The SEQUENT’ULL Interviews: Erika Price

By downthetubes Guests on July 30, 2024

Ahead of the free SEQUENT’ULL Comic Art Festival taking place in Hull on Saturday 31st August 2024, organiser and fellow creative Sean Azzopardi chats with guests at the event, continuing with independent comic writer-artist, Erika Price, “Making horrible things for horrible folks”…

Could you talk a little about yourself and your work.

Hi, I’m Erika, I’m a cartoonist based in the East Midlands. I’ve been making comics since 2017 and publishing indie comics for about five years now. My work mostly falls into the horror genre, and I work in traditional media, mainly in black and white. I guess I’m best known for my body horror series, Disorder, and for co-editing the Blobby Horror anthology with Frisson Comics.

What are you currently working on?

I’m currently working on a religious horror comic called Worms, set in The Vatican. It’s another long form project like Disorder was, exploring, among other things, my (complicated, mostly negative) feelings around the Catholic church. Having been raised Catholic, in my teens I realised my queerness made me unwelcome. I’ve been exploring texture a lot in the pages and trying to evoke an atmosphere of stone, smoke and all-pervasive rot. It’s currently uploading on my Patreon, and I hope to have the first book in print by the end of the year.

Why comics, what are the core reasons for working with this medium?

I started to read a lot of comics in my early 20s. At the time I was very unwell, and struggling to figure out what to do with my life; illness having made a lot of things no longer viable. I remember reading Sophie Campbell and Joe Keating’s run on Glory and absolutely falling in love with it. Over time, I started to visit conventions and found the UK indie scene to be a really welcoming place from the get-go.

Mechanically, I just find the process of making comics immensely satisfying; the repetition and iteration is something I enjoy, and there’s always something that will challenge you and make you feel like you’re slightly out of your depth. Making comics never feels like a solved equation for me.

So much creative time is absorbed by engaging with social media, conventions and other publicity tasks. While necessary to a degree, is it worth it?

Social media is definitely a frustrating experience as an artist, and over time has become more fragmented and hostile. It’s definitely something I try to do the minimum needed to get my stuff out there.

Conventions, on the other hand, I find fantastic. They’re a great way to get a real-time reminder that you aren’t just screaming into a void: you’re making art that connects with people, that elicits a reaction, that what you’re doing is connected to and relates to the world. It’s also a good way of forcing yourself to go outside, once in a while.

Do you feel connected to a comics scene in anyway?

Very much so, there’s a growing queer comic scene in the UK, and a healthy one in the states and Canada too. The openness in so much of indie comics, seeing so many people flourish and discover who they are both in their work and their lives, is wonderful; the UK scene, particularly around events like Thought Bubble, helped me to feel like I had a place in the world. When I first started going there, the Rainbow Road – the list of queer creators – was a single A5 pamphlet with like 12 names on it; now it’s part of the official convention guide and the list is huge. It’s wonderful.

Could you recommend some current creators that are making good stuff?

There are so many people making amazing stuff right now. Paul Jon Milne, James Cocoran; Freya JN make fantastic work, and it’s been great seeing her start to table at events in the past couple of years, Axe Marniehas a new comic in the works that I’ve seen that is their most accomplished and exciting work to date. EM Carroll’s work is outstanding, as is Bhanu Pratap’s.

Have you visited Hull before?

Yes! When I was young, I went to The Deep, but I haven’t had the chance to visit since. I’m really looking forward to revisiting the city and seeing how it has changed since I was last there.

• Find Erika Price online on Instagram, Patreon and more via Linktree

• SEQUENT’ULL Comic Art Festival 2024
11.00am – 6.00pm Saturday 31st August 2024 | Free Entry
Jubilee Central, 62 King Edward Street, Hull HU1 3SQ
• Facebook Event Page

Independent comic artists and publishers, selling comics graphic novels and prints.

Exhibitors Include: Breakdown Press, Colossive Press, Footprints Workers CoOp, Michelle Freeman, Sarah Gordon, Gareth Hopkins, Jake Machen, Shane Melisse, Douglas Noble, Alex Potts, Scarborough Zine Library, Mark Stafford, Lucy Sullivan, James Webster Sharp, Dan White and Lilly Williams