Thank you Alex Hallatt, Finding Dee Fish, Joey Hachtman, Dan McConnell, Nathan Fox, and many others for tuning into my live video with Margreet de Heer! Join me for my next live video in the app.
A recap of my chat with Margreet de Heer about crowdfunding scams, theology, & the danger of drawing in bed…
Margreet de Heer is a brilliant Dutch comic artist and the former Comics Laureate of the Netherlands. She spent three years acting as an ambassador for the medium, literally compiling guides to help teachers get graphic novels onto high school reading lists. She is also someone who intimately understands the frantic reality of a creative life.
The Court Jesters & the Freedom Fighters
Margreet and I talked about the bizarre cultural divide in cartooning. In Australia, people generally look at comic artists like we are overgrown toddlers playing with crayons. It is treated as a silly little hobby. But if you take a train to France or Belgium, comic artists are treated like absolute rock gods.
I told her about a cartooning conference I went to in France called RIDEP. I was standing in a room with cartoonists from Tunisia, Sudan, and China. They had been exiled or forced into hiding for drawing anti-propaganda cartoons against dictatorial regimes. They were actual, literal freedom fighters. I draw jokes about talking dogs. I realised very quickly that I am more of a court jester. It was a profoundly humbling reality check.
Making a living as an artist requires you to constantly ask people for money, which is something most cartoonists are fundamentally terrible at doing. Margreet is an expert in crowdfunding, having run multiple successful campaigns in Holland to bypass the traditional publishing gatekeepers.
Check out her latest campaign on Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/margreetdeheer/build-and-play
And her Zoop project here: https://zoop.gg/c/philosophy
The Kickstarter Scam…
But she recently got targeted by a very clever, highly sophisticated Kickstarter scam. Scammers will pledge a massive amount of money to your campaign just to get your attention. Then, they send a highly convincing email from a “notification bot,” claiming your account is suspended, and your money is frozen. They provide a link to steal your credentials. Margreet described it as the digital equivalent of being lured away from a busy high street into a dark alley. We are already sweating over our drawing boards; we do not need thieves making it harder.
Related viewing:
My interview with the Founders of Zoop:
Theology and Annoying Mrs Lee
Margreet has a fascinating background. She originally flunked out of school because she hated the technology, so she pivoted to studying theology at the University of Amsterdam. Both of her parents are ministers, so it was in her blood. While she was there, she drew a comic for the faculty paper called The Adventures of Jesus. (Which sounds like the working title for The Bible).
I completely related to her fascination with religion as a storytelling mechanism. I went to an Anglican high school, and I used to infuriate my Bible study teacher, Mrs Lee. I would sit in the back, drawing cartoons and interrogating the text with the obnoxious persistence of a discount detective. I just wanted to know how the plot holes were resolved. Mrs Lee did not appreciate my feedback. She hated me.
The 3:00 AM Eyeball Hack
The absolute most valuable thing I took away from our chat was a neurological trick for my broken, sleep-deprived brain. We were talking about meditation and dealing with anxiety, and Margreet told me about an EMDR-style hack she uses when she is trapped in a rumination loop.
If you want to read about my annoying high school Bible study questions, a completely bizarre neurological hack to cure insomnia, and the absolute hazard of using a dip pen in bed, consider upgrading to a paid subscription for just $1 a week. It keeps the ink flowing & Morris fed.
