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.”

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!