Interview by Bevan Thomas
In 2007, aspiring cartoonist Jeffrey Ellis decided to unite Vancouver’s comics artists, and Cloudscape Comics was born. Over a decade later, Cloudscape Comics has published numerous graphic novels and anthologies to showcase both veteran cartoonists and new blood, and continues to develop Vancouver’s comic community through a wide variety of local events. Ellis has been a pivotal part of Cloudscape every step of the way.
Bevan Thomas: What draws people to create comics?
Jeff Ellis: Lynda Barry talks about digging into that primal root of telling stories and drawing pictures––just expressing your feelings and thoughts on paper and not worrying about the finish. At its core, that’s the beauty of comics. It’s very primal; very direct.It connects back to when you were a little kid, drawing on paper with crayons with no agenda except being creative.
When I was a child, my dad would give me scrap paper. On one side were old math questions, and I’d flip them over and draw on the other side. One picture would follow the story of the previous one, so I was telling illustrated stories in sequence––basically comics––without realizing it. It doesn’t need to be polished like a painting. You can draw stick figures on a legal pad, and still call it a comic.
BT: What do you think comics can do that other storytelling forms cannot?
JE: There are layers of communication you can’t do in other mediums. Movies are probably the closest, with their visual storytelling, but it’s not quite the same as getting words and pictures together. You can really get into a character’s head in a comic because you have the sequence of actions on the panels and the interior thought process at the same time. With most art you’re only using one part of your brain, but comics appeal both intellectually with the words and emotionally with the pictures. Also, unlike movies, you don’t need a whole production team, and can micromanage everything––the writing, the drawing, the polish. This creates an intimacy, communicating directly to the reader with no filters.
BT: Vancouver has a long history with comics, stretching back to the 1940s. Is there something about Vancouver that attracts cartoonists?
JE: I’d like to say “yes,” though sometimes it feels like Vancouver discourages artists. It’s so expensive to live here. Still, there’s something about the Pacific Northwest. You see that with Portland and Seattle as well. A bustling port city surrounded by nature makes for a magical environment. It’s easy to go out into the woods, go down to the beach [and] get some inspiration. Also, our vibrant punk scene inspired independent cartoonists like Colin Upton and David Boswell in the 70s and 80s, who in turn inspired more recent artists to connect with each other on message boards and through events such as the Vancouver Comic Jam. There’s a lot of stuff going on.
BT: How has Cloudscape’s weekly Wednesday meetings helped build Vancouver’s comics culture?
JE: Because the meetings are totally open to anyone, they offer aspiring artists an entry point. Some other artist groups are set up so that it’s mainly just the founders hanging out with their friends, which can be daunting for new creators, but Cloudscape’s open door policy allows people to get their foot in, see what comics are all about, meet other cartoonists and learn from them. The more we’ve done those Wednesday meetings, the more artists have started coming out, the more people have been making connections with potential mentors and collaborators.
BT: What are some other ways Cloudscape has engaged with the local comic community?
JE: In 2012 the Vancouver Park Board’s Field House Activation Program awarded us with the field house in Memorial South Park to serve as Cloudscape’s studio. We couldn’t have done all the things we’ve done without that public space to engage people. Not only did we move our Wednesday meetings there, but it also opened the door to a wide variety of other events, such as life drawing sessions and comic workshops.
Probably our most effective studio event was our contribution to Vancouver’s Mural Festival, when we got the public to paint tiles like they were individual comic panels in a giant comic strip.
BT: Perhaps Cloudscape’s most unusual project was Comics in Transit. What was that about?
JE: One of our members, Oliver McTavish-Wisden, had noticed a program to get public art into bus shelters. He brought in a team of artists to each do a giant one-page comic about a different foreign city. It was great to put the art out in the public eye, and interesting to see how different artists handled creating a comic big enough to cover a whole shelter wall. In later installments of the project, we’ve elevated voices you wouldn’t normally hear––stories people need to hear. The Syrian crisis inspired us to explore refugee stories, where our artists interviewed people about their experiences coming to Canada. We followed that with a series for local Indigenous artists to talk about their experiences in this country.
Comics in Transit has gotten a great reaction. Your average member of the public may not pick up a comic about a refugee fleeing to Canada or by an Indigenous cartoonist discussing residential schools, but if these comics are in bus shelters, they’re hard to ignore. Comics are a great way to engage people with a message they didn’t seek out on their own. For our next Comics in Transit theme, we’re thinking about looking at our current unique point in history––the Covid pandemic. We want to be topical.
BT: Recently three Cloudscape publications have been nominated for the Gene Day Award for best self-published Canadian graphic novel at the Joe Shuster Awards. Why do you think these three books in particular attracted attention?
JE: They’re very diverse. Chicken Soup & Goji Berries [by Naomi Cui and Janice Liu] is an unusual graphic novel with a unique format––telling the story of a Chinese-Canadian family through speech bubbles that include their dialogue in both Chinese and English. The anthology The Witching Hours [edited by Hannah Myers] is really well-crafted, and people respond well to its stories about witches told by women and non-binary artists.
And then there is Life Finds a Way [edited by Dan Anctil and Alina Pete], with what its editors called “post-post-apocalyptic tales”––optimistic comics of people rebuilding society after its destruction … I hope that this anthology encourages people to gravitate towards more optimistic post-apocalyptic stories, what’s being called “solarpunk.” They seem more useful than authors just saying things will become like Mad Max, which doesn’t offer many solutions.
BT: What is in Cloudscape’s future?
JE: I see a bright future. I see us increasing our publishing, with more local cartoonists turning to us for promotion and distribution of their work. I see us expanding our community. I see us continuing to produce diverse and relevant work. We’ve done all we can to adapt to this pandemic––successfully transported our regular Wednesday meetings to Discord; continued to sell books online; and reached out to a new group of aspiring artists. We’ve come a long way and I feel good about the future.
Cloudscape’s regular meetings start at 7:30 PM every Wednesday. Normally held at the Cloudscape Studio, in the current pandemic instead visit Cloudscape Discord.
Jeff Ellis is the founder and current Executive Director and Studio Manager of Cloudscape Comics. He has contributed to all their anthologies, as well as a variety of self-published works. Currently, he is working hard on Crossroads, a comic about life and love in East Vancouver. Jeff is also the co-creator of Teach English in Japan with Jonathon Dalton; chapters 1-4 are available both in print and on Comixology. When he’s not working on comics, Jeff teaches graphic design and comics education at a variety of schools in Vancouver, including Langara College and Emily Carr.
Award-winning comic writer Bevan Thomas uses fantasy imagery in his stories to symbolize psychological states and deal with issues of mental health, such as depression and anxiety. He has contributed to various Cloudscape anthologies as both a writer and editor. Most prominently, he spearheaded the Epic Canadiana series, which paid tribute to the classic heroes of 1940s Canadian comics and which won Cloudscape the 2016 Gene Day Award. His work has also appeared in Beyond Superhero Universe: Tesseracts 19, and Pulp Literature. Bevan teaches comics writing at Langara College. He is currently pursuing a creative writing MFA at UBC.