Interviewing Cartoonists by Snail Mail is VERY Cool…
Sounds weird, especially in this broadband world of ours, that anyone would have the desire to reach out to famous folks, not over the Net or in person, but by a letter delivered by the good ol' U.S. Postal Service. But that's what exactly San Franciscan and budding cartoonist Dan Stafford has done. And, it's so appealingly low-tech that it's even worked too...
In fact, a few of the folks who have responded so far -- at least the ones Dan has posted at his Web site -- easily constitute the beginnings of a "who's who" list of today's alt cartoonists, among them Jeffrey Brown, Adrian Tomine, James Kochalka and Joe Matt. In my opinion, however, the crown jewel of the bunch is a breezy six-page handwritten letter from R. Crumb, the grandmaster among all living alt cartoonists.
What 's Dan's payoff, except for a little recognition and generating some major fanboy envy? "Honestly, I'm a fanboy. So I wrote interview questions, things I'm curious about. In some cases, it's brought abut friendship (Jeffrey Brown) and in others some skepticism (Crumb). But, it's always great."
And, Dan's not a bad cartoonist either, so after you hit the links and read the letters, check out his Dirtbag strips, a more classic take on the awesome toon satires of David Rees (Get Your War On). (Thanks to Street for the link...)