The following is an interview with Karl Christian Krumpholz regarding the recent release of the comic book, In the City #5. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Krumpholz about his creative process of bringing the story and characters to life on the page, what he hopes that readers may take away from the story’s themes, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the recent release of In the City #5! For those who may be new to the series, how would you describe its overall premise and where will readers find themselves in this latest issue?
Karl Christian Krumpholz: In The City is a story about city life, seen through the characters of Kelly and Karl (based on my wife and myself). Since they live in such a small place, The City has become a sort of concrete living room. They walk its streets day and night, witnessing the small and grand, quiet moments, sudden excitement, passing through bars, happy hours, hearing stories, and meeting all the characters, deadbeats, street people, and bar flies that make living in a city interesting. It’s a slice-of-life comic documenting some of the people’s lives, city experiences, and just wondering what’s around the next corner. Part Five also brings together some of the threads started in previous issues, where an attempted mugging gone wrong and a fist fight outside a night club leads to hidden art, sudden surprises, and the dangers always present on the neighborhood streets.
BD: What can you tell us about your creative process in bringing this slice-of-life story and characters to life on the page?
KCK: A large amount of what happen in the comic is based on true experiences. For years, going back to my former comic, 30 Miles of Crazy!, I’ve been collecting stories that you hear from friends or people you meet in a bar about their lives in experiences living in a city. So, In The City are these collected stories shaped into a narrative. I never mention which city it is in the comic, since it’s based on experiences and stories that I’ve encountered in several different ones: Boston, NYC, Philly, Chicago, and here in Denver.
BD: At Fanbase Press, our #StoriesMatter initiative endeavors to highlight the impact that stories can have on audiences of various mediums. How do you feel that Kelly and Karl’s story may impact readers, and what, if any, conversations do you hope that it might inspire?
KCK: For the most part, I just want to document what city life is like in the early 21st Century. Maybe try to explain some care and empathy for others that we find ourselves with and living around, as well as some of the darker sides of urban life. I would hope readers may recognize some of the characters in the comic as someone that they may know in their own lives.
BD: Do you foresee expanding the series into subsequent story arcs, if given the opportunity?
KCK: Oh yes, of course. I leave things a bit open ended at the end of Part Five with the idea of coming back, since there are always more stories to tell in The City. There are several minor characters featured in the story that I would like to do more with and expand in future stories. Focusing on them, their lives with Kelly and Karl passing through the comic as minor characters themselves.
BD: Are there any other projects – past or current – that you would like to highlight for our readers?
KCK: I’ve worked on several other comic projects. 30 Miles of Crazy!, which I previously mentioned, was a series I did about 10 years ago in which I illustrated short city stories that I collected from others around Denver and elsewhere. That was a sort of the beginning of what I would later expand with the In the City comic. At the beginning of 2020, I started a daily diary comic called The Lighthouse in The City with the idea of documenting Kelly’s then surgery and recovery. Little did I know that March of that year was when the COVID lockdowns happened. So, the comic became a way to document all the craziness and isolation of that time. I did my daily comic for three years, from the start of 2020 until the end of 2022, when things had fully opened up and the world seemed to have recovered. So, I then put the daily comic to bed an started the first part of In The City in the spring of 2023.
I’ve also done two comics, It’s Oola!! & It’s Oola Too!!, that are simply silly comics about our little black cat Oola, her adventures and wide fantasy life. It’s something fun to work on after some of the seriousness of my city comics. Lastly, I did a comic/illustrated history collection about Denver, CO, called Queen City that was published by Tinto Press in 2021. I moved to Denver years ago from Boston to be with Kelly, so I’ve always viewed this as her city. Again, I was being drawn into a city and it’s stories. So, I started illustrating various places around Denver as a way to get to know my new home. For several years, I also did a comic in the Westword (Denver’s free indie weekly newspaper) about the history of various places in the city. So, Queen City (Denver is referred to as Queen City of the Plains) became a collection of those illustrations and comic strip history.
BD: Lastly, what would you like to tell readers who want to learn more about In the City?
KCK: Sure! You can see previews of all my comics at my website and pick up copies at my online shop, as well. I’ll be out on the road this autumn at several small press comic shows, including SPX (Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MA), LICAF (Lakes International Comic Arts Festival), and Thought Bubble (both in the UK.)
https://karlchristiankrumpholz.com/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/karlckrumpholz
