Sifting through childhood memories, popular culture, otherworldly experiences, and comic’s seminal artists, Lane Milburn has developed a distinct literary and visual cosmology that navigates alien worlds, literature, and tomfoolery. The COMP Magazine visited Milburn’s Pilsen studio early this year to discuss Twelve Gems (Fantagraphics Books, 2014), his affinity with heavy metal, and his ongoing column with VICE Magazine.
Lane Milburn, from Death Trap (preview), 2009
Lets start with a little background. You make comics and music. You grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, studied in Maryland and now reside in Chicago. Were there specific experiences that you’ve encountered that assisted in defining your aesthetic practice and interests?
There have been multitudes of those experiences. Cartooning is my main practice and I see my development as a cartoonist as a long process of discovery and re-discovery.
I went into art school wanting to be a traditional figurative painter and then was introduced to an enormous slab of the cartooning canon all at once (Crumb, Clowes, Ware, Kirby, Moebius, David B, Tezuka, Otomo, Fort Thunder) through my wonderful friends.
Some of this material illuminated things from my childhood in a new way: Moebius’ influence on Star Wars, Mat Brinkman’s translation of video game idioms into comics, etc. I was able to see a vast web of pop-cultural relationships and influences emerging.
Now as an adult I read constantly and take in as much literature, film, and comics I can, so there’s a lot of material going into the compactor.
Lane Milburn, from Death Trap (preview), 2009
Identified as an action-comedy, Twelve Gems is certainly not your traditional mainstream genre piece. Can you share your process for developing the concepts and visuals for the book?
I had just finished my short graphic novel Death Trap when I began probing some ideas for a pulpy sci-fi story. Twelve Gems involved a dredging up of a lot of childhood influences (Star Wars, Final Fantasy), which were merged with more recent influences: the action storytelling of manga, the visceral inking of R. Crumb and Wolverton, etc.
There was a strange mix of thrill and shame in all this because I think I had partly internalized some version of the lame “Fine Art” contempt for “Pop”, and I found myself uncomfortable with the realization that things like Star Wars and Final Fantasy still had such a bearing on my tastes.
Some people have pointed out the references to Moby Dick in the book, and while I don’t take those references too seriously I am always trying to make the work as expansive as possible without dampening its impact or humor. Creating the right tone is a constant struggle, and trying to inject contemplative moments into a mostly comedic story is difficult. I’m not sure if I did enough to differentiate the slightly more serious moments (Dr. Z’s lonely ruminations, Dogstar’s dream sequence) from the overall silliness of Twelve Gems, or if that would even be necessary.
As far as the development of the story I’d say my idea was to set up the most cliché premise I could imagine and then have it slowly unravel from there. I made it up as I went along and I always joke that the art was so time-consuming that it allowed me plenty of time to decide what was going to come next. But that’s a truthful joke.
Lane Milburn, from Twelve Gems, 2014
You are also a musician and have a taste for heavy metal. What role does music play in your process?
I listen to records while I draw, I guess that’s the primary role! Vintage album and demo tape art is also of great interest to me. I think playing guitar is a wonderful supplement to cartooning because it provides an immediate thrill and release that the meticulous nature of cartooning doesn’t. Playing with other people is also important to me and it extends that thrill further.
What is one of the more unusual or oddest things you have tried to translate with pen to paper?
Well, I thought the alien sex doll in TG was one of the weirder concepts I’ve put to paper. I might be a bit of an All-American prude but I do get a bit anxious whenever I put anything sexual into my comics. That said, I will not be stopped by that anxiety!
Lane Milburn, from Twelve Gems, 2014
You are doing a weekly strip for Vice. Can you offer an overview to this project and the obstacles you run into working on a weekly deadline?
Envoy is another space opera on the surface, but I want to develop the female lead as much as possible, to a degree I haven’t yet with any character. I’m also exploring the themes of war and globalization, which were only barely prodded at in TG.
I feel like I’ve grown a lot as a comics writer by having to rely more on dialogue in the strip. I’ve been constantly looking at Love & Rockets (the cartooning Bible) during this project. I’ve had to learn to pack more into each installment and make things more dense, so the eventual Envoy book will probably be less airy than Twelve Gems. Less scene-setting and less action, more dialogue.
Working in color is also great and has allowed me to rely less on obsessive hatching when trying to create spatial depth.
The final installment of Envoy appeared on Vice last week. The strip will continue on tumblr soon.
Who are some of the other cartoonist you are seeing doing interesting work?
I actually don’t feel comfortable naming any “younger” cartoonists in this way because many of them are my peers and friends and I’m afraid of leaving people out.
What’s your plan for 2015? I assume you will be doing you will partake in CAKE (Chicago Alternative Komix Expo)? Do you have any additional plans?
I’m going to have a printed version of the story “Organized Grime” from my tumblr available at CAKE. My band Traducer is playing the CAKE after-party on June 6th!
To check out ongoing work by Lane Milburn, please visit:
Lane Milburn’s Spectral Worlds – http://spectralworlds.tumblr.com/
The Comics Journal Interview – http://www.tcj.com/lane-milburn/
Lane Milburn’s Twelve Gems – http://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Gems-Lane-Milburn/dp/1606997513
Lane Milburn’s Column for VICE Magazine – https://www.vice.com/tag/lane%20milburn
Lane Milburn, cartoonist and musician, Chicago, 2015
Interviewed and portrait by Chester Alamo-Costello
