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An Interview That Johnny Ryan Demanded We Do With Him
BY NICK GAZIN
Johnny Ryan is that guy whose drawings are festooned all over Vice. In addition to being Vice’s drawing mongrel, he’s also a free man with his own hobbies and projects. He started out drawing comics in a minicomic/zine before graduating to his full-size deal, Angry Youth Comix for Fantagraphics. After many, many years of being a wiseacre, he has amassed quite a few collections of his work, including Portajohnny, What’re You Looking At?!, The Comic Book Holocaust, and a host of other notable tomes. They’re all hilarious.
Johnny’s got a new book that’s about to be published by Fantagraphics and it’s called Prison Pit. This is his first bona fide graphic novel. It’s about a guy who gets shoved into an alternate world called Prison Pit where there are long, drawn-out fight scenes and beautiful strange things. It’s not a nonstop yukfest like his previous work and he’s taken the interplay between black-and-white shapes to a new level of sophistication. Everybody who gives a fuck: Go buy Prison Pit when it comes out. It’s funny, pretty, gross, and upsetting. It’s a big new step for Johnny Ryan and it deserves a big cash reward direct from your wallet.
Vice: Prison Pit is great. There’s some of your trademark humor (“Why does everything smell like burnt jizz?”), but the pacing is different and your graphic sense is really strong.
Johnny Ryan: Well, there are moments of humor, but in the same way that there are moments of humor in something like Oz. Or when you watch wrestling. These aren’t considered comedies, but they can still have really hilarious moments. Overall, I tried to approach this seriously, or as seriously as someone like me can. I slowed the pace down. In Angry Youth Comix I always tried to cram as much stuff into every panel as I could. With Prison Pit I slowed things down dramatically. I also changed from my usual thick-brush style to a pen. I wanted this book to be something really different from what I’ve done before.
Were you influenced by the cinematic style of storytelling that you see in those corny mangas you claim to love? Yes, especially Berserk. The violence is so over-the-top and the monsters are so disgusting. I wanted to try and do something like that. I was also influenced by some of the new alternative comic artists like CF or Benjamin Marra or Kazimir Strzepek, who are doing these weird fantasy/adventure stories, but without any kind of irony.
I never heard of Benjamin Marra until last week and now I’ve heard his name like five times. Who is Ben Marra? Benjaminmarra.com.
OK. This is the first time you’ve done a proper graphic novel. Did you just wake up one morning and realize you were a homosexual sellout or was it something that came to you gradually? INTERVIEW OVER!!!
Interview not over. This is your first for-real graphic novel. Why did you finally decide to do one? I felt like doing something different. I think I get bored pretty easily.
I have that same problem of getting bored too easily. People will say to me, “I bet you’re never bored,” when really I am always on the verge of killing myself out of boredom. Why would you get bored? You have that crazy circus mustache you can stroke all night.
My circus mustache is outdone by my crazy circus penis. Speaking of kooky dongs, there’s a page in Prison Pit where it’s just a shot of the main character’s dick, all spiked and looking like a cudgel. Did you ever see that book of Pettibon drawings where it’s just penis shadows? Were you thinking about Pettibon at all while you worked on this? I’ve never seen that drawing. I think I was more influenced by Powr Mastrs.
Are you going to release a lot of volumes of Prison Pit? Was Angry Youth Comix just a warm-up for your massive magnum opus? My whole shitty life has been a warm-up for this shitty interview.
Whaddya want?! I’ve interviewed you twice already and I knew everything I needed to know before I asked the first question. You didn’t know about Marra, dope.
I still don’t know about Marra because you won’t tell me about him. I’m not going to run a URL as an answer! Well, if you want to know about his work you can just go to his website and look at it. And a page of his stuff ran in Vice’s illustration issue last year.
How much of a Superjail! knockoff would you say this book is? Almost none. There’s no Willy Wonka warden or transgender prison guards. I tried to make this comic straightforward—no irony. It’s pretty removed from what I’ve done before.
How are you feeling these days? Remember when I was talking about getting bored easily?
No. What were you talking about? We were talking about your Big Top Penis.
What crime did the main character commit to get tossed in the Prison Pit? Tax fraud.
He reminds me of Lobo and Snake Plissken mixed together with a healthy dose of swiping from Superjail! Does he have a name? First I just called him Fuckface. Then halfway through drawing the story I found this shitty Garth Ennis comic called Fury that had a character called Fuckface, so I changed his name to Cannibal Fuckface.
You don’t like Garth Ennis? Did you read Preacher? It’s right up your alley! I read a Preacher book. It wasn’t up my alley. My alley is far away from his alley.
You gonna get raped in Garth Ennis’s alley. You’re blowing my mind with your alley knowledge.
I majored in alley-knowledge theory. I can talk endlessly about alleys, the video game Alleyway, and Gasoline Alley. Jesus Christ. I feel like I’m back in alley school. If you don’t have any questions for me, let’s talk about you. How much time do you spend on your mustache every day?
Anonymous, on Aug 28, 2009 wrote: third interview is the charm
Anonymous, on Aug 26, 2009 wrote: something about nick gazin makes me very very nervous.
Grant, on Aug 26, 2009 wrote: People that hate Johnny Ryan are his biggest fans. They just don’t know it.
dangerboy, on Aug 25, 2009 wrote: why are so many people that hate johnny ryan reading this article?
hi fructose, on Aug 24, 2009 wrote: i so wish i could get a johnny ryan portrait done.
Anonymous, on Aug 21, 2009 wrote: Comic Book Holocaust is choice, had me laughing until I died. Johnny Ryan is A-Grade good!
Anonymous, on Aug 21, 2009 wrote: i didnt even read this because i know i would hate it. JR is a prick, i thought he was dead?
Anonymous, on Aug 20, 2009 wrote: i think its shit on his forehead
Anonymous, on Aug 20, 2009 wrote: this had me falling off my chair, absolute gold!
The Max, on Aug 18, 2009 wrote: The best thing about Johnny Ryan content is the comments are almost as entertaining as the story or comics.
Anonymous, on Aug 18, 2009 wrote: These two are both insane. That’s why I like them.
joe bananas, on Aug 18, 2009 wrote: wish i could grow a moustache like nicks, i think the world would be a happier place for it.
Anonymous, on Aug 18, 2009 wrote: haha, this was a genious interview and i feel that i can walk away with a better understanding of moustache life. thank you.
Anonymous, on Aug 18, 2009 wrote: "Your momma’s make gin in the toilet which is why you look like a distended asshole that’s been put through a meat grinder"
yeah. pretty much what you can expect a johnny ryan fan to sound like.
disgusting...
Anonymous, on Aug 18, 2009 wrote: looks like ryan’s career is takin off! but fear not, you only have to look to this issue’s title for relief: Moments Like This Never Last!
Phew, thank god!
Anonymous, on Aug 17, 2009 wrote: "awesome nick gazin drawing! he really captured his stache quite well"
agreed. although it looks like his mustache is just really fucking long nostril hair.
Anonymous, on Aug 17, 2009 wrote: what a goofy interview. I think it would have been even better if it was taped...then you could have actually watched them bicker back and forth
Anonymous, on Aug 17, 2009 wrote: awesome nick gazin drawing! he really captured his stache quite well
Anonymous, on Aug 16, 2009 wrote: NIGGA LOOKS LIEK RON JEREMY
Anonymous, on Aug 15, 2009 wrote: oh that guy! does he have cancer yet?
Anonymous, on Aug 15, 2009 wrote: judging from the fan comments here i guess johnny ryan is very popular with the mentally challenged compulsively swearing hillbilly crowd. way to go guys!
p.s.: johnny ryan is neither funny nor can he draw for shit. typical american comics artist of the 21st century.
Larsvon, on Aug 14, 2009 wrote: You all failed at being funny, shit- gurgling anonymous retards. Your momma’s make gin in the toilet which is why you look like a distended asshole that’s been put through a meat grinder.
bum tickler, on Aug 14, 2009 wrote: "wasn’t trying to be funny, fuckface, just stating my version of the truth."
for someone that wasn’t trying to be funny, just stating your version of the truth, it’s quite a coincidence you used the name of one of johnny ryan’s characters to namecall me.
Anonymous, on Aug 14, 2009 wrote: ""Doesn’t this guy sound like his mother wouldn’t let him watch stuff like Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers when he was a kid? One of those really fat bitches who made him wear polo shirts to high school and sent him to work on her brother’s farm for six months after she found porn under his bed. These repressed pseudoadults make up at least 25 percent of America, and they need to be put to sleep with a blowtorch. Fuck you, and fuck your sense of humor, twat."
for someone saying johnny ryan isn’t funny (he is) and trying to be funny by refuting it, you failed at being funny in the least."
wasn’t trying to be funny, fuckface, just stating my version of the truth.
Kirby Puckett, on Aug 14, 2009 wrote: If the book is as good as the cover I’m going to get a copy. Johnny has grown on me to the point where I love his humor now.
Anonymous, on Aug 14, 2009 wrote: Yeah, me thinks the weird Ed Gein meets Gilbert Gr.ape guy doth protest a little much.
Anonymous, on Aug 14, 2009 wrote: Who would have thought Fuckface would be such a popular name?
bum tickler, on Aug 14, 2009 wrote: "Doesn’t this guy sound like his mother wouldn’t let him watch stuff like Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers when he was a kid? One of those really fat bitches who made him wear polo shirts to high school and sent him to work on her brother’s farm for six months after she found porn under his bed. These repressed pseudoadults make up at least 25 percent of America, and they need to be put to sleep with a blowtorch. Fuck you, and fuck your sense of humor, twat."
for someone saying johnny ryan isn’t funny (he is) and trying to be funny by refuting it, you failed at being funny in the least.
shep, on Aug 14, 2009 wrote: johnny looks like a retarded elvis and no he doesn’t have cancer and will never get it. if he does, i hope you all die of retina herpes.
Anonymous, on Aug 14, 2009 wrote: "Yeah right, i am going to read THREE pages of this bullshit. "I felt like doing something different. I think I get bored pretty easily." - Took you only what? 15 years to get bored of your same old bullshit, Johnny? What an asshole."
Doesn’t this guy sound like his mother wouldn’t let him watch stuff like Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers when he was a kid? One of those really fat bitches who made him wear polo shirts to high school and sent him to work on her brother’s farm for six months after she found porn under his bed. These repressed pseudoadults make up at least 25 percent of America, and they need to be put to sleep with a blowtorch. Fuck you, and fuck your sense of humor, twat.
