I’ve known Matt Chic for a quite awhile. Before moving to New York City/Brooklyn, he worked at my local comicbook store for many years. In moving out east, Matt has been fortunate to continue both of his main creative passions – music and comicbooks. As he says, “Comics and drawing come first, but when I’m not in a band…something’s missing.” It can be hard though, to balance all his pursuits – “Out here, it’s much harder to do a lot – everything takes (travel) time – work, girlfriend, drawing, band…” Consequently – when he’s not working at the Strand, or practicing with his band, or spending time with his girlfriend – he ends up working some late nights on his comics. “I work on my comics best at night; don’t know why that is, but…”
Matt has been a comicbook fan for a long time. He mentioned, “I remember my mom driving me around to find The Long Halloween back-issues.” And those Long Halloween issues had a large influence on Matt, as the book’s artist, Tim Sale, became one of his top inspirations. When Matt is getting ready to work on a new project, “I like to review his work before starting, to influence my pages – but at the same time, I’m always trying to change and evolve my own style.” That list of artist favorites also includes Chris Bachalo, Pete Bagge, Mike Allred, Kyle Baker, Stuart Immonen, and Sean Murphy (“The stuff Sean’s drawing right now – it’s just not fair – he’s on a different level!”). He keeps the works of these artists close at hand – check the photos below of his work-space.
Matt may have a small edge up on most independent graphic-novelists. Having spent years managing a comicbook store, and working in a bookstore, he knows a bit more about “the biz” …and how challenging it can be to get a title in front of potential fans. He self-published his first graphic novel, “Egyptian Shumba”, and so knows which shops take consignments, which record stores, book stores, and comicbook stores. He also is aware of the importance of socmed (find him on Twitter HERE) – “I hope I’m not annoying, but I need to self-promote!”
For his second graphic novel – still in development – Matt’s hoping to work with a publisher, and has submitted his concept to a few publishers so far. If he was able to have that partnership, he’d have a lot more time to focus on the story and art – and make an even better graphic novel! This new novel of his – Matt plans to explore some new ideas and themes. “It’s not going to just be about these ‘slacker heroes’ that were in Egyptian Shumba. I want to give fans something different – possibly sci-fi, but fun and thoughtful.”
Before moving to New York City, Matt had visited it a few times. And while he liked other cites he traveled to, “New York was the one place I kept coming back to.” Like many people who move away from their hometowns, Matt has had to create a new network of friends and supporters. Matt’s been lucky in that he had a few friends out east prior to his move, and he’s become friends with his landlord. Good enough friends, in fact, that Matt joins the landlord and his family for dinner and poker every Sunday!
Like all the people I interviewed in New York – Mattie, Sonya and Balthazar – Matt knows that success will not come easy. I think he summed it up nicely when he said, “It’s hard to succeed at comics in NYC – there’s so much competition. It’s a struggle, but I’m aware of it. I know what I’m doing.”
