Seth, a cartoonist known for creating a deep sense of longing for times and places that have never existed, continues his autobiographical exploration of the mythical city of Dominion, Ontario, Canada in his upcoming books Palookaville 22 and 23. This week, an exhibition of 80 drawings from these books goes on view at Adam Baumgold Gallery.

In these meticulously worked drawings, Seth stitches together fragments from his past to tell the story of how he came to be a cartoonist. The exhibition also will feature a ten drawing story called Owen Moore, published in the Walrus Magazine, which imagines the life and work of an artist who achieved success only after his death, and screeings of Dominion, the award-winning film about Seth’s life and artistic practice, directed by Luc Chamberland for the National Film Board of Canada. Dominion refers to Seth’s fictional city that is enlivened by paper and cardboard building sculptures that he has been working on for the last decade, some of which will be on display alongside the film. 

Panels from Nothing Lasts, in Palookaville 22.

The opening reception for Seth | Nothing Lasts is Friday, November 6, from 6 to 8 pm, at Adam Baumbold Gallery, 60 East 66th Street, NY, NY. Seth will sign a limited number of copies of Palookaville (Drawn & Quarterly) at the opening. Until then, read what Seth wrote in this exclusive email Q&A for DART before his last show at the gallery. 

Peggy Roalf: As someone who has created a mythical city-in your case, Dominion-you had to wear the hats of a city planner, architect, founding father, and city council president. Have you ever considered any of those professions for yourself?

Seth: I liked to imagine myself as an architect when I was younger. In fact, I'm pretty sure I actually lied to someone sitting next to me on a train once and told them I was an architect (long ago).Truthfully though, I wouldn't much care for any of those jobs. Too much red tape, too many real world details (math likely involved) and far too much contact with clients and employees. I prefer the isolated simple life of the cartoonist.

Seth's model of Dominion. Photo courtesy of Dunlop Art Gallery.

PR: How did the idea of cartooning being a Canadian national passion evolve in your imagination? It's almost as if there would be cartoon bars, instead of sports bars...

S: Actually, it mostly comes out of just being a smart ass. There is probably nothing much less interesting to "regular" people than cartooning, so naturally it just seemed funny to imply the opposite. No normal person even thinks about cartooning at all and yet I spend 95% of my waking time thinking about it. Cartooning seems the most important thing in the world to me-why not imagine a world where others thought so as well?

PR: I've noticed that some of the best cartooning originates in cold climates. Do you think there's anything to this notion?

S: Well, it gives you something to do in the winter if you don't like hockey or skiing. Seriously, I suspect that a cold climate actually does encourage "busy work" as people stay inside a great deal. Cartooning is a "miniaturist's" pursuit-the creating of small worlds in tiny boxes. It goes well with the lifestyle of the shut-in. There is almost nothing I prefer to being in my studio on a cold wintery day. I might walk up the stairs into the dim winter light of the front hall and look out at the snowy front lawn...and happily return to my isolated miniaturist's retreat.

PR: What gave you the idea of locating the The Great Canadian Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists (G.N.B. Double C) Archive in the middle of nowhere? Do you have a special fondness for libraries and archives?

S: I do love libraries. I have a real fondness for the library in the little town in which I grew up. I spent a tremendous amount of time in there as a child and teenager and I recall the place in great detail. What's not to like about a library? They are quiet and full of books!

I put that fictional archive so far north in my story because I liked it being so totally isolated. I wanted anyone who visited it to be committed to their task. It just seemed a much more "fantastic" idea if it was so impractically located.

PR: I love the idea of the G.N.B. Double C Archive housing the first known comic book, printed in woodblock, in 1760. Does anyone know when the first comic book was actually created?

S: Well-there is some dispute over this matter. It really depends on what one considers a comic book. If you think a comic book is a little newsprint folder starring a super hero then the first comics appeared in 1938. If you think it might be a cheap collection of comic strips reprinted in book form from the newspaper then it would be a decade or two earlier. If you think that the Swiss artist Topffer was the inventor of the comic story then it would probably be somewhere around 1837. I side with the latter.

PR: What was your inspiration for the Forest Room at the G.N.B. Double C? Is there a place in your hometown today where artists hang out? Is the Forest Room (or anything else, for that matter) anything like what you created here?

S: Most of this book was just pure invention. Just notions off the top of my head. There is an old club in Toronto called the Arts and Letters Club but l'vebarely seen the interior so I can't genuinely claim it as inspiration. Still, it crossed my mind once or twice while working on this story. That Forest Room is more wish fulfillment than anything else. I certainly wouldn't mind sitting quietly in there to read a book or have a glass of wine.

PR: How do you come up with such evocative names for your characters? Henry Pefferlaw, Darnley Coote, Bartley Munn....

S: When I was younger I was always irritated by "pun-y" sort of names like Grass Green (actual name of a fan cartoonist) or Mr. Chiseler (a lawyer character from little Orphan Annie) but as I have grown older I've actually come to really enjoy these sort of stupid names. I like mixing up funny bits of words and recombining them to see what they sound like. Darnley Coote is a perfect example. It kind of sounds like it means something but it doesn't really. It's easy to make up these kind of names. I'm always saying to my wife "that sounds like a good name for a character." Sometimes I take a piece of a name from a friend of acquaintance. The Munn in Bartley Munn is taken from a good friend here in town. I usually regret this later as the characters often turn out to be fools or unpleasant in some unexpected manner I had not considered when I borrowed that person's name.

PR: Did you build the models for Dominion, or did you work with a model builder?

S: Oh, I build 'em myself. That's the pleasure. Like a hobby. I've deliberately kept them kind of crude in their construction to prevent the making of them from becoming a chore. If they were more polished they'd be a task rather than a diversion.

PR: In a feature in The Walrus, you advised young artists to be aware that cartooning is a very lonely occupation. As a book designer (The Complete Peanuts, among others), do you find yourself more connected to the outside world?

S: Not really. I deal with clients mostly through email (I'm not much for the telephone). I have an aversion to the social nature of the computer but I love email because it allows one to answer questions thoughtfully but with distance. The telephone is a medium where you make hasty decisions. Email can be as formal or as casual as you wish but it is always contrived. The telephone has a built in awkwardness to it. It is immediate and requires a command of conversation to be on top of things.

I like the isolation of the cartoonist/designer's life. Sometimes I forget to leave the house for days on end. I'm never lonely.

PR: What advice would you give a talented young cartoonist who is struggling to find his or her identity?

S: Big question. A lot of possible answers spring to mind. I guess if I had to narrow it down to one thing I would suggest that you try to do the work you actually enjoy working on...not the work you "think" you should be doing. It's hard enough to sit at the drawing table and produce the comics-it's labouriousstuff-so try and dig deep and discover just what it is that is most meaningful to you and try to write about that. It's hard though-it often takes a lifetime to understand just what it is you want to do. I'm still figuring it out.

It's also important to find a way to work everyday. Routine is important. Comics is a slow medium-bursts of inspiration are important-but day to day work is the backbone of a cartoonists career.

PR: What advice would you give a talented young cartoonist who is just beginning to make a mark in the commercial world?

S: Keep focused on your own work and why you want to do it. It's easy when offers start coming in to get sidetracked onto other projects that have little to do with your main desire as an artist. Don't waste five years drawing someone else's project because you are flattered by their attention. Stick to your own work. Don't go and work at Marvel or DC comics no matter what they offer you or "how neat it might be to draw Batman." That is a step down the wrong path.

Seth was born Gregory Gallant in Clinton, Ontario in 1962. He grew up in a variety of small Southwestern Ontario towns until moving to Toronto in 1980 to attend the Ontario College of Art. He is the author of Clyde Fans, Wimbledon Green, and George Sprott, all published by Drawn & Quarterly Publications of Montreal. Seth has received the Doug Wright Award for best book for his publications of The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian cartoonists, George Sprott, Wimbledon Green, and Clyde Fans respectively. George Sprott was originally serialized in the New York Times Sunday magazine from 2006-2007. His long running comic book series Palookaville has been appearing annually since 1991.

In 2005, Canada's Art Gallery of Ontario honored Seth with a career retrospective featuring work from his graphic novels as well as his cardboard city, Dominion. Seth is the recipient of the 2011 Harbourfront Festival Prize, which is based on the merit of the author's body of work and contribution to the medium and industry. Seth is also an award winning book designer, and has created artwork for books like David Rakoff’s Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish and the Lemony Snicket series. He is perhaps best known for his designs on the long running Complete Peanuts and for the John Stanley Library. In 2006 he designed the covers for The Portable Dorothy Parker for Penguin Classics. He has contributed drawings to The New Yorker, and this year created the cover for The New Yorker Reader: True Crime. This will be Seth's fourth solo exhibition at the gallery. Seth lives and works in Guelph, Ontario. An exhibition of his new portraits will go on view at Renann Isaacs gallery in Guelph, Ontario, opening November 21st.