🎙️ Jesse Lonergan, comics artist

Listens to music and podcasts; watches tv shows; and reads comics, manga, and books.

To start out, can you tell us a little about yourself and where people can follow your work?

I'm a comic book artist, and I work with writers as well as doing my own solo stuff. I think most people know me for a wordless comic called Hedra that came out from Image in 2020, but I've also done stuff in the Hellboy, Star Wars, and Ninja Turtles universes. My most recent project was a series called Man's Best with Pornsak Pichetshote from Boom Studios. This year my graphic novel Drome will be coming out from First Second imprint 23rd Street. I'm probably most active on instagram and Patreon, but there's a lot of stuff on my website, jesselonergan.com

You mentioned to me that you consume media in the "worst way possible," I'm curious if you might be willing to elaborate on that a bit before we get started?

I think for a creator the hope is that the audience is engaged and paying attention to what they are consuming, but then I often don't manage to be that kind of audience. A lot of the TV I watch is while I am working, and I'm hardly paying any attention to it. That also means that what I choose to watch isn't something that's actually good and demands attention because that would distract me from work, so I choose something I can check in and out of. But also, with a full day's work, you can fly through a show. Modern streaming shows with ten-episode seasons last about a day, and then I have to decide what to watch next. So I also want something with a volume of episodes. Procedurals are kind of perfect for that. Within the last couple years or so, I've probably watched all of Law and Order SVU (26 seasons!), Elementary, House, The Shield. Currently, I'm in Season 9 of CSI. Star Trek shows are also good in that way.

Then, when I'm not working, I have a three-year-old, who demands a lot of energy and time, so at the end of the day, I'm tired, and I don't want to engage with something challenging or thought-provoking. I just want to chill out. And also, my time is tight, and I really don't feel like I have the time to watch a movie in its entirety, so it'll end up being broken up into pieces. I've been watching After Hours on my phone while riding an exercise bike over the course of the last few days. I hardly think that's what Martin Scorcese hoped to have as an audience. At some point, I hope not too far in the future, I'll be able to sit down and engage with media in a more meaningful way, but at the moment, it's hard.

Given you work in comics, let's start there really quick

How do you discover new books and choose what to read next?

If I see a piece of something that looks interesting online, I'll see if I can hunt it down. I feel like with social media there's no shortage of new things being put in front of our faces. There are also publishers and distros like Silver Sprocket and Strangers Publishing that I'll browse. I stop in my local comic shop semi-regularly and pick up whatever catches my eye. If I'm at a convention, I'll walk around and check stuff out. It's not particularly organized and I have a huge to-be-read pile.

What format do you read in?

Occasionally digital, but generally I prefer to have something physical. I don't really keep up with single issues from mainstream comics anymore, but I'll pick up the random thing here or there. I'm more likely to get singles of indies though.

When you read comics, are you able to read like a normal fan of the medium or are you evaluating it in terms of how you might approach it or what you could learn from it?

I generally read comics pretty slowly, I think much slower than most readers do. And I kind of think I always have. I'll spend a lot of time just looking at it, I don't know if I'm evaluating it necessarily, but I kind of study the comics I look at.

Are there any recent books that made you sit back and take in the art more than normal?

I really liked Dear Mother & Other Stories by Bhanu Pratap from Strangers Publishing. There's this really beautiful balance between this delicate linework and these stark black areas that's impressive, and this willingness to go pretty abstract in the rendering. Really strong stuff. It was one of those books where I looked at it and wished I drew differently. I always kind of feel like I'm a clumsy artist, kind of heavy-handed, breaking nibs and snapping pencil leads, while Pratap's work has such a grace to it.

One of the things I love about your art is how you use grids and panels to bring energy and movement to the page—I'm curious if you take inspiration from sequences in film and television and if there are any shows or movies that have stuck with you over the years in that regard?

I think the grids and page layouts are graphically driven, so I think I draw more from other comics and graphic design than from film or TV. To me it's more interesting to make something that can only exist in comic-book form. What I will take from film or TV will be sequencing, this image, then this image, then this image, the editing really. The montage is my favorite part of any movie, and I think it always has been, and in college I took a film class and was introduced to the ideas behind Soviet Montage, particularly the Kuleshov effect, and I think that had a big influence on how I think about comics. I feel like there is this trust in a montage that if the creator puts image A together with image B without explanation, the audience will create the connection. That trust is something I rely on a lot.

Are there any specific montages from film or TV that have stuck with you?

It sounds all high-minded to talk about the Kuleshov effect, and then my example of one sticking with me is Rocky IV… kind of ridiculous, but that's the first one to spring to mind because it's all montage. It begins with a montage of Rocky III leading to Rocky's retirement, then there's some story and then the Drago/Creed fight where Creed is killed is all montage, then Rocky drives in the rain remembering his relationship with Creed, which turns into a montage of the first two movies… the whole movie is just a string of montages.

I recently rewatched the original Crow movie, and that really felt refreshingly different. Everything about the way it was put together felt like it was using the medium of film to move the story forward and give it an almost visceral quality. Alexander Proyas was the director and I think he came from music videos and I feel like those kinds of directors bring a really different (and to me, more interesting) energy to a movie. Highlander is another one of those. The sequence with the Kurgan driving left such a strong impression on me. So terrifying, but really, what you're seeing shot by shot, isn't that much, certainly not that gory or violent, but your mind puts the pieces together and creates and it becomes something else.

How do you listen to music?

I have iTunes and that's how I listen to most music, and again, it's generally when I'm working. I'll make playlists for each project I'm working on, which I'll be adding new songs to for however long I'm working on a project. I'll also dive into different little worlds. Everything is so easy to find now, so I'll look at who recorded at Fort Apache Studios in the 1980s, and listen to albums from those bands, Big Dipper, Volcano Suns, Dinosaur Jr. Or maybe it'll be bands connected to The Feelies… The Trypes, Yung Wu, Luna. I'll also do deep dives on artists sometimes, try and listen to all the Kinks albums or something like that.

My car is old, and there is a CD player in it, so I'll listen to CDs when I'm driving around. My CD collection consists of what was left at my parents' houses and they then dumped back on me at some point, so it's this weird mix of stuff that I didn't take with me when I moved out, and a lot of stuff from high school. Born to Run is in my car right now, which is one of the very first CDs I bought when I was thirteen or something. It was in a remainder sale at this department store called Rich's that I don't think exists anymore. It being one of the first CDs I owned, I listened to it a lot, and it's interesting to come back to it so much later. Thirteen-year-old me and forty-five-year-old me have very different ears.

I also hear a lot of children's music, specifically Pinkfong, and even more specifically Baby Shark, which my daughter loves. If you don't have a kid, you might think there is only one version of baby shark, but there are hundreds, the techno version, the disco version, baby sharkcito, the pop punk version (and they're all the same, they just flourishes of some genre added to them), and then there are other songs to the same tune, Baby Monkey Bana na na na, Baby T-Rex, Hakuna Matata (seriously, it goes Elephant Hakuna Matata, Flamingo hakuna matata to the tune of baby shark)… It's so horrible and crass. But we're starting to get her on to other stuff. It can be hit and miss what she'll take to. She really likes You Spin Me Round by Dead or Alive.

Lastly, are there any creatives that you'd consider yourself a superfan where you make sure to check out everything they put out?

I think maybe when I was younger. Wes Anderson was huge in my head, so was Chris Ware, Wilco, Daft Punk, but with time that's sort of faded. Now it's more like I'll find someone or something new to me and then get kind of obsessed with it for a bit. I think in terms of recent things I've found that excite me… I really liked Chris Gooch's In Utero, and I look forward to whatever he does next. I'd love to hear a new Wet Leg album. Amyl and the Sniffers seem to be on a pretty good run.

Any last words about your media consumption or the state of entertainment?

I think personally I should consume less and more actively engage with it when I do. I think about the way I would read comics in high school, where I'd really spend time with comics, read them again and again, and so there was so much more of an impact. It'd be nice to be able to get back to that.

Anyone you think has good taste we should interview next?

I don't know about anyone's taste, but Tony McMillen is a friend and he and I talk movies and music a lot.