You would think it would be someone with a lot of time on their hands, but you’d be wrong.
It’s Colleen AF Venable, artsy photographer, comic maker, internet radio show host, sketch comedy writer, globe trotter, and all around toothsome crafter.

Yadda yadda yadda.. here’s the Q and A.

STUMBLEBUM STUDIOS - Before I get into the comics that you do, please tell me about the photographs you've had shown all over the big fat earth.

COLLEEN AF VENABLE - Unbeknownst to most Fluff fans, I'm secretly quite artsy-fartsy. (And quite fartsy-in-general, but that's a WHOLE other story.) I've got an obsession with the darkroom and experimenting with mixing mediums, like marker and crayons and cross-stitching techniques on top of photographs printed on carved wood, things not associated with snooty high-nosed "fine art." In 2002 a curator from London saw some of my artwork online, and, thinking I was much much older than I was, invited me to be the east coast American representative in a big international show. When I showed up in London in all my 22-year-old spaziness I think they were pretty damn surprised but that show lead to a whole buttload of other invitations from around this fancy globe-thing. Recently I've been working on this project called "The Stalking and Murdering of a Childhood Giraffe" where I have 1,712 of myself posing unhappily with stuff giraffes. If gallery types ask me it's about overcoming crippling nostalgia, but in reality I think it may just be an excuse to eventually blow up a stuffed animal with explosives! Wooo!

SS - You are also a comedy writer and have worked with the Upright Citizen Brigade. How did you get into that?

CV - I've always been obsessed with comedy and was writing sketches since fourth grade for a "radio show" on tape a friend and I did, which included things such as a Tony the Tiger parody where he kept getting arrested for having to go to the bathroom. (Uh, yeah it made more sense in fourth grade...I think.) My super-awesome dad kinda bred me to adore Monty Python from birth. I later got really into SNL and eventually Mr. Show, but I think my heart will always belong to those brit boys. After moving to NYC got into the live comedy and improv scene. I took a few improv and sketch classes with the Upright Citizen's Brigade theater, but it wasn't until I met the amazing Marianne Ways, a producer who has worked with UCB, and cartoonist Scott Bateman that I had the nerve to propose a show at the theater itself. The show was half comedy animations (which included a few animation sketches by me) and half live comedy. We're actually getting another show together for the theater right now. Well not RIGHT now...right now I'm eating cereal.

SS- Where did the idea to do photocomics come from?

CV - Part of the giraffe project was not doing any "real" art during the stalking portion, so I was super antsy to start some other new project. I wound up on the web a whole lot more and found White Ninja and was ridiculously hooked. I actually planned out the original Fluff cast with my friend Nim Wunnan who is a wonderful hyperactive lad who was going to do the art for it. Unfortunately Nim went off to live on a boat on the Mississippi (very true story) and I was left with a comic and no art. After meeting with a bunch of artists, none of whom I really clicked with, I realized it might be funnier to do it with photographs, to have small stuffed animals living in the human sized world, interacting with normal people often in public places. It wound up being the best decision I could have ever made for the comic. Fluff wouldn't be half as much fun without the dirty looks from passersby in the background, the running gag reaction shots from inanimate objects, and the fact I now have almost 40 incredibly fantastic friends now helping me with it, friends that couldn't have been involved in the same interactive way if it were drawn.

SS - How long does one comic take to make?

CV - Well, the photographing varies. I never go anywhere without my camera so I have a massive bank of photographs. The actual writing of the comic comes long after the photographs, which is pretty opposite of the way drawn comics are created. Usually I stare at the 300 or so photographs and pick my favorites and then stare at those favorites and see if I have a storyline. Sometimes I have more of an idea than that going in, but usually it's improv at 1am the day the comic is due, which makes the comic a surprise to even the people involved in the shoot. Generally it takes me anywhere from 3-5 hours to layout and write each one.

SS - Do you ever feel limited by the objects around you available to photograph?

CV - I think the only time I feel limited is when it comes to Derby aka Super Tadpole, since part of his character is that he hasn't moved from the couch in 21 years. My basement apartment isn't great for photographs, but I'm getting better at working the camera. Fluff has changed SO MUCH in quality since I started and I'd like to think if I keep up with Fluff for another year it'll look even smooooother.

SS - What are the other projects you have running?

CV - Fluff Radio, which is the weekly comedy/music podcast we do over at Fluff in Brooklyn, is incredibly fun to make and getting quite the fanbase (something that always amazes me and my cohost Annie Sanders). I also just got a gig as the lead writer for an upcoming weekly comedy puppet show called "Felt Up," which will go live in April on iTunes.

SS - If you could have picked your own name what would you have picked?

CV - Oooooh Nice question! I've never felt like a Colleen. I think that's why I started going all crazy with acquiring middle names as soon as I was old enough. Truth be told the "F" in AF was a name I gave myself in 8th grade, "Felicity." Back then I really thought I should have been a Felicity but that was prior to the stupid show of the same name and prior to realizing if I changed my name to Felicity I would have been destined to a career in the porn industry.

SS - What's the worst you've ever been injured?

CV - Holy crappers! So many stories! I've kinda got Weeble powers. I'm deliriously clumsy and am constantly falling over and into things but I just pop-up unharmed. There is the que-tip-accidentally-SLAMMED -into-my-ear hospital story, but no one ever REALLY wants to hear that one. While I may never get really hurt I DO have some awesome scars. I'm kinda queen of having scar contests with people I just meet. Dainty is something I've never been accused of. The one that usually wins the scar contest is the rock I've had stuck in my knee since 1986 which I got in a slip-n-slide related accident. It's rather big and glows out blue from under my skin. Some people ask why I don't get it removed but honestly, what if it's the source of all my powers? Or what happens if it's like that ribbon in that story and it's the only thing holding on my leg together? I think I'll keep it. Besides, I really like winning the scar contest.

Check out more of Colleen’s stuff at
www.colleenafvenable.com
www.fluffinbrooklyn.com


And as always check out Dave's mindless pap at http://www.culturalvoid.net