STAPLE! The Independent Media Expo 2006

Paige Braddock Quick Questions

STAPLE!: What ways do you find your life influences your work?

Paige Braddock: I pull a lot of inspiration for my stories from real life… Of course, I change names, locations and details, but what I keep are the things that motivate people in subtle ways to get into relationships, get out of them and screw up their jobs… Well, some of those details have to be inspired by your own life experience because integrating a certain amount of “reality” makes the stories and characters seem more authentic.

STAPLE!: To what extent do you use digital tools in your art?

Paige Braddock: I use a digital camera for location reference, a scanner once the art is finished and then photoshop to do any color or gray scale work. As for the ink drawings themselves, I’m old school all the way… Quill pen and a bottle of ink.

STAPLE!: What new artists or works (whether in comics or otherwise) excite you?

Paige Braddock: The first thing that has really struck me in a long time was the series “New Frontier” that Darwyn Cooke worked on. What really appealed to me was how he broke each page into 3 horizontal panels… Which gave each panel a very cinematic feel. That approach has inspired me to pay more attention to “framing” and cinematography in my own work… And it makes me want to get better at it!

I also recently discovered I like zombies… Who knew?! I watched (by accident) “Shaun of the Dead” and laughed my ass off… Discovering that zombies could be funny inspired me to pick up “Goon” in the past few months, which I also think is quite good. I know “Goon” isn’t new… But it was new to me, I need to get out more.

STAPLE!: Have you got a good convention or show story you can tell us?

Paige Braddock: Last year at comic con I knew that Joss Whedon had been around signing comic spin offs of his new movie… Being a huge “Buffy” fan I’d really wanted to meet him but I could never get a chance to break away from my “Jane’s World” booth when he was on the floor signing… Then… As luck would have it… Almost in the last hour of the con I looked over and there was this guy standing across the aisle wearing a translucent lavender backpack. I could only see him from behind, but who else would be wearing that backpack (it was a prop from one of the shows) I knew it had to be him!… So I went over and got him to sign a comic for me and gave him a copy of “Jane’s World.” I think he was most impressed that I recognized him solely based on his lavender back pack. I was also impressed… I mean, not just any guy could pull off an accessory like that.

About Paige Braddock

STAPLE! has extended invites to a variety of creators to answer a series of quick questions about working in comics, and we’ll be updating these questions as the responses come in, so check back often! The questions are four standard questions asked to each participant, and then a fifth question posed to the creator by the previous interviewee.

Our first interviewee is Paige Braddock, creator of the daily syndicated comic strip Jane’s World, which is also published in comic book and graphic novel format. Paige will also be attending STAPLE! for the first time in 2006. Since Paige is our first subject, she doesn’t have a fifth question, just the basic four.

Read more at paigebraddock.com