Drawing Lines
We recently had a chance to sit down with fellow surfer and BeachNuts Comics creator, Mike Vincelli to find out what makes him and his homegrown cast of characters tick.
DS: Tell us a little bit about your process when it comes to creating the strips.
MV: First I down a six pack of Cherry Coke while my wife gingerly massages my drawing hand… I like to work wired and loose. No, I usually brainstorm my ideas out first and then write out whatever is on my mind (assuming my mind is working correctly that day). I write out about 10 skits and most of them are just plain poop.
DS: Really… I thought you would have started sketching first.
MV: Nah, I try to develop the story line first. The writing is really the meat and potatoes.
DS: So you see the art as secondary to the story?
MV: Kind of. There should be a balance between the art and the writing, and they both have to compliment each other. The artwork is important because it makes you wanna read the strip. It gives it sex appeal. Although, if it doesn’t get you off after you read it, then you obviously won’t want to come back. Dilbert, for example is a strip with poor art and excellent writing. The writing and originality of Dilbert is the whole reason for its success, and definitely not the artwork.
DS: Do you have formal art training or any sort of design background?
MV: Not really, nothing beyond a few studio art classes in high school and my second freshman year in college. I got sick of drawing boxes and other pointless exercises using inanimate objects. Although, I must say I prefer drawing the boxes over drawing naked people. Trust me, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I didn’t experience Zen in any of those nude drawing classes.
DS: Do you create art beyond the BeachNuts characters?
MV: Nah. I don’t really have the time to do anything else. Plus, I’m not that confident in my drawing abilities yet; I still feel like I’m not drawing well enough. Although, when I’m feeling cheap around the holidays, I’ll draw out some cards to give my family and friends. It saves me money on getting people gifts and sterile Hallmark cards. Hope my mom doesn’t read this interview.
DS: Is BeachNuts your first experience developing a comic?
MV: Negative. While I was at Rutgers I did a strip for the campus newspaper - The Daily Targum. It was a horrible comic strip called Kollegiate. It was a about college and just completely random. The strip didn’t make any sense whatsoever! I don’t even think one strip ever delivered a punch line. It was like some demented artistic experiment in absurdity. A complete disaster in my eyes, but it gave me some valuable experience.
DS: What did you study at Rutgers?
MV: Nerd alert! Mathematics. Don’t ask me why I chose that. I didn’t even get past Algebra in high school.
DS: 4 years of math – that sounds intense.
MV: Well my college career actually spanned eight years. (Laughs) Ridiculous right? I beat Van Wilder! I went to Brookdale College for some time, just farting around. I was too preoccupied with surfing. Actually started there on a surfing scholarship if you believe that. Then I thought I wanted to be a doctor, but after working as an E.R. tech in Red Bank, I decided that medicine wasn't for me (no, I wasn’t grossed out. Just didn’t like the bureaucracy). Then I did some time in the National Guard - that's when I started going to Rutgers. I got a B.A. in mathematics. Should be a BS, but Rutgers doesn’t give BS’s in math. Just plain old BS if you ask me.
DS: Where did you do your National Guard Training?
MV: Right on the beach in Sea Girt, where all the State Troopers train. Kinda reminded me of all the stories I’ve read about Trestles back when the Marines were there, just minus the waves and the marines.
DS: So what are you doing with all of those math skills?
MV: World domination… Right out of college I got hired by Fort Monmouth and do engineering work for the Army. I work with navigation technologies, like GPS. Most of my day is filled with answering emails, staring at computer screen watching the wave cams, dreaming of surf, and occasionally triangulating a vector or two. Fun stuff.
DS: Whoa! Sounds like very important work.
MV: (Laughs) It is. I’m glad to help soldiers not get lost.
DS: Right… Are you from the New Jersey area originally?
MV: Yeah, I grew up in bucolic Long Branch, and later my family moved to the country of Oceanport.
DS: Nice. so you started surfing a while ago?
MV: Surfing for 15 years and counting now… Took some time off last year. So I’ll say 14 years then.
DS: Explain.
MV: Well, I busted my back skating the pool at the Long Branch skate park. Not like I wiped out or anything, so don’t get any ideas! It was just an overuse injury that eventually popped out a disc in my lower back. It was so bad that I had to get surgery. That’s why I was out for a year. Sucked. No more pool for me. I’d rather hurt myself surfing.
DS: That must have been rough.
MV: Totally. I’m surprised I didn’t go crazy. I really poured myself into the comic strip thing, so that definitely helped me get through this dark period. Props go out to Joemac for believing in me and letting me start all this on his site.
DS: So it all worked out well then?
MV: Yeah, it’s super. Things worked out well. I’m part cyborg now and all my bones have been replaced with titanium alloy, so I shouldn’t ever break again.
DS: So what does the future hold for you and the BeachNuts?
MV: I’m not sure. I don’t plan on giving up my day job just yet, but it would be cool to make a living as a comic artist someday. For now I’m just focused on creating the strips and making some quality stuff. It’s enough to know that people enjoy the work… at least I think they enjoy it. I mean my MySpace page has a lot of peeps on it: Brad Gerlach, Fred Patacchia, Aamion Goodwin, Jesse-Merle Jones, Matt Keenan. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll do a coffee table book.
DS: Thanks for talking to us Mike and good luck!
MV: Thanks a lot! – Mike out.
Mike currently lives in Farmingdale, New Jersey with his wife, their dog and a pet ferret. His comics have been published in Garden State Surf, N’East Magazine, Our Wave newspaper out of Huntington Beach, CA and mentioned in ESM Magazine. Big Red Productions has also shown his strips on the silver screen previews for Surf Theatre in Huntington Beach, Manhattan Beach, Newport Beach, Laguna and Encinitas California. His strips are available online at BeachNutsComic.com. And keep an eye out for some the BeachNuts to make an appearance here at Duke Storm in ‘07.