I first met Joseph at the 2014 Denver Comic Con when he and I were asked to be on a panel together about world building. The panel went great and he and I had a lot of fun answering the questions from the standing room only crowd.
Joseph does a project called "Buddies" that is both a comic book and an animated cartoon! You can check it out HERE. It's a little bit of South Park with a touch of the Colorado Rocky Mountain High all mixed up in one crazy world.
You can check out the interview Joseph did with me HERE or you can keep reading below. Thanks, Joseph! I really appreciate being the first guest on your Shout Out Sunday Interviews and I hope I didn't let you down!
#1. So everyone knows, who are you and what is the name and premise of your comic?
My name is Sean Tiffany. I'm a freelance artist and illustrator living in Boulder, Colorado.
The comic I do in my free time is called OilCan Drive. It's the story of an outlaw rock and roll band traveling through the futuristic wastelands of America in a stolen airship. With an ex-hockey player as its lead singer, a former soldier playing lead guitar, a runaway girl on drums, and a giant gorilla playing bass guitar; it's a post-apocalyptic Western with a rock and roll soundtrack. It's Josie and the Pussycats meets Joss Whedon's Firefly. It's the story of a band that is, literally, on the run.
#2. What made you want to start OilCan Drive?
#3. Did you always have this idea for a comic series or did it just pop into your head one day?
I had already self published an ongoing comic book called Exit 6 but it failed to sell in the direct market and I had to abandon the project for a number of reasons. I had another long term project in my head but I had read somewhere that the magazine Heavy Metal was always open to short story submissions between two to twelve pages. I had story ideas but nothing that could fit into a short story of ten pages. So, I thought I'd come up with a concept that I could either tell short stories, one page stories, or long form stories.
I thought about the things I really enjoyed and decided to put them all into one concept. Hockey players, soldiers, cute girls, air-ships, a post apocalyptic desert wasteland, and, finally, a giant gorilla filled the story. My initial thought was Mad Max and The Road Warrior with airships.
I tried to figure out why all these different characters were hanging out together in a ship in the wastelands of America when I saw a Bruce Springsteen concert playing on HBO. That's when it all clicked for me. They were a band!
And it's only gotten more interesting from there.
#4. Where do you find inspiration for writing and drawing OilCan Drive? (Books, movies, personal experiences etc.)
I used to have a list somewhere of all the things I that inspired me when I came up with the concept. Mostly it's all the things I love in life all in one book. A post apocalyptic future, airships, hockey, cute girls, gorillas, dinosaurs, a futuristic military, and rock and roll music all mixed together in a fun and (hopefully) kind of optomistic future.
I tried to create a book where I could fit everything I loved into one story and still have it make some kind of sense.
As far as comic books, artists like Evan Dorkin's "Hectic Planet" was a huge inspiration for me. It's an independent comic book that was published in the nineties that is still one of my favorites. I wanted OilCan Drive to fit into a world like that.
I love comic book artists like Evan Dorkin, Scott McCloud, Jeff Smith, and Terry Moore. They all did their own thing and yet somehow still fit within the world of super hero comics.
As far as music goes, I love Nirvana, Blink 182, Angels and Airwaves, The Who, Pete Townshend, Green Day, Social Distortion, and Bob Dylan. I always thought if I could write a song as poignant as a Bob Dylan but make it sound as punk rock as Social Distortion then I might be on the right track.
#5. You also have music that complements the OilCan Drive comic, what made you want to combine music and comics into the same world?
When I came up with the concept that OilCan Drive was a band it was only a matter of time before I wanted to start playing around with what that band might sound like. Unlike most musicians, I haven't been playing music since I was ten years old. I only started playing music once I had already drawn the first OilCan Drive comic adventure. Because I wanted to hear what the band sounded like I had to learn to play guitar, bass, drums, harmonica, a bit of piano, sing, and figure out how to record and engineer it all together.
I absolutely love playing music now and I am glad that all those years ago I made this group of characters a band. I might never have started playing music otherwise.
#6. Is the music more concept songs that tell the story of oil can drive? or is it the music the band plays in the wasteland?
I am trying my best to make the music the songs that the band actually plays.
Hiding behind a cartoon band allows me to play a bit more with the different parts than I might do if I was simply doing a "Sean Tiffany solo musician" project. I get to think of all the different parts the characters play and give them each a unique voice with their instrument.
And ,I figure even if you hate the music, as long as you think it's an actual band and not some guy sitting and playing in his living room, then I have already succeeded.
#7. What is more time consuming: Making songs or writing and drawing a comic book?
Both are time consuming mostly because I am the only one working on the project. If you think about it, I write, draw, ink, letter, color, and produce the comic book myself while I also, write, play guitar, bass, drums, sing, record, engineer and mix every song myself. I think, between the art and music parts of OilCan Drive, I do about 25 jobs all by myself LOL And this is for a job I don't even get paid for!
I don't know hour by hour which takes more time but I totally enjoy them both. To me, writing a comic story and writing a song are two very different ways of telling stories but they are both storytelling. And I've found I really love telling a story in a song as much as I love telling one in comic book form.
Plus, when I get burnt out on one, I can always turn to the other and always be telling a story. It's always good to be able to switch up gears to keep yourself fresh.
I've definitely come up with something here where I never find myself getting bored.
#8. What is on the horizon for OilCan Drive?
I am currently penciling the third book while getting the second book ready for print. And I am writing and demoing songs for the next OilCan Drive EP album. I am hoping I can get it all done by late May for the next Denver Comic Con. We'll see how it goes.
And, while I am getting the art side of the project ready, I have been posting the pages I did from the OilCan Drive 24 Hour Comic Day Challenge last October on my web comic site. Doing the 24 Hour Comic Day not only challenged me to do something I never thought I could do (produce a 24 page comic book story in one 24 hour period) but it also gave me a nice buffer so I had new content to post while I catch up on things.
#9. Where can new fans check out OilCan Drive and buy the books and music?
WEBSITE: www.oilcandrive.com
STORE: http://oilcandrive.com/store/
BLOG: http://www.seantiffany.
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/
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