Q/A with Brian Biggs

Dear Julia, Brian Biggs' graphic novel about a man obsessed with birds, is one of the most deceptively simple and provocative comics in recent memory. Fortunately, Biggs has no intention of revealing its secrets, as he demonstrates in an e-interview he was kind enough to grant us. To decipher Julia, you'll just have to read it, and to learn more about Biggs' artistic take on the comics form, you'll just have to read this.

So, are you convinced yet that Dear Julia is an allegory for Superman comics?

Nope. I thought the idea was intriguing and funny, but comics of the superhero variety are rather alien to me, and the chances of me referencing a Superman comic are about the same as a Superman comic referencing me.

Where did the germ of the idea for Dear Julia come from?

At the beginning, the germ looked very different. I heard a story on NPR about a woman that lived in the attic of her large house somewhere in the deep South. She lived alone, but was surrounded by mirrors and thought she had intruders. That led to something else, then I added another something and took away some other things, then I added a dash of this and that, and baked it, and voila. Various pieces came from various places. I have five sketchbooks (400 pages) *full* of bits and pieces. This is for a 96-page book, mind you.

How do you think the feel of the story has changed from when it was four separate issues to collecting the story in one book? Do you think you've lost anything in abandoning the element of suspense involved in waiting a month between issues?

Well first, i wish it was a month. It actualy was more like seven months between issues. But I'm glad you mentioned it. Not many people seemed to notice that I wrote the book with the cliffhanger in mind. I like to think that the book works in both ways. My first experience with waiting for a sequel or next part was, like most people my age, the three years between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, then Return of the Jedi. I loved the anticipation, I hated the wait. The book reads a little too quickly in one volume, but it is also easier to comprehend the turns it takes. We debated skipping the "chapter" separations altogether when it was collected, but I thought it really needed that break to retain any sense of the flow of the story.

I'm curious about where the intense detail in your work comes from. How much of a panel do you see in your mind before you draw it, and how much of the detail arises from that mental visual?

I know what I need to show in a panel before I begin, and I have notes for this. Like "Leo with pocketwatch and notepad." But the exact angle and composition work themselves out in the sketch process. With Dear Julia, I thought of a natural flow between panels. Like a film (of course). If I followed this action, where does the POV go? It's pretty organic.

Dear Julia is almost entirely told in four-panel pages. Was that a conscious decision you made early on, in terms of regulating the pace of the book to that speed? Or was it something that just evolved from beginning the book?

It was an evolution from my first book, which was drawn one panel per page. Frederick & Eloise was printed two per page. I had never drawn "normal" comics before and the decision process needed to make irregularly sized panels had not been developed in me yet. Of course, knowing this weakness, I attempted to turn it into a strength. I pulled away the gutters between the panels and made the whole thing claustrophobic. So both.

The art in Dear Julia is a big part of the story's power, but there's also some beautiful language, and ideas in the language. Which comes easier for you--the images or the prose that accompanies them?

Oh, the images are easier.

What do YOU think the story means? Does Boyd really fly?

Nice try. I don't answer that question. But I will say that if you really follow the clues scattered throughout the story, the answer to your question will become obvious and inevitable.

You've mentioned in interviews that you aren't as passionate about the comics medium as other creators. How did you find yourself writing and drawing comics, then?

Because I couldn't afford to film the story? In 1991 I was living in Paris on about $5 a day, sleeping on the floor of a friend. I had a little synopsis of a story that I wanted to film so I kinda storyboarded it. A friend in Paris, Carlos Kastro, who at the time was drawing the art for the adaptation of Night of the Living Dead, convinced me I should make it a comic. It wasn't until later, two years later, that I started to read comics other than RAW and Edward Gorey. Telling stories and drawing pictures is what I like to do. Comics, for me, is one way to do it.

Who are some of your big influences as an artist?

The big early ones are Gorey, Tardi, Moebius, Swarte and McKean. Now I squeeze out what I can from anyone and anything. As far as artists who I stand in awe of, I'd say Dave Cooper and David B right now.

Do you listen to music while you draw? If so, what bands/albums? Does it influence what you're doing?

None influence it really. I wish i could say that Jazz loosens me up, or Classical mellows me out, or whatever. But it doesn't work that way. I listen to too much NPR, and I always have a Tom Waits record on the mix. I also listen to a lot of electronic stuff. Cold and mathematical.

What are you working on right now?

I am writing a story that I hope one day to draw as a 200-page-plus comic. But before that happens, I'm writing and drawing a book for kids about elephants, illustrating a book of pseudo-religious themes (that's all I can say), and developing a bi-weekly strip for an online magazine. These jobs pay.

Finally, how's your son doing? His pictures on your website are adorable.

He's asleep in the next room. He's a funny little gnome. Nothing like a kid to remind you to smile because, after all is said and done, things are pretty good and elephants ARE funny.