If You Don't Know Them You Should: Emily Flake
Name:
Emily Flake
Position Title:
Head Fuckup, Lulu Eightball HQ.
Let me start by saying that “I love you.” Now that we have awkward moment covered let’s move on.
Thanks. Will your love lead to flowers? If so I prefer the sort of meaty kind, like lilies.
Your work has made me pee myself. How does that make you feel?
They’re not my pants.
I too went to art school with a major in illustration. Look at me NOW! How, pray tell did you make it illustrating?
How much do you know about Santeria? How okay would you be knowing the things I did to that goat?
Did you go to art school? If so tell me about that?
I did. I went to the Maryland Institute, College of Art. I hear that they have since dropped that comma, which chaps my ass a little. It was a good school. I love Baltimore with all my heart.
What mediums do you use most frequently in your work?
Acrylic ink and good, smooth, heavy paper – preferably Arches 140# hot press or Borden and Riley Bristol Plate. For my illustration work, same stuff plus coffee, other ink, sometimes watercolor, sometimes I experiment with paper.
Where does this dark, self-deprecating sense of humor come from?
Ask my fucking family.
When was Lulu Eightball born?
June, 2002. I think it was 2002. Pretty sure. I think I’d just turned 25 so that sounds right. And I think it was after 9/11 but that makes one gag I tried to run make even less sense.
How much of Lulu is You-You?
About 80%-80%. She’s a lot smarter than I am.
What comics (past or present) make you pee?
Zach Kanin is fucking boss. Jeffrey Brown, when he’s funny, is really funny. And you know what? James Thurber really was a fucking genius. And Tim Kreider, who sadly has retired.
What artists, illustrators and people inspire you?
Oh, God, too many. Charley Harper and Fernanda Cohen are two people I’d give my right, uh, ventricle to draw like.
So you ‘keep in real’ in the city yes? What’s your favorite thing about living there?
Not so real as all that. I live in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which is more or less Sesame Street. There, I’m the bad element. My favorite thing about my neighborhood is Jackie’s 5th Amendment, which is a bar. Surprise surprise.
What would you change society right now?
FUCKING HEALTH CARE, PLEASE. Also these tea-bag patriot town hall whosiwhatsits are making me want to pull my own brain out of my ears.
Zombies, the gateway to the apocalypse or silly fodder for entry-level directors?
As a concept, the latter. But if they appear for real, the former, definitely.
Serif or Sans Serif? Sorry, I’m a terrible font whore, it’s a curse.
Depends completely on the project. I can serve two masters. Futura is my go-to love, but I also heart Stefan Sagmeister, so there you go.
What’s the future of the comic strip? It seems that they keep getting smaller and the coupon wrap around are getting bigger. I have too weed through half a fucking tree just to read Snoopy for Christ sake! Sorry, you were saying?
Can’t hear you through the tears. It’s a fucking funeral out there.
How has technology affected what you do?
Can’t hear you, too busy making out with my beloved, beloved iMac.
To all the creatives in the world – how do you generate ideas when the well is low?
Seriously, I sit and stare and feel nothing but shame and despair for hours on end. I guess that counts more as the putting off of the pain of really looking or trying and coming up with nothing – but it is painful and awful all the same. But I also read, I take walks, I try to move around, I look at things that give me the same feeling I want to evoke. Then I cry some more.
What are you most proud of in your career?
That it exists at all, knock wood knock wood.
If you weren’t here, you'd be doing?
Ideally I’d be working for the MTA as a train operator or for myself as a plumber. But more realistically I’d be bouncing around the ever dwindling world of office jobs, doing something that ostensibly involved “sales.”
Create a new superpower for yourself.
The ability to prowl around in subway tunnels without being harmed in the least or arrested, I guess that would involve seeing in the dark, too. Also, knowing at all times what people really think of me. I don’t need to know their other thoughts, fuck ‘em. What did you say?
Bio and Social Media Links you wish people to connect to at:
Website Address: www.eflakeagogo.com
Blog Address: I don’t so much – there’s a “news” section on the site though.
Twitter/Tumblr: guuuuuuuh no.
Facebook: yes, I don’t have a FB URL but search Emily Flake, I’m the one that’s, uh, me.
Linkedin Account: You know what? I cannot for the life of me access that account. It keeps saying it’s sending me a new password and then not. Apparently people wish to connect with me, and I am unable to make this happen.
Email Information Emily@eflakeagogo.com
Thank you for your time and consideration.
No no, sir, thank you.
...
She's not going to pimp her books, but I damn sure will!