INTERVIEW: Gavin Aung Than Shares His Cartooning Tips

Gavin Aung Than is a New York Times bestselling cartoonist and creator of the middle-grade graphic novel series Super Sidekicks. He recently published his first picture book, Baa Baa Black Belt. 

Reporters from the Kegworth and Putney Press Gang’s Zoomed with Gavin to find out about his process.

Press Gang: What made you start drawing?

When I was your age, I loved to draw and I was always scribbling and drawing my favorite book characters and cartoon characters. And I’ve just been doing that since I was your age. I haven’t stopped. 

Eventually, I wanted to draw my own stories and so that made me become a better writer. But I’ve always preferred to be an illustrator, so I’ve always leaned towards drawing and cartooning. The writing came after that – it was just a way for me to draw my own stories. 

Press Gang: What advice do you have for kids who want to create cartoons?

The best advice is just to draw, to make as many cartoons as possible. Keep drawing, keep making cartoons. Share them with your friends, try to make them laugh with your drawings and cartoons, and just have fun. That’s the key thing – to have fun. It should be something that you really love to do.

That’s how you can get better – it’s just practice, there are no shortcuts. It just takes a lot of hard work.

Press Gang: Do you have any tips for telling a story with pictures?

A good test for you is to try to figure out what’s going on without the words –  just through the pictures. Try to tell the story without any speech balloons or words. 

So a good comic is where you can follow the story just from the pictures. You don’t need to have the words. That’s what makes a good comic. So that’s a tip that I always share with people.

Press Gang: Where did you get the idea for Super SideKicks from?

I always loved superhero comics when I was your age. So I wanted to make my own series. And I noticed that in all the Marvel movies, all the characters live in like New York or Gotham City or Metropolis, none of them are in Australia. So I wanted to make an Australian superhero team. 

Press Gang: What is the best thing about being a cartoonist?

The best thing is I get to do what I love to do as a job. It doesn’t really feel like a job most days. I mean, some days it does. But most days I’m very lucky to just come into my studio here and just make stuff up and draw funny characters and make up funny stories. And it’s really a dream job for me. So that’s probably the best thing. 

And also kind of not having a boss is also pretty cool because I used to have a boss and it’s not really fun working for like a mean boss, so I’m glad I don’t have one of those anymore.

Press Gang: When you were at school, did you like ever doodle?

Yeah, I was always doodling in class and I would always draw on all my books and in my, my folders and my files and sometimes I got in trouble. But you know, as long as, as long as you can still get your normal work done, then it’s okay.

Press Gang: Can you tell us about your cartooning process?

Oh, that’s a good one. Well, to start off basically with a very rough sketch, just in a notebook. I sketch some ideas very, very loosely. And then I write the story very roughly.

I do these things called thumbnail sketches, which are just very rough sketches. They’re just very tiny little drawings for each page. I lay out the entire book so I can see the entire book, in my head. And then write the story and I have to send it to an editor and once they approve it, I can draw it in pencil and then I add the color on the computer after that. 

Press Gang: Have you always been good at drawing?

Well, no, I haven’t. Whenever we start off doing something, we’re bad at it. It’s just that I never gave up. I just kept practicing and eventually I got good at it.

That’s the key – not to give up.