Given the chance, Bored Panda asked Jody more questions. First, we asked the artist if he had any major influences in his life that might've helped him to develop and refine his style.
"I learned how to draw by taking night classes at the School of Visual Arts. Those classes, plus the last four years of drawing Earth To Planet, is how I developed my style. That style is still evolving.
My comedy is influenced by Gary Larson (The Far Side), George Carlin, Dave Barry, my former landlady, and the residents of my grandmother’s retirement home."
Art, in any kind of form, takes a lot of time not only to practice but also to produce, therefore we asked Jody how long it takes him to fully finish his comics.
"Coming up with a good idea can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. After I have my idea, I do some quick sketches. Then I draw the cartoon by hand, which takes 30-60 minutes. Finally, I scan the cartoon and color it with Photoshop. That usually takes 90 minutes.
In total, each cartoon takes 2-4 hours of work, not counting the ten prior years of creative rumination, existential dread, and, well, learning how to draw."
Being an artist is not easy, one can easily encounter a lack of inspiration, burnout, etc, so we wanted to ask Zellman about his ideas for the illustrations.
"If I’m guffawing with my pals, I try to take a mental note of what caused us to laugh. Sometimes that makes for a good comic idea.
Oftentimes I just sit at my desk and start with something fun to draw (Albert Einstein) and then I add a visual concept (Einstein looking frustrated) and finally I pair it with a nonsensical concept (Einstein is frustrated because he didn’t make a 30 Under 30 list).
I also recently learned that my girlfriend comes up with far better ideas than I do. Now if I can just get her to draw the damn things I could hang up my hat and roll in that sweet, sweet cartoon money."
As we mentioned before, sometimes creative work can cause quite a burnout, therefore we asked the artist how he dealt with that as well.
"As long as I’ve had 8 hours of sleep and a heaping bowl of kefir, I’m in a good mood. If I’m in a good mood I can come up with ideas. If I have a few good ideas then the comics flow. If there’s any disruption to that creative cycle, all hell breaks loose and I’m up at 1AM wailing and thrashing around questioning my existence and trying to draw something funny with minimal effort so I can finally rest my weary bones. Otherwise, no burnout."
We also asked Jody about how people reacted to his work.
"When the villagers amass outside the front gate with their torches and pitchforks, I know the day’s comic was en fuego. Generally, the only consistent reactions I receive are on social media and the responses range from 'boomer humor' to 😂 to 'I don’t get it.' Powerful stuff!"
The creative process is not easy, but there are many enjoyable parts to it.
"Sharing the cartoons. I don’t create cartoons so I can sit alone laughing manically. I create cartoons so other people can sit alone laughing manically."
We also were curious as to what pushed the artist to start an Instagram account.
"It was either comics or becoming a foot model. However, my feet look like hands and I wasn’t cut out for the life of a hand model. When I launched Earth To Planet in September 2017, Instagram was the best place to share visual art with a wide audience. Recently, it seems like Instagram’s algorithm is devaluing anything that’s not a temptation of the flesh, so I may fall back on foot modeling."
Artists tend to get motivated by a lot of things such as curiosity, the search for beauty, or even meaning. Therefore, we asked Zellman about that too.
"Humor, when executed tastefully, can help make the good times great and the bad times better. I draw cartoons because I’m motivated by the delusion that some people somewhere may find them funny and I think that’s worth something. My art is also motivated by a callous pursuit for wealth."
Digital art and art, in general, is not easy and requires a lot of patience, time, resources, and in most cases even money, therefore we wanted to know how the talented comic artist started his own career in digital art.
"I was a prolific ceramicist until the age of seven. After undergoing a personal renaissance (elementary school) I switched to doodling. That carried me into adulthood. I’m interested in other art forms like marble sculpture, fondant sculpture and sculpin sculpture but I’m sticking with drawing for now.
Drawing is like singing in that you can do it everywhere with minimal skill. That doesn’t mean anyone is going to like it, though."
