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challenging for me to have to have my facts and perspectives straight in order to effectively make fun of something, and thereby effectively explain it.
Not to go off on another tangent, but it's also worth considering that satire, fooling, play, has been a stabilizing force in community relations, a restatement of values, for thousands of years. Any age group can do it. This has even been the office of healers, shamans, etc.
SOL:What would you call your style?
EN: I call my style class-conscious satire.
SOL: Is art something you would like to do for a living?
EN: I would like to do art for a living but not for a capitalist society’s standard of living. The amount of money one needs to survive cannot be gained by my artistic methods. I am not interested in converting my work into something consumable in merchandizing or on the so-called art market.
SOL: Is there a purpose to your work? (Trying to pertain to specific audience, politics be it satirical or serious, etc.)
EN: The purpose of my work is to explain to people what forces cause the conditions of the world, from interpersonal relationships to political climates. MAD magazine taught me to use satire to always tell the truth.
SOL: Did you work for MAD magazine or just read it?
EN: I just read it. I accidentally got into a subscription to MAD from 1993-1997 and it was immensely formative.
SOL: How do other people view your work, as far as you know, and do you agree with their analysis? (I understand art is up for interpretation and can be different for everyone, but does not stop the fact you will have inclinations or reactions to what other people say about your work.)
EN: I don’t get a lot of feedback on my work. My friends tell me I use too many words. I can’t help it because I’m a writer first and an illustrator second.
A good review would be someone at a zine show laughing, or even saying “that’s true” under their breath. In the summer of 2013 I learned that the easiest crowd to piss off is sports fans. One irritating thing about that case is that their yuppie mentalities seem to have blocked interpretation: I pointed out the lack of respect for workers’ rights at the job site at Levi’s Stadium. A man had died working in an elevator shaft, which is absolutely unacceptable. None of the (admittedly small) group responding to the comic even detected that. They just thought I was mean for not being really excited about the construction of the stadium.
Whether or not I agree with anyone’s feedback is irrelevant. My technique is determined by what I’m trying to say. However feedback does give me technical input beyond agreement or disagreement. If I do something like that stadium comic and no one addresses my point when responding, that tells me I need to be more precise when making my point.