Interview: cartoonists Jon Rivera and Nick DeStefano, July 2007
Jonathan Rivera became a cartoonist for the same reason as many artists before him; to be lavished with gobs of money, fame, women, power, respect, stability, excitement, and opportunity. All joking aside, he just really loves comics. Currently, Jonathan is working on his next project; an all-ages adventure series called The Brickston Scooter Club.
Nicholas DeStefano had wanted to be an artist since he was a small boy, and like most small boys, loved animation. Years later, after deciding that animators were insane, he settled on the next most insane job: cartoonist. He began producing his own comic books at age 11, and has continued to do so ever since. Nick has also dabbled in illustration for books, and storyboards for film. He is currently hard at work on several comic book projects, including Doggy Jones, The Blubber Bunch and his next auto-biographical work, The Funny Papers.
Nick and Jon met as randomly assigned roommates during their sophomore year attending The School of Visual Arts in New York City. Since then, they have become frequent collaborators, sadly aware that one day this cold and heartless industry will turn them into each other’s greatest nemesis.
Info about the authors taken from heartbreakcomics.com.
Katey: When did you first get into comics?
Nick: That’s hard to pinpoint. I’ve probably always liked comics, but it was around the early 90’s that I really started reading them. I was about 10 or 11, and it was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that pulled me in. When I was 12, The Death of Superman happened, and I remember being upset because although I never read his comics, I always loved the character. So I started reading them with that story, and that lead to me getting into superhero comics in general. It wasn’t until college that I would discover how great comics could be beyond superheroes, but that was the beginning of what would eventually lead me there.
Jon: Growing up, I had a best friend who was about 2 years older than me, and he ended up introducing me to a lot of comics... mostly The Punisher. I was an avid reader of Calvin and Hobbes. The original Aliens vs. Predator series that Dark Horse put out, was the object of my obsession for a long time. But one year on vacation in Florida my dad bought me the collections of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja comics, and atwo copies of Classic X-Men that really sealed my fate.
Katey: When did you draw your first comic, and what was it about?
Nick: I drew my first comic when I was in either 5th or 6th grade. It was called “Jocko the Mutant Monkey”, and it was about a monkey who was the subject of an experiment that turned him into a giant half-ape, half-dragon type creature. As you can see, the subject matter was very typical for my age. The art in that one was strongly influenced by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Simpsons, if you can imagine that.
Jon: My first comics were probably about these vigilante characters called The Nightstalkers. My friend and I would be those characters when we played our war games in his backyard. It had nothing to do with the Marvel comic book, I actually think he got the name from that old Darren McGavin tv show where he played Carl Kolchak. But yeah, that along with The Punisher influence...I think I was about 9 or 10 years old drawing comics about us blowing the heads off of crack dealers, probably even before I had a good idea of what crack was. They could have been selling bananas for all I care, but the levels of violence that those comics reached would have made Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon proud.
Katey: Who or what are your greatest influences?
Nick: I get a lot of inspiration from animation. I think trying to mimic animation to a certain point gives my comics a more cinematic feel. Batman The Animated Series and Samurai Jack were two big influences, especially in my color work. That’s why I love Jeff Smith’s Bone, another comic with apparent roots in animation, and probably the biggest influence on my art style today. Craig Thompson’s Blankets provided much inspiration for Heartbreak, and honestly, I’m influenced a lot by Jon. Anytime I see him do something new and cool, it always makes me realize I have to up my game a little and try to outdo him.
Jon: Man, I was going to say all this mean stuff about Nick later in the interview...dammit. Yeah, I can honestly say that trying to keep up with Nick has probably been more of an influence on my work in recent years than anything else. He would finish a comic if he were on a sinking ship. It's competition at it's healthiest, because it keeps us motivated...I stopped playing video games because I know that somewhere out there, Nick is drawing.
Heartbreak was influenced greatly by Evan Dorkin's comic book Dork, and Adrien Tomine's Optic Nerve. Blankets came out during the production of the first issue, and that also served as a huge inspiration to keep going. My personal inspiration comes from Jamie Hewlett, my favorite artist by far. Paul Pope, Mike Mignola, and Frank Quitely all keep me in a constant state of awe. If I have any classical inspiration it comes from Impressionist work, especially Edgar Degas.
Katey: When did the idea for Heartbreak first come to you?
Nick: Heartbreak really began when Jon and I became roommates. Exchanging stories about girls and our romantic failures was a big part of how we got to know each other, and it’s really for that reason that I’m the one Jon came to four years later when he had the idea of turning these stories into a comic.
Jon: That's it in a nutshell. A long time girlfriend of mine broke up with me over the phone... It broke my heart, so I drew a comic about it. About a year or two later, that little seed of spite grew into a beautiful tree of anger. Heartbreak was born!
Katey: Do you see yourself doing another Heartbreak?
Nick: We’ve certainly got the material for it, and we have talked about this, but decided that Heartbreak as we know it is now finished. However, we’ve also discussed the possibility of maybe doing a new Heartbreak anthology series with other artists telling their own stories. I also have some more autobiographical work I’d like to do that, while not Heartbreak, would have a similar feel to it.
Jon: Yeah, I actually think I'm working on new material as we speak...if you catch my drift. I would do another Heartbreak, but as Nick said, we would love to pass the torch to a crop of new artists. I would love to see this concept from a woman’s perspective. Nick and I would always be a part of any Heartbreak project, but we just think it would be more interesting to see the series expand. Spread the pain, that's what I always say!