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Dan Perkins: Yesterday and Tomorrow part 1
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Pearl Jam with Dan Perkins (aka Tomorrow) courtesy thismodernworld.com
Is it good to have important friends or important to have good friends? In Dan Perkins' case, both.
Perkins (aka Tom Tomorrow, his pseudonym) lost a good chunk of his income when Village Voice Media, home to a dozen papers that published his weekly political comic strip, "This Modern World," decided to stop running all syndicated cartoons.
Instead of wielding a sword, Perkins chose a pen by calling friends living in the cities with weekly alt papers affected by the cutbacks. One of the cities was Seattle, and one of those friends was Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder.
Now, in a year that Perkins no doubt figured would be the usual: writing comics, working on a book, maybe upsetting a few conservatives along the way, this relatively obscure political satirist finds himself not only commenting on the news, but becoming news himself.
Between drawing the cover and liner notes for Pearl Jam's ninth studio album Backspacer, a subsequent Spin Magazine cover, and a brand new children's book (his first foray into the genre), Perkins talks with Examiner about the trials and rewards of being an indie cartoonist, his ultimate Pearl Jam mixtape, and unexpectedly finding his art in places he'd never imagine.
Examiner: I noticed your last three books are through three different publishers. This is a lot like Pearl Jam's last three records (Sony, J, Monkeywrench)
Perkins: I've had a run of bad luck with publishers. I had such an unpleasant experience with my last publisher I ran screaming away from them. The thing that made it really a joy working with Pearl Jam, the management, everyone around them, was that everyone really gave a damn about producing a good product.
Someone like me, someone low on the totem pole, the battle I'm always fighting is just to get a book out - something people in the art department don't give a damn about - it's just a thing on their desk. Once they clear it off, they're done and onto the next thing. For me, it's this book I have to live with for the rest of my life.
My current publisher (Ig Publishing), I love them to death. I've had some different experiences with other publishers though and that's what was so rewarding about Pearl Jam, everybody just wanted to do a good job.
Examiner: Your first children's book, The Very Silly Mayor (available now), what inspired it?
Perkins: The obvious answer - having a young child. Many children's books are kind of awful. (laughs) When you have to read them over many times your eyes just glaze over from the boredom.
As someone who's been working at the intersection of words and pictures for a long time, it was just a natural thing to do.
Examiner: Do you think there is something both children and parents can take away from the story?
Perkins: I do. I definitely set out to write a book that was genuinely for children, but I also wrote it so the parents have fun reading it over and over like you have to do with kids.
Examiner: To just wake up one day and find out you'd lost a big piece of your livelihood, how did you take the news?
Perkins: It wasn't a happy day. (laughs) I had always approached my career keeping my eggs in different baskets. I never wanted a job where one person could fire me. So I syndicated my cartoon out. What I didn't figure was all my baskets merging on their own. Over time, these papers consolidated and suddenly it turned out that one chain owned most of the major cities I was in.
I still am in a lot of papers and salon.com and just had the good news that I'm back in the Village Voice. (note, the paper in NYC, not the chain)
Examiner: Since you've designed posters for Pearl Jam and you did a one off show for Primus and The Melvins, who else would you want to work with?
Perkins: If Neil Young wants to give me a call I'm eager and waiting. (laughs)
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