Doug Arthur is one of the local creators I met this year at last week’s Electric City Comic Con.

In the short time that I have known him, I can truly say he is one of the nicest creators I have interviewed for the blog and one with a warped (in a good way) sense of humor.

Talking with him at the Con, he mentioned he had just launched a Kickstarter for his current project: The Dregs of Crime

As of this post, he is only $90 short of his goal so if you find the interview below interesting (or even if you don’t) I strongly suggest you check out the campaign and help him reach his goal.

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How did you get into comics (Do you remember your first one or the one that hooked you?) I can use your answer from the ECCC interview if you like

I started reading the newspaper strips because of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the gang at a very early age, likely because of the Christmas and Halloween specials on TV in the early 70’s. I started reading comic books around 1974 or 1975 when my older brother came home from a birthday party with Hulk and Spiderman books as door prizes. We moved to Corning, NY just as I was about to start 4th grade in 1976 and I got strep throat just days before school was to begin. I wound up missing the first two weeks of school as a result. It was a rough time for me. We were in a new city and I was to start a new school, but here I was, sick as a dog. Antibiotics were not what they are today, and I was on an intense regimen that included a huge shot of penicillin, suppositories, and this foul tasting liquid I needed to take twice a day for ten days. It was a miserable end to the summer. My father worked as an administrator at the Corning hospital which was just a few blocks from our house; close enough that he would walk home on his lunch breaks. During my illness, he would come home and bring with him a few comic books, which he would then proceed to read to me as I lay in bed. He was really into it! He would do different voices for each character and of course, act out all the sound effects! It was great!

We moved to Corning, NY just as I was about to start 4th grade in 1976 and I got strep throat just days before school was to begin. I wound up missing the first two weeks of school as a result. It was a rough time for me. We were in a new city and I was to start a new school, but here I was, sick as a dog. Antibiotics were not what they are today, and I was on an intense regimen that included a huge shot of penicillin, suppositories, and this foul tasting liquid I needed to take twice a day for ten days. It was a miserable end to the summer. My father worked as an administrator at the Corning hospital which was just a few blocks from our house; close enough that he would walk home on his lunch breaks. During my illness, he would come home and bring with him a few comic books, which he would then proceed to read to me as I lay in bed. He was really into it! He would do different voices for each character and of course, act out all the sound effects! It was great!

During my illness, he would come home and bring with him a few comic books, which he would then proceed to read to me as I lay in bed. He was really into it! He would do different voices for each character and of course, act out all the sound effects! It was great!

Obviously, that hooked me! I started reading them and collecting them on my own after that. After I fully recovered and made it to school, I was taking an art class where the assignment was to make a five-page comic book. I think it’s pretty telling, now, that my first comic book was not superheroes, but an adaptation of “The Gong Show!”

Not long after that Star Wars exploded my consciousness and Marvel released their Godzilla comic book. My older brother Rick and I started collecting in earnest at that point, and almost immediately began to write and draw our own. We started publishing our Arthur Comics Group line of comics in late 1977/early 1978 with a monster comic of my creation called Stylone, The Invincible.

We continued to do this until about the time my brother graduated from high school about five years later. I think he still has all the originals!

When did you start drawing/writing?

I feel like I have been drawing and writing since before I can remember. I had a very healthy appetite for weird things early in life. I remember taking out books on Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and UFOs in elementary school. I was fascinated by the unexplained.

Recently I came across a composition notebook from third grade, which would have been about 1975, and in it I had written a short story about Bigfoot fighting the Abominable Snowman. I even illustrated it with a little picture. I think that was probably the first time I combined writing and drawing together. I was obsessed with dinosaurs at the time as well and used to draw them a lot. It has always been a natural thing for me. Looking back this was all probably an offshoot of my love for The Six Million Dollar Man. My oldest brother Joe was a big science fiction fan and his interests rubbed off on me. he is nine years older than I am so he had a bit more control over the TV set than I did. It’s probably why I built my own

Looking back this was all probably an offshoot of my love for The Six Million Dollar Man. My oldest brother Joe was a big science fiction fan and his interests rubbed off on me. he is nine years older than I am so he had a bit more control over the TV set than I did. It’s probably why I built my own phaser to bring in for show and tell in second grade!

Which creators influence your work?

There are so many great creators that have influenced my work over the years.

From the newspaper strips, I take a bit from Gary Trudeau, Gary Larson, Lynn Johnson, Bill Waterson, and Berke Breathed to name a few.

From comic books, Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Frank Miller, Dave Sim, Alan Moore, Bernie Wrightson, Robert Crumb, and Basil Wolverton, amongst others.

I loved Mad magazine as a kid, too, so I loved all those guys, Jack Davis, Don Martin, Al Jaffee, Harvey Kurtzman…

What are you currently working on or done recently?

Currently, I am putting the finishing touches on my 14th book, The Dregs Of Crime. It is a 116 page collection of what I am labeling “improv comics”.

Each strip was completely written and drawn in 10 minutes or less. The results are pretty stream of consciousness and a lot of fun in my opinion.

Over the course of this project, I created close to 300 new comic strips, with my favorites selected for the book. The liberating thing about the process was that I learned how to let go of bad ideas. If a strip didn’t work, I just moved on and started another one.

This is currently on Kickstarter right now, with the funding campaign ending on Saturday, July 22.

The precursor book Pocketful Of Crime was released about two months ago, and I published my first full-color comic book, We All Travel Time, last October. That one was a blast to make since it was a collaboration with my brother Rick. Our first time creating comics together since the early 1980’s!

What would be the elevator pitch for Tales from the Dougside?

How long is the elevator shaft?

Tales From the Dougside is not that easy to describe.

It is a little bit of everything. There are no real recurring characters other than myself, and I generally act as a narrator or emcee to the proceedings. There are movie parodies, autobiographical tales, surrealism, musical mashups, political humor…

My marketing tagline used to be “Comics for people who hate superheroes.” but that doesn’t really do it justice, and people who like superheroes actually dig my books, too!

Perhaps the words of others will help convey a bit more of a sense of it.

Recently I had a friend of mine, Paul Kazee (of It Came From Schenectady productions at Proctors) called Tales From The Dougside “Like The Far Side, only far-ier”.

That almost works. Musician Robert Fripp of King Crimson exclaimed it was ‘A hoot!”.

Steve Persall, film critic for the Tampa Bay Times once described it as, “Tres cool…amazing, twisted imagery!”.

My favorite blurb comes close to nailing it, though. Jeff Gilbert of Mansplat Magazine and Guitar World reviewed me as: “Terrifically bent…it’s like he stuck his brain in a dishwasher with a TV Guide, every movie ever made, some UFOs and Beer. Cool ink work, loads of belly laughs and pretzel logic.”

If you have already pushed another button just to get off the elevator earlier, I can’t help you.

What was the inspiration for the Kickstarter project?

This project is actually an extension of my previous book, Pocketful Of Crime, and was inspired by a reward I offered for the We All Travel Time campaign. For that

For that campaign, last October, my brother and I offered sketch cards as a stretch goal. I wound up doing something like 40 or 50 sketches on the back of some slightly oversize postcards I had made. They were quick and fun. I received some feedback that I should make a book of the cards, and that idea stuck with me. In March, Kickstarter sent out an email with a promotional challenge where they were looking for creators to come up with quick

In March, Kickstarter sent out an email with a promotional challenge where they were looking for creators to come up with quick one-week funding campaigns that had only one reward level. As soon as I read it, I realized the sketch card book was the perfect thing for this challenge. So I went to Staples, bought a pack of 300 8″x 5″ notecards and a couple of large, chisel point Sharpies and set to work! About two months later I had the completed, and printed book in my hands. I had so many strips left over that did not make it into that book, I decided almost immediately that I should create a few more and make

As soon as I read it, I realized the sketch card book was the perfect thing for this challenge. So I went to Staples, bought a pack of 300 8″x 5″ notecards and a couple of large, chisel point Sharpies and set to work! About two months later I had the completed, and printed book in my hands. I had so many strips left over that did not make it into that book, I decided almost immediately that I should create a few more and make

About two months later I had the completed, and printed book in my hands. I had so many strips left over that did not make it into that book, I decided almost immediately that I should create a few more and make the second book.

This is how I came to call this new book The Dregs of Crime! It has been a lot of fun to experiment and create these books, and very freeing creatively.

Is this your first Kickstarter? What has your experience been so far?

This is actually my 4th Kickstarter campaign, and I keep learning as I go along.

Each campaign has been different, though each has been successful. The hardest part is marketing the campaign when you don’t have a budget for advertising. Social media only gets you so far. I feel like I wind up sounding like a WMHT pledge drive after awhile.

So, a big thank you to all my friends who haven’t muted my feed yet!

Which part of the creative process do you find the hardest and the most enjoyable?

The simple answer is that the hardest part is probably starting with a blank page, and the most satisfying is holding the finished, printed book in my hands for the very first time. This is a hard question to answer, though, since the process is always changing and shifting. I do all the writing, drawing, inking, lettering, production work, marketing, and graphic design so I am constantly changing hats and focus. If I get tired of some part of the process, I will just shift gears and work on some other aspect of the project, or one of my other projects. I also create music and a podcast, so it is nice to flex different creative muscles whenever I need to.

I like to be in complete control of my art. If you allow anyone else to have any input, it no longer becomes your sole expression. When I studied film in high school and college, I learned about the auteur theory. In a film it is a bit of a misnomer since it is such a collaborative medium with so many hands in the mix. Comics can be that way, too, but I always liked the idea of the “one man/one film” concept. Comics, moreso than film, can truly deliver on the promise of the auteur theory. I hope that purity comes through in all the work I do.

Comics, moreso than film, can truly deliver on the promise of the auteur theory. I hope that purity comes through in all the work I do.

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Facebook Page: Tales From the Dougside

Twitter: @dougside

Podcast: Assault of the 2-Headed Space Mules and is available on iTunes, Podamatic, and WordPress.

Music: Flaming Schwarzkopf Experience

So definitely check out all his creative projects.