Cassie Harner
Specialties (i.e inker, penciler, computer colorer, painter): do-it-all/I work independently to write, draw, ink, & color.
Style / Genre: Slice of life with a touch of fantasy. My stories are based on real people, and their experiences (augmented for effect of course)
Contact info: charnerart@gmail.com or @charnerart on instagram
Page rate for commissions: $75 per page B&W or $100 for full color.
Rate for Prints of original work: $35 per standard page size
Current affiliations: frequently appearing in Vagabond Comics anthology.
Previous work: Your Local Kitchen Idiot (other titles: Can’t Stand the Heat/Fuck You Kitchen), The Adventures of Time Cat, Loafing, Butthole, Planet Pluto, Omni
Current projects: Armpit Hair, The Puzzle Factory
What was your first project that made you feel like a real artist and how did you get it?
As it pertains to comics, my first commission was with the band Time Cat. It got me back into drawing comics after several years working in other media. We made three zine-size volumes and put them all in one printed book in color. From there, I ended up working with other bands to make comics for them, and I love working with that pairing of performer and comic.
What is your primary inspiration when creating art?
Making art is storytelling, and when there’s something exciting or important to say I have a compulsion to make it into something. Sometimes it ends up abstracted to a point where it becomes something else, but comics is a very straightforward storytelling tool that feels good to use to describe specific feelings and events in the most direct way.
What other artists do you use to learn technique?
I first started learning more about comics from the Scott McCloud books. I would also get books on manga, and study the different styles. I was never as into the traditional superhero comics like DC and Marvel, but Scott Pilgrim was a great series for me to see a blend of manga elements in a western comic. It also told stories like I wanted to tell them, mostly slice of life, relatable moments with real people, and a sudden thrust of fantasy elements where you’d least expect.
Where would you like to see yourself in five years with your art?
I’m always pushing in different directions with the media I work with, and with comics, it can take so much more time to complete than a one-night performance, or a pastel portrait. I’ve been working on an autobiographical piece called Armpit Hair, and I hope within the next five years, one of those residency applications will come through and I can hole up somewhere in France or something, finish it all in one go, uninterrupted. But in the meantime, in five years I should also be a very famous drag queen.
What would your dream project be?
I’d love to create a comic like the one Poppy has; a fantasy backstory for her well-engineered persona. Again, it’s that pairing of a performer and a comic, and the character of the musician can carry that fantasy backstory to the stage. Maybe the character isn’t a musician, maybe they’re a drag performer instead. Then all my interests will be truly aligned and I will ascend to another level.
Final four questions –we ask everybody
Q) When the zombies take over the world where will you be?
Honestly I think Cleveland is the safest spot for any disaster. We’re not near a big coast, just a lake, and it’s a quick hop to Canada if we need to leave the country fast. We don’t get tornadoes really, or hurricanes, or wildfires, or anything like that. But it’s honestly possible that the toxins in the lake or the river caused the zombies in the first place. In that case, hopefully I’ll live in a house with a bar in the basement by then and party til it’s over.
Q ) How do you identify Jedi, lesbian, Ninja, gay, vampire, bisexual, were-wolf, transgender, pirate, asexual, fairy, aromantic, sith, intersex, Spartan, non-binary, wizard, genderfluid, time lord , queer, …? ?
I appreciate this mix of options! I am queer, and a lesbian, and a drag queen. I’d also add demisexual in there. But I have other personas I perform with that have their own identities too!
Q) What piece of art, be it in the form of music, a book, a film or picture, do you think people must experience before they die?
I have trouble with questions that make me pick a single thing! It all depends. But I suppose from my track record I’ve had to watch Troll 2 with everyone I’ve ever met. It’s one of those so-bad-it’s-good movies. I have no idea if there even is a Troll 1.
Q) Give one fact that most people would not believe about you?
It’s probably extremely believable, but I haven’t lasted more than one year in a full time job.
