speaker
how times can change like that. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, we're looking at a, you know, a banana duct tape to a wall and, uh, you know, that's, that's the thing. It's like, yeah, that's art. Sure. Why, why can't it be? And then, you know, years later, it'll, it'll be viewed totally different. And that's that kind of water in a vessel thing that I'm talking about is like, you know, give it time and it's going to be looked at totally differently. The other big question, um, that I ask is, um,
00:31:08
Speaker
Why is there something rather than nothing? Um, I would say, I mean, yeah, that's, that is a big, those are, that's not a big question. That's a heavy question, man. I'm like, I'm, I got a lift with my knees on this one. Uh, you know, don't want to slip a disc in my back. You know, why is there something rather than nothing and that God, you can, you know, you're, you're the,
00:31:38
Speaker
We're creaking open the Pandora's box of meaning of life on some of my best answer for something rather than nothing. And that abroad stroke is, it's all about stream of cautiousness. It's that weird ego thing of, you know, you know, does a tree
00:31:58
Speaker
Doesn't make a sound. If you're not around type of thing, you know, it's like, as long as you're, you are perceiving it, then it does exist. You know, and it's, it's that weird, Mobius strip of God, it's snake eating his tail type of stuff. Um, I couldn't get more concise than that. So I got to leave it at that. Um, I may have, may have, may have slipped a disc trying to answer that one. I'm on my back now. It's good. It's a fun one to.
00:32:23
Speaker
to knock around and one of the actually just this past week I was thinking about you know the question itself I mean there's really well I guess yeah religious tradition within the Buddhist or like philosophical traditions you know that would even reject the question or would just quite simply say there isn't something to begin with it's all nothing in that you know so like the answers themselves I mean I started think of a couple answers that would like
00:32:49
Speaker
dissolve, dissolve the question, you know, but, um, you know, I think it just is seeing as far as I like to hear when you mentioned about, you know, the motor in your mind and how that you were connecting to, you know, the artistic process. I mean, one of the ways that I've seen it in that I personally heard in what you were saying, and is that.
00:33:15
Speaker
You know, the thought is viewed in like just concept and just being out there and then we produce things, you know, then thoughts become something or what we see become an object or become art. And that's really the link that I'm always trying to explore, you know, that process of like, there wasn't anything and now there's a painting in front of me or there's this, you know,
00:33:37
Speaker
You know the sketch that that you would do that depict a particular time and place and it's something worthy of attention, you know, so in our piece that's worthy of worthy of attention, so We I Put this podcast out about once a week and in just some of the more recent episodes. I've been asking guests if
00:34:04
Speaker
If they could think of somebody they'd like to hear answer, you know these questions or these type of questions Somebody you're interested in as an artist or a creator. Um, do you have somebody in mind? Um That's a good question, I mean are you talking like large stage are you talking to like locals anybody anybody um, I you know, I love uh, you know, I like hearing um from
00:34:33
Speaker
the local scene because that's to me, that's the most grounded group of people. I feel that that's the ones, you know, the people that are out there doing it. So let me get to your question to make a long story boring. I think, you know, there's there's so many artists out there. I mean, you know, in the poor unseen, you know, I think, you know, there's
00:35:01
Speaker
There's street art people that are doing great things. You've probably seen the RX skulls out there. There's Shannon Wheeler, who's semi, he's pretty big. But he's also got that kind of foot in the grounded level as well as some good success. So he's kind of a good bridge. I like a lot of my friends that are working out there and busting their butt.
00:35:30
Speaker
There's just a lot of people doing what they do. I hate to be vague about that, but I think just getting out there. For me, a local idol that I follow and have followed for a long time is Shannon Wheeler, and I'd probably say that'd be my answer. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Even with these questions,
00:35:53
Speaker
for me there's always a piece where it's like I'm Really interested just to listen in and to learn and part of it just when you're an answer in that question right there I've had a couple people mention to me and say, you know, one of the things you need to do is kind of
00:36:10
Speaker
whenever you can, but kind of like a little bit more exploratory, a little bit more towards the street, a little bit more towards, you know, local or somebody who might not view themselves as an artist or something that they're doing at that time as being artistic, but you see it that way and to delve into that. And your answer helps really just kind of prompt in that in my head because in doing this show, the questions are the questions. Like I don't have any other like,
00:36:39
Speaker
There's no aim, like not in a bad way, but there's no aim or angle. It's really exploratory. And just you mentioned in just grappling with that question, I started to think, yeah, what about somebody, you know, somebody who's there just not expecting to be like, hey, I'd like to ask you this question and be interested to be in on a podcast. And so I know I really appreciate your answer, too.
00:37:07
Speaker
And I'm gonna look up some more of a Shannon I'd seen some things and heard the name, but I'm definitely gonna look more than Yeah, he was at the show that we met at. Oh, okay. Okay. He was there. He does too much coffee, man. Oh, yes Yes, and he reminds me of one of one of my you know, one of my I like his work a lot because it reminds me of comics of your and just that old-school style of just amazing
00:37:37
Speaker
You know pen cross hatching amazing use of blacks amazing Just cartoon style and a kind of weird humor and I just I've liked him a long time Yeah, and and thanks for that. Um Jack You'd mention your website And I just wanted to kind of give you the opportunity to let listeners know, you know What you know how to come in contact with you or what way to come in contact with you and in the work that you're doing
00:38:08
Speaker
uh... the website's one but this this is this is for you as one of the if you want to see anything directly to the listeners as far as projects you working on ideas or you know we used to come in contact with uh... what you're up to sure yeah i think the best way to get a hold of me and to stay up to date with all of my tunings as uh... instagram is the is the number one best way i'm on there all the time posting new things
00:38:33
Speaker
So you can find Sketchy People via Sketchy People PDX. You can find my goals. The seagulls are on goals comic strip. And then lastly, you got Minus Tide at Minus Tide comic. And then to get the whole swath of all of my art, KentComics.com.
00:38:55
Speaker
kencomics.com also has the Store where I hold everything so if you know you want to order minus tide goals sketchy people Final albums you can do it all right there kencomics.com backslash shop Yeah Thanks, brother. I mean I really look forward to dig into some more you material one thing I wanted to mention too is one the guests I've had on the show Joanna Valente he was a poet and she does drawings and such but
00:39:25
Speaker
When I was interviewing with her, she was talking about her Killer Bob poem collection. And that's actually going to be coming out next year. So the basis of all the poems in the collection are about Killer Bob from Twin Peaks. Oh, awesome. Something to keep on the radar. But we've been talking to Jack Kent. It's been a pleasure to talk to you. I appreciate your humor, your insights. I've learned a ton.
00:39:55
Speaker
Uh, just chatting with you here. And, um, you know, I, I really want to thank you for your time and, uh, your great observations and, uh, thoughts and thanks for being on the podcast. Thanks, Ken. Yeah. Love, love being on love sharing and, you know, talking shop is talking shop and I could, you know, do it for hours. We all could, but, uh, you know, nobody wants to listen to us for hours. So thanks. Just thanks everybody out there for listening. And if you've made it this far, congratulations and hopefully you find
00:40:23
Speaker
find more fun stuff out there too. So I appreciate the time man, really do. Thanks so much, Jack. And we'll talk to you soon again. All right. Sounds good. Take care. You are listening to something rather than nothing.