"I increasingly find it difficult to finish a work without images" Collagist Interview: John Dermot Woods

Featured in our latest issue is a selection of great short fiction by John Dermot Woods, who currently writes/draws/edits/teaches/lives in Brooklyn, NY. We spoke about the best graphic novel he's read in ten years, his short but crucial time spent in Baltimore, the fun way to draw an afro, and of course, the atrocities.

[on the left: John Dermot Woods, lovingly rendered by friend Craig Griffin.]

These three pieces are from your series "the atrocities". Tell us what inspired this series. How long have you been working on it? Is there a way to view them in their entirety?

I’ve been working on the atrocities for a long time, going on two years (and it’s a pretty short book). It began as a book based on the linguistic construction of Thomas Bernhard’s The Voice Imitator (in English translation). I live in Brooklyn and teach on Long Island. So I wrote the whole first draft in notebooks during my commute. I was overtaken by the process and specifics of compostion – particular chemistry notebooks with blue covers, and green paper, a stainless steel fountain pen with blue ink. I could tell where in my trip I wrote certain sections based on the shakiness of the writing. Then I rewrote the whole thing a few times on my computer. As I rewrote, it seemed like there was some huge gap in the book. I wanted to open the stories more. That’s where the drawings came in. They are illustrations (unlike my last book where the drawings don’t really illustrate the text). But I hope they illustrate in such a way to create a new narrative tangent, blow a hole in the side of the story. The drawing process was tough; drawing is slow, slow work, especially for me. But I learned a lot about how I draw working through these hundred-plus compositions. As far as the whole book, I’d like to see it published as a single work eventually. Right now it’s in the hands of a couple of trusted old friends who are helping me to focus the story/idea that runs throughout. 

How did you decide on Baltimore as a setting? Are you a fan of The Wire?

Yes. The Wire is the best TV show I’ve ever seen. And I think it may have brought me back to Baltimore. I used to live there. I met my wife there. It was only two years, but two pretty important ones; they loom large in consciousness.

When I started the book, I hadn’t been back to Baltimore in a few years (and it had been five years since I’d left). I love that city. This was my way of recreating it. Sometimes I feel guilty about the darkness and title of the book, as if it’s a slight on the city. But anyone who appreciates Baltimore understands that it is a city full of atrocity, and the way it incorporates these atrocities is what is beautiful about the city. (And, really, I see this city as a place called ‘Baltimore,’ not the city in Maryland that we see on a map.)

Since I began working on the book, I’ve had a few occasions to go back and visit Baltimore with some new friends. It’s surely different in ways, but fundamentally it’s still that beautifully atrocious sprawl of urbanity. In December, I had a chance to read some of the atrocities in Baltimore – I was a bit nervous that I might offend – people in town seemed to be into it, though.

“Coverage” features an anonymous narrator, who tells a story about another anonymous man's experiences. The nameless narrator combined with the intimacy of the story lends a slightly mysterious quality, like we're in a restaurant eavesdropping on the people in the adjacent booth. Is this narrator (or his companion) a re-occuring character in the series? Are there any storylines that run through atrocities?

The narrator and his companion are eavesdroppers. They are the watchers of the atrocities throughout all 104 episodes. Their story is revealed, in part, or at least suggested, through their own observations. They are foreigners, outsiders who have come (returned?) to Baltimore for a prescribed time, some strange respite. They are certainly escaping somewhere, and they possess the observational luxury/blindness of tourists.

Which drawing’s your favorite? What generally comes first, the drawing or the story?

The drawing for “Coverage” is one of my favorites in the book. It’s always fun to draw an afro that doesn’t apologize. And a solid tube TV with dials that’s getting blasted out by its own burning hot glow.

The stories all came first in this book. I didn’t even think I was going to include drawings as I wrote it. I increasingly find it difficult to finish a work without images; it feels unnatural, as if I threw out half of my vocabulary.

Who are some of your recent favorite authors/artists?

I waited a year to read Dave Mazzuchelli’s Asterios Polyp [editor's note: !!!] and finally did. Best graphic novel I’ve read in ten years. It’s feels wildly tangential but complete, like a big old high modernist novel. Also, the way he creates this facile vocabulary with his line is impressive. Chris Ware does something like this, dictating a specific and unique way to read his pages, but with his work it’s a grind (a sublime grind) to get to that point. Mazzuchelli establishes a new grammar with ease.

Eugene Lim runs one of my favorite presses, Ellipsis. But what I want to talk to somebody about is Eugene’s own book, Fog & Car. It’s this piece of domestic realism that left me feeling really uneasy and sad (and never for a moment brought to mind either Raymond Carver or Bobbie Ann Mason). I want more people to read it so I can talk to them about it. 

Anthony Bourdain has me thinking these days. I didn’t see it coming, but that guy can write. And make you consider food. And not just in the Michael-Pollen-what’s-the-political-importance-of-what’s-on-my-plate fashion. I used to watch his show sometimes and I wasn’t sure if I liked him. Then I read his first book and I thought that was some good entertainment. Then I read his new book and his blog and everything else and I realized that this guy has opened up a new critical avenue for me.

What’s next for you? 

I’ve just finished a few new projects and have a few strange books coming out this year. I’m thinking the next thing I let take over my life is a collection of comics. I want to do stories – with beginnings and ends. And let them come out as full-on comics – words and letters sharing the page. Probably won’t happen that way, but we’ll see.