In an interview with Bored Panda, Derek shared what has changed since we last shared his works.
“My last post was almost a year ago. The short answer is: my neck is more stiff. Rather than being replaced by AI, as I expected, I somehow had a lot of commercial illustration work (editorial, concept art, storyboards, some graphic design) - so much so that I haven't been able to keep up my usual pace with Bogart Creek. I'm grateful to be able to pay the bills, but I've missed doing my random cartoons.”
Derek also shared what a typical day is like for him when he’s working on a new comic.
He wrote: “There's ‘The Ideal Day’, and ‘The Busy Work Day’:
The Ideal Day: mornings are the best time to come up with new ideas, so I get up, put on music, make some black coffee, grab some 8x10 printer paper and a ballpoint pen, and draw. Assuming I'm happy with any of the concepts, I move to Adobe Fresco on my iPad Pro and draw the final art. Then I pop it into InDesign where I have everything templated (this makes it easier for when I output work for my books) and export it for social media.
The Busy Work Day: get up, draw for 30 minutes, then move on to paying work. Around 10pm I grab the iPad and work on the polished art until my eyes burn.”
As for deleted ideas, Derek shared why he scraps a lot of his comic ideas.
“I scrap at least 70% of my comics. Just because I find something funny doesn't make it so. As Stephen King said in his book On Writing, ‘Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.’ Meaning when you create your art, you entertain yourself. But when you edit your art, you're doing it with the audience in mind. I absolutely cannot predict what the audience will find funny (even after all these years) - so I ask them. Again and again. Each time I have 9 decent cartoons, I send out a survey to about 15 friends - a fairly diverse group with a diverse sense of humor. It may sound unromantic, but I'm always surprised to see my favourite jokes bomb while the ones I thought were weak hit the mark. I post the jokes that get the best responses (unless there's the odd joke that I just love despite what the 'critics' say).”
We were wondering if there was a time when the readers’ responses really touched Derek, to which he responded: “There isn't any gut-wrenching story or moment where my heart grew three sizes - but I always feel good when people say they laughed or loved a cartoon. To make someone I've never met laugh is pretty amazing. And even though I'm not great about corresponding, I do appreciate it when people take the time to tell me. The best cases are where someone's been having a bad day and they say ‘Thanks, I needed that’ (hopefully without sarcasm).”
Lastly, Derek added: “I know it's trite, but please support your favorite artists any way you can - whether it's just sharing their work, or paying a few bucks a month for their Patreon or Substack feed, or buying their books and other merch. Very few cartoonists live off their work, but they'd sure like to!”
