Creating Comics!

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Creative Process

I was born thirty years too late. I spent my formative years listening

solely to oldies music and watching Nick at Nite TV shows from every

other decade but my own. (No parental influence there: I’ve always

been just about as clean and straight-edged as they come, and I

enjoy surrounding myself with anything that is as simple and positive

as I am.)

So it’s no surprise that I’m not a fan of this Internet generation.

From cell phones to emails, there’s no privacy anymore, and not

much time to slow down to appreciate life as it passes us by on the

“information superhighway.”

I decided to vent all my frustration—ironically enough—on the

Internet, in the form of my latest webcomic, Stalker Boy! Everyone

today has the power to become a stalker—from the social networks

of Facebook and MySpace, to watching embarrassing clips on

YouTube, to Googling the name of a person of interest, it’s quite

easy to get information on just about anyone and his pet.

Stalker Boy! is a strip that I was inspired to create from my own

history of personal Internet stalkers, and the generally creepy guys

that have crossed my path. It’s a way of poking fun at anything that I

want to about the technological age that we live in and how people

are changing to accommodate it all. As the world changes, I’m hop-

ing that the consistency of this strip will help keep me on the path of

sanity and reason.

My greatest passion in art is creating one- or multipanel comic

strips. I think in terms of panels; my life is one open Bristol board,

and the people I know are the characters. Gag comics are the most

fun to create and to complete because they are just a quick visual

joke with a caption.

N

ative New Yorker Chari Pere graduated valedic-

torian from the School of Visual Arts in 2007 with

a B.F.A. in cartooning. She was the first female

cartoonist speaker to represent the SVA undergraduates at

the Radio City Music Hall commencement exercises.

Pere’s numerous awards and scholarships include the Visual

Arts Foundation Scholarship, the Charles and Marie Egnasko

Scholarship, and the Archie Goodwin Memorial Scholarship.

Title: Stalker Boy!

Media: Pen on paper, Photoshop

A current project, The Ultimate Unboring Jewish Calendar!,

has earned her an SVA Alumni Scholarship and an Emerg-

ing Jewish Artists Fellowship from NYU’s Bronfman Center. A

former MAD Magazine intern, Pere sold them an article that

was printed in the July 2007 issue.

She has completed two coloring books for the website

www.learningaboutdiabetes.org, and has had her work

published in the Friends of Lulu’s anthology, The Girls’ Guide

to Guys’ Stuff. She has cochaired monthly Cartoonists’ Round-

table meetings at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art

since July 2004.

Chari Pere

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Creating Comics

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