Broken Frontier

Mawil, a strange name in a stranger land: German alt comics. He was introduced to American audiences through his Top Shelf publication Beach Safari, but firmly cemented his name on the english language scene with his second book We can still be friends, published by UK resident Blank Slate. From funny animals,  We can still be friends to the trouble with girls and publishers, Mawil bears it all in this Crossing Borders interview.

BROKEN FRONTIER: How did you get started doing comics? What attracted you to this form of expression?

MAWIL: As a child I stayed at home a lot. I didn't have many friends around my block because I went to a special school further away. I just drew a lot and imagined my own stories (like all kids do, I guess). The first comic I made was when I was 8 years old. It felt great, it was just the best thing for me, drawing and telling stories in one medium.
We didn't have comics in the GDR, the former East Germany, except a really good historical adventure magazine called mosaik (the only one without propaganda) and some stuff from West Germany, like Mickey Mouse and some Asterix.

BF: For We can still be friends, you went to UK publisher Blank Slate while your first english language book Beach Safari was published by Top Shelf. What precipitated this move of publisher?

M: When I made my first longer book ( Beach Safari), I made some French and English copies with the help of friends and went to Angoulême, the biggest comics festival in Europe, which takes place in France. There I was introduced to Chris Staros or Brett Warnock (I don't remember) from Top Shelf. They liked the book instantly and made the publishing process in English almost faster than my publishing contacts in Germany.

When I made my second book ( We can still be friends) one year later I also wanted to give it to them, completely translated and lettered in English. But by that time Blankets by Craig Thompson was published by Top Shelf - I was so impressed by this book (which also had a similar subject) that I didnt show my book to Chris and Brett for a long time. And later, when a copy of We can still be friends finally reached them, they didn't want to make it. I don't know if that was because of their business problems they had during that particular time or because they found the content to be too similar to Blankets . It's difficult to communicate with your publisher if your only contact is the internet. Luckily, later, I met Isobell Rips from then newly founded Blank Slate at the bookfair in Frankfurt and that's how they became my new English language publisher.  

BF: The graphic novel deals with a prepubescent protagonist and his troubles with girls during various stages of his life. How autobiographical is the book? Were you trying to figure something out for yourself with the book?

M: We can still be friends is 100 percent autobiographic. My first German publisher, Rochus Hahn, who made Beach Safari in German, said that I'm hiding myself behind this bunny-character (somehow he was right, as Beach Safari also deals with the problems with girls) and he wanted me to do something more personally -- "Let your pants down" he said. When I for example drew the third chapter with the scene in the tent [note: Mawil talks about a scene where the intent of intimacy never reaches his climax because he didn't dare cross an emotional line] , I really had to get over the events before I could put it down on paper. I never talked about it before. It was really awkward for me, but now, later, it's just a funny scene in a comic book.

I don't want to draw only autobiographic stories though, which is why I still also use the bunny-character for the more funny or fantastic topics. Of course, it's much easier to deal with the emotions and the requests of the characters in autobio comics.  

BF: I know that for me, music like Nirvana and Portishead is forever etched into my mind and formed a big part of my pre-adult life. The atmosphere in We can still be friends breathes Nineties. Do you still consciously carry a torch for your youth?

M: Yes. I often have the feeling that I have to catch up something because I started so late with my youth like I told you already.

BF: If there is a message in the book, it's that you should take your chances where they lie but if you don't, at least you can learn from your mistakes. Does this relate to a personal philosphy? Are you an optimist in daily life?

M:Yes.

BF: You live in Berlin, Germany for the moment. Berlin has the reputation of being a city very much in tune with the arts. Does living there help your creativity?

M: I am very lucky to be born right at the center of Berlin. It was the perfect timing: as a child growing up in a small old-fashioned social(istic) country and in a time when this small world would have been much too tight for a teenager, the wall came down and all the crazy and creative and new stuff happened directly in front of my door. Art school also had a big effect on me; meeting a lot of people, learning to know other kind of comics and to have the possibility AND the duty to work on a semester-project... it was perfect to make a first full-length comicbook. These days though, Berlin is changing to a typical global tourist place.

BF: You have a very fluid drawing line. It seems to chuck away a lot of lessons learned at art school and it is not a typical style that people perceive as beautiful like Moebius for instance. How did you come to this style of drawing?

M: As a youngster I was a big fan of Franquin  (and I still am). Later, especially at art school, you meet people and discover drawings whereby you think: "Can't they draw better or don't they want to draw better? Is this art?". Then you recognize that it's not always about the beauty of a drawing, it's also about the expression of a drawing. Every artist's style is a mixture of 100 role models the artist idolizes.

For the moment I'm drawing with a pencil, direct and without any sketching beforehand. This means that I often go through a lot of try-outs or corrections, but in the end I get the most direct line.  

BF: There are a lot of stylish layouts and playing with the form in the graphic novel. Do you make all those funky panel layouts from the gut in order or do you sketch around the whole day and trying to figure out the panel layouts?

M: I don't think there are so many layouts in We can still be friends. I think there are a lot more stylish layouts in other comics. The 9-panel-grid was a nice graphic gimmick, I thought. I approach the layout through storyboards. I make them for all the scenes in a book and then I just calculate how many panels I need for a double-pager and I figure out how to     arrange them.

BF: The different ways you use your panel shapes are also quite inventive and make distinctions between different emotions and narratives. Did you develop this consciously?

M: I think it comes down to maybe some kind of instict, cultivated by reading a lot of other comics. You just have a story in your head and then you imagine how you would like to see this in a Hollywood movie or how it would look in a French comic.

BF: Your comics are all very grounded: they're always inhabited by real people - even if it is a talking bunny - and set in a realistic world. Does this real-world setting have your preference? What are your feelings toward a science fiction or fantasy setting?

M: I like real-world-settings. There are also nice science fiction or fantasy stories, but they are more like fairy tales. I feel that you just can't take the destinies of characters in such stories seriously.

BF: Who are some of your artistic influences?

M: A lot of French guys. Christophe Blain with Isaac the Pirate for example and Riad Sattouf, but there is a lot more great material published in France. Unfortunately I don't speak the language, so I'm addicted to translations. My all-time favorite is I never liked you by Chester Brown from Canada. Brian Lee O'Malley also makes a great funny manga/indie mix with Scott Pilgrim.  

BF: After seeing Nirvana and Portishead pop up in We can still be friends, I was wondering what music you listen to nowadays...

M: I mostly listen to all kinds of beat music from the sixties. They just put a lot of effort in songwriting and arrangement.  

BF: Do you have any more future plans for the English language market?

There are three more books that I created over the last few years waiting to be translated, but of course I really have to start with a new book, not only for the English market. [note: during this interview Blank Slate Books has released Sparky O'Hare.]

BF: And last of all, what has life in comics taught you?

M: Hmm, I don't really know. To laugh about it?

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Check out  Mawil's online home  for any news concerning his upcoming books and while you're there, browse through the comix and illustration sections for more examples of Mawil's work.