As students at U of T, it is sometimes difficult to imagine a world outside our textbook-filled, caffeine-ridden lives — but comic artist Michael DeForge has imagined many such worlds, and built them in drawings in his library of comics and graphic novels. DeForge is one of Toronto’s most recognizable comic artists, but he’s less well known as a former U of T student. In town for this year’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival, he agreed to answer a few of our questions about his work, and his time at U of T.
Michael DeForge. Photo courtesy of Drawn and Quarterly
DeForge was born in Ottawa, but has been living and working in Toronto for most of his career. He credits the birth of Lose — his break-out comic series — to his attendance of the 2009 Toronto Comic Arts Festival, where he met his current publisher and was inspired by his exposure to so many different artists. His first full-length graphic novel, Ant Colony, was published by Drawn and Quarterly in January this year. He currently works as a designer on Cartoon Network’s cult hit Adventure Time.
DeForge described his days at U of T as full of “drawing and drinking rather than going to classes.”
When he did go to class, he was in awe of A.F. Mortiz, famed author of The Sentinel and winner of the 2009 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize. “He might be my favourite living poet. I feel like I wasted an opportunity to really excel in his class because my head was elsewhere at the time,” he admitted.
In the end, DeForge dropped out of university in his second year, but he still considers his time at U of T something that has come to affect his work.
“I suppose all of my life experiences work their way into my comics,” DeForge said, “I studied Aesthetics… which I do think has informed the way I approach art in general.”
DeForge’s approach is marked by distinctly natural character development and dialogue — a feat in the comics genre, wherein characters can sometimes seem melodramatic and unrealistic.
“[I] like switching the pace up from strip to strip,” he says. “[T]he rhythm would feel wrong if the book was just conversations. There need[s] to be some breathing room between the dialogue-heavy installments.”
DeForge’s work often features panels of art with no dialogue, letting the images alone convey his message.
DeForge’s artwork on a poster for TCAF. MEDIA PHOTO
After the success of Ant Colony, DeForge is set to publish A Body Beneath later this year. Unlike Ant Colony, A Body Beneath is a collection of short stories written over the course of five years. As a result, he suggests,“[M]y style shifts a lot throughout the course of the book.”
Unfortunately, DeForge may not like A Body Beneath as much as his future readers. He struggles, like many artists, to appreciate his own work, especially in the light of his recent success.
“I generally dislike a lot of my comics once they’re published,” he expressed. “I can see all the mistake afterwards… My favourite comic is probably always whatever comic I happen to be working on at the moment, because it’s not finished, and therefore still full of potential.”
Perhaps it takes an outsider to see the potential in DeForge’s completed works. While many artists, like his own favourite poet, Mortiz, have achieved artistic recognition through academia, DeForge’s personal road remains both different and full of potential. His work continues to walk a fine line between colourful, surrealistic beauty and realism that few have been able to match between the pages of graphic novels.
