| 
|
Ramsey Beyer
1. Who are you!? What zine/project/form of creative genius are you responsible for?
My name is Ramsey. I make a perzine called List that has been around for 15 issues. It's filled with Lists and silly drawings. I also make various comics which I put out in another zine called Everydaypants. I also just finished my first longterm comic project called Year One, which is all about my first year living in Philadelphia.
2. How does feminism relate to your work?
Feminism relates to my work because I'm a woman! Enough said. I write about being a strong, independent, free-thinking woman. I write about personal relationships, the punk scene, getting older, and generally navigating life. I also hear that being a woman comic artist is a cool thing because comics are a boys club and there needs to be more of us, but honestly I don't feel that much myself because I came into comics via so many rad lady-identified punk comic artists. Hopefully I can do the same for other women aspiring to be illustrators or comic artists.
3. Who are your feminist role models?
The best thing about DIY is that the people who inspire you are often the people you become friends with, so my role models are basically members of the community I surround myself with. In terms of comics, I started getting into comics by reading zines by Nicole Georges, and am always asking Liz Prince for advice about comics too, so maybe them.
4. Who or what has influenced your work, and in what ways?
Although I make comics, zines and punk have influenced my work the most. When people ask me which comic books I read, I mostly can only name ones that are actually zines or started out as zines. I'm not someone who grew up with super hero comics or anything like that so I feel outside of that world completely. I started reading zines like Snakepit by Ben Snakepit, diary comics by Jeffrey Brown, split zines by Nicole Georges and Clutch McBastard, and their really simple styles convinced me that I could give it a shot too. Each of them have pretty scratchy, loosely drawn styles which encouraged me that I didn't have to be amazing at drawing to tell a story through illustrations. It made the world of comics much more accessible and approachable than reading books by artists like Dan Clowes or Adrian Tomine, which are incredible but so polished you wouldn't think "I could do that!" while reading them. Of course, once trying it out on my own, I realized that although the artists I really like have a simple/scratchy style, that doesn't mean it's easy! The hardest part about drawing comics well is making it look effortless. All of the artists listed above, from the ones with simple styles to the ones that are intricately rendered, share that quality. The ones that influenced me most, though, were the ones that made me think I could get involved. A lot of that came from the fact that they were photocopied and stapled, rather than bound in a book.
5. Answer a question you've always wanted to be asked.
What is Rover's middle name? Herschel.
My name is Ramsey. I make a perzine called List that has been around for 15 issues. It's filled with Lists and silly drawings. I also make various comics which I put out in another zine called Everydaypants. I also just finished my first longterm comic project called Year One, which is all about my first year living in Philadelphia.
2. How does feminism relate to your work?
Feminism relates to my work because I'm a woman! Enough said. I write about being a strong, independent, free-thinking woman. I write about personal relationships, the punk scene, getting older, and generally navigating life. I also hear that being a woman comic artist is a cool thing because comics are a boys club and there needs to be more of us, but honestly I don't feel that much myself because I came into comics via so many rad lady-identified punk comic artists. Hopefully I can do the same for other women aspiring to be illustrators or comic artists.
3. Who are your feminist role models?
The best thing about DIY is that the people who inspire you are often the people you become friends with, so my role models are basically members of the community I surround myself with. In terms of comics, I started getting into comics by reading zines by Nicole Georges, and am always asking Liz Prince for advice about comics too, so maybe them.
4. Who or what has influenced your work, and in what ways?
Although I make comics, zines and punk have influenced my work the most. When people ask me which comic books I read, I mostly can only name ones that are actually zines or started out as zines. I'm not someone who grew up with super hero comics or anything like that so I feel outside of that world completely. I started reading zines like Snakepit by Ben Snakepit, diary comics by Jeffrey Brown, split zines by Nicole Georges and Clutch McBastard, and their really simple styles convinced me that I could give it a shot too. Each of them have pretty scratchy, loosely drawn styles which encouraged me that I didn't have to be amazing at drawing to tell a story through illustrations. It made the world of comics much more accessible and approachable than reading books by artists like Dan Clowes or Adrian Tomine, which are incredible but so polished you wouldn't think "I could do that!" while reading them. Of course, once trying it out on my own, I realized that although the artists I really like have a simple/scratchy style, that doesn't mean it's easy! The hardest part about drawing comics well is making it look effortless. All of the artists listed above, from the ones with simple styles to the ones that are intricately rendered, share that quality. The ones that influenced me most, though, were the ones that made me think I could get involved. A lot of that came from the fact that they were photocopied and stapled, rather than bound in a book.
5. Answer a question you've always wanted to be asked.
What is Rover's middle name? Herschel.
RSS Feed