From The Daily Cal To The New Yorker: Q&A With Shannon Wheeler of Too Much Coffee Man

Artists frequently listen to music while working—is that something you do? Do you choose specific genres depending on the subject? What bands are you listening to at the moment?
I go through phases listening to the same music over and over again until I’m sick of it. Right now it’s magnetic fields.

Have you spent any time studying comic theory and history academically, or have you developed your method through observation/trial-and-error? (I’m referring to things like page/panel composition, style, story development)
I haven’t done anything formal but I sure have read the books. Eisner’s Sequential Art is still my favorite. It’s hands on and unpretentious.

Did you create the Too Much Coffee Man opera because you were an opera fan, or did your appreciation for opera come from that project?
I was approached by the composer DS Crafts to do the opera. I fought the idea for a few years until I had a dream with Too Much Coffee Man singing. I co-wrote the libretto and Crafts did the music. It’s original opera music, taken seriously (while still being funny). I liked some opera before I did the project but now my tastes have broadened considerably.

A character who looked much like Too Much Coffee Man did a cameo in an issue of Dave Sim’s Cerebus (#211, Oct ’96) —did Sim contact you ahead of time, or was it a surprise?
Total surprise. I started getting calls from my friends asking how I’d pulled that off. It was super flattering, though. I felt like I’d made it into a pantheon of sorts. I think Sim is one of the best comic creators out there. It’s a shame his personal politics have superseded the respect he deserves. I think that faults the superficial nature of the comic book audience.

© Dave Sim
Click image for larger version

You let TMCM write his own strip much the same way that Sim let Cerebus determine his own actions in the second half of that comic. Did you have faith that your character would lead you in the right direction, or was it an experiment? Do you plan to continue this method?
It’s lucky when it works that way. You also need to have a lot of faith to pull it off. I’d like to do more strips like that. It’s shooting for a small target—mostly you miss, but when you hit it’s a $100 prize.

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