Interviews Conducted by Robert J. Beck

What made you want to start a web comic?

I started a comic (before it became web) because I had always drawn comics, and because I was bored. Cat and Girl was the first comic I had ever drawn with recurring characters. I put the strip online in 1999 because a friend of mine suggested it - and because I was bored.

Why did you choose to use a Cat apposed to another animal?

"Kat" and "Girl" were the names of two female characters in an art film I watched in a college class. I drew the characters Cat and Girl when the lights came back on.

Do you ever find it hard to come up with a new idea for a strip?

Most of the time. But knowing you have no choice but to come up with *something* is a good motivator.
 
Are you a big fan of web comics yourself?

I am a big fan of comics, but I don't read as many as I should.
 
When you first started Cat and Girl, did you ever think he would become as big as he has done?

Cat and Girl has become more small-to-medium-sized than I ever could have imagined it being.
 
When was it you realised your comic would be able to support you financially?
 
I quit my part-time soul-sucking job at a hospital the year after Cat and Girl netted me a cool $3,000 dollars. The next year I was able to double that and live off of savings. The year after that my pre-tax income shot up to nearly $12,000, and it has been slowly increasing ever since. This is just to say - most people would not consider what I make from the comic to be making a living. But I keep on living nonetheless.

You have said that the main character isn’t based on you, is it based on anyone else?

I think anyone who creates characters bases them all on themselves. But Girl is no more me than the Beatnik Vampire or Bad Decision Dinosaur are. And yet they are.
 
Which character do you relate with more, Cat or Girl?

Maybe Cat is who I'd like to be and Girl is who I'm stuck being.

What is the process of actually making a strip?

Here is one process in pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/catandgirl/sets/72157601163368610/

Do you have a favourite strip that you've done?
 
Grace (http://catandgirl.com/?p=454) summarizes my philosophy of life so succinctly that I sometimes wonder what exactly I'm going to make cartoons about for the next thirty years.