The following is an interview with Max Huffman regarding the upcoming release of the graphic novel, Dogtangle, through publisher Fantagraphics. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Huffman about the creative process for bringing the world and characters to life on the page, why Fantagraphics is the perfect home for the satirical story, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: This month will see the release of Dogtangle. What can you share with us about the premise of this timely satire?
Max Huffman: It’s a love story about a toxic CEO girlboss meeting an obnoxious NIMBY manchild and combining forces to create a tech innovation that ruins our natural world.
BD: What do you feel is the inherent value of satire in storytelling and especially the sequential art medium?
MH: I want to be clear that I don’t think I’ve made some “important” satire or commentary. It’s a half-improvised comedy that reflected my anxieties about the world it was made in.
I do think that humor that doesn’t keep a kind, firm guiding hand on the back of the reader doesn’t have a huge foothold in today’s popular storytelling. There’s power and humor in trusting the reader to understand your intent.
BD: How would you describe your creative process in bringing this absurdist story and characters to life on the page?
MH: Certain ideas at the heart of Dogtangle were related to me by an Uber driver in Palo Alto in 2021. I expanded upon those concepts with countless fragmented notes app gags, digressive special interests, dream images, and intrusive thoughts, which were serialized in nine self-published zines over the course of two and a half years.
BD: What makes Fantagraphics the perfect home for Dogtangle?
MH: It’s a dream come true for this book to be published by Fantagraphics, who put out so many of the books that inspired it – Daniel Clowes’s Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron, Steve Weissman’s Barack Hussein Obama, Tim Hensley’s Wally Gropius…
I had a clear vision of what kind of physical book Dogtangle would be, and I’m so grateful that all the production specifics in my head – the faux-clothbound hardcover treatment, shifting paper color throughout, changing the title – were met with a resounding “sounds cool, let’s do it.”
BD: Are there any other projects – past or current – that you would like to highlight for our readers?
MH: I just committed a cardinal Cartoonist Sin by redrawing one of my earliest minicomics, a Jughead parody I wrote when I was 19. I thought there was something interesting in the idea of a teen comic written by a teenager, and also making peace with myself as an annoying child, and also I thought it was still kinda funny.
Earlier this year Cram Books published Them-Shaped Clouds, an Ignatz-losing collection of short stories and gag strips. It’s a really handsome book that I made with one of my oldest friends.
BD: Lastly, what would you like to tell fans who want to learn more about Dogtangle and your other work?
MH: I’m out here. @maxhuffman on everything, maxhuffman.com is my website. Thanks for lookin’.
