by Tom Green

Could you start by giving us a brief history of your work and your career?
Well I did art school in Zurich; graphic design. That was in the 80’s, and after that I never really did graphic design, I just worked as an illustrator during school time, so I had my illustration jobs and when I finished school, I worked as an illustrator directly here in Zurich for different newspapers and magazines.  In the 90’s I moved to Paris for personal reasons; everyone thought I went to Paris because it was the land of comics, but that wasn’t really the reason.  I just had a girlfriend there, so it was because of that.
I stayed there for 8 years and moved back to Zurich in ’98 for film school, at the same art school I went to in the beginning.  So I did 3 years of film school, and since then I’m living in Zurich again; I didn’t move back to Paris, because I have 2 kids now; 2 ½ and 5 ½ years old – girl and a boy.  So that’s the reason I stay in Switzerland now.
In ’89 I published my first book called ‘Tales of Error’, and it took me time to make another book, like a few years ago, after a long time another album came out called ‘Greetings From Hellville’, and then the 3rd album, ‘Dead End’.  Those were my first 3 albums; they look pretty much the same altogether: same format and same size.  Now it’s my new book that’s coming out, ‘The Number’, and like the last one ‘Panopticum’, which came out in April 2006,  I’m working without any words, and the good things about working without any words is that you can print the book in all the different editions, and you only have to change the cover.  You do the logo for the publisher, which is different for each edition, and you don’t have any translations to do.

So why has there been a 3-year gap between books?  Is it just so time-consuming creating each volume?
Well, on one hand I’m not really a workaholic.  I mean, for my personal stuff that, and when I talk about the comics, it’s what I do for myself; it’s like my art.  I need time to recover, to fill up the batteries, getting inspiration, and I’m not in a hurry.  I’m not interested in producing comics for a large audience.  I need to work with that interest, that personal interest, in what I’m doing. So this can’t be something you pull out all the time.  I can’t produce masses of stories because it takes me a long time to think about it, to really get the lust to work.

So what are you working on at the moment?
Nothing in particular.  ‘The Number’ just came out, so most of the time in my studio I sign books.  I have 2 or 3 illustration jobs I have to do now, and I have that to look forward to this year.  I have to concentrate on illustration work as much as possible, because I lost a lot of money during the time making the book.  I had to work without pay, and now I have to pay back a lot of money; so I need to work as much as possible.

 

you can find the rest of the interview in issue 4, available from
your local stockists or our online store.