Matt the Author
Who I am and what I'm doing on Substack
I want to take a minute to (re)introduce myself to Substack readers, especially those of you who have subscribed to me or followed me after finding my recent Foldy Comics post—thanks (especially to
for the Restack) and welcome!Read on to learn a bit about me and where I’m coming from—there are definitely enough links to help you pass the downtime over the coming long weekend!
I am a cartoonist and over the years I’ve developed a distinctive approach to creativity that I love to talk about and share (it’s why I started this Substack): instead of waiting for inspiration or a Muse, I give myself “constraints” — game-like rules or formal structures like: a comic that you can read forwards and backwards; a story where every page jumps ahead ten years in time; turning a game of tic tac toe into a comic, and so on.
I find that wrestling with these arbitrary and sometimes quite challenging restrictions helps me to generate art and stories that surprise even me. This is because I have to focus all my attention on problem-solving which that nudges me towards a state of deep, playful concentration which, I believe, is what people are aiming for when they talk about “inspiration” — constraints allow me to be inspired all the time.
Not incidentally, wrestling with a constraint helps you overcome the fear of the blank page by giving you marching orders before you put pen to paper. And once you start working, you are too absorbed with the jigsaw puzzle in front of you to be distracted by doubt or imposter’s syndrome or other hangups you might have.
If you want to learn more about working with constraints and why I find them so fascinating and valuable, you should read my post Thinking Inside the Box. I also highly recommend the extended conversation about constraints and comics I recorded with the 22 Panels Podcast a few weeks back.
For a few examples of the kind of constraints I think make a fun challenge, check out my posts on the Tritina Comic or the alphabetical constraint I call Alphabet City. Each of my posts has a "Give it a Try!” section where I explain the rules of a given constraint—if you are a teacher, I invite you to adapt however you like.
You may have gathered from my other posts (and the photo above) that I have a new book out. It’s called Six Treasures of the Spiral: Comics Formed under Pressure and it collects my best short comics from the last 25 years or so, all of them made using some kind of constraint. The book has a section in the back where I dissect all of the comics and share the constraint that I used and how I solved the problem of transforming these diagrams and conceits into fleshed-out short stories.
I hope you’ll ask your local comics or independent bookstore to stock my book. You can also order direct from the publisher, Uncivilized Books.
Oh, and not to bury the lede, but the book has a wonderful introduction by the Pulitzer prize finalist Ed Park!! (Go read Same Bed Different Dreams, which is now out in paperback).
The book I’m best known for is also steeped in constraints: in 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style I redraw the same one-page comics 99 times using different POVs, drawing styles, genres, and storytelling tropes. I expect a few of you reading this will be thinking, “oh, yeah, I know that book!” It’s been in print since 2005 and has been published in over ten foreign editions, the most recent being a Complex Mandarin translation published in Taiwan.
And if that’s not enough Maddenness for you, you can always explore my website for more information about me and my books, plus my archived blog which extends back to the mid 00s.
I intend to keep this Substack’s content entirely free but I certainly welcome and appreciate paid subscriptions. Paid subscribers have access to a monthly Zoom meeting with me where we discuss the latest constraints I’ve written about or that they want to share, plus they have access to my private Chat and the occasional bonus content.
I’ve been on Substack since June and I think it’s a great venue for me to share my thoughts about all this stuff. I’d love to hear from other Substackers who are working with constraints of various sorts. So far I’ve been unable to find any Substacks devoted to constrained writing, somewhat to my surprise.
I hope you’ll reach out if you’re working this way or if you know of other people out there who use rules or limitations in their work, whether writing, comics, music, or whatever else.
See you again soon.