by Jayden Leggett, “Aussie Dave” Lobato and Tanya Lobato, Reporters

Before we experienced the awesomeness that was Melbourne’s Oz Comic-Con, the Aussie ComicsOnline team was lucky enough to score an interview with the adorable Agnes Garbowska, a comic artist who’s bubbly happiness made her an absolute joy to talk to. Read on to see what we mean.

ComicsOnline: You have a very unique art style, is this something that you have developed over time or have you always drawn this way?

Agnes Garbowska: Actually I used to be more of a pin-up artist, so I did some of the more mainstream stuff when I first broke in, but I actually did my layouts a lot of the time in that mini-style, so that’s actually where that style developed, it was the way I did my layouts. Francis Manipul, my boyfriend, he’s like “Hey you know what, that looks really cool, why don’t you try drawing that way?” and I’m like “No one’s going to like it, I like it but no one else is going to like it”. Boy was I ever wrong! But it makes me happy and I love making others happy, especially kids, so I started developing my style towards more cute art, which made me really happy, and it made everyone else happy around me so I just continued drawing and it kept evolving from there.

What inspired you to become an illustrator, did this desire begin at an early age?

Well I immigrated to Canada from Poland. When I first moved to Canada I couldn’t speak the language, so I couldn’t go to school right away. So mum’s like “Here’s a piece of paper, here’s something to draw with, just go watch cartoons”. So I actually learned how to speak English watching cartoons, and cartoons actually helped me to start drawing because I was inspired by what I saw on the TV. So not only was I learning a language but I was being creative at the same time. I just kept turning to drawing as I got older and I loved it, it was a great way to express myself, so I continued at art through high school and college. I didn’t think I would go in to comics, I just knew I wanted to tell stories somehow. Then I started going to comic conventions and I was like “Wow this is really cool!” So I just decided why don’t I give comics a shot? I’ve loved it ever since, I just love telling a story, any way I can tell a story really makes me happy.

Were you one of those kids who would run out of paper and start drawing on the walls? Was there any way to stop you from drawing?

Well I tried other mediums, like I tried hairdressing. I tried to give myself haircuts as a kid and my mum’s like “No I’ll take away the scissors and give you back a crayon”. I was pretty good at keeping it on the paper but I went through paper like mad. My teachers in grade school hated me, because you know how when you hand in quizzes or notes, I kept doodling on the sides. I got in so much trouble, I had so many marks deducted and they were like “Just stop it!” but I couldn’t help myself, I just always wanted to doodle and draw, so any little corner of the paper got filled up with drawings!

According to your website you are a bit of a gamer?

Oh yes I had to cut down on gaming recently just because of my workload, but man I love gaming. I can’t play role-playing games anymore because I get too addicted. Now I only play first person shooters because I get all of my aggression out and it’s pretty fun sneaking up behind someone and shooting them in the head or something like in Gears of War or Halo, I love those kinds of games. I’ve been avoiding games altogether because I have no time for them and I know that once I get my hands on a game there’s no stopping me, I’m hooked on it for a good twenty-four hours before I could put it down no matter what it is. I’m waiting until my workload calms down a little bit because I always put too much on my plate, because I’m like “Ooh I want to do this web comic! Ooh I want to take on this project!” so I have this habit of overloading myself because I just love what I do, but the next game I want to get my hands on is Lego Batman 2. Oh my gosh that looks amazing, Catwoman and Poison Ivy look just so adorable in it!

Maybe you can see if they will let you do some of the art for Lego Batman 3?

I wouldn’t be complaining! I’m a huge DC fan. I’m a huge comic fan in general, I grew up on comics and I just loved it so now I’m just so happy to be in the industry.

What’s your favourite comic?

You know what, that’s a hard one because it changes all the time. I grew up on Rogue so I just loved everything Rogue. Right now I’m going through a little bit of a Thor obsession, I go through these phases where I pick up everything with that character, I read the comics and Olivier Coipel is one of my favourite artists, his Thor is just like “Oh my gosh!” And I like Adventure Time, because it’s just trippy and fun, and We3 is one of my favourite comics of all time, it’s a darker story but it’s just an amazing book. Anything that tells a good story with good art, I’m there!

We’ve seen some of your koala superhero drawings online, they are ridiculously adorable!

I can’t believe what a hit those were, I did it for fun because I’m like “I feel like drawing a koala” and I just Twittered about it and all of a sudden everyone went berserk so I’m like “Ok, koala drawings it is, I don’t mind!” I just said that my only goal here is I have to somehow get to meet a koala… once I meet one I’m happy! I found out they’re actually bringing out a little mini zoo to the convention, so I’m kind of having a freakout because the koala’s coming!

When you do these conventions do you get the opportunity to mingle with many other artists or writers?

Oh yeah that’s one of the highlights of doing these shows, just meeting other artists and other creators and other editors because what other chance do you have to meet them? So I really take the time, at least an hour of the show to walk around and see what other creators are there because other creators inspire me, and they inspire me to try new things, so I always make sure to walk around the artist’s alley. Sometimes I don’t even care about checking out the rest of the show because I know I will come home with toys, so I kind of try to avoid the rest of the show and I always make sure to check out the artist’s alley because there’s so much amazing talent and you meet so many artists and then hang out afterwards, like you never know who you’ll bump into at the bar for example. These conventions are just a great time to mingle, and meet fans. I love meeting fans, I love knowing what people like and getting to know them and knowing “What would they like me to do and me to draw?”. Everything about conventions just makes me really excited.

Well we will definitely be coming to your booth to meet you in person.

Yeah you won’t miss me, I’ll be the happy girl drawing cute koalas! With zombies. Koalas and zombies, because if you check out my stuff online too I have a little bit of a zombie obsession.

Did we by any chance come across a Wonder Woman zombie on your website?

Oh my gosh, that person who I drew the Wonder Woman zombie for, he comes up to my table and he’s like “I want you to draw me something you want to draw, something that makes you happy”, so I drew him this zombie Wonder Woman and his expression was priceless! He came to me two seconds later to draw him Grace from Aspen Comics (it wasn’t a zombie), so he got two pieces that day. I don’t think he really expected the zombie one, he said he was still happy but he was so shocked. That was one of my favorites from the day.

We noticed in the lead up to Oz Comic-Con you were taking requests for commissions, will you be able to do further sketches for fans during the convention?

Of course, I always have the chance to do sketches, especially for kids. Any kid that comes to my table will most likely leave with a sketch, I’ll be sketching the weekend away as always and it will be fun. I’ve already got emails from parents saying “Do you do free sketches for kids?” and I’m like “I will never say no to a child!” They’re so cute, so they know that all they have to do is come up to my table and say “Please!” and I’m like “Ok what do you want? I’ll do whatever you want!” Yeah I’m a softie, what can I say? But I love kids and getting kids into comics, get them started young because they’ll really enjoy it and they’ll grow up with something so much fun. When I grew up on comic books I thought it was the greatest thing ever, and every kid should get that opportunity, so I want kids to come to the convention, have a blast and remember it, and want to come back with their parents the following year. It can be something the parents and kids do together.You’d be surprised how many adults love those cute koalas too!

With regards to your work in comics, are there any projects that you are creating for yourself at this point in time?

Currently I’m working on four different web comics, and I’ll have some stuff from an indie publisher coming out later this year but as of right now I have my own three web comics on my main website AgnesGarbowska.com, which are ‘You, Me and Zombie’, ‘Imagination Station’ and ‘Waking Up Abbey’, and I’m also part of a web comic portal called Saturday Morning Webtoons, and I’m working with a writer on a comic there for all ages called ‘Boo Bear & Flo’, it’s a twisted fun story about a girl getting sucked into a vacuum to save her bear from the dust bunnies. My writer laughed at me about how even the dust bunnies kind of look zombie-ish, and I’m like “What can I say?” So there’s four different titles and there’s something for everyone there, it’s really fun.

As has been a slight theme with some of our interviews for Oz Comic-Con, Tanya would like to know what you believe happens to the missing odd sock?

I blame it on the zombie dust bunnies. It would make sense, those dust bunnies are pure evil I tell ya!

Make sure to constantly be sending your army of zombie dust bunnies over to ComicsOnline.com for more interviews, event coverage and everything geek pop culture!