Sara Varon

Winter 2016 Issue
Interview by Gavin Mackie

In this issue of INK Magazine we sat with SARA VARON, creator of award-winning graphic novels such as Robot Dreams and Bake Sale, to discuss the creative process and French comics. Sara also teaches a zine-making class at SVA.

How did you become interested in comics and illustration?

Umm, you know I had a job, like I actually didn’t read comics at all, and I had a job- and I was probably in my late twenties- for this guy who's a designer and he had this amazing library. It was huge, like a real library full of books. He had a collection of Ron Rege books. Do you guys know them?

Oh yeah.

Yeah, so he had this one, it must've been one of his first ones. So like I saw that and I thought- I had never seen comics that were interesting fo me - and I saw that and was like, “Whoa, that is so cool!” He had Ron Rege and I can't remember who else he had, but I remember that one specifically. Then I started looking at a publisher called Highwater, do you guys know that one? Probably not...

Uhh, I don’t think so.

Sara: Okay, before comics were mainstream, there were like little publishers and now the Highwater guy, Tom Devin, works at Drawn & Quarterly. But [Highwater's books] were really beautifully printed. So I think that was part of the appeal: they were all in spot colors and nicely printed. That made them more interesting to me than those superhero pamphlets.

Who were some of your influences growing up?

Umm, let's see... well the first comics that I, like read was Snoopy and the paper and stuff, but the first comic books that I read that were interesting were Craig Thompson's Goodbye Chunky Rice. I feel like that was totally eye opening. And then Brian Ralph and Julie Doucet, those were really the first ones — where I really connected to them. But I would not say that I now; I have different tastes, but that for me was my entrance into comics.

Who influences you right now?

Sara: You know, who I really like is Anouk Ricard. Do you guys know Anouk Ricard? She's French and Drawn & Quarterly publishes her in English and she does these like kids books that are like 32 page picture books that are comics. I like a lot of French [artists]; French people make the best comics.

[shows book] So I got it in French, and it’s a picture book. It's about a frog and a girl and a dog and a worm and they're all friends. And they do really mean things to each other, like really mean and funny. I got it in French and I didn’t get the jokes cause my French isn't that good, but then I got it in English once Drawn and Quarterly started publishing them in English. I really like her. Joann Sfar, everybody likes Joann Sfar. I really like the Aya books (Marguerite Abouet & Clément Oubrerie). Do you guys know the Aya books? It's about this girl and she lives on the Ivory Coast when like the Ivory Coast, or the capital, was the Paris of West Africa.

The drawings are super beautiful and they're just really evocative of the place. They do a children’s book too which is called Akissi, which was put out by Flying Eye. I don’t know if you've seen that but it's funny. I really like stories that are different; like Americans have put so many restrictions on children’s books, like what you can and can't do. There's this other book put out by Flying Eye about these kids, and one of them gets worms and they pull the worms out of their butt. And one of the kids pulls a worm out of the sister's butt and she runs around chasing her brother with it cause he's always picking on her. I love it because that's so un-American, like you could never get away with that here.

What is the most important thing you took away from your educational experience, related to your art?

If you're trying to sell your stuff, you should be making what you want to make. One of the things [I learned from school] was that you shouldn't be drawing stuff that you think people want to see if you don't like doing it because then they're going to hire you and like, if you hate doing portraits but someone says “oh but portraits sell, you should do portraits” then you're going to get work doing stuff you don't like; and you gotta like what you do. I think it shows in your work.

What's the hardest part of starting your career as an artist and what advice would you give your past self?

It's really slow, unfortunately. I think, you know, hang in there, and keep trying to do what you want to do. When I first graduated- and New York was a different place- I just did not want a forty hour a week, Monday through Friday job. I felt that was really important not to do that. Cause it totally sucks your... soul?

All of your creative energies!

It really does! And then you get home and you just don't really have time [for art]. I didn't work that long at a 9-5 job but I felt like it was sort of soul crushing... but I had a bunch of part time jobs and I was able to make ends meet. But I think now things are different, it's so expensive. I don't know if that's good advice anymore: not in New York City anyways.

I mean I feel like the patience thing is really important too. I often feel really impatient with myself about Why aren't I making money yet!” and it's like, “shh, calm down!"

It's so slow, really slow! Yeah; and I think it's pretty unrealistic To expect- I don't know what many people who just do art. Like a lot of people have little jobs, a part time job or teaching, I mean some people are just illustrators, but I think that's the minority. And I think that's fine, you know? That doesn't mean you're not a success just because you're not an artist.

What do you do to stay inspired?

New York is a great place. As annoying as New York is, it's a super great place to live cause there is just so much to see and do and I feel like it's just really important to get out. I was so shy when I was probably your age, and I didn't really get out that much- and I lived in Chicago where it was really easy to stay in your place- But in New York there's just so much going on and everybody's on top of each other. So I just feel like getting out and seeing things and living your life is the most inspiring thing. And traveling, doing stuff and meeting people!

I think we're on the last question: what are you working on right now and what do you hope to do in the future with your art?

I just started a book that I spent, uh .. maybe it was like, four years, and I spent a year and a half doing final art, so it definitely was more work than I ever spent on anything. And you know, you turn it in and then you do the cover and end papers and the title pages and stuff so I'm in between those two things. So it's 200 pages and it's about a donkey that lives in a tropical village; inspired by my travels to Guyana. I [also] have some contracts lined up, I started a picture book about a gardening turtle. And I'm illustrating a story about a sea- faring monkey; it's maybe about 100 pages.

We can't wait to see these new projects. Check out more of Sara Varon's work at chickenopolis.com,

INK would like to thank Sara Varon for taking the time to be interviewed!

psst! check out the Winter 2016 Issue to see this interview in print…