My hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada has their big newspaper called “the Spectator” or ‘the Spec‘ if you’re on good terms. It appears that I am because yesterday they did a feature on the Process and I. Reporter Doug Foley interviewed me and the result is the piece below. Thanks Doug and thank you, Spec!

Getting Personal Pays Off

Online comic book author-artist nominated for ‘huge honour’

May 05, 2008

Doug Foley
The Hamilton Spectator
(May 5, 2008)

Putting his life online has paid off for Joe Infurnari.

The Hamilton-born artist has been nominated for an 20th annual Eisner Comic Industry Award for best digital comic for his online story, The Process.

Winners will be announced at the Comic-Con convention in San Diego, July 24 to 27.

“This is a huge honour. It’s been exciting,” Infurnari said recently over the phone from his home in Brooklyn, N.Y.

“I would have to say the competition is very stiff.

“The Internet has thousands upon thousands of web comics with new ones all the time. I can’t imagine how they would sift though the submissions.”

The awards are named for comics creator Will Eisner, creator of the popular Spirit comic character. Infurnari said they are the comic world’s equivalent of the Oscars with a gala ceremony every year at San Diego’s Comicon International.

What caught the Eisner judges’ eyes was Infurnari’s ongoing story that began with a storm in a desert, and currently reflects his own struggles with diabetes.

“It has taken a more personal turn,” Infurnari said of The Process. “The storm really gets the ball rolling, something magical, a thunderstorm in the desert, and it introduces a little boy at the end who turns out to be me .

“And there is another storm coming, my low blood sugar, and it follows me as I leave the drawing table working on the comic to address an imminent health crisis.”

Readers can see for themselves at theprocesscomic.com.

Infurnari, a Sir Allan MacNab high school and McMaster University grad, said The Process has allowed him to work out a number of artistic ideas while showing his own evolution as an artist and telling a story at the same time.

Infurnari has been living in New York for almost 10 years after studying painting and printmaking at Yale University, where he obtained his master’s of fine arts.

He earned as spot as a finalist three years ago in an online contest, Comic Book Idol, and since has published several books and expanded into web comics.

The Process, which has been online about 18 months, began as a sideline story in another Infurnari web comic in 2006.

He said good response to the storyline gave him the impetus to pursue it.

“I’m trying to do something different and really push myself and force myself to think of things in a new way.

“Web comics kind of have this almost diary kind of aspect. My personal diary is the artwork I am trying to create and the personal story I am trying to tell.

“Someone said on the Internet that I take my whimsy seriously, which is true.”

The emails were all printed out and placed in a hat (well, actually a Glad plastic container). A hush fell over the room (it was very late). The air was thick with suspense as my hand reached in and stirred the contents of the ‘hat’. Who’s email would I pull out? Who would win the drawing? My hand pulled the small piece of paper out of the throng of hopefuls each one crackling in protest at not being chosen. All eyes unblinking, anticipating, waiting as I unfolded the tiny chit that held the name of one whose destiny will be forever altered! And that email belonged to Daniel Lafrance of Toronto, ON, Canada! YAY! It really was that dramatic, people. I was alone but you’ll have to take my word that it was INTENSE!

Daniel, I’m prepping the drawing for shipping and I’ll send it out early next week. Now, for the rest of you email subscribers out there, I have a small consolation prize…desktop wallpaper! It’s a small thank you for your support of this project and with it comes a promise that there will be more giveaways in the coming months. Who knows, maybe it will be YOU next time!

Your link to the wallpaper will be in your email.

Once again, thank you to everyone who participated and helped make this a success. I’ll have updates coming soon, I promise.

Joe

Well, things went well at the big convention this past weekend. I met lots of people, made a few connections and I believe I have started to plant some seeds for future endeavors. There’s nothing to report as yet but I’ll keep you up to date as things develop.

One of the highlights for me was the only panel that I attended, the Act-i-vate Webcomics Panel. In it, members of the Act-i-vate collective talked about the genesis of the group and how working online has changed the way comics are being created and delivered to their audience. It was great to see some of webcomics’ finest talking about the medium in an insightful way; in many ways crystallizing my amorphous thoughts and feelings. All in all it was a very inspirational panel and I left feeling energized and proud to be a part of this webcomics movement.

Some of the key points that really resonated with me revolved around the discussion of monetizing free online content. Many creators cited examples of publishing and selling books through esteemed publishers of content still available online for free! How great is that!? It was also interesting to hear Paul Maybury talk about reworking past pages (something that I am guilty of). In my mind it’s an example of how this malleable medium of the internet allows for artists to let their work develop organically while presenting it to its audience. Comicbooks are static but online comics evolve. Of course, this idea is central to the Process so it’s easy to see why I was so jazzed that other webcomics creators are exploiting the medium in much the same way. Speaking of jazz, Dean Haspiel talked about how, for his strips, he doesn’t necessarily know how they are going to end! Fluidity and openness to improvisation like this are keys to creativity. More and more, these webcomickers are capitalizing on the advantages of the internet to simultaneously deliver content and keep it alive and evolving.

It’s also helped them evolve as creators; propelling their art and storytelling to new levels. They maintain regular schedules of updates that force them to constantly focus and push their stories from week to week. This sort of comics pressure-cooker has so many benefits to an artist. As the old addage says, ‘Practice makes perfect.’ But that’s not all! They actively comment and critique each other’s work as soon as it’s live. Their responses alongside readers’ feedback is almost like opening your studio to the world and having the world tell you what works and what doesn’t! For these reasons, there’s little question in my mind why Act-i-vate is the internet’s premier webcomics collective. Click the link to see what I mean.

Now from the sublime to the mundane, the other piece of news is that I have updated the way comments are handled on the blog. You can now reply to specific comments and receive emails when somebody replies to yours. This is going to be really good for creating the discussions that I hope to have happen here. Lastly, you’ll notice a link to email each post/page. Clicking this will allow you to send content to anyone’s email address. So please take advantage of these new features and participate in this content.

I’m speechless. Unfortunately, that isn’t conducive for writing posts so I’m putting aside all stupefaction to confirm that the Process has been nominated for an Eisner Award in the Best Digital Comic category! This is the single greatest honor (besides winning) that could be bestowed on this project and I am very fortunate to be in such esteemed company as the other finalists, The Abominable Charles Christopher by Karl Kerschl, Billy Dogma, Immortal, by Dean Haspiel, PX! By Manny Trembley and Eric A. Anderson and Sugarshock!, by Joss Whedon and Fabio Moon. The awards ceremony, held during San Diego’s Comicon International, will be at a gala event on July 25th, 2008.

When this really sinks in, I’ll write a followup post but in the meantime, I’d like to thank the judges for their consideration and thank YOU for supporting this project.

Best,

Joe

Chris Beckett has been kind enough to write this amazing piece for his column, For Your Consideration, on the Pulse. Here’s the article in its entirety with the rest coming after the break:

Thanks a ton, Chris!

For Your Consideration:
Joe Infurnari’s The Process

By Chris Beckett

Joe Infurnari is the artist for Oni’s Borrowed Time, written by Neal Shaffer. With that book, he showed that he is an accomplished comic artist. But online, Infurnari is experimenting with style, pushing himself to evolve as an artist while pushing the boundaries of comic storytelling. His webcomic, The Process, is an entertaining experiment that is well worth checking out.

The 411:
The Process webcomic
Story & Art by Joe Infurnari
Color, b/w, collage
http://theprocesscomic.com

What It Is (with apologies to Dave the Thune):

At Joe Infurnari’s website (artist of Borrowed Time and Wasteland #14), the artist is experimenting with his art, with style, with storytelling, and with the process. The tale begins with a mad stampede of strange creatures barreling over the rolling dunes trying to stay ahead of a great storm that pushes them forward. Witnessing this mad dash is a scrit, a small land crustacean similar to a small crab that is able to curl into a ball and shield itself with its hard outer shell. Unlucky enough to be in the path of these wild animals, the scrit rolls itself up and manages to avoid being crushed. But the storm is close behind and the tiny animal moves off searching for shelter.

Hiding under an overarching leaf of a tall plant, the scrit does not avoid being drenched as the upper leaves of this same plant quickly fill with raindrops, the rush of water cascading down from one upturned leaf to another before reaching the one just above the scrit’s head, sending the crustacean sluicing along the now moist ground. Realizing the flora of this strange place will not provide the shelter it needs, the scrit scuttles off to a cave. There it is indeed dry and warm, but as the scrit moves further into the darkness it discovers another inhabitant residing within the cave. A young boy has already sought shelter there, and when the boy sees the crustacean he smashes the tiny animal with a rock, killing it instantly and bringing chapter one to a close.

Continue reading: the Process on the Pulse!