Grant is an American cartoonist, comic strip artist, writer, and orthodontist. His strips have been
featured in The New York Review of Books and The New York Times Magazine, and in books like The Shape of Ideas and I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf. His latest books are The Art of Living and One Boy Watching.

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Grant Snider

A closed book

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<h4>
 GRANT
 SNIDER
 began drawing and writing before he knew what he was doing. His comics
 have appeared in The New York Times Book Review,&nbsp;The Kansas City Star,&nbsp;The Best
 American Comics 2013, and all across the
 internet. You can explore his work at
 <a href="http://www.incidentalcomics.com/">http://www.incidentalcomics.com/</a>. Here he is interviewed by
 KASHISH KALWANI
 about what inspires him and brings him such success.
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 Q: So, Grant, how are you
 doing?



 GS: Good, I just
 got my daily run in, went through some puddles, my socks are
 wet. Good feeling for the middle of the afternoon here.



 Q: Nice. When I first saw
 your comics, I was curious about you – they are
 not necessarily humorous, but they are so relevant, so thoughtful. When I
 see the thoughtfulness behind your work, your intentional seeing of the
 world, it makes me feel very relevant, like, “Yes, I see you, and I feel
 you.” So could you tell us more about this style of comics?



 GS: Well, a lot of
 comics come from that first person perspective, basically
 because it’s easy to draw a single character moving through the panel and
 encountering the world. Over time, that’s how I started drawing them. It
 became like a conversation with myself in the form of my character avatar,
 walking around thinking deep thoughts or not too deep ones, coming up with
 various conflicts, usually internal, and hopefully resolving them by the
 last panel.



 Ever since I started in single comics in 2009, I’ve had the goal to draw a
 single page comic strip per week. And most weeks I have achieved that goal.
 I’ve done a few that are more than one page, some I don’t quite get to the
 page, but it’s been a nice recurring conversation with myself.



 It’s nice to hear you say that you can find some relatability in them
 because I don’t want to just be a solo conversation, you know?



 Q: Yes, absolutely. I know
 so many people from the Heartfulness community
 who follow your page on Instagram, and it’s fun to pick it up and share
 the comic with one another.



 GS:
 That’s much appreciated. It’s the cool thing about the internet – if you
 like something you retweet it, or send it to somebody on Facebook, or
 Instagram message, and it’s really powerful how social media can be a force
 for good if the artist’s message is worth sharing.



 Q: Truly, yes.


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 <img decoding="async" width="700" height="874" alt="" class="has-img-center lazyload"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/comic_joy2_325ffec609.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-26T07:55:01.576Z" />
 </figure>
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 I think with anything,
 like a
 writing practice, a meditation
 practice, a spiritual or non-spiritual
 practice, it’s really about
 consistency.
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 Q: I know you already
 touched upon one comic per week, but could you
 share more about your drawing routine? What does your process look like?
 



 GS: It really
 changes based on where I am in life. I used to cram it all in on
 a Saturday, when I had not as many work or family obligations. That got to
 be pretty exhausting. When my kids were a little bit younger, I would wake
 up really early in the morning, which you’ll see because a lot of the comic
 strips reference those early morning hours, like looking out the window to
 see the sunrise, because I was literally sitting at the drawing table
 watching the sunrise, you know, a couple cups of coffee down. And now that
 my work schedule is different, and my youngest child is two, so he’s not
 quite waking up at the crack of dawn anymore, I do more in regular hours, a
 few hours a day, a few times a week, which is much more mentally healthy.



 I really think it’s about finding that balance of the practice. It doesn’t
 really matter when I’m doing the work, it’s that I’m revisiting it and doing
 it consistently. I think with anything, like a writing practice, a
 meditation practice, a spiritual or non-spiritual practice, it’s really
 about consistency rather than, “Oh, I’m going to do this amazing thing once
 a month,” then the next month you’re not doing it at all.



 Q: I really like the word
 “consistency,” because even the Heartfulness
 meditation practice that I follow requires consistency. Even though it is
 recommended that we meditate for an hour every morning, if that’s not
 possible, it’s still good to show up for five minutes every day and be
 consistent about it. That works wonders.



 GS:
 It’s about showing up. I’m speaking mainly from a cartooning standpoint, but
 this could be applied to a lot of other practices. Some days, it feels like
 “Man, I really want to get to the drawing table.” I have so many good ideas
 that are bursting with possibility. Other days it feels like a chore. But
 inevitably, like I had to do yesterday, I sit through the drudgery until it
 eventually drops away. And even if it isn’t the most pleasant experience, I
 get a good day’s work done. Obviously, it’s more fun when it is joyous, but
 that’s not going to be every single time you show up. Unfortunately.


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<div class="block-image">
 <figure>
 <img decoding="async" width="700" height="923" alt="" class="has-img-center lazyload"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/comic_joy3_23914ae203.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-26T07:56:19.298Z" />
 </figure>
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 Something important is an
 openness to experience, to your own
 thoughts and feelings,
 and a willingness
 to share those
 thoughts and feelings with others – in
 my case through art, for others it might be a different form. I hope people see that
 attitude of openness and can be
 inspired by it in their daily life.
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 Q: I truly understand
 that.



 So what are your sources
 of inspiration? How do you sustain your
 motivation?



 GS: It depends on
 what kind of project I’m working on. To be generic about it,
 my sketchbook is the source of all the ideas. But what I put in my
 sketchbook varies.



 At times I’ll be into life drawing, so I’ll go out on my lunch breaks or on
 a weekend with colored pencils and do detailed drawings. And they eventually
 get filtered into the comics in a scene in a panel. Sometimes I’ll be
 reading an amazing book, and it’ll be like, “Oh, this is such a great
 insight, I need to put this down.” I’ll do a little spin on it, maybe have
 my character commenting on it somehow. That’ll work its way into a comic
 strip.



 Occasionally, it’ll be my daughter or one of my sons doing something
 ridiculous: “This is just too good, I have to make this into a drawing.”
 It’s finding those little snippets of interest in my daily routine,
 capturing them in the sketchbook and then taking that sketchbook with me
 later to the drawing table when I’m working. “Okay, what piece of this can I
 turn into a part of a bigger project? What is really speaking to me today?”



 And sometimes it’s a matter of combining things. I’ll have an idea from a
 couple years ago, with a spin on something I came up with last week, and
 together that makes something completely new.



 Q: I really like how you
 bring your kids into the process. How do they
 view you as an artist?



 GS:
 I’ve probably shared this anecdote before. My son Trent is eight and he’s
 really into comics. He always compliments my work and says he likes to read
 it, but then he puts a caveat, “Dad, you need to do something funny.” I do
 sometimes feel like I’m a little serious or lacking that sense of humor that
 I look for when I read comics. But I really liked that feedback, and I’ll
 try to put something funny in my next book, especially for Trent.



 Q: I love honest feedback.
 


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<div class="block-image">
 <figure>
 <img decoding="async" width="700" height="915" alt="" class="has-img-center lazyload"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/comic_joy4_37e0f4a2dd.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-26T07:57:39.996Z" />
 </figure>
</div>

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<h4 class="has-text-align-center">
 When people get busy with
 everyday obligations, a lot of times
 their art or their writing falls through the cracks and is
 lost. Just
 keeping that consistent routine of writing or drawing, of being alone with your
 thoughts, is a really powerful thing.
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 Q: What message do you
 hope people can take away from your comics?
 



 GS: I don’t want to
 limit it to a single message, but something important is an
 openness to experience, to your own thoughts and feelings, and a willingness
 to share those thoughts and feelings with others – in my case through art,
 for others it might be a different form. I hope people see that attitude of
 openness and can be inspired by it in their daily life.



 I’ve never thought about the broader reason why I’m doing it. I do get a lot
 of joy out of it, and I hope other people do too. Really, finding those
 small pieces of joy would be another overarching goal for my comics.



 Q: It’s wonderful that you
 have chosen happiness and joy.



 GS:
 Yes, and I’ve tried the other way as far as the art style goes. Occasionally
 I’ll do a comic from a space of negative emotion that doesn’t have an ending
 that is uplifting or hopeful. And when I show it to my first readers, my
 wife Kayla and my brother Gavin, they say, “This is falling flat; it doesn’t
 really work for me.” While it’s good to capture those negative emotions
 honestly on the page, I always want to leave the reader, and more so myself,
 with hope at the end, even if I’ve still not quite resolved that negativity.



 Q: What is your advice for
 a beginner in this field?



 GS: Just keep doing
 it and sharing it. I know that if at age 20 I had seen
 where I would be with my comics now at age 37, I might not recognize that
 person. But I would be really happy that they’d been read by a lot of
 people, that they were still doing it, and still finding the motivation and
 the time to make it a big part of their life. When people get busy with
 everyday obligations, a lot of times their art or their writing falls
 through the cracks and is lost. Just keeping that consistent routine of
 writing or drawing, of being alone with your thoughts, is a really powerful
 thing.



 Q: Thank you.


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<h4 class="has-text-align-center">Comics by GRANT SNIDER</h4>

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