The Free Press: How long and how many comics have you drawn for the free press?
Bob Cochran: I did some in the 1998 Spring Semester when Jack Duffy was Ad Manager. I got to know Jack through a mutual friend. I concentrated on doing stuff for the WMPG Program Guide, the Maine Jazz Alliance Newsletter and “Concerto,” an Austrian music magazine for?the past few years?few years.?I just started sending stuff to?the Free Press again?this past April.
FP: Your comics look like they are drawn in Mac Paint. Are they?
BC: I draw most in MS Paint then jack up the dpi and convert them to tif or jpeg in Photoshop. I’m between computers, so I draw some at lunch at work, or weekends at WMPG.
FP: Do you play video games?
BC: I did when they first came out in the mid 70’s, but really I am not interested in them now. I do think some of the graphics are incredible. I’d say they’d made some slight improvements since Pong.
FP: Do you read other comics?
BC: I really don’t like some of the confessional type comics coming out these days. They’re way too self-indulgent for my tastes. I still go back to some of the vintage Freak Brothers, Wonder Warthog, Dopin’ Dan and Zap Comix. Opus, Zippy the?Pinhead?and Boondocks are?my favorite mainstream comic strips right now.
My first major influence was Mad’s Don Martin. Gahan Wilson and Charles Addams really blew me away. I also liked Sam Gross and B. Kliban. A more recent influence would be Oskar Andersson who did ‘Mannen Som G?r Vad Som Faller Honom In’ (‘The Man Who Does Whatever Comes To His Mind’). A friend from Sweden sent me some of his captionless stuff that just floored me.
Other influnces? I’m a big fan of silent comedy. Buster Keaton is an absolute favorite, as are Harold Lloyd, Fatty Arbuckle Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Bowers.
W.C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, Ernie Kovacs,?Woody Allen and S.J Perleman?influenced both my written humor and cartoons. Anybody who knows me knows I’m a huge fan of British humor. I’m really drawn to the intelligent, ?absurdly silly?stuff of folks like Spike Milligan, Peter Cook, Eric Sykes, Barry Took and Douglas Adams. Even though the Pythons were great, they themselves admit to owing a huge debt to Milligan, Took and Cook.
Rob Grant, Nick Revell, Milton Jones?and Andy Hamilton are?the best folks at that type of comedy right now. ?
A lot of US comedy just goes for the easy laugh. I do enjoy Marc Maron’s material. His stand up act is?very intelligent and?wickedly funny I enjoy his morning show with Mark Riley on Air America too. I was also impressed by Jessica Defino, a stand up comic from Damariscotta. She did some great material at the Comedy Connection a while back. Chris Rock and Tina Fey are also outstanding.
FP: If you could exhibit your comics anywhere in the universe, where would you put them?
BC: The Hermitage House in Philadelphia. They have the largest Duchamp exhibit in the world. I’d love to get published in the New Yorker, Punch or Jest.
FP: What kind of music are you into?
BC: I like almost every type of music except for top 40 crap. I don’t listen to much Rap, but love the Last Poets and Gil Scott Heron. I love all types of Jazz from Jelly Roll Morton to Anthony Braxton and Albert Ayler. Coltrane, Sun Ra, Miles and Monk are probably my favorites. Avant-garde stuff like Harry Partch, John Cage and Stockhausen are another great passion. Probably the best live music I’ve seen were Frank Zappa’s 1978 Halloween show, Hugo Weisgall’s “Six Characters in Search of an Author” and the King Crimson double trio?that Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Bill Bruford and Tony Levin.
The Free Press asked Bob Cochran for a self-portrait in his style. Cochran declined, saying, “It would look like a Rorschach test.”