Professor Lunchbox

So one of our resident artists of Denver Drink & Draw, Professor Lunchbox, will be the guinea pig for this interview column of the Cellar Door Blog. If the interaction .seems a bit stiff its because the interaction was strictly through email. I'll be conducting more dynamic Q&A's down the road once we get some more projects and collaborations underway. It is an exciting time for both the anthology and our community of artists and writers! So, without further ado, I present Professor Lunchbox:

Cellar Door: What do you draw?

Professor Lunchbox: I draw, paint, and make digital images (mostly in Adobe Illustrator) for print of people...sci-fi guys, elves, geeky lookin' dudes and a lot of pin-up gals. I also do graphic design stuff like logo designs and posters on the freelance end of things.

CD: Is there anything you would love to adapt? A book to screenplay? A movie to a comic? A fairytale to something?

PB: A story that Michael has yet to write...I'd like to adapt that into a short comic ;)  ... other than that I draw a lot of inspiration from creative works by others but I rarely ever think of using someone else's ideas to make art. I have too many of my own that I have yet to execute to spend my time reinterpreting other people's creations.

CD: Who are your strongest influences?

PB: That is a loaded question. I'm inspired by a lot of artists who do things similar to me. I'm a really big fan of Fafi (French graffiti artist), Adam Hughes (of course), Joe MAD!, Hyung-Tae Kim, Joe Chiodo, the amazing creative staff at CAPCOM (they've been inspiring me since I was like 10), Humberto Ramos, Mike Mignola and as of recently I'm really into Olivier Coipel though my absolute favorite of all time has to be Alphonse Mucha. Beyond that music always plays a strong role in keeping the creativity flowing...and I'm big into animation and movies...and video games of course. They all keep creative ideas going in without having to just look at drawings for inspiration.

Lastly I'm very inspired by the Works of the Mighty Boosh and friends (Noel Fielding, Julien Barret, Richard Ayoade, Matt Berry, Michael Fielding, Dave Brown, Rich Fulcher and the crazy dude who plays Garth Marenghi). They may do comedy and TV but their Wu-Tang style comedy troupe is such a great idea. They often work in small groups and always shift up who's working with who...I think there is a lot of strength in that...I hope to build something like that out of the Drink & Draw.

CD: What are some of your favorite books (comics, of course, are included)?

PB: His Dark Materials, Harry Potter, anything by Phillip K. Dick (more movies are based on his books than most people realize), Batman, 100 Bullets, The Goon, Hellboy, Artemis Fowl, The I Ching, The Tao (my favorite philosophical book) and the Hagakure.

CD: What music (if any) do you listen to while you work?

PB: Artists who like to change their style inspire me a lot though I tend to stick to mine. Tricky, DJ Shadow, Buck 65, David Bowie, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and EL-P are some of my favorites. I really like the high synth electro scene right now too: Daft Punk, Kavinsky, Mux Mool, Royksopp and so on.

CD: Do you have a webiste or some work I can plug on the blog?

PB: My website is www.professorlunchbox.com...it is about to be updated in the next few weeks so be sure to keep a watchful eye on it! My facebook profile is currently under my name: Benjamin Givens.


(The art displayed in this blog was created by Benjamin Givens aka Professor Lunchbox. If you like these make sure you check out his site or come and visit Denver Drink & Draw at Leela European Cafe on Tuesday nights)