Still, that's not what impresses me the most about her. What impresses me is how willingly she stepped in to save my butt when I got in touch to tell her how I'd inadvertently lost our first hour-long interview to the evil technology demons that live in my phone. Many other creators would've given me crap (and not without reason) for wasting their time, but Renee was more than willing to go back over the questions and, in short form, pull my sorry butt out of danger.
If you're familiar with Renee's work, you might wonder how such a nice and decent person can create such dark, unsettling images. Read on to learn more about a talented and fascinating artist, who's also really really nice and eats Triscuits when she works.
Shawna Ervin-Gore: Can you detail your comic history a little?
Renee French: My first comics project was a collaboration with Dennis Eichhorn called "Nice Guys Do Dance," which appeared in his comic book, Real Stuff published by Fantagraphics. Then I did my own three issue comic book series called, Grit Bath. I continued to work with Dennis Eichhorn, doing a cover illustration and several stories for his anthologies, Real Stuff and Real Smut, and I did a couple of stories, "After Cornelia's Bath" and "Pretzels the Cat" for Last Gasp the anthology. I have stories in DC/Paradox's Big Book of Death, Big Book of Freaks, and the upcoming Big Book of Bad, and in the Fantagraphics anthology Zero Zero, there are a couple of stories: "Duck" and "Cornelia in the Pen." Then the story that appeared in "Dark Horse Presents" in six parts was released as a one shot called "The Ninth Gland." I illustrated an eight-page chapter of The Adventures of Rheumy Peeper & Chunky Highlights, written by Penn Jillette, which will be appearing in the DHP 1997 Annual, and the most recent project is Corny's Fetish due out in April published by Dark Horse. I guess I've been at this for about six years.
SE: Are you able to make a living for yourself doing comics?
RF: Well, I make a living, a very modest living, drawing, but not only comics. I do illustration work as well for magazines and books, and I did work as a graphics person for a real estate firm until about two years ago.
SE: Are comics something you wanted to do and saw yourself doing for a long time?
RF: No. I didn't read comics when I was little, except for Mad Magazine. When I left college I had no idea how to sell my work, which was mostly tiny colored pencil drawings and meticulous pen & ink drawings. My drawings hung in some small galleries and the number of people who saw them was limited to the group of people who would walk into a place like that in that area of that city. Then I picked up some alternative comics and it hit me that it would be the perfect way to acquire a much broader audience. I just had to learn how to tell a story using a sequence of drawings rather than just one image.
SE: How would you describe your work if you had to? It strikes me as being something of a feminine David Lynch (?).
RF: I don't really like to describe my work. But, a feminine David Lynch, huh, well, thank you. Lynch's imagery really works for me. He knows what's scary.
SE: What are your influences -- or who's had an impact on your work?
RF: Maurice Sendak, Edward Gorey, Sir John Tenniel, Hieronymus Bosch, John Waters and this doll that used to sit in a rocking chair at my
grandmother's house.
SE: Dolls in rocking chairs are pretty scary. Okay, do you read other comics? Or what kind of media are you drawn to?
RF: I don't read many comics, but lately I've been reading Big Blown Baby by Bill Wray. He's a funny guy and I love the way he draws *@#%#@s. I read Fantagraphics' Zero Zero. I like Jim Woodring, Al Columbia, Chris Ware (but doesn't everyone?). I like movies a lot, "Night of the Hunter," "Cool Hand Luke," "Purple Noon," "Repulsion," "The Left Handed Gun," Disaster Films, Mike Leigh, David Lynch.
SE: What sorts of things are important to you when you're producing a comic? Personal freedom, the ability to say and draw whatever you want?
RF: It's very important to me that I be able to draw what I want. You really begin to appreciate the freedom you have with a company like Dark Horse when you do a little work for, say, DC comics and experience the "You're gonna have to move this guy's head down about a half an inch to give room for the sound effect," when you hand in your pencils for approval.
SE: What have some of your favorite experiences been in working in comics?
RF: Well, working with Bob Schreck* and Jamie Rich at Dark Horse has been great. The Ninth Gland was a lot of fun to do because of all the surgical drawings; doing this story with Penn (Rheumy Peepers & Chunky Highlights) is certainly one of my favorites, and Corny's Fetish was the most educational and emotional (for me) story I've ever done.
SE: Speaking of Corny, what can you tell us about his story?
RF: It's a story about obsession. I don't want to say too much about it because it should really be read without any knowledge of what will happen. Corny's a little gentle man who runs a chocolate shop and has an obsessive crush on the lady next-door. This book is a much sweeter story than I've done in the past, though it does have its moments of depravity.
SE: Who do you want to read your comics?
RF: I'd like adults to read my comics. Women and men. And dogs.
SE: What would you like to hear from someone who's read The Ninth Gland or Corny's Fetish?
RF: I'd like to hear that they got something out of it, it scared them, they were touched by it, they related to it or just that they enjoyed it.
[*Bob Schreck, by the way, left Dark Horse a while ago to start his own comics company, called Oni Press. Oni just released its first book, a none-too-shabby collection called Bad Boy, written by Frank Miller and illustrated by Simon Bisley, which originally ran as panels in a British men's magazine. Everyone here wishes Bob and Oni the best of luck.]