When you encounter cartoons from the New Yorker, they sometimes seem stodgy. Unapproachable. Indecipherable. Not so with the works of Shannon Wheeler, whose cartoons never fail to hit the funnybone. A few of his cartoons have been published in that grand old magazine. And the ones that haven’t are still fantastic. How do I know this? Because they’re available in I Thought You’d Be Funnier, a collection of Wheeler’s rejected New Yorker cartoons. Maybe they’re not good enough for the New Yorker, but they’re good enough for the Eisner. The book was nominated for the Best Humor Publication Category.
The New Yorker isn’t the only place, though, where you can find Mr. Wheeler’s unique brand of humor. Through the magic of email, I got in touch with Mr. Wheeler to shoot the breeze about his various projects.
1.) Who would you say were the biggest influences to your sense of humor and cartooning style?
It really depends on which stage of life that we’re talking about. I loved Garfield (before I could read) but by 5th grade I was reading Edward Gorey and Mad Magazine. Sergio Aragones was one of my favorites. Somehow I got ahold of a bunch of Fabulous Furry Freak Brother comics around 7th grade. Kyle Baker’s Cowboy Wally is still one of my favorite books of all time.
2.) Where do you draw your inspiration for your comics?
My own life is the best inspiration. When I’m able to distort and refashion personal experience into a cartoon I think the work turns out the best. Of course, being on deadline, I still have to produce even when I’m not inspired. Then I turn to fear, exhaustion, and coffee for inspiration.
3.) Too Much Coffee Man comic, the “coffee-themed superhero parody with existential themes,” strikes me as being uniquely zen and surreal. Which, frankly, was kind of a pleasant surprise since I was expecting different things from a comic entitled Too Much Coffee Man. So it’s about a guy dressed up as a superhero (of sorts), a liberal sprinkling of coffee references, and existential humor. How did you end up with such an unlikely mish-mash of characteristics?
I was drawing a cartoon for the Daily Texan. It was pretty much a nondescript autobiographical strip with existential themes. I struggled to describe it to people. I was sitting in a coffee shop trying to come up with something that would be easier to describe. I thought I needed a character with some sort of hook or handle… a visual pun was born.
4.) Speaking of superheroes: you’ve been involved with quite a few superhero-related projects, including a short story in Strange Tales 2. Why choose Red Skull as a protagonist?
I love villains. They’re the true underdogs – even if they’re stronger you know they’re going to lose. I can’t help but root for the tragically flawed and tragically doomed. And there’s something about imagining the Red Skull living in South America (like old Nazis are want to do) that makes me laugh.
