What initially drew you to comics?
Star Wars. I was seven when the film came out and it rocked my world. I'd had the pump primed some years earlier when my father's friend showed me a reel-to-reel of the Walt Disney cartoon Man in Space, but Star Wars is where the deep love of science-fiction and storytelling really crystalized, particularly visual storytelling. If we'd had an 8mm or 16mm camera around the house I might have gravitated to filmmaking much sooner but what we did have were pens and pencils and paper, and comics, which I would get from friends, or which my parents would bring home, including the Marvel Star Wars adaptation which I read again and again and again. I became a comics fan without realizing it, at a certain point they just became a regular part of the mix of stuff I was reading, my favorite part if I'm being honest, though I did like to read books as a child as well.
As I got older the love of visual storytelling continued, and a love of drawing manifested, and very early on I was telling people I wanted to be an artist when I grew up, though at that point I don't think I truly knew what that meant. There was never a point where I remember making the conscious decision I was going to be a cartoonist, it just seemed to always be the direction my life was going right from the start. Comics chose me more than I chose them I suppose. Then around 13 I discovered Frank Miller's Ronin as it was being published and reading that comic sealed the deal. That was the weirdest, most exciting, most confounding thing I'd ever read, I had no idea comics could do that and I had to dive as deep into the medium as I could. And I'm still diving.
2. What do comics allow you to do as a storyteller?
Any goddamn thing I want. The medium is limitless as far as I'm concerned. Comics can be spectacle, they can be philosophical, they can be near wordless and action-based, they can be talky and character-based, and every shade and variation between those poles. They can explore current events, they can explore history, they can be educational, they can be about nothing but escapism. There are no limits to the medium, the limitations are based entirely on what the cartoonist brings to his or her work. There is something about the medium that lends itself rather well to high sensation and pulp but that is by no means a hard and fast rule.
One thing comics aren't especially adept at is movement, simply because every frame in a comic is static, but the best action cartoonists can make you forget that you're looking at static images very easily. What comics allow me as an individual to do is to explore my personal demons in an undiluted fashion minus the aid of a team of collaborators as one needs in film or TV, the work lives or dies entirely by what I bring to the page and that is a very compelling and seductive way to work.
3. Please tell us more about King, Godhead, and any other work you'd like to share about.
King is a biography I did many years ago of Martin Luther King and the book that, no matter what I do from now until the day I croak I will always be best known for. If I were to shake hands with God and Satan tomorrow the first line of my obit would still read "the creator of the King OGN just bit the dust." It was an attempt to strip away the hagiography around the man and examine him as a human being first and an icon second. A lot has been said about the book over the years by myself and by others so honestly there's little point getting deeply into it here.
Godhead is my current project as a writer/artist, or rather it was, I finally wrapped the thing up a couple months ago after it being a going concern for literally 20 years; it comes out in December 2022 but I first had the idea in 2002 and it's been an absolute motherfucker getting it to the finish line. It's a science-fiction action-adventure about what happens when a corporation creates a machine that allows the user to talk to God, and, subsequently, when a group of commandos is tasked with destroying it. It's about corporate greed, the co-opting of religion for financial gain, the effects of warfare on those sent to fight, architecture, engineering, and sculpture, the growth of villages into cities, water lore, and the rise of artificial intelligence. I love the comic, so much so that I'm considering turning it into an ongoing series. I think I want to make it my Grendel, an umbrella in which I can tell various stories with various themes, but in this case with one central character.
4. Are there any storylines/ideas you'd like to tackle next?
Oh god, so many! I've got at least a year's worth of writing lined up, maybe two years, that include comics, screenplays, novellas, and possibly, though it's not locked in just yet, a multi-part podcast drama in the style of the old radio plays. And I have a million other ideas I'm just waiting to find the time to pull the trigger on. I'm doing thrillers, dramas, more sci-fi, and although I'm taking a break from drawing comics for at least a year I'm planning my next effort as a cartoonist to be a romance comic. I'm also working on a horror film. I'm hella excited about the stuff I've got coming up though I can't talk much about any of it just yet.
5. Where can we find more information about your work?
You could Google me I suppose, I'm sure you'll find an interview or three, or come across articles I've written or that others have written about me. I post pretty regularly on Instagram at hocheanderson69 where I talk about what I'm working on. You can find me on Facebook as well. If you want an HCA primer—though why anyone would want that I could not say—a good place to start would be the interview I did with Cartoonist Kayfabe a couple of years ago, that brought a bunch of new readers my way for which I am grateful. You can find that on YouTube, natch. I'm easy to find out about if you're so inclined.
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