Back in June I wrote a post called I Wish I Could Draw. I talked about writing and drawing and about a particular artist that I’m a big fan of named Jonas. Jonas travels and he makes comics.

Jonas McCluggage’s work includes The Adventures of Jonas, a comic about his own hitchhiking adventures, and an ongoing comic called Follow the Leader, which is about wild kids who fight the mafia. You can find links to these, as well as to his blog for general, unrelated art things, at the bottom of this post.

Recently, I got the opportunity to interview Jonas. He was passing through Fort Wayne with a friend and crashed at my place. The next morning we went to a coffee shop nearby and he let me ask him a few questions. He’s a cool dude like that.

Disclaimer: Some of the activities discussed in this interview are illegal in certain areas. I’m obligated to mention that you should check local laws first if you’re considering trying anything mentioned in this interview. Rules are important, blah blah. Do what you want.

Joshua Storrs: Alright, why don’t you give us a little introduction about yourself?

Jonas McCluggage: Okay, I draw a lot of pictures and I roam around a lot. Doing a lot of traveling, meeting a lot of cool people. I’m really trying hard to get into the comic scene and make comic books and write stories.

JS: What brings you to the Midwest?

JM: I am traveling with my friend Sarah and I am going to Pittsburg.

JS: Cool beans. What’s in Pittsburg?

JM: I have some friends out there that I haven’t met yet and they seem pretty cool. I got nothing better to do and I don’t know, I just felt like traveling.

JS: Alright well I want talk about your stories a little bit and then we’ll move on to your traveling.

JM: Oh okay.

JS: When did you decide that you were gonna start steering Adventures of Jonas towards a conclusion and start working on Follow the Leader?

JM: It was somewhere in the long wait chapter. It was somewhere while I was writing the long wait chapter so I think I was steering it towards a conclusion while I was actually in North Carolina. Because I was just finishing that chapter while I was in North Carolina. It felt like it was, not getting repetitive, but not getting really new.

JS: Did you already have the idea for Follow the Leader at that point?

JM: Yeah, I did. I wanted to get doing that and some more of like my made up stuff. Because that felt really important to get that story finished, like out of my head, towards some sort of physical incarnation. Adventures of Jonas was taking up all my free time and I decided I needed to put it to rest.

JS: I understand that you recently started working on a project for a publisher in Denver. Could you tell us something about that?

JM: Yeah, they are Moko Press and that project is called Wavemen. So it’s a super team of these figures of Japanese folklore kind of coming around like the Heian period. I think like [the year] 800 Common Era. So that should be fun. There’s, uh I’m still really bad with all the names, but there’s like the main character, we call him Momo for short. He’s a boy that was born out of a peach and he fights with a bunch of spirit animals and [the first issue has] some of his back story in there.

The idea is that they’ve already payed me for the first issue. Then they’re hoping to get Kickstarter support so they can keep making it. Their script looks really cool. I wasn’t sure what to expect and then I was pretty dazzled by the script so it’s a project I’m really happy to work on.

JS: Cool! So what are your career goals, for doing art and writing comics? Where would you like to get, ideally?

JM: If I’m being published at all, that is my goal. It’d be fun to work on my original material, but I don’t know for sure how good it is and if it’s worth being published. If not, I’m totally down, you know, I’d love to worth with somebody else who knows what they’re doing and can write a good story. So yeah, either publish good comics of my own or publish good comics of other people’s design. One of those.

JS: Alright so I’m a big fan of Follow the Leader, I think it’s great.

JM: Oh yeah?

JS: Yeah, the story is really interesting, and the art is fantastic especially those last couple pages of that you had of the stabbings. Those were really beautiful.

JM: Thanks dude.

JS: It seems like a lot of work goes into [Follow the Leader] but it hasn’t attracted as much attention as many of its readers think it should. Does this frustrate you?

JM: It used to frustrate me all the time. Like there’d be like shitty pencil comics that do way better than me. I think I sort of have been trying to stop looking at it like a competition or look into views as like validation for my comics. Part of that has been really good for my mental well-being but then also competition is kind of like a thing for the comic industry. You gotta get out there shake a lot of hands and I’ve sort of been checking out of that for the most part. So I don’t know, I feel like there’s a certain amount of that competition that I need to embrace but I don’t know. It’s weird.

JS: Okay. So we’re gonna move on. You do a lot of traveling. We’re gonna start by getting the most common question out of the way. How do you afford it?

JM: Well, when you’re hitchhiking you’re eating out of the garbage and you’re getting rides for free so it’s pretty easy to afford it. If you got like forty dollars for a backpack and you can find a sleeping bag, those are pretty common, you’re set. Maybe buy some sunscreen. Like a couple other dime store expenses.

JS: How much sunscreen do you go through?

JM: Not much. I get it then I just forget to use it (laughs). Um yeah I think I used like a handful on my last trip I should have use more. We were going up the California coast and I got sunburnt then I was just like ‘ah fuck it I’m already burned’.

JS: It’ll turn into tan anyway.

JM: Yeah.

JS: So what initially drew you to the vagabond lifestyle?

JM: I was really desperate for some kind of excitement or adventure and I was also pretty scared by conventional living and stuff. I couldn’t figure out how to live with like bills and taxes and houses and like those kind of investments and other grown-up words so I figured I’d go hitchhiking. I was supposed to go with my friend Naz and well the story goes that he bailed and I had to go alone. It wasn’t really exciting. Like the plan was nice but then when I actually did it I was like ‘ah fuck this I don’t wanna be here’. A lot of it was that. But it got me out the door.

JS: And you kept doing it.

JM: Yeah um as soon as I was out that door, as soon as I was in it, it was fun, exciting and worthwhile.

JS: How often do you travel alone versus traveling with a friend?

JM: I never travel alone anymore. Safety isn’t really that big of a role in that decision. I mostly just travel with friends because I get lonely pretty easily.

JS: How much time do you spend versus being in your home town?

JM: I’d say, I don’t know, fifty-fiftyish. I mean I’ll hitch out somewhere then I’ll find a place that I like then eventually stop and then just kind of stay there. That’s what happened with Portland and then North Carolina and then Philly. I’m hoping that’s what happens when I get to Pittsburg. We’ll see.

JS: Do you still get scared when you go out or is there like a confidence that you’ve built up, like ‘I know what I’m doing, I’ve done this enough’.

JM: No, no I don’t. Initially yeah I was always like freaked out like ‘What’s gonna happen if I don’t get picked up or if I break my leg or something’. And now it’s much more like I’ve been through so many situations that now whatever happens I’ll just like deal with it. Like if we’re not getting rides I’m like ‘well, we’ll just walk until we die’ (laughs).

JS: (laughs)

JM: Like everything ends with me dying and I’m just okay with that now (laughs).

JS: I imagine traveling as much as you have you’ve probably run into some pretty hairy situations?

JM: A couple, yeah.

JS: How do you deal with it when someone gets in your face or when you’re running out of water and you actually feel like you’re in danger?

JM: Well with the water situation you just make that your priority. You gotta find a gas station or I’ve knocked on peoples doors to use their hoses. I got lost in these fields for a couple days and I ran out of water and that was pretty hairy. Everybody says I’m gonna die and I feel like it’s a lot harder for that to happen then you think. I don’t know.

With people its different then when I’m running out of water. With people you just kind of have to sum it up and tell them to pull over and get out of their car or something. I carry a knife.

JS: Have you had to use it?

JM: No. I’ve had to show it off but I’ve never stabbed anyone.

JS: Is it usually how it goes that you stand up to someone and they back down?

JM: There was a case where I was being followed and I just started playing with my knife just to let everybody know it’s not gonna be worth it. If somebody wants to jump you it’s probably not gonna be because of the money because I’m some ratty kid with a backpack. It’ll just be for fun and if you let them know it’s not gonna be fun. You know.

Then with drivers, nobody’s ever been actually malicious. They’ve just been sort of kooky.

JS: You kind of get that weird vibe from them.

JM: Yeah.

JS: So in Adventures of Jonas you talk a lot about hitchhiking. From your Tumblr we know that, at least your last excursion involved train hopping, and you got here by car. So what method of travel do you use most often?

JM: Most often is hitchhiking.

JS: Is that the one you prefer?

JM: I don’t know. Trainhopping is really fun and very efficient but I haven’t done it quite enough to call myself experienced, so it’s still kind of a gamble for me. Hitchhiking, unless you’re going through Utah, it’s pretty guaranteed that eventually you’ll get to where you’re trying to go.

JS: Does no one pick you up in Utah or is it the cops that give you a problem?

JM: It’s the cops. But I’ve had friend who hitchhiked through Utah and they’ve had it peachy. It’s illegal in a number of states but in Utah they really, uh

JS: They really crack down on it?

JM: That’s my experience, yeah.

JS: You mentioned that you hitchhiked through one of the Carolinas in cop cars.

JM: Oh yeah! North Carolina yeah. They would tell us to get off the highways and so we’d move to the freeway and then they’d tell us to get off the freeway and we’d move back onto the highway. And then Andrew just asked the cops that were stopping us if they could drive us to the county line and so we got through a couple counties that way.

JS: That’s awesome.

JM: Yeah I know! I tried doing that this last time in California and it almost worked. There was a rest stop and he was like ‘no, letting you off at the rest stop’ and he kind of marooned us there.

JS: Well he took you somewhere.

JM: Yeah.

JS: Do you have a favorite city that you’ve visited?

JM: Olympia Washington is really really cool. I’m into that place. They’re quirky and fun and they’ve got these cool celebrations all the time. They’ve got the procession of the species which is like, everybody dresses up like animals and there’s wheelbarrows full of chalk that kids just mess up the streets with. There’s a glow festival where people make a bunch of lantern sculptures and people dance around in the streets with their lantern sculptures. Then they have art festivals and like old ladies will just be yarn-bombing this bridge. And they got these bioluminescents that live in the water. I think it’s somewhere around September, if you get the timing just right, you can go out at night and splash around and everything glows blue. It’s really cool.

JS: Is that a certain type of algae or something?

JM: Yeah I don’t know, some sort of water bacteria.

JS: Do you have a favorite outdoor spot like a state park or any spot that you like to go?

JM: I went to like Yellowstone and I didn’t really like Yellowstone very much. It felt way too crowded. It felt like a theme park.

JS: Oh really, there were a lot of tourists there?

JM: Yeah it was just sort of like a traffic jam from attraction to attraction. But I don’t know I guess I hit it at a bad time too.

Vedauwoo Wyoming is really beautiful. I think it is a state park. It’s got a ton of boulder mountain things that are really fun to climb and, you know, they got woods and stuff.

JS: Do you have a least favorite place?

JM: I really don’t like Idaho. I really hated Nashville the first time I went through it.

JS: Really?

JM: Yeah (laughs) I was sick and my foot was kind of messed up and I was under a bridge. But then I went there with money and it was a lot better.

JS: (laughs) You see some shows?

JM: No I just ate food. Like the entire time. They’ve got a lot of delicious places out there.

JS: So what is it that will turn off a place like Idaho or Nashville?

JM: I don’t know. Like, the way people treat you just little things like the weather or [things that are] even more arbitrary like how I’m feeling. So it doesn’t necessarily reflect on the place I guess. I just am judgmental.

I really like Salt Lake City. I was expecting to hate it too.

JS: Because it’s Utah?

JM: Yeah and just like hot and uncomfortable but their punk scene is really, I don’t know. They’ve got this place called the Boing House. It’s an anarchist info shop and they play shows there and they let you sleep there.

The dumpster diving game is super outrageous. Nobody locks their dumpsters. The kids I was living with, they’ve got the whole place like mapped out you know. They’ve got jumpsuits and headlamps and you’re a sucker if you buy groceries.

JS: That’s awesome.

JM: Yeah it’s a good community.

JS: What’s something that everyone who travels vagabond style should have in their pack? What are the real big essentials that you’d probably be dead without?

JM: Depends on the season and your geography. If it’s really cold and you don’t have layers then you’re fucked; if it’s snowy and you’ve got like canvas shoes, because you could lose a toe if your feet get wet and you don’t do anything about it. Then also, if it’s really hella hot and you don’t have enough water you could get sunstroke and stuff. That’s only like my experiences if you’re not prepared for the weather.

JS: So a lot of it is fighting exposure?

JM: Yeah I’m thinking what else. If you’re hungry like, there’s people out there who like want to feed you. There’s soup kitchens and dumpsters and you can go into pizza shops at their closing time and they’ll give you whatever. Usually.

JS: What’s a piece of advice about traveling this way that you wish you had gotten before you started?

JM: It’s really emotionally vivid. Like your highs and your lows are just like (motions high and low with his hands)

JS: Way up and way down?

JM: Yeah. I’ve never felt like so hopeless hitchhiking but I’ve also never felt that, I don’t know, like you get a ride and you’re like ‘life is awesome! This is working!’ and, ah! You know it could just be the most exciting thing you’ve ever experienced. So I wasn’t like really ready for that.

Loneliness is pretty killer because when you are traveling alone you kind of realize [that] nobody else knows you or gives a shit about you and that kind of messed with my head when I first went out. It’s just like ‘I’m nothing to anybody’. I felt like a ghost.

I also tend to put too much value into where I am at with other people. So if you’re really invested in other people and nobody cares about you gotta be ready for that.

JS: Is this a lifestyle that you recommend to a lot of people?

JM: It’s an experience. I wouldn’t say that it’s my lifestyle. I’ve got tons of people who I crash with and I get apartments and stuff like that. Some kids, they’ll never have a roof ever. Like ever ever ever. And that’s cool, that’s totally chill but that’s their lifestyle. That’s not my lifestyle. I would recommend the experience though.

JS: Traveling and adventuring?

JM: Yeah! Dip your feet in. It’ll like change the way you look at stuff, which is always valuable. If not just homelessness, it’ll change the way you look at your resources or the way you treat other people or how you look at like society. Like roads are really cool! I don’t know who planned them all out but the way they all come together and stuff like that’s pretty neat. I don’t know, you get a new perspective.

–

Here is where I planned on ending the interview but my brother, who was sitting with us, asked about advice for dumpster diving. So I let Jonas know that I was turning my recorder back on and he gave us some insights.

JM: Okay so my friend wears sandals. That’s a BAD idea because you’ll step in something wet and it’s not gonna feel great.

Grocery stores are good. Find a Safeway or a Whole Foods or something like that. Some stores will have a produce dumpster so you can just pop those open and just get tons of lettuce and stuff out of there. You’ll know it’s bad if it’s got something growing on it or if it smells funky but otherwise like food is a lot more durable than we give it credit for.

JS: I’ve heard that a lot of the fast food places have a set time where they take out the food they don’t use for the day. Is that true?

JM: I’ve never found anything like that. With donut shops I’ve found that and with pizza shops I’ve found that. I don’t know about fast food so much but probably. You can also just walk in and be like, ‘do you have anything to throw away?’. Like, ‘feed me’. And you know you’ll get lucky sometimes.

There was a café that found me like rifling through their dumpster and they were like ‘Yo! We’ll give you muffins man!’ (laughs)

—

Getting the opportunity to interview Jonas was a great experience. He’s a fantastic artist and a mesmerizing storyteller. I would recommend his work to anyone.

His largest, completed comic is The Adventures of Jonas.

His ongoing, fictional comic is Follow the Leader.

His blog, where he posts assorted, unrelated drawings is Jonas Goonface.

He also has a few other, smaller projects that you can link to from here.