Over the course of the last year Sammy Harkham (one of today’s featured artists) and his comics anthology Kramers Ergot (specifically the behemoth KE7) have been responsible for thrusting some of the underground comics world’s greatest talents into the public eye. He’s like the Charles Saatchi of the comics world… or something like that. He is also the man behind the wonderful comic Crickets and graciously accepted an invitation for us to grill him about various things. Keep reading to see his responses.
Do you remember the first time you read Where the Wild Things Are?
Not really. It’s one of those books that just feels like it’s always been a part of my childhood–just there. When I look at those drawings I can smell the school library and hear my kindergarden teacher’s voice pretty vividly.
If you had to live inside a monster’s stomach, which type of monster would you choose?
Charlotte Gainsbourg in Antichrist.
What’s the most disgusting thing you’ve ever eaten?
An old hamburger I found in a gutter. Or tempeh.
Kramers Ergot 7 is one of the largest books I’ve ever seen. Do you know of any instances of it being used as a weapon?
My dad used it as a shield at a renaissance fair mock battle.
How do you divide your time between cartooning and editing? Are people constantly submitting their work to you or do you mostly pick and choose the artists you want to work with?
My comics often take a long time to make, so I need to have projects that are more immediate, that come together and wrap up somewhat fast and deal with ideas separate from the stuff in my comics. So a given day is made up of drawing comics throughout the day with breaks to work on other things: writing, pasting up a horror movie zine, Kramers Ergot 8, organizing the cover to the next cinefamily cover, doing stuff for the store, whatever.
People send me comics in the mail, which I totally enjoy getting and reading. That said, most of the people I work with I find in other ways.
When can we expect KE8 and how the hell are you planning to top the last one?
Next year, maybe. It’s going to be the size of staple.
