what is your name?
Brandon Graham
how would you describe what you do?
I write and draw comic books.
I did a book called King city about a professional thief who uses a cat as a weapon.
And wrote a far future science fiction reworking on the 90’s superhero character Prophet.
what are you currently working on?
I’m currently on the 4th book of a post humanity – science fiction series called MOONRAY.
The Moonray video game company hired me and my friend Xurxo G Penalta to do a comics about to flesh out the game’s lore.
I’ve also been working on a book about a woman from a society of Frankenstein’s monster- Simulacrums
That grow their own body parts and exchange them. That one is called Homunculus Dynasty.
what has had the greatest influence on your work?
I was really lucky to be exposed to a lot of small press and underground comics When I was a kid.- Stuff like Vaughn Bode and Matt Howarth work- along with European books (Tintin and Moebius) and Japanese manga- (Dr Slump and Appleseed).
I feel like my work has been a mix of trying to make sense of my own life while trying to capture how vast and strange work that inspired me was.
what is the greatest misconception about you or your work?
I try not to spend much time on that stuff- but being any kind of public person is really weird in 2024.
I’ve seen people say with certainly that I was born in a country that I’ve never been to or that I’m trust fund wealthy when I grew up in public housing has been a good lesson to not take what I read online about anyone too seriously.
what do you see as the main strengths and weaknesses of the medium you work in?
Something I love about making comics is that it feels like an untapped medium. There’s so much that can be done in combining words and pictures to tell stories- And I love the ways you can train readers how to read a work and put your own accent on it.
It’s not the fault of the medium, but I think the general perception of comics isn’t great.
how has technology impacted upon the work you do?
When I started I was still mailing all of my original art to the publishers , these days scanning my own work and coloring it on the computer has certainly helped me control how it all looks in print.
what’s the greatest piece of advice you would like to pass on?
It’s helped me to not take advice from anyone who isn’t making work that I admire.
where can we find you online?
I’ve got a newsletter with my partner Kacy Jones- here
https://royalsalon.substack.com
And an Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/royalbrandon
And Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/royalboiler
what are you reading at the moment?
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and some Asterix books
what are you listening to at the moment?
Today I was listening to the 2001 Tricky album Blowback.
anything else we should know?
I’ve got a new collection of my diary comics out very soon called Surviving on Mars.
It’s deals with navigating depression and life as a comic artist, living in Las Vegas among porn performers.
https://www.livingthelinebooks.com
any suggestions for who we should interview next?
Mahdi Khene is a NYC comic artist/publisher who’s doing a lot of very fun indy work.
and
Vince Vertical, who does the Krime guys comic about graffiti writers.