Pushing Through the Struggle of Writing Stories: Jon Klassen Interview P.2

Episode 15 of Coffee Table Comics Podcast!
This is part 2 of an interview with Jon Klassen.
Jon Klassen is the creator of I WANT MY HAT BACK, THIS IS NOT MY HAT, and WE FOUND A HAT as well as a bunch more amazing books he illustrated in the list below.
Jon talks about how he figured out his voice as an artists. We talk about his early career in Laika and Dreamworks too.
Here are Jon's books on Amazon:
I Want My Hat Back: amzn.to/2q4dQpL
This is Not My Hat: amzn.to/2qt661o
We Found a Hat: amzn.to/2qUqrgb
The Dark: amzn.to/2q6TQAG
House Held Up by Trees: amzn.to/2q4hmAu
Triangle: amzn.to/2qtkabB
Extra Yarn: amzn.to/2r1mMcz
Pax: amzn.to/2q3Z96f
Sam and Dave Dig a Hole: amzn.to/2q3XRrJ
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Hi I'm Jason Brubaker. I have been self-publishing comics since 2009. My first book reMIND won the Xeric grant and got on the Great Graphic Novels for Teens List in 2012. I used to work at Dreamworks Animation doing Visual Development but I finally quit in 2015 and started doing comics full-time.

[@JacobMallach]

To be a 'fly on the wall' in this conversation has been inspiring. Thanks for sharing.

[@PublishedWriter]

It’s so good to hear Jon speak about the painful/negative side of writing.

[@TWVGH]

The back and forth with these talks is nice. You two have really made my think inward about what I'm doing and where I want to go with art.

[@donnationgco]

I can fully vouch on how characters can come to life and act outside of your control. I think that was what drove me to draw so much as a child. I would let my hand design and my brain fill in the story gaps. After the session, I'd come away with a backstory and a new world!

[@greylarkspur]

I love Jon Klassen's art and stories, they're very ethereal and enchanting. I feel like I could walk into the pictures and suddenly I'd be part of them, look like them, breathe like them.

[@sarahpeel2288]

Great interview, thank you Jon and Jason, so interesting and helpful. I'm currently asking myself a lot of the same questions. It feels like people want you to be everything to everyone and it is difficult to retain your own voice amongst the craze. I love the picture book world too and feel it is the right place for me, I love the process and the freedom of it. I LOVE Cat's Night Out, I take it to show everyone, it's hilarious!! I also find illustrating comes more naturally and feel I overwork my writing, driving it into the dust is a great analogy. It's so true that as the characters develop they have a life of their own. I'm glad to hear other artists experience this too! I think they come to life as they are realised on the page. At this point they have essentially become real. They are no longer an idea in your head, they are a creation in their own right and they're out there in the world. Like a child, you have to allow them to grow and blossom.

[@trevor_nielson]

"I want my hat back" A child's first noir mystery. Hahahaha!