Artist on Palast/Kennedy Comic Dishes on Elections, Comics and More
This month is Politics Theme Month for the comics podcasting community, and one of the elements of the show that unfortunately we did not get to share with our readers on the Related Recap, was an interview conducted with Steal Back Your Vote artist Lukas Ketner. Along with political cartoonists Ted Rall and Lloyd Dangle, he provided the artwork for the graphic voter guide, which was written by BBC journalist Greg Palast and American icon Robert Kennedy, Jr.
Technical difficulties kept us from being able to present Mr. Ketner's interview on the politics podcast, but I've pored over my notes and listened to the (badly damaged) audio files to come up with a fairly serviceable exchange for Conscientious Sequentials. It should be said that this is in no way the interview in its entirety, but it's what could be salvaged. The lesson here, kids, is always back up your recording devices!
Comic Related: By way of introductions, why don't you tell us how you first came to be involved with Greg Palast and Robert F. Kennedy's Steal Back Your Vote project?
Lukas Ketner: Well I'm not really sure where they first saw my work and when they first wanted to get me involved but it happened pretty quick: I got an e-mail from Brett Warnock at Top Shelf Comics. I think maybe Zach and Greg had talked to Brett about finding some people who might be into it and he in turn contacted me and wanted to see if it was cool if he hooked me up with those guys and I was like, "You bet!"
CR: And prior to this, the biggest thing I could find of yours was a portrait you did of Barack Obama...!
LK: [Laughs] Is that the one where he's coming out of the water? That one was actually for a local weekly here in Portland and they wanted to do an article on Portland being unconditionally in love with Barack Obama...and so they sent me a couple of Harlequin romance covers and said "Paint him like this!" And then after they put it up on their website I noticed that it just started popping up everywhere, both with and without permission....I didn't mind--all the sudden I had something that everybody was seeing so that was all the better for me.
