“Between the Panels” is a monthly interview series focusing on comic book creators of all experience levels, seeking to examine not just what each individual creates, but how they go about creating it.
Ringo nominee. Creator whose work has been published through Vault, BOOM!, IDW, and more. Cartoonist whose last art class was in high school. Double threat talent with a voice and perspective unlike any other in the comics world. All of these paint a partial picture of Fell Hound, but there’s also so much more…
Your specialties (artist/writer/letterer/inker/etc.): Artist / Writer
Your home base: Canadaland! The one with North America’s most notorious highway running through it.
Website: fellhoundart.carrd.co
Social Media
Instagram: @fell.hound
Bluesky: @fellhound.bsky.social
Fanbase Press Contributor Kevin Sharp: Why comics? What attracts you to working in this medium and keeps you coming back for more?
Fell Hound: I’ve always longed to be a writer, but one fine day I stumbled onto this comic called Batwoman: Elegy and it blew me away. JH Williams III’s art on it was transcendent and made me realize how powerful this medium was. I immediately shifted gears and went “I wanna make comics now!” Which is kinda funny because I was not an artist. But I still stand by the fact that the comics medium is so, so versatile and there’s so much storytelling potential to unlock on paper.
And it’s also surprisingly accessible? I can just pick up a pen and go? I mean I’d have to work 24/7 and do 12 full-time jobs at once. But I can just do it and no one will stop me from making poor life choices? In fact, the community is all just people suffering over it and the trauma bonds are really tight. That’s what keeps me going these days, the friends — trauma bonding not necessary, it’s just surprisingly common.
KS: Growing up, did you have easy access to comics, either from a local comic store, webcomics, library, or any other outlets?
FH: I did! As a kid the greatest source of comics was the Scholastic book fair and book catalog. Do they still do those? But that was a magical time. You got this catalog monthly and just ran up to your parents, begging for all these cool books to buy. One of the first comics I begged for was Calvin and Hobbes and to this day I adore those books. I didn’t start going to libraries and comic shops until I was much older. But yeah, they were great, too, once I got into them.
KS: If we flipped through your first comic collection — whatever age that was when you could actually get enough of them to call a “collection” — what kinds of titles would we see?
FH: My early collection started off with Batwoman and Gargoyles (before the Dynamite reboot). Also Strangers in Paradise, Captain Marvel, and some other stuff? I was mostly buying trades to be honest. The first titles I tried to pull were probably Black Widow and a bunch of indies that stores had a lot of trouble getting. I had to bounce between two stores just to get the full series — it was maddening! But after months I was finally able to get the full Skin and Earth and Infinite Loop.
KS: Was there a particular comic story that had a real impact on you as a younger reader?
FH: I think the first comic I read that made me feel some kinda way was Strangers in Paradise. You basically have every emotion under the sun tucked into a beautiful 2,000 page brick, and Terry Moore is so good at bringing out the humanity and messiness of his characters. Katchoo and Francine pulled me in for a crazy joyride and it really changed the way I approached telling stories, to be mostly character driven.
KS: Do you remember where you first discovered that?
FH: When I was in college, I used to browse this used bookstore called the BMV for cheap comics and just bought whatever looked cool. They had I Dream of You sitting on a shelf and I thought the cover looked mysterious, so I bought it. Was waiting to meet up with some friends that night and started reading it in a coffee shop. First chapter in and I was immediately emotionally devastated at this coffee shop. Now that’s how you make an impression!
KS: Going back to the start, where you realized you wanted to make comics after reading JHWIII… What was your artistic background before that point, either as a casual hobby or more serious pursuit?
FH: Honestly, not much. I always liked to doodle but never took art seriously, so all my doodles looked like blobs. I also liked to write a lot; that was my main thing. But in terms of drawing? My last art class was in grade 10 and I got like a B-. That was a very long journey and frankly one I probably could’ve sped up with more formal art training of some kind. Instead, I watched three YouTube videos and read three beginner “how to draw” books and the rest was diving headfirst with a prayer and a delusion.
KS: You mentioned that you “immediately shifted gears” at that point. What gear were you in before then?
FH: I wanted to be a writer! Not just any writer — I wanted to be a poet! I wanted to write the next great “The Raven” a la Edgar Allen Poe. I don’t know, I was a weird teenager. None of my poems were that good, but I think it helped me compartmentalize ideas into smaller forms which helps a ton in comics writing. I wanted to write short stories and prose, as well, but I found it so tiring and I foolishly thought, “Surely drawing will be SO MUCH easier!”
KS: Once you made that decision, what did your immediate first steps look like as far as any overall strategy you had? Or was it less planned out than that?
FH: When I first decided I wanted to make comics, I had a meticulous, multi-step, years-long plan to get published one day. I’m a little OCD, so I always plan ahead, y’know? It began with first learning how to do basic anatomy with tubes and circles (which I still do), then moving on to drawing pinups and making sure the pinups look good, then attempting to make more “narrative” illustrations.
Once the narrative illustrations took off, I wrote some prose for it and tied it together to make a full story, which was released as a comics/prose story called “Do You Believe in an Afterlife?” That was my first self-publication and taught me a lot about e-commerce, printing, CMYK and PDFs —very important knowledge! After that I graduated to making one-shots, which was Commander Rao. My plan was to make more one-shots, but Commander Rao accidentally became a cult indie thing and catapulted me from step 5 to step 12.
I think the best strategy you can have now as a new creator is to take risks!
KS: Were there any creators you looked at as examples of the type of comics you’d like to make/the type of career you’d like to have?
FH: Oh, yes! You have already heard me gush about JH WIlliams and Terry Moore, so I won’t dote on them more. But the third pillar to my comic dreams? Heathen by Natasha Alterici. I remember googling “gay comics,” because that’s how you found gay comics back then, and read an article raving about this little lesbian Viking comic. I looked it up and it was everything I wanted in a comic back then! Amazing art, Sapphic as hell, Norse mythology, and an incredible story of fighting gods. But even more than that, the book’s journey had this artistic pipeline I really admired, from a smash Kickstarter success to cultivating a strong fanbase to getting a publication deal with Vault. Even if maybe everything was more rosy on the outside, I couldn’t help but look up to it! This powerful queer Viking story coming up from the underground to take the comics world by storm! What an inspiration.
KS: Once Commander Rao took on a life of its own, how did you keep the creative/career momentum going? What did “step 12” of your plan look like as far as day-to-day work?
FH: There are two wolves inside me and one is saying, “If I don’t hustle every day, I’ll be forgotten and never get to make comics again,” and another one saying, “I’m so tired, I want to take a long break and lie down.” The ultimate Step 12 in my long plan is to reconcile those two thoughts into a healthy work/life balance where I feel fulfilled but also have adequate days off every month. Whenever I get wrapped up in the “gotta hustle, must keep up the momentum” thoughts, I realize I burn out so easily and don’t have fun anymore. So, I’m trying to have less of those thoughts, and focus more on the long game of taking care of myself creatively instead of gunning for dopamine every second.
KS: If you could give a piece of advice on this subject to an aspiring creator, which variety of hustle was most beneficial to you as you got career momentum going?
FH: The most beneficial was the kind where you have set office hours, become unavailable after said office hours, and get 8 hours of sleep along with regular meals and fluids. Nothing says “go-getter” like knowing your boundaries! Because if you don’t know your boundaries, you are open to being exploited, and there are still parts of this industry that will exploit your “hustle” to not treat you right. The average human lifespan in the modern world is around 70-80 years old now? Imagine breaking your hand hustling so hard in your 20s you can’t draw for the next 5 decades. Or only being able to draw at the expense of horrific back pain.
I have 534,895 unfinished WIPs I want to finish before I die, so I need to make sure I can draw and write as long as possible. I can only do that if I get sleep and eat nice food and not draw after 6 p.m. Momentum is nice, but fleeting, longevity will weather the worst storms after all the momentum has dried up and gone.
KS: As someone who works both sides of the creator equation, would you rather write a comic script to be illustrated by a great artist, or be the artist on a script by a great writer?
FH: Write! I’ve had the pleasure of working with some pretty great writers, but I find I get a little nervous whenever I am given a great script because I’m afraid I can’t do it justice. There’s so much pressure! I also hate to say it, but writing is just less taxing on the body than drawing, haha.
KS: How about picking any artist from comics history to illustrate that one script for you? Let’s make it someone you don’t know personally so you don’t have to play favorites.
FH: Shinichi Sakamoto or Sana Takeda. I want to devour your art power.
KS: If comics, art, or writing had never worked out, what’s another career where you could imagine yourself being at least content if not happy?
FH: In my last year of high school, I decided I wanted to become a comics creator, which is why I took a four-year degree in a medical-related field and got a completely unrelated day job as a professional necromancer on wheels. I would be happiest if comics came with a pension, steady salary, holiday pay, and vacation days. Oh, and benefits. But alas, a girl’s gotta futureproof her retirement if she makes it that long.
KS: Please shout out one person who’s been especially helpful to you on your comics journey. Could be someone who gave you advice, made an introduction, opened a door at the right time, etc.
FH: Oh boy, this is a hard one. Just one?! Challenge impossible. But if I’m to do my best I feel like I gotta shout out Michele Abounader, who has the unfortunate position of being the person I burden with my anxiety crying over games of Golf With Your Friends, now available on Steam. It’s a tough industry sometimes but going back to the comment about trauma bonding earlier — it’s a lot easier to get through the tough times when you can vent about it. And then also go through the good times together!
KS: Michele A. shout-outs are welcome around these parts anytime!
FH: [O]bviously, there’s so many people who I owe my comics life to. I’m going to say a bunch of words and if these mean anything to you — Buckaroos, Peach Town, Art Study Group — know that I am eternally grateful to share a comics journey with you all.
Lastly, I have to pay my respects to the late and great Jesse Hamm, who once said: “Somewhere out there are people who need to hear a story you’re uniquely able to tell. Art by others, even better art, won’t do: only yours.” These words have stuck with me for years and I go back to them constantly when I feel down. I hope Jesse knew how beloved and helpful his comics advice was.
KS: That’s a great note to wrap up on. Please let readers know what you have out now, plus what have coming for the rest of 2025 and beyond.
FH: Our crowdfunded comic, FUNeral Home, that I did with Michele, Jodie Troutman, and Kiela Sibal just wrapped and will be finished later in the year! I also have a new edition of an old set of stories that’ll be coming out later this year — something something rocket boot lady. Beyond that, I have set my convictions to finally work on my dream comic after four years of saying the same thing and not doing it. I hope this time it will stick! It will be the coolest thing coming out in 5-7 years. Trust me.
