Chris Arrant and I recently chatted about the Process and the interview is now up at Newsarama. Here’s the interview in its entirety:

INFURNARI ON THE PROCESS
by Chris Arrant

What is The Process?

Looking to the nearest dictionary, it is defined as “a continuous action, operation, or series of changes taking place in a definite manner”. In the new webcomic series The Process, cartoonist Joe Infurnari describes it as a journey and exploration to an imaginary landscape “populated by strange, wondrous creatures and archetypal characters”.

Best known for his work on the Oni GN series Borrowed Time, Infurnari is stepping out on his own in this recently debuted webcomic. Framed with a lush web design, Infurnari has released thirteen pages so far – pages that tell a story of nature and one creature’s mad rush to get out of the way of a calamitous event coming his way. Infurnari promises this to be an exploration of story and of his own creativity, and judging by what’s been released so far it should prove to be an eye-opening journey for reader and creator alike.

Newsarama: Although it’s early on in the series, what would you say the story is about?

Joe Infurnari: The Process is about some big ideas like life, creativity and spirituality told by looking at how our magical, mythological interior world of the imagination interacts with the real world that we all experience in our daily lives. There will be parts of the story that are pure flights of fantasy, visionary and mystical and there will be parts that are very autobiographical and true-to-life. By going into that timeless, elusive, fluid and mythological realm of our imagination, we learn a lot about our understanding of this world and sometimes catch glimpses of something more. This affects our day to day life in ways that we are not always conscious of and it’s this sort of thing that I want to explore with the Process. It really is a journey as much for me as it is for the reader, as I am keeping the story loose and open with only the next few pages worked out in my mind at any one time. I know the larger arcs and moments, I just don’t always know what happens in between. That way I can surprise myself as I go along and keep the creative process fresh. Part of that is my commitment to changing up the art style according to the demands of the story. I want to be able to really push the boundaries of what I can do artistically with this because the mingling of the imagined (our thoughts, dreams and mental images) with the real (paper, ink, water, paint, matter) is what creativity and the Process is all about!

NRAMA: The series opens with what looks like a crayfish running from a tremendous deluge. In the info you say his name is Scrit. Can you tell us more about what he is?

JI: Scrit refers more to the species than the character’s name. For the purposes of the story, I’ve used this little creature as a bit of a guide into this world. Through him we get to feel the fear that the animals feel for the coming storm and thereby show just how strange an event it must be. He also shows us a little of the landscape and eventually takes us to the cave boy. He’s also important because he shows us a bit about of how this world works and what’s at stake.

NRAMA: Also appearing in the first chapter is an unnamed cave boy of sorts. Although it’s early on, what can you tell us about him?

JI: This character is a bit of an archetype; that of the little primitive wild boy. He’s in this world for his own survival like all of the rest and for him, this storm is terrifying as well. From his point of view, the storm is a completely anomalous event and is therefore open to supernatural and magical interpretation. All of this is the setup for something big and this little boy will play a key role in that future development. Readers will just have to wait and see what I have in store for him, I’m afraid.

NRAMA: As I was reading the first chapter, I really enjoyed your open use of sound effects to heighten the story. I noticed it was dramatically more open than your work on Borrowed Time – what led you to going this route?

JI: I knew going into this that the first chapter would be completely silent. There is no dialogue or narration so I incorporated sound effects to engage the reader more, slow down the ‘reading’ of the pages and to help make the story more immersive by engaging as many senses as possible. It’s also important for the world to feel as realized and solid as possible despite being purely a work of imagination. It’s not a world available to us through firsthand experience so ultimately all of our experiences here are abstracted in some way whether as drawings or language. It was my goal to use those elements to maximum effect to make this world appear and feel as realized as possible.

You are right that this is something that I haven’t done much of in other projects. That was part of it as well. I wanted to try and incorporate that into my vocabulary and to see what comes of it. I’ve really enjoyed the work of other artists who dynamically integrate the drawing of the sounds into the design of the pages and I wanted to play with that myself. It’s been fun!

NRAMA: How long have you had this story in your head, and how did it develop into what you recently debuted online?

JI:It’s been jostling around in my head ever since I started working in the comics medium. For the past four years it’s undergone many mental incarnations, notes, sketches etc and I guess it had never crystallized or found a suitable medium until recently. There was always the question of how would I draw it or structure it. It originally was supposed to be a number of paintings that described key events in the story. Unfortunately, the story would have ultimately been largely incomplete since a series of paintings are really ill equipped on their own to tell the whole story. So beginning to work seriously in comics helped solve that problem. I may return to the idea of doing large paintings with these characters but that will likely come after the Process is well underway and I’ve worked out some of it’s most significant moments. After completing Mandala and seeing the response that book got, I had a better idea how to approach the Process visually and it increased my confidence in my abilities to tackle it. I also looked at some of the work I’ve done for Caveman Robot and Borrowed Time and saw that I can approach this story from a number of different visual angles. Once I came to that realization, I was energized to move forward.

NRAMA: You mention Mandala, the self-published print comic you did last year that you also put online. Why’d you decide to go exclusively online for The Process?

JI: Ultimately the Process should go to print. A lot of the artwork is on textured paper and it shows in the art and I think that will translate best when actually on paper. The decision to go online for now is to help work out the story and put it out there. Doing it this way allows me to work things out so that I can re-edit it and rework it when it comes time to go to print. It’s not called the Process for nothing. Readers here are getting a peak into the creative process itself and part of that is the working out of ideas, experimenting, exploring things and taking risks. It is a living thing that is constantly evolving and in a perpetual state of becoming. That fits perfectly with webcomics because they unfold over time and are participatory as readers can interact with me by posting their comments on the blog. Parts of the story are autobiographical and this works with the medium, too. Those pages dealing with my life act similarly to diary entries except in this case they are told in comic form and are posted online. Webcomics are just very dynamic this way, despite being a less intimate medium (not having a book in your hand), readers can be more invested because they can become involved in the unfolding of the stories by sharing their opinions.

NRAMA: Artwork from the Process and your previous comic, Mandala, is being featured in an upcoming art gallery exhibition. Can you tell us about that, and when people can check it out?

JI: The show is called, “The Fantastic Form: The Art of Comics & Graphic Novels” and it will be at the Perth Amboy Gallery Center for the Arts in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. It runs from June 14th to July 31st with an artists’ reception still to be determined. I’ll be updating the Process blog as more information is available. Like the title suggests, its fine art inspired by graphic novels and comics and it’s graphic novel and comic book illustration inspired by fine art. It looks to be a really interesting show with some folks exhibiting who are doing photography, video art as well as sculpture, drawing and painting. I would encourage everybody in the area who is an artist themselves or just a fan, to come see the show. If this show gets a good response, curator Raul Villarreal, has expressed a desire to do more shows like this in the future. So come out and show your support!

NRAMA: The other comic you’ve been working on is Oni’s Borrowed Time with writer Neal Shaffer. The second volume just came out – is there a third one in the works?

JI: There is a third book in the works as we speak! Neal is currently finalizing the script and once we have it ready to go, I’ll start drawing it. Fans of the series can look forward to many of the plot points from the first two books being developed with some exciting new ones thrown into the mix. We’ve seen a rising interest in this series from book one to two and we hope we’ll get even more on board after book three. I expect that it will likely be released close to the end of this year or the beginning of next.

NRAMA: Are you making any convention appearances this year?

JI: I plan on being at San Diego Comic-Con this summer in support of Oni Press and Borrowed Time as well as a book I am currently working on with the Caveman Robot team. It’s called Caveman Robot: Behold! The Dodecatron! and it’s going to be a full color book of concept art by Jason Robert Bell and myself for the burgeoning Caveman Robot animated series! Fans should stay tuned to the Caveman Robot blog for updates on this and all other Cavey related news.

The other convention appearance I have this year will be SPX in the fall. Once again, I’ll be backing up the boys and girls over at Oni while I’m there.

Read Joe Infurnari’s The Process at http://theprocesscomic.com/