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Interview – Pierre Lloga

Interview – Pierre Lloga

There are as many different variations in the whole low brow/conceptual realism (honestly, keeping up with terms these days to describe what is essentially just kick ass art seems to require some kind degree in etymological studies) movement, but one of the prominent influences within those variations is the common, every day comic. Much of it has been highly influenced most by a seemingly once upon a time “kid/geek-only” related world, and the artists that grew up with a lot of the seminal earlier works are now moving in some amazing, formatively usurping directions.

One of these artists forging ahead in these new directions, is Melbournes Pierre Lloga. I was introduced to Pierre last year, whilst watching the first Secret Wars round – and we briefly got to chatting about the progressing battle, and a little about about his upcoming one.

Now, I’ve always been a massive comic nerd – ‘mainstream’,  ‘lowbrow’, ‘pulp’ or otherwise, and the derivation and direction that these artists are taking with their work, and the continuing impact of the oft maligned illustrative realm on the contemporary art scene is something that I, and many others, find fascinating. Historically speaking, it has only been quite recently that such work has begun to be accepted in major galleries, and not just the pulps. Its no real surprise, really, the images and stories that many of these artists are producing are fairly advanced evolutions on the styles read during their youth –  they may as well be another species entirely.

Pierre is one of these artists – and he, alongside others, are doing amazing work by transforming those influences, from comics, to cartoons, to movies, into something vigorously new. Happily for him, he ended up winning his heat of the Melbourne of Secret Wars, against the immensely talented Phibs, and next week he’ll be going into the semi-finals up against another finals winner, Scale. We don’t know who will win out of those two most worthy opponents, but we do know that we’ll be following Pierres work for a long time to come, and as you’ll see, this interview pretty much sums up why …

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Where did you get your start with illustration and art? Why was it fascinating from the start – did you think you’d end up doing this stuff as an adult?

Hrm. Well I guess comic books really. From as early as I can remember I was reading Mad Magazine, Tinitin, Archie, Garfield, that sort of stuff – especially Mad Magazine – I was all about Mad. The art was more raw, the jokes were cruder – it was edgy stuff to a kid in the second year of school. Animated cartoons also played a big part, and horror movies – its the stuff I watched and the stuff I wanted to make.

Somewhere along the line I went to art school. I guess I must have had enough people in my life encouraging me that I got fooled into actually thinking I could draw. Someday maybe I’ll discover I’m like one of those idol contestants that thought they could sing because nobody had the guts to tell them they were rubbish. But as long as people keep paying me to draw things I’ll keep doing it.

You obviously use a variety of different media, but what is it about the illustrative format that most draws you in? Is it the narrative style of the work, or the ink and line look that grabs you?

Wow, probably both. I’ve always loved a picture that tells a story, from comic books to movie posters, to fine art (whatever that is!), and whatever else. I wasn’t allowed to watch violent movies as a kid so I used to go into video libraries and try to suss out all the movies  just reading their blurbs, looking at the captions, and, of course, their covers. Horror movies always had the best covers to look at, they were more often illustrations rather than just stills from the film, so there was always so much going on in them. The illustrators really got into telling a full blown story in those covers – often a painted horror movie cover could give away the whole film,  I discovered after bingeing on horror movies as an adult, and often they told a completely different story altogether.

Inkings another thing I obsess over. Ink and line. I spent years trying to emulate the differing line widths and line drawing styles of my favourite cartoonists and illustrators using felt pens – until I discovered that most of them drew in dip pen or brush. Since then, I’ve stuck to brush drawing for most things I do. To imitate the differing line weights and fluid movement of a brush is just something that would take wrist-ruining hours to do in pen, and would still come out looking too stiff.

People keep telling me you can do your inking on a computer now and make it look like an authentic brush drawing, but I don’t think I could ever get into that – its the actual hand drawing part that I really enjoy. If I’m just going to do all my drawing on a computer and be sitting in front of a screen all day, monotonously clicking away, I’d be better off getting a data entry job.

At least then I’d make a few bucks.

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Tell us about some of the themes you often work with in your pieces –  are there any recurring motifs in the vast universe of  fantastical and surreal characters that you draw?

I like the macabre a lot – real gross stuff. Horror stuff. This comes from a love of horror cinema, weird comics and cartoons. I’ll often stick to the themes that made me want to draw in the first place, bizarre, other-worldly situations, strange narratives and, of course, pretty girls.

Pretty much anything that will even momentarily take my mind away from the drudgery of everyday life.

Being a comic fan, can you tell us a bit about the influence that these have had over your own work, and what you would hold up as “recommended viewing and reading”?

I wasn’t much into superheroes, or any of that, when I was really young – though I did briefly go through a Marvel comics phase. The stuff that really began to catch my eye in those developmental years were the more cartoonish-ly illustrated, oddball looking comics – like Madman, Milk and Cheese, Bone, Sam and Max, and The Tick amongst several others. ­

Of course back in the early 90’s those comics were hard to come by for a little kid. You couldn’t just get them from a newsagent, like the Spiderman and Batman comics, you actually had to go to comic shops, which seemed a lot scarier back then; their indefinable odours, clerks who came across as big, opinionated, antisocial bullies and dudes who looked way too old to be collecting Wonder Woman. I believe comic shops are a lot friendlier these days, what with everyone being into graphic novels and stuff now.

Oops – get me talking about comics and I could go for days – but, yeah, the influence they’ve had on me would come through in the love I’ve developed for ink work, narrative and fantastic subject matter.

Some comics that are on my essential reading list: Beg The Question by Bob Fingerman, Blue Monday by Chynna Clugston, Summer Blonde by Adrian Tomine, Ghost World By Daniel Clowes, any comic book you can come by thats illustrated by Paul Pope, Beasts of Burden by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson, in fact just about any comic by Evan Dorkin, Theres a collected volume of Steve Purcell’s Sam and Max comics which is also a brilliant read, Afrodisiac by Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca, Cinema Sewer by Robin Bougie (even though its more of a sleazy film journal than a comic), Brandon Graham’s King City, and so on. There are really too many for me to mention – like I said, I could go on for days…

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Tell us a little more about your upcoming web comic, Cave Roy, as well as the work you’ve done on Miss Blimey Pirate with Jo Spurling  – what are they all about and what do you find liberating, or difficult, about working within the web comic arena?

Well Cave Roy is a new comic  I’ve started writing that I intend to upload a page a week. I will post a link to it on my blog once I have built the site for it. The story revolves around 26 year old, Roy Atkins, who is content to live in a cave and work in a call centre, making minimum wage for the rest of his days. He has no ambition or intention of improving his life, but somehow, in spite of trying to lead a life consisting of going to work and playing video games in a hole in the ground, finds himself getting stuck in all manner of bizarre situations – but thats’ all I can give away for now.

The Miss Blimey comic is an eight page story I illustrated for Jo Spurling’s Nothing To Nobody Magazine. It’s adapted from one of her Miss Blimey stories called The Kights of Gregarious. So if you’re a Nothing to Nobody reader, expect to see it in an upcoming issue, and if you’re not go check out the magazine – http://nothingtonobody.com/

Working on web comics is something I’ve been meaning to do more of for a long time, it seems a much less daunting undertaking that making comics for print. I can upload them at my leisure, and if a book’s worth of pages comes together I can take it and get it printed – or at least thats the plan with Cave Roy – iIt should prove an interesting experiment, if nothing else.

You’ve also done a fair amount of event and CD design work for bands and the like, can you tell us a little more about this kind of work you do, and how it is a different activity to both personal, and other design work? Does the music itself have a definite influence on the work at all or is it more “to spec” based work?

I really get a buzz out of doing design work and illustrations for bands and musicians, especially when I’m into their music. As someone who really admires those with the ability to make music, while possessing little if any musical skill of my own, it all seem amazing to me, like they’re magicians or something.

Some folks come to me with very specific designs in mind, which is cool. The more specific it is, the easier it is for me to reference and draw.
When someone whose music I don’t know gets me to do an illustration  for their album or whatever, and don’t have a specific idea of what they want , I’ll often request a copy of their album to listen to. This is so that I can get at least a general feel for what kind of image they want to be putting forward, and what kind of picture would best suit the tone of the album. I wouldn’t want to end up drawing maggot infested skulls for a folk band or, like, fluffy kittens for a hip hop cover.

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How have you found the Secret Wars experience so far – and what are you taking from it that you have been able to apply back into your work in some way?

Secret Wars has been really cool. Shannon McKinnon and his crew have done an amazing job putting it all together and making it a big event – its really something people have gotten into. When I’ve gone into watch it, I’ve spoken to folks who are the kinds of people who don’t get into watching competitive sports, but get they that same sort of feeling a rabid footy fan gets – getting behind an artist who’s up there scribbling with all they’ve got.

While at first I found the competitive nature of it a bit frightening, and the idea of dissing an artist I quite admire quite hard to come to terms with, it turned out to be a really fun exercise. Its like getting an illustration brief and being forced to complete it within an hour and a half, with an audience watching, an MC (the indefatigable Josh Feggans!) and music blaring. In that sense it really helps you shut off that little critic in the back of your head and just get it done.

If I can teach myself to take that mindset back to my drawing desk, then maybe Cave Roy might get finished before 2020.

You’ve done a number of exhibitions and had work in several groups over the years, what’s your favourite experience thus far, and you working on anything new in terms of upcoming shows for this year?

I’ve been involved in some really great shows, with some amazing artists, and have met a lot of really cool people along the way – so its hard to really choose a favourite experience. The live art events are always great fun to do as well.

Actually on the subject of live art events, (yes, that was a segue) – the next show I’ve got organised we will be doing a live art piece on the opening night. It will be a collab piece with Luke Ryan, who will be co-exhibiting with me for that show. So yeah, two-man show, me and Luke. It will be in December and I’ll be promoting the hell out of it – and, for anyone who doesn’t know Luke, go check out his work at http://www.lukeryanart.com  – he is one of the hardest working, most skilled illustrator/designer/artists going around, and a really top bloke.

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How do you feel the art scene, in terms of acceptance for more low brow and illustrative work, has changed over the past decade here in Australia? Do you believe that the market is now a lot more open in this new decade, or is it just a matter of same ol, same ol?

I really do think, in recent years, that people have become a lot more open-minded in regard to having illustrative artwork in galleries. It wasn’t all that long ago that ‘illustrator’ seemed like a dirty word in the artsy circles. When I was in art school (now almost a decade ago) it certainly was! My studio space, or glorified cubicle, was next to another student who, like myself, was more interested in stylized comic-inspired work than being a post-whatever-ist, and our area used to be condescendingly referred to, by a certain lecturer as “the cartoonist’s corner” – it doesn’t seem like much now, but it did sting a bit.

So it heartens me a lot to see the work of great contemporary illustrators and street artists now gracing some of Australia’s most well known galleries and being supported internationally.

I reckon its really cool that people everywhere are reading comics like Scott Pilgrim, Ghost World, American Splendor and Watchmen, thanks to a big trend towards graphic novels  probably due in large part to their motion picture adaptations. It makes me excited to see comics being read on trains, sold in major book shops and on display rather than in niche stores or newsagents wedged in between the tattoo mags and the ones wrapped in black plastic and only being read by…

… well, guys like me.

So what’s next? What plans do you have for the coming year or so, and where do you want to take your art to next?

I want to continue working more on comics, keep illustrating and keep doing cool art events and meeting ace people …

Check out Pierres blog here for lots more news and art, and also check out his profile at the JAA website – and get down to Secret Wars next week!

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