Interview with The Evergreen Alumni Blog

The Evergreen State College alumni Blog, The Evergreen Mind, interviewed Ron Austin about our Bezango, WA project.  During the interview Ron talks about Lynda Barry, Matt Groening, Charles Burns, Megan Kelso, Chelsea Baker, Steve Willis, and other Evergreen & Northwest affiliated cartoonists.

Also included in their blog post is a Youtube video of an entire animation and comic panel discussion that took place at the college spring 2012.  It features Matt Groening, Craig Bartlett, Drew Christie, Tommy Thompson, Megan Kelso, Ruth Hayes, and Steve Willis. I've reposted a link to the Youtube video below.

Excerpt of Ron's interview from the Evergreen alumni blog:

Editor’s note: We caught wind that Ron Austin ’91 was making a documentary about Northwest artists, “Bezango, WA.” Recently we got hold of him and gathered a few of his reflections on cartoons and Evergreen. 

Dante Garcia (DG): How did cartooning become such a big part of your life?

Ron Austin (RA): My parents never bought a television. I grew up in Seattle during the 1970s and 80s listening to The CBS Radio Mystery Theater, hosted by E.G. Marshall, and reading comics. That was my main source of entertainment. Archie comics and super hero comics were a huge influence, and so were the daily strips in the Seattle P.I. and The Times.  I also read MAD Magazine and National Lampoon a lot. The artists behind those cartoons were like rock stars to me. I just assumed this is how everyone felt about comic artists.

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