Becky Cloonan isn't one to stand still. A comics ronin, wandering both literally and figuratively through the comics landscape of America. Well traveled but with no current home, she has one foot in manga with East Coast Rising, one foot in mainstream American comics with American Virgin, one hand in the in the literary area with Bram Stoker's Dracula, and her other hand firmly planted in minicomics with this year's Nebuli.

But where's her head at? It's time we found out in this no-holds-barred interview with the prolific cartoonists about her work.

This interview was conducted with Cloonan by email during in August 2006.  

Chris Arrant: According to your biography, you were born in Italy. How long did you live there, and what do you think of Italy now?  

Becky Cloonan: Well I wasn't there long enough to remember anything, and I haven't been there since, but I do have plans to visit in the not-too-distant future.

Arrant: What's a typical day like for you?  

Cloonan: I travel a lot, so my living environment is constantly changing as well as my daily rituals and habits. The only two constants in my life are coffee and comics.  

Arrant:  Coffee and comics. How do you like your coffee?

Cloonan:  If I'm out I'll usually order mocha, whole milk, no whipped cream. When I'm at home I'm a cream and sugar kinda girl :D Actually Vasilis makes the best coffee. When we're together he makes me coffee every morning!! Now tell me, aren't I the most lucky girl in the whole world?  

Arrant: Your taste in comics is all over the place (not that it shouldn't be). You've listed manga, indie comics, superhero comics, and even some newspaper strips in your frequent reading list. Can you tell us what you're really enjoying right now?

Cloonan: On my recent comic trips I pick up Civil War and some related titles like Frontline. I also read Runaways but I don't know if I'll keep reading now that the best character is dead!!! My favorite comic right now is BPRD with the incredible Guy Davis on art; it's just one of the most brilliant comics I've ever read.  I also picked up Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba's De: Tales, which features some amazing exercises in the short story, Fabio's storytelling is nothing short of beautiful.

Arrant:  One thing I've noticed about you in interviews is your camaraderie with others in the comic industry. While preparing for this interview, you mentioned a post-San Diego Comicon weeklong slumber party. Can you tell us about that?

Cloonan: It was more of a Post Comic Con Sweatshop! This massive heat wave hit while we were trying to get our work done ha ha! Vasilis Lolos (www.vasilislolos.com) and I had stayed a week with Amy Kim Ganter (www.felaxx.com) and Kazu Kibuishi (www.boltcity.com) in LA, and we were lucky that Kean Soo (www.keaner.net) was also staying the week! So we had a good time, we all drew a lot and watched Yanni: Live at the Acropolis. I really enjoy the time I spent in LA, Amy was a good friend of mine in NYC and I love hanging out with her! We don't do it much since we're on opposite coasts, but that just makes my time with her even more awesome.

Arrant:  How did you and Amy initially meet?  

Cloonan: I guess we met during college; we both attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. We were different majors though, she was cartooning and I was animation. She'd come to the animation department to work and was friends with some of my friends from the class, but it wasn't until we graduated that I really got to know her. She's one of the most inspiring people I know! 

Arrant:  You're spending the summer roaming the countrysides, as it were. Why'd you decide to do this, and how will this impact your comics work?

Cloonan: It's kind of a long story, but the short of it is that my lease was up at my last apartment and I had too many places to go and not enough time to find a new place to live. As it were, I've become a temporary nomad...  

Arrant:  Do you have any plans where you'll end up after your nomad period?

Cloonan: Right now I'm looking at New York. I spent a while in Queens during and after college, but this time I'm looking in Brooklyn. Of course after the last five years that I've had, I'd say anything is possible!  

Arrant: Looking back at what you've done so far, and DEMO really sticks out as a turning point for you; especially with the format. 12 self-contained stories, each in a different style. How did that artistic exercise affect the way you do more long-form comics work now with American Virgin and East Coast Rising?

 Cloonan: In between Demo and East Coast Rising I had illustrated an adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula for Penguin Books. That turned out to be 140 pages or so, and it was my first exercise in long term consistency. This helped me most notably with East Coast Rising, where I was pressed to keep consistency over a long span of pages. American Virgin is a little different, like Demo it's a monthly series which I approach much differently than East Coast Rising. The biggest difference is that I work off a script for American Virgin. Before Demo the majority of my work was more experimental minicomics, so I thought that I'd try and bring the most accessible aspects of what I learned doing those to Demo.

 Arrant: You have a long history of doing minicomics before you ended up doing "published" comics work. I remember a great series of one-pagers called Social Unrest. Do you have any plans to make those available again?

 Cloonan: I'm not much of a fan of going back to my old work; I prefer to keep making new books rather then rehashing my old stuff. At the moment all of my old pages are in storage anyway, but perhaps some day I'll release a "best of" book featuring the older comics that I'm most proud of. I actually just made a new mini comic with my boyfriend Vasilis Lolos called Nebuli. I still love making minis.

 Arrant: What is it about making minis you love?

Cloonan: There's something very satisfying about it. Maybe some of it is nostalgia for my time making them before; it was a huge part of my life. I think I can compare it best to growing your own vegetables! Ones you get from the store taste good, but when you pick them from your own garden there's a huge sense of reward.

Handing someone a comic that I had published is a different feeling from handing somebody a mini comic and being like "I made this. I was responsible for every step, from paper selection to layout and design, it's all mine 100%!"  Now that may be the control-freak in me speaking, but regardless it all comes from the heart and that's what makes mini comics so beautiful. Comics are a beautiful thing!!

Arrant: You've also done a number of great band posters, you can check it out here. How do you come up with the imagery for these bands and their work, and can you tell us where you're coming from and what you're trying to accomplish with your band flyer design?

Cloonan: I do all of my band work for free because it's much more of an enjoyable hobby. Most of the time they will just give me the bands playing and all of the information and dimensions, and then I'll just go at it. Most of the time I get to draw whatever I want, and it's always a challenge to get all of the information across clearly and graphically interesting.

Arrant: You've said before you started messing around with comics around the age of thirteen. Can you briefly rundown how your drawing progressed, and any benchmarks along the way?

 Cloonan: Briefly? Hah that's funny. I remember hitting a turning point in 1998 when I started watching old expressionist films and reading some art theory, and then kind of dissecting my own comic experience. Although I'd been drawing for a while, I'd never finished a story. So I decided the best way to remedy this problem was to start drawing short stories: thus started my adventure in minicomics. I started with 1, 5 and 10 page stories, all trying to challenge the way I approached and perceived the whole comic process. That was probably the biggest turning point in my comic career, and I think it really pushed me from seeing comics as a geeky thing to seeing it as an art form and communication medium.

Arrant: And what's the oldest piece of artwork of yours that you still have?

 Cloonan: I found this "boke" (pronounced: book) in my mom's basement that I must have made when I was 6 or 7. It's full of drawings of "the creature from the black lagoon" and dinosaurs and unicorns, and descriptions like "the spathip is big" and "the wice is scare." It's fairly abstract and funny, but it's curious that I still have the same interests now as I did when I was that age.

Arrant: Looking at your work, it seems primed for some tattoos. Have you had anyone take your artwork as tattoos?

Cloonan: Several people have gotten my art inked, and it's always one of the most flattering feelings that somebody likes my art enough to get it permanently on their body.

Arrant: And do you have any tattoos of your own? If so, did you draw them yourself?

Cloonan: I have a few. I have one that I designed myself, but it's based on a fossil so I didn't actually "draw" it, I just traced what billions of years had created.  

Arrant: Tell us about the best place you've ever eaten, and why.  

Cloonan: Oh that's a tough one. There's a great Chinese restaurant on Mott Street in New York called the New Green Bo (I think), they had the best steamed tiny buns I've ever eaten. But seriously, my mom is the best cook.

Arrant: Why comics? Why not carry on your animation work from Super Troopers, or go into something else. What brings you here, and keeps you here?

Cloonan: I've always felt that comics are the most efficient visual storytelling medium.  You only need one person to make a comic, and it takes much less time and money then animation or film. It's also the most fun, and some of the greatest people in the world are cartoonists! I've met so many witty, talented, creative and humble people during my years in the industry. Comics are the best.

Arrant: You've been to quite a few signings, and quite a few conventions. In broad strokes, can you tell us the kind of people who are reading your work?

Cloonan: I can tell you that my fans can beat up your fans!! Ha ha, seriously though, all the people who like my work are great, I'm not just saying that! I've become really good friends with a lot of people who I met at conventions.

Arrant: What are you doing when you're not doing comics? Creatively, like in terms of projects or just fun.

Cloonan: I like to read, I just finished this book called "The Alienist," which I loved until the end when it ended, ha ha! I'm going to be starting "Death in Venice" soon.  I also love antique shopping. Not that I buy much because I don't have a place to put it, but browsing is a lot of fun.  Earlier this year Vasilis and I took a trip to Providence, RI to look up Lovecraft manuscripts, and along the way we thought of a brilliant story idea. Nothing like a quest to get those drawing juices flowing!  I also love discussing the future of the comic industry, where it's headed and what our role will be in it.  

Arrant: Going with your nomadic tendencies, you probably have to pack tight. What are the books, movies, entertainment things that you keep and never want to lose?

Cloonan: When I travel I keep a book or two on me, a lot of paper and drawing supplies, clothes, iPod, Nintendo DS and some notebooks and my computer. All of this fits in two bags and a suitcase for clothes. My "permanent" collection includes an assortment of paintings and lithographs, several classic literature, reference and comic books, a few DVDs including Nosferatu, Jaws and a Ray Harryhousen collection, and a pair of lamps which were my grandmother's from Italy.

Arrant: Going with the music and comics metaphor. Say you want to do a music style comics tour, cross country; you and some cartoonists in an RV for two solid weeks. You've got six slots; who would you pick, and why?

Cloonan: Now is this my dream team RV? Haha, well to make sure we'll all get along I'll have to go with people that I know personally, since we're going to be spending a lot of time together! My first choice would be Vasilis Lolos, whose high hit points and strength against fire will be vital to the party's success.  Next is Amy Ganter and her magic cloak, which will also prove useful since she is able to cast plenty of defensive and healing spells in the event that we get attacked by a dragon. Kazu Kibuishi is an excellent offensive wizard, utilizing the elements of air and water with infinite skill and precision. I can't forget Ross Campbell who's high sneaking level has proved him one of the best rangers in all of the land (he's also half elf, so that helps). Kean Soo's defense is notoriously high and he has a high percentage of counters, plus his enchanted shield and sword would bring the party good luck. And you may not know, but Derek Kirk Kim can talk to animals, which makes him the final vital member of our quest!

Arrant: Almost done; I'm out of good music here. What would you recommend?

Cloonan: Yanni.

Arrant: And finally…. Explain to us what a great day in the life of Becky Cloonan would be.

Cloonan: A great day in my life is a day that I finish my work on time, and spend the rest of my evening relaxing!

Chris Arrant is a freelance writer. He can be reached at chris@chisarrant.com