2025 Special Guests
Blue Delliquanti is a comic artist and writer based in Minneapolis, MN. From 2012 to 2020 Blue drew and serialized the Prism Award-winning science fiction comic O Human Star. Blue is also the creator of graphic novels and novellas like Meal (with Soleil Ho), Across a Field of Starlight, and Adversary. They teach comics courses at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
MILK Artist Interview
Comics take a lot of time–how do you balance making comics with life obligations and adventures?
Start developing a sense of how long certain steps of the comic-making process take you, and when you’re a rut, step away from the desk and do some dishes. If something is taking longer than you know it would typically take for you, that’s a sign that your brain needs a reset. Over time, you can plan your schedule to anticipate these away-from-desk moments, and plan chores or errands or exercises at those times. You’ll feel less frustrated that way, because everything will feel necessary to your process.
Stepping away from the drawing desk is also important for your life as a whole. Construct a life for yourself in which you have hobbies, interests, and friends beyond reading or making comics, and you will find you have more things to make comics about, or which change your priorities as an artist. Explore the city you live in, take up weightlifting, volunteer at a food shelf or pet shelter, talk to people who have a very different job than you. It’s more fulfilling than ending every day with video games.
Are there certain goals someone should reach before they are ready to be published?
I personally believe everyone should take a crack at self-publishing something to get familiar with the planning and labor involved at a larger operation, and it’s only gotten easier to execute a modestly-sized project with the resources available. A comic artist can learn how to lay out their pages for print, talk to the folks at their local print shop, get a buddy to spell-check their work, budget enough time in their schedules to look at a few rounds of proofs, and figure out how to make their lineart and colors look good on paper. Understanding what goes into making a book will improve your experience with the publishing team members who will work with you someday, and give you a broader idea of what skill you’re truly capable of.
What do you like most about comics?
A common misconception I hear from people is that comics are like films, only on paper (These are the same people who tend to make comics as pitch documents for some Hollywood project). And the thing is, comics are a much more active medium than film – the reader is supplying a lot more to the story they see on the page. They’re filling in the blanks between images – they’re supplying implications, sensory details, and what’s going on beyond what the artist has drawn. Comics are much more like live theater in that way, and your readers have a much stronger connection to what you’re making as a result, because it’s like you’re all sharing a room together.
What are your comic goals for the future?
I started in webcomics, both reading other people’s passion projects and making my own. Even though I’ve made more print-forward work in the last few years, there are some things about the culture of classic webcomics that I genuinely miss. I would like to work on a project that *could* be collected in print someday, but gives readers the opportunity to explore a website (as opposed to just getting social media updates) and commune with fellow readers on update day. I would love to work on a digital comic where those are intrinsic parts of experiencing the comic.
Maggie Umber paints, prints, and programs graphic novels and zines. She’s published four graphic novels — Chrysanthemum Under the Waves, Sound of Snow Falling, Time Capsule, 270°. Her work has been widely anthologized. Chrysanthemum Under the Waves was nominated for a 2024 Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel and excerpted in the Ignatz Nominated Rust Belt Review vol.6.
MILK Artist Interview
What are some unique resources and tips you’ve learned since getting published?
If you can afford it, buy a printer. Print your comics, prints, business cards, and posters in-house. Design each item to minimize the amount of cutting and binding. Diversify your income streams to reduce risk. Make money off the same comic as many ways as you can. When you’re shipping make sure to pack books well so they don’t get bent or wet. Get a library card and read widely. Learn bookkeeping and keep good records. Don’t depend solely on social media. Have a website that’s not hidden behind a walled garden. Learn to code. Build and maintain your website yourself.
What advice would you give to your younger self when you were first starting out in comics?
Don’t take it personally if agents or publishers pass on your comic. They have limited resources and they know what they can sell to their audience. If you believe in it, do it yourself! It’ll advance your career to work with publishers, but you’ll make more money self-publishing. I think the best strategy is to do both. At the very least, get into anthologies and reach out to distros and shops. However, when you do books with a publisher, they can reach places that a self-publisher can’t. There are award committees, reviewers, podcasters, readers, and shops who won’t take your book on unless it’s published. On the flip side, if you self-publish you can put out books a publisher would never touch. And you can design and market them in a way that a publisher couldn’t and make them entirely unique.
Comics take a lot of time–how do you balance making comics with life obligations and adventures?
When you’re working, listen to your body. Modify your agenda so that you can sustain your output. For instance, I do a lot of touring, but I don’t attend after-parties or go to readings (unless I’m reading). I have chronic diseases. Unfortunately, I don’t have the energy to be super social and stay healthy. It’s okay to say no when you don’t have the spoons. Take weekends and nights off. Take vacations. Spend time with non-cartoonists. Get out of your bubble so you can take a real break.
How did you start trying to find a publisher/agent?
My only experience doing graphic novels with a publisher was when I co-founded a publishing company. If you have no luck or no clue or no interest in getting a publisher or agent, consider starting a publishing company. It’s the equivalent of getting a PhD in comics. These days, I self-publish full time. I use the years I spent as a comics publisher every day.
How do you go about designing an entire page of your comic?
I watch where my eyes wander. If I read the page in the wrong order, I try different things until it works. I cut the words if the image is doing the job of the text. If an image is illegible I redraw it. Also, throw out unnecessary pages. That being said, I’m open to a wide measure of ambiguity!
Are there certain goals someone should reach before they are ready to be published?
Make comics before you make graphic novels. This gives you room for experimentation. Learn the language of comics, design and marketing. Table at zine, comic and book fests. Give readings, panels and workshops. Watch how people interact with your work, talk with them. You’re more likely to be of interest to a publisher if you have experience putting yourself out there and you have an audience. A few people manage to skip steps and publish a successful graphic novel first. But they don’t have connections in the community or knowledge of what other cartoonists have done. So no matter when you get there, you still have to educate yourself on how to be a cartoonist.
Any tips or advice for successfully funding and advertising a project/Kickstarter?
[If you have experience with funding and self publishing] Marketing is telling a story about you and your project. Tell the story! Do as much outreach as you can handle. Make a list of every reviewer, shop owner, and podcaster you can think of and reach out to everyone who seems compatible with what you do. Do this early. Start years ahead of time if you can.
What do you like most about comics?
I love the flexibility in the definition. Its a fairly young medium, and it also relates to a lot of older mediums so the possibilities for inspiration are endless. I love that there is space for experimentation and self-publishing in comics.
What was the best piece of advice someone else has given you?
I read an online article by an artist who said to throw your hat in as many rings as possible. You’ll always have things to look forward to even when some things don’t come to pass. I put this into practice every day. My friend, Jeffrey Yamaguchi, runs a book marketing business. He was my inspiration for marketing my first self-published graphic novel, Chrysanthemum Under the Waves. He told me to do all of my outreach to reviewers and stores early and to pick a pub date. I’d never picked a publishing date before! He encouraged me to reach out beyond the comics community as well as within it which is how I ended up with a Stoker Nomination.
How do you overcome a creative slump?
You’re probably burned out. Give yourself permission to do nothing. Your ideas will come back when you’re rested. Or learn how to do things that are not comics. It might remind you of how much you’d rather be making comics or it might reset you and give you ideas! It might give you another income stream or a fun hobby.
What are your comic goals for the future?
To sustain my career, to self-publish more books, continually redefine myself as an artist, become a better writer, refine my skills as a book designer, become more confident working with off-set printers, to maintain good relations with the communities I work in.
MILK Artist Interview
What advice would you give to your younger self when you were first starting out in comics?
I think just making mini/short comics and trying to put something out there if you’re interested in it. Doesn’t have to be super substantial to be fun.
How do you go about designing an entire page of your comic?
I try to think a bit basic about it and think of it like a movie scene and how I’d like the camera to move from spot to spot as it progresses. Also thinking how someone would read each panel and how that would flow into the next panel or page.
What is your favorite step in the comic making process?
I like the inking process a lot, love adding detail and getting things right. Also when it’s done I usually Riso print it, so I really enjoy that process a lot as well.
MILK Artist Interview
What’s your best advice for someone looking to get published, but unsure where to start?
Start small. Start by focusing on self-publishing and going to shows. Share your work with other artists and publishers whose work you feel a connection to. Give yourself time to figure things out! What do you want to do? How do you want to do it? These are questions that need to be answered as you move forward. The best way to answer them is by making work – a lot of work – and seeing where it takes you.
What made you want to [traditionally] publish your works? [Instead of Kickstarting, self-publishing, etc]
I had a friend who started a publishing company (Tom Devlin at Highwater Books). After nine years of self-publishing King-Cat, I had a longer story (Perfect Example) that I thought might work as a book, so I approached him about it, and that’s where my North American book collections started. Later, Tom and I both moved to Drawn and Quarterly and twenty years down the road they’re still my publisher. I’m super grateful to them for making books of my work, but at the same time I’ve never wanted to stop self-publishing. As a person who came out of punk, and the zine world, the traditional publishing model has always been something that I do as a corollary to my main focus, which is self-publishing King-Cat.
How do you overcome a creative slump?
I’ve learned that things go in cycles. Sometimes you are naturally really productive, sometimes you slow down. I use those slow moments to focus back on being in the world and having experiences I can write about later. Or I’ll use that down time to read books, watch movies, immerse myself in other people’s art. That can be really fulfilling and inspirational! Mostly I don’t try to force things. Just keep things natural and allow the art to gestate at its own pace. For me, forcing things usually leads to regret. That said, sometimes you have a project and you just need to knuckle down and get the work done.
