Seth: Conversations

Conversations with Artists

by Eric Hoffman (Editor), Dominick Grace (Editor)

Canadian cartoonist Gregory Gallant, pen name Seth, emerged as a cartoonist in the fertile period of the 1980s, when the alternative comics market boomed. Though he was influenced by mainstream comics in his teen years and did his earliest comics work on Mister X , a mainstream-style melodrama, Seth remains one of the least mainstream-inflected figures of the alternative comics' movement. His primary influences are underground comix, newspaper strips, and classic cartooning.

These interviews, including one career-spanning, definitive interview between the volume editors and the artist published here for the first time, delve into Seth's output from its earliest days to the present. Conversations offer insight into his influences, ideologies of comics and art, thematic preoccupations, and major works, from numerous perspectives―given Seth's complex and multifaceted artistic endeavors. Seth's first graphic novel, It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken , announced his fascination with the past and with earlier cartooning styles. Subsequent works expand on those preoccupations and themes. Clyde Fans , for example, balances present-day action against narratives set in the past. The visual style looks polished and contemplative, the narrative deliberately paced; plot seems less important than mood or characterization, as Seth deals with the inescapable grind of time and what it devours, themes which recur to varying degrees in George Sprott, Wimbledon Green , and The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists .

Genres: Comics

256 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2015

Reviews

[Mark Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author in is his own words, taken from interviews over the past three decades. Fascinating to see how his attitudes to his work and the creative process have morphed and evolved over time. Still the same love of nostalgia and the design elements of the elusive past, but a definite change in the aims and techniques he is applying over time. Recommended for Seth fans only, I would say. Haven't seen the film Seth's Dominion yet nor read the book, but waiting on the hold list at the local library and having trouble being patient. Really excited to see it.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this would be a dry book of essays about Seth, but was pleasantly surprised to find it extremely readable and very thought-provoking. Largely because Seth gives very thoughtful responses to the interviewers. He is the rare artist who can verbalize the thoughts and feelings behind his work.