Indie Edge February 2016: Ian McGinty

Please tell us a bit about yourself!

Hello! I am Ian McGinty! I’m an American artist, writer and designer based in Savannah, Georgia, and I created, draw and write Z2 Comics’ new series, Welcome to Showside, as well as directing the dang thing and voicing the main character of the animated series of the same name by Modern Prometheus. I was the lead artist with Kate Leth on Bravest Warriors, and my first big break was an Adventure Time mini-series called Candy Capers, followed by Uglydoll and Hello Kitty. Since then, I’ve worked on just about every Cartoon Network property in comic form that exists, as well as some larger non-comic books from various publishers. I enjoy sashimi cut into weird chunks and turn-based RPG video games featuring silent protagonists that are total jerks to everyone else for no reason.

What are your favorite projects you’ve contributed to over the past decade?

Definitely my run on Bravest Warriors, to start. We, meaning Kate Leth and I, were able to take the amazing stuff Mike Holmes and various writers did with the “teens in space kicking butt” thing and sort of morph that to focus more on the relationships of various characters, issue of roles regarding gender/status, and we straight up gave Plum a really cool new girlfriend, Peach. Also, Catbug is cuter than ever. I have recently been looking back at the Adventure Time mini-series I did, Candy Capers, with some fondness.

The art is not as horrific as I initially thought! I also enjoyed working on Uglydoll and Hello Kitty with Viz Media, because it was basically the opposite of the kind of work I thought I’d be doing at that point in my career, and I had a lot of freedom to do it (amazing, especially when you remember Hello Kitty is an over 50-year-old property). Lastly, I’d say my work on the Munchkin game series, by Steve Jackson Games, has been really fun because it’s something different and I always love having new outlets to meet new fans. I’m terrible at the actual game, please do not ask me advice on playing it.

What are you currently working on?

A lot! A lot more than I probably should be. I’m so tired. Anyways! Yes, I’ve been working extremely hard on my very first creator-owned series, Welcome to Showside, which includes working extremely hard on my very first animated short, Welcome to Showside. Issue #2 is out soon and it’s really fun (this is the issue where we based a brand new character on a young fan I met in Kansas City who really impressed me with how enthusiastic he was about comics), and I’m already well into issue #3, which gets pretty dark for an all-ages foray. I’m excited to see what people think of that. I just completed an entire game deck for Munchkin that will be available next year, for you tabletop types, called Munchkin: Guest Artist Edition and they even let me put some original cards in there, including the character Henry Rollins voiced in the animated short. It’s on YouTube, go look at it! The next big news is still pretty secret, but I will be the new lead artist on a super-mega-popular all-ages series, so I’m currently terrified and hiding under my covers a lot lately! Other small projects, like covers and shorts, are always happening and it’s all pretty nice.

New and Classic Titles by Ian McGinty

• Welcome to Showside Vol. 1 TP (See listing under “Z2 Comics”)
• Bravest Warriors Vol. 6 TP (DEC151125)
• Adventure Time: Candy Capers TP (MAR140997)

What titles are you currently reading?

One title I’ve been catching snippets of that I’m pretty excited about is Boom Studios’ Boombox new comic, Jonesy (Issue #1 / DEC151095). It’s coming out pretty soon, around Valentine’s Day, and it’s about this girl who is pretty normal except she can make anyone she wants fall in love, like a real life cupid! The catch is she can’t make anyone fall in love with her using her powers, she has to do it the old fashioned way (not Netflix and chill). This series is written by Sam Humphries, cool, and the art is by my Twitter buddy, Caitlyn Rose Boyle, who has an art style I wish I could steal and suck out of her brain like that part in Hocus Pocus. It’s sort of proto-Invader Zim (another title I’m currently loving!), with a cool mixture of Scott Pilgrim, punk rock, and cuteness. I think it’ll be fun!

Another book series that’s been available, and is in its fourth printing, is Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky’s, Sex Criminals (Vol. 1 / JAN140558). I just finally got around to reading the first volume, but it’s on like its fourth or fifth volume by now, sooo there isn’t a whole lot more I can add or say about how fantastic this comic is. Frankly, I don’t know Matt, but I do know Chip, and in the spirit of Chip’s varying biographies about himself — and that he will never take the time to read anything I write because he is a bad man — I’m going to use the rest of this space to talk about this dog I’m looking at as I type this out. It’s not even my dog, it’s the neighbor’s dog, but I’m telling you like, every time I see this dog, it gives me this weird look as if to say, “What are you looking at?!” Here’s the thing, though, it’s always wearing this incredibly tacky pink sweater that says “A GOOD BOY” on it. How am I not supposed to look at this dog?! Double standards, dog! Anyways, go check out Sex Criminals, any volume. It’s a great book, it’s incredibly NSFW, but enjoy it alone or with a friend.

Finally, I just read Rumble (Vol. 1: What Color of Darkness / APR150618), by John Arcudi, James Harren and Dave Steward. I just finished it today and it’s amazing. I love monsters, especially monsters that sort of fit into a Hellboy vibe, but I was really draw to the crazy cool looking beasts featured throughout this story. I’m generally an artist first and a reader second, so the art in here really blew me away. It’s not trying to copy any style, yet it just fits. Hard to explain. There’s a Rafael Grampå thing going on here in the art that I just love, and the story manages to be really, really funny and pretty dang disturbing at the same time. That’s not an easy bar to reach, but this book pulled it off, in my opinion. But yeah, a good one for fans of Hellboy or just monsters and fun. That dog is looking at me again, so I’m gonna end this sentence here, thanks!