mindpollution.org

It’s been a busy week for interviews here, with six conducted this week. I’ve posted the first of the interviews today on ComicMix, ye ol’ mecca for all things comics. Another interview will post on Monday, and it’s a big one.

Today’s interview is with Rene Engström, whose webcomic Anders Loves Maria has quickly become a favorite of mine. It’s chock full o’ endearing moments, relationship humor, Swedish slang and, well… sex. The interview was informative in quite a few ways, not the least of which is my education in how to create the letter “o” with an umlaut on a Windows keyboard.

Here’s an excerpt of the interview, and you can read the rest over at ComicMix:

In all honesty, I might never have encountered Rene Engström’s excellent webcomic Anders Loves Maria if it wasn’t for the following recommendation:

I didn’t think there’d ever be a good, heartfelt character development that took place while characters were naked & having teh buttsecks.

It felt necessary to include that quote, because now that I’ve spent some time with Anders Loves Maria, I realize that it really sums up one of the most impressive attributes of Engström’s daily strip about love, life and evolution of a human relationship. The Swedish-Canadian cartoonist’s ongoing tale of a late-20s couple on the threshold of a new chapter in life is filled with evidence of Engström’s knack for adding depth to her cast of characters at the most unexpected moments, and an ability to find the true emotional impact of any experience, no matter how intimate or mundane.

The process of interviewing Engström, who is based in Brunflo, Sweden, is also worth mentioning here. In order to create a more personal atmosphere, the cartoonist had a friend sit in and ask the questions I had sent her. I bring this up only because I believe it sheds some light on the creator’s approach to her work and, well, it’s just important to give credit where it’s due. So, my thanks go out to Rene Engström’s friend, whoever you are, for being my stand-in on the following interview.

COMICMIX: What are you up to today, Rene?

RENE ENGSTRÖM: Today I’m working on Anders Loves Maria, specifically for today. And I am eating vanilla yogurt with apple and cinnamon müsli. Besides Anders Loves Maria, I’m also working on some conceptual design for an animated film. That’s about it. Oh, and I’m also trying to get out t-shirt designs so I can make some money. I’m poor.

CMix: It’s very strange, as Anders Loves Maria has been popping up everywhere I’ve looked since I decided to do this interview. I’ve worked on other interviews recently and people keep mentioning things like, “If you haven’t discovered Anders Loves Maria yet, you should do so.” Can you tell me about the genesis of the strip?

RE: I started working on it because I was paid to do it! It’s the truth. A company wanted to hire a web cartoonist to attract readers to their Internet community that was targeting families. I spent some time, came up with plot lines, a story, characters… I presented it to them and they went for it.

I just started to sketch, really, I just started to draw. I knew I wanted to do a young couple, so I drew a young couple, in their mid- to late-20s, because that seems to be the age when people start wanting to have a family. I wanted it to be quite generic, and very Swedish, so I came up with some typical characters, with a few… eccentricities… so that young adults would recognise themselves in the characters. I drew them and I really fell in love with the look and feel for the characters. And the story started to form itself. I think within two weeks I had enough material for an entire year.

For the rest of my interview with Rene Engström of Anders Loves Maria, head over to ComicMix, fool!