I heard about Doogie Horner through his interview on the 3 Point Perspective podcast. He’s the author and illustrator of a number of books including This Might Hurt a Bit and A Die Hard Christmas. I liked the interview so I looked him up.
I appreciate his outlook and approach to creating. The point of view that when drawing a hand, it doesn’t have to be a perfect drawing of a hand. It simply needs to be a drawing that conveys to the reader that this is a hand. It’s there in service to the story, not a stand-alone piece of art.
Doogie is also a stand up comedian who appeared on America’s Got Talent. His reaction to the immediately hostile crowd is fantastic to watch. His latest special Dad Max (which I thoroughly enjoyed) is available on YouTube.
Unrelated to anything, Doogie’s got some of the best hair in comics. His latest book The Adventures of Invisible Boy is available this month.
Why comics? (What compels you to create in this medium?)
You pretty much have complete freedom. If you can draw it, then you can put it in your comic. When you want to lean on the writing, you can, but if you want to have no words and just show pictures, you can do that too. You have a lot of flexibility. Also, comics are good for telling adventure stories, and I like writing stories with lots of action and visuals.
I also like that comic book readers collaborate with the book. Movies are a ride that you’re strapped into, but with comics the reader is still doing some of the lifting, although not as much as with regular books, of course. I just like everything about comics, both as a reader and a creator.
What has (pleasantly) surprised you about creating comics that you didn’t anticipate when you first started out?
For years I didn’t try to make comics, because I thought I wasn’t a good enough artist. What surprised me is the discovery that you don’t need to be a great artist to make good comics. You have to be good in some areas, of course, but the most important one is image choice. What are you drawing? Are the images telling the story in a clear way? That’s the most important part of making comics; after that, if you can also make the pictures look cool, then that’s nice, but it isn’t a necessity.
What was the book or comic that you fell in love with when you were a kid/teen?
When I was a kid I read all the Calvin and Hobbes and Bloom County books. I copied the pictures and wallpapered my bedroom in my cockeyed facsimiles. When I was a teenager I read Wolverine, like any good 90’s kid did. Looking back now at those comics, they all hold up pretty well. As an adult my favorite comic is Peanuts. As a kid I hated Peanuts, but now I love it. I don’t think anyone can come close to Charles Schultz. I rate Peanuts as the greatest achievement in all of art—and that includes comparing it to all the movies, songs, buildings, etc. Well, I don’t know. Maybe it’s tied with Johnny B. Goode.
You can find Doogie and his work at:
Did you enjoy reading? Subscribe to The Kid’s Comics Creator newsletter and get articles like this directly in your inbox on the first and third Wednesday of the month.