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37 Darkly Humorous Comics That Illustrate Surreal Stories, By Alex Gamsu Jenkins
Interview With ArtistAlex Gamsu Jenkins is the master of surrealistic comic art who creates deep but somehow absurd, unsettling, and yet very interesting illustrations. Some might be easier to interpret, and some might make you wonder for hours. Either way, we are sure you will be intrigued by his newest ones.
Alex's wordless stories are accompanied by the vivid artwork that continues to hook 526K Instagram followers. His artwork has garnered attention from prestigious platforms like the New York Times, BBC, and Vice. The artist previously shared: "I knew that I had a bit of talent when drawing. But things developed, and a career path became much clearer when I first did an evening cartooning course, then an art foundation, and then a BA in illustration."
From then on, Alex began challenging the status quo, making us question reality.
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Alex shared that prior to becoming a comic artist, he worked in a lot of jobs like at a supermarket, gardening, or call center. We asked if any of his previous jobs had an influence on his art.
Alex wrote: “Absolutely. I feel working these jobs had a massive influence. Around that time I had completely stopped making any art since I was a child. I didn’t draw anything from the age of 12 till I was about 22. During that break, I was particularly unfocused and didn’t know what direction to take in terms of a career. I worked these jobs, like mentioned, the supermarket, and I was also fairly frustrated by the mundanity of it all. When it came to me rediscovering my drive for drawing again, I felt the work flowed out of me at the time, due to all that pent-up frustration! The boredom and lack of direction helped me to gain wind in my sails and give me an initial push. Also, another thing was I never really felt I was any good at these jobs, so with art, I at least felt there was some talent deep down in there.”
We were wondering if the artist himself had a favorite comic that he created. Alex shared: “Yes, of course. The ideas I find are my favorites are the ones that probably feel the least labored to think up and an idea just comes out of the blue and really quickly. For example, these 2 I made for the Adult Swim website, I knew I had pressure to make something and fortunately, 5 minutes into sketching the idea was set and ready to be finalized. Whilst much of the time I feel I can be stuck on something for days, or just endlessly sketch but struggle to make the idea clever. So my favorites are those comics where the moment just clicks with little pressure.”
Oh, so THAT’S why I see a dark shady figure in the middle of the night but when I turn on my light it’s just my clothes…
There will always be people who won’t understand, criticize, or will give negative feedback. Alex shared how he deals with it.
“It’s a learning process, really. I’m pretty introverted as I’m sure a lot of artists are, and the idea of handing over my work in person for someone to validate or observe always filled me with dread or made me feel awkward. The internet and having social media has made the process of putting work out there in the world a lot easier and I can just upload something and then not feel paranoid by someone's facial expression when they look at my drawing! There are moments when a negative comment can still leave its mark, I can almost look over all the good ones and my attention will just focus on that 1 bad one which will cut deep. I think this is normal, though, just try and focus on the positive comments and if there is one that is negative, see it in a constructive light. Being self-aware is good.”
This is basically how I feel every morning when I wake up and pull back the blackout curtains XD
Next year, Alex has announced releasing a book. We asked what we could expect from it. Alex responded: “The book is a collection of comics from over the past 4/5 years. They were intended originally to be web-based but there is something satisfying for me to finally have some work in the physical real world.”
And lastly, Alex added: “Anyone who wants any advice or tips, etc., don't hesitate to get in touch and I can share anything I may have picked up along the way. Or maybe I can get some tips from you… cheers!”
I held my dad's hand as he passed away in 2021. I hope he was able to find some peace... or at least a beautiful, painless void.
Deep symbolism here. Gonna keep it abstract as the artist intended: Trying to escape from your real self will not work. Yes we're all equal but DIFFERENT. There's a difference there. You have to work with what you've got. I work as a mathematician today, (not a scientist, i use other people's work to make money for my boss), and even though I do firmly believe anyone can learn maths, excluding dyscalculia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyscalculia) which is the number version of dyslexia, most people just wont like it. They will never be as good at it as mathematicians who ENJOY it. And that's totally fine!!! For instance, I can't draw to save my fcking LIFE. 😣