A Dviant Disquisition: The Dexter Cockburn Interview

A Dviant Disquisition: The Dexter Cockburn Interview

by JDViant

JD: Fun fact; I would totally fuck the Invisible Woman from the Fantastic Four. I may have some reservations since she’s married and I wouldn’t want to cause a strain on her relationship or create tension due to her kids, but since she’s a cartoon I can pretty much ignore that and just focus on the pervy fantasy side. It was that focus that led me to meeting cartoonist DexterCockburn. I don’t recall how I first found him, but since that first Invisible Woman commission he’s been one of the most dependable and talented artists I’ve ever gotten to meet. And from my all-to-brief foray into the indy comic scene several years ago, let me assure you that those two qualities – in one man – are not nearly common enough. I’ve known Dex for a few years, but its just recently struck me how little I actually know about him. My contributions to this site will usually revolve around porn and the lovely, lovely women in it, but adult comics fill a niche in that market too and its time I learned more about a guy who’s actively living a one-time dream of mine.

Dex, how’d you get started doing this? Was it drawing boobs in your notebook instead of paying attention to math?

Dexter: I’d have to say that it was a whole mess of influences that led up to the ‘boobs in the notebook’ stage. By my best recollection, it probably started with discovering the original Mad comics by Kurtzman, Elder, Wood et al. I remember when I first saw Elder’s ‘Woman Wonder!’ it was like a light went off in my head – or my pants at the least! Never before had I seen a comic character with such wonderful curves – and in a funnybook, no less! I was still too young to pick up on half of the sexual innuendos that were liberally sprinkled throughout the strip, but something inside me said that this was the type of comic I should be reading (and copying from)!

After that, everything began to fall into place, particularly as I inched closer towards puberty. I discovered National Lampoon through my older brother. I was introduced to Playboy by a cousin who was also quick to point out that the ‘guy who did Annie Fanny was the same guy who did Mad comics’. He was speaking, of course, about Will Elder. That was another lightbulb-goin’-off-in-the-pants moment! Will Elder drew boobs! And BIG ONES, no less! I began to draw my own naughty parody strips using newspaper funnies as subject material. I reveled in the freedom of being able to draw buxom versions of Broom Hilda and Miss Buxley and the cute chick from BC. I committed to paper my magnum opus, a 6 page comic featuring the Scarlet Witch meeting the Smurfs. There was cusswords and nipples and violence and the type of big, hairy bushes that were all the rage in back in the late-70s. Did I mention that this was in 1980? Did I mention that I was ten?

Ten years old and drawin’ nekkid ladies! Imagine! And it all could’ve ended there – a prepubescent fad, if you will – if my mother hadn’t of discovered my comic of poor Wanda at the mercy of Papa Smurf.

She was livid. Beyond livid, in fact. She screamed & waved my ‘filth’ in the air like she was Chernabog summoning up spirits on Walpurgis Night. She. Tore. It. Up. In. Front. Of. My. Face.

And the lightbulb that had previously only flashed now burned brightly.

It wasn’t long before I discovered Underground Comix and – particularly – the work of Robert Crumb. Then Jay Lynch. Skip Williamson and Robert Williams. S. Clay Wilson and William Stout. Knowing that these comix existed in all their ‘Adults Only’ glory really lit a fire under my ass to create my own. And create I did – just far away from my mother’s prying eyes.

And, really, who pays attention in math class anyways?

Haha, that is one hell of an origin story. At ten, I was drawing space adventure comics about a talking bowl of lettuce called Captain Salad.

And I have to agree with you on Elder, even if I didn’t discover his work until two decades after you did! Dark Horse released a two volume set collecting all of Little Annie Fanny I’ve been eyeing…

How’d you first get a hold of the underground stuff? Was it your brother again? I’m nearing 30, and that means I’m in the last group of people who remembers growing up without the internet. Apart from the odd Playboy I could find at my uncles, I didn’t know anything about adult comics until I was 18 or so. Now its just a few clicks away, but in those days where you had to actually earn it how did you?

I remember seeing an ad for R. Crumb’s Carload O’ Comics in one of my cousin’s nudie magazines, so I was instantly intrigued – it looked like a kid’s comic but there was a BOOB on the cover! A boob with A NIPPLE!!! Wow.

Then, when I was about thirteen, I saw Teenage Horizons of Shangri-la #1 (with the awesome Jay Lynch cover) hanging on the wall behind the counter of a small Toronto comic shop somewhere on Queen Street. Sure, I knew about Crumb. But I never thought that OTHER people drew comix like that! My young mind was blown.

The guy behind the counter was cool enough to let me handle it but NOT take it out of the plastic sleeve – ADULTS ONLY, y’know! ;) It was everything I’d ever wanted to see in a comic cover: Cool lettering, wanton lust, cross-hatching, fun, huge boobs… From then on, every time I picked up my pen to draw comics all I could think of was that cover. Plus, the desire to collect these wonderful Undergrounds was building up in me… but where could I find them?

Not long after, I found a small ad for Don Donahue’s Apex Novelties in one of the comic mags of the day (I think it was Comics Journal, but I could be mistaken). I wrote up a bogus age statement (I was 14 but I had to state that I was 21!) and sent off for his catalogue. A couple of weeks later I received a special letter from Berkeley, CA – The Apex Novelties catalogue! It was a simple photocopied affair that was basically a list of all his comix for sale, but what a list! From then on, I scrounged up whatever money I could from my part-time job and sent it off to Don. Pretty soon I’d built up a really good collection of key UG’s – all in fantastic condition – and had discovered a whole raft of new influences! And I also was the proud owner of Teenage Horizons of Shangri-la #1!

Back then, finding these comix took a bit of legwork and patience – but it was worth it!

You should pick up the pen again, JD…There could still be a place in comicdom for… Captain Salad!!!

No, Captain Salad’s time in the sun has passed…although I do have another space adventurer I’d like to put in print one day (who’s considerably more human). I have self-published before, and if you’re one of the lucky billions to not read it, congratulations! The art was good though. I’ve always had an eye for that. But any penciling abilities I had deteriorated in high school so I’ve always had to shop around. And for that I’m truly jealous of you. Because writing and drawing your own work grants you so much more creative power. My own stories never felt completely my own because they weren’t. I remember how frustrating it was putting together my first issue, and trying to get it just finally printed so I could hold it in my hand. What was that like for you? What was your first official entry into the comic world?

It took me quite a while to publish as ‘Dexter Cockburn’. I’d had non-adult comics published before under my real name back in the 90s, but that was never enough for me. I had binders bursting with hundreds of pages of filthy comix just waiting to be unleashed on the unsuspecting world! But nobody in my small Ontario town would print it. I even got a letter from the manager of one of the copy places begging me to ‘turn my talents to serving Christ’. Jeezuz, indeed!

So, sadly, my comix dreams languished for years.

Then, in 2007, I reconnected with a highschool crush who, I immediately realized, was the love of my life. I gave up everything and moved to BC to be with her. Even though I never envisioned a printed future for them, I decided to bring my volumes of comic pages with me instead of leaving them boxed up at my dad’s. Smart move.

It was after I was in Vancouver for a bit that I suddenly discovered this amazing & vibrant & daring comix scene. I connected with Robin Bougie of Cinema Sewer/ Sleazy Slice fame at one of the comic jams & he gave me some very strong encouragement to publish. He also recommended a great printing company who would be more than happy to print my comix – without any uncalled for Jeebuz lectures!

The first Dexter Cockburn comic to roll off the presses was Goofy Funnies #5 (feel free to ask about my unusual numbering system as your next question) and the rest is history! If you’d like to see how far I’ve come since first publishing just over a scant three years ago, check out the official DC Checklist run by my buddy, Jeff – it’s lotsa fun & NSFW! http://duckfoo.livejournal.com

And I know how you feel about your ‘first’ – just flicking the pages & seeing all your work come to fruition. It’s addictive. You can tell just by visiting the checklist!

I have Spunk Comics 1 because it was one of two issues you were selling when we first met, and in typical comic reader fashion I chose it because the other was on issue 3 or something. Although now I see that doesn’t make much of a difference, so yeah, I think I will ask whats up with that.

I probably have one of the most unusual ADD-style systems when it comes to putting my comix together. I’ll start working on a particular story for a particular comic & then I’ll lose interest and go on to another one. Or I’ll be in the middle of a story for issue 3 and then suddenly have a huge desire to draw the cover for issue six! For example, I’ve got issues 1-10 of Goofy Funnies in various stages of completion. I put out issue 5 first and then, because it had part two of a story in it, I put out issue six. Then I put out issue two because I finished that one next. And then issue four, albeit with a different cover than what was initially intended (issue four’s cover got tweaked to become the cover for issue 10).

I deal with comic stories the same way. If I’m doing a 5-pager, I might start with page 3, then do the title page, then the last page, page 4 and finally, page two. I have a very scattershot thought process, but it does make me more prolific. I can usually put out three comics in the time it takes the average artist to do one – with the exception of mini-comic creator extraordinaire, Colin Upton.

My mind works the same way, except it means that I get bored with ideas and abandon them as I go to start new ones. So its not nearly as efficient with me, lol. So for all that you’ve written, what are some of your favourite pieces, the ones that turned out ust the way you wanted?

I’d have to say that ‘Pop Joins the Adventure Club’ was one of my all-time favourites. It was a 4-pager that I did up for issue 2 of Blackguard, an Australian anthology edited by Stu Stratu. Normally I’m very critical of my work, but in this case I was very happy with the outcome. The Fudster Pudwhacker story from Goofy Funnies #2 was also a blast to draw – mainly because it was my first time drawing a full threesome story. There’s also ‘Lovecraft Jr.’ from Sleazy Slice #4. Robin Bougie’s a pretty tough editor (much like Stratu) and he helped me shape some of the panels/ dialogue for maximum effect. And who knows?… My ALL-TIME, all-time favourite might still be waiting to be drawn!

My favourite is just a simple one page gag strip, the just about perfect BJ Bee. I grew up on and was inspired by newspaper comic strips, so the short form storytelling (one panel in this case) really appeals to me. Admittedly I have a much smaller sampling of your work then I do, but I think its just great.

I was wondering one more thing, about your audience. With comics being pretty niche sales wise, and working in a niche of that niche, does it get frustrating not having as wide a reach as is possible? In the modern era its MUCH easier to reach people then it was for you when you started reading, but I still imagine its a grind getting your name and work out there. Although, and I’m honestly chuckling as I type this, if it was easy would it really be like making comics anymore? I can’t think of anyone I know who’s created comics – as a success or failure – that would tell me any part of it was easy.

It’s funny that you mention BJ Bee. I’d originally sketched out three more pages to go along with that pic, but scrapped them at the last second so as to keep Spunk #1 at 32 pages. Looking at it now, it does work better as a spot illo.

I think that because I’m still in the ‘honeymoon’ stage of self-publishing my comix, I’m not so concerned with finding every market. I’m just happy to see my books finally in print. In fact, I’m more concerned with finding exposure for the incredible artists who I’ve published (Kayla Escobedo, Aaron Lange, JB).

Granted, technology has really changed things. I try to keep up with my social media sites & with my blogging (that’s the part that feels most like work). I’m always looking to add new ‘fans’. I also try to post previews of my work on different online galleries. Of course, it’s a double-edged sword. If someone else posts my comix online, loads of people can download them without buying from me. That sucks, even for a minimally exposed shlub like me. I know that underground icon Jay Lynch is always battling the torrent thieves over illegal postings. I guess what I’m trying to say is that if I’m your ‘niche’, you can find me & my comix – you just might have to look a wee bit harder. Turn over a few new rocks, as they say! ;)

So where are all the places we can find you right now?

If you’re in Vancouver & want to get your mitts on my comix, you can find them at RX Comics on Main St. For those sitting at their computers right now, you can get my naughty books through http://thecomixcompany.ecrater.com. I’ve also got a Live Journal page (http://dexter-cockburn.livejournal.com) which I update fairly frequently and I’ve also got an online gallery over at www.hentai-foundry.com (I’m on there as ‘dextercockburn’). Seek me out! You won’t be disappointed! ;)

I know I haven’t been. Thanks for taking the time to chat with me Dex. I know between your professional and personal responsibilities its really hard making time, especially when every word to me is time that could be used for smut (cartoon or real life wife-style). Anything you wanna throw out there to close this down for the nice people?

I just want to say thanks to you for the great interview & for being a fan of my work. It’s people like you who fuel my desire to keep making comix! All the breast! :)