Lonnie Allen

Lonnie Allen has lived in South Korea, Okinawa, California, Alaska, Utah, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado but never at the same time. He attended the University of Denver to study Fine Arts, which he now has no use for whatsoever. His father is American, his mother Thai, his wife and son are Venezuelan, so he's hoping to become a poster boy for multiculturalism. He's been part of a Denver comic co-op, Squid Works, for almost five years now. He has self-published short stories and has been included in some comic anthologies since then. His latest book is BOXER which collects three of his comic short stories. He currently lives in Colorado.

Please visit the artists Web site: www.dadagraphics.com

How did you get involved with creating comics and how long have you been doing them?

LA: The first completed comic I remember doing was in third grade in Amarillo, Texas. It was about, oddly enough, war. I drew a bunch of army guys coming in and attacking the bad guys. In the end, the army wins and the people celebrate. I'm not making this up. I presented it for show-and-tell in my class. I remember one or two kids really liking it, the rest were nonplused by it. I've made comics ever since and I still feel this way.

How did you get involved with SPX?

LA: It's pretty basic. I submitted for it twice before, and this year I made it in.

SPX 2004 focused on the topic of war: Tell us about your comic.

LA: This last year, I've been thinking a lot about what comics are. T. Motley (another member of Squid Works) and I were talking about things that are unique to comics, in other words, not just films on paper. My first attempt at making something that would only work in comics was Tell Tale Signs in which I used street signs to tell a comic story. People responded really well to it. The next idea I had was using something that resembled the instruction book format. When I see those books, they look so beautiful: concise and impersonal. Whenever I watched the news coverage of the war, they presented it so impersonally.

After seeing the theme to this year's book, I thought a satirical instruction manual would be perfect. We were given a product by the corporations involved (Halliburton and others), and paid for it with taxes, but we never received an instruction manual! A lot of people think the drawings were clip art because of Tell Tale Signs, but I actually drew all of those. It was quite a challenge since normally, my drawings employ brushwork and line sensitivity. This story is probably the closest I've come to being didactic because the current events in the world just disturb me too much to avoid some type of commentary. I just hope I'm not preaching to the choir.

What's your opinion of the US/coalition forces' military presence in Iraq?

LA: Oh boy! I'll just say that I was listening to NPR and somebody was saying on the President's behalf that we've stopped a terrorist breeding ground in Iraq and that we stopped weapons of mass destruction from being released unto the world. This was just last week! I thought to myself, "I guess you can just plain lie to the public and it's o.k."

Is there such a thing as a just war?

LA: No, I don't think the word just and war fit together at all. When people say so-and-so war was just, what they really mean is necessary. War is always about necessity. A group of people needs protection, money, land, power, or religious conversion. So then whoever's war becomes necessary, but never just. When is murder just?

Where else has your work appeared?

LA: I've had some short stories published in the Potlatch anthologies 1 & 2. I've also been included in the now defunct Pablo's Comic Extravaganza that was put out by Squid Works. I've contributed to the underground comic strip; "Hector" which have appeared in The Event out of Utah. I painted some mural panels for a comic book exhibit at the Mizel Art Center, called "No Joke" and displayed comic art for a coinciding show "No Yokel" this past year. I participated in the local 24-Hour Comic's challenge which Jeff Powers documented as a fumetti and appears in the 24-Hour Comics Day: Highlights 2004 anthology. I have two mini-comics that were self-published, Tell Tale Signs and The Cheerleader and Other Stories.

What are you currently working on?

LA: I currently have two stories written up: one called, "Crazy Asian Girl" that will be drawn by John Peters of Forty Winks fame, I'm hoping it will become a regular series, and another is a short story that will be drawn by local artist Paul Niemiec. I'm excited to be working with both of these great artists. As far as my own drawn stuff, I'll be collecting them into a regular series called Boxer.

What was your earliest exposure to comics?

LA: I was in 7-eleven when I was about six years old and saw a Daredevil comic. It was the one drawn by David Mazzucchelli and written by Harlan Ellison although I could care less about that at the time. I loved that comic. It became so worn-out from me tracing over the pages. After that, I was hooked. I would always bug my dad to buy me comics. We moved and for a little while, I couldn't get comics where I lived and I was sad about that. I finally found Mad Magazine, Hot Rod, and Conan comic magazines in the supermarket and read those off the shelf. When we moved again to Clovis, New Mexico, my friend introduced me to the world of comic specialty stores, after that I always bugged my dad to visit a local comic specialty store when we were visiting in a new town. Sorry dad.

What inspires you to work in comics?

LA: All the people at Squid Works inspire me to put out good work. This year, moreover, I met Will Eisner at the comic exhibit that I mentioned earlier. He told me about his humble beginnings and his love of comics. I was impressed at how articulate and keen Eisner was. I told him I self-publish, and he said that that's the way to go. I think it's been an exciting time to work in comics. There are so many more artistically ambitious works than ever and many of them seem to be getting the respect they deserve. There's even somewhat of a backlash now. Also, there's so many self-published art-comics out, I can't even keep track anymore. I always see some sample work of an unknown artist and their talent blows me away. I definitely want to be a part of this great movement in the comics' medium.

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