Interview: Creator Larime Taylor

Larime Taylor was born with Arthrogryposis, a birth defect that locks his joints and leaves little use of his arms and legs. Taylor became a comic creator despite the setback and his latest project, A Voice in the Dark Vol. 2-A Killing Game, is currently being supported on Kickstarter. Taylor does all the work himself—from scripting, drawing, and lettering the pages, completing an average of two pages a day. The only thing that separates him from the typical creator is that he uses his mouth to draw and write his books.

In September 2012, he used Kickstarter to fund his first comic which grew into a three issue arc. Taylor is looking to expand his story with an additional five issues.

Heading into the final week of his Kickstarter campaign, Taylor took time to talk to NerdSpan about learning to draw and creating comics.

NerdSpan: What was your process for learning to draw?

Larime Taylor: I went to a pre-school for disabled children when I was little, and they kept trying to make me use my hand to write and draw. My mother eventually talked them into letting me use my mouth, and I wrote the entire alphabet in one go. That was pretty much it, then. I’ve been using my mouth to write and draw ever since.

NS: What were some of the difficulties you faced and did you ever encounter moments where you thought of giving up?

LT: I’ve always had a hard time with proportions, as my face is so close to the page, and was never able to reference things as I drew them because you can’t look at what you’re trying to draw and the drawing itself when your nose is only two or three inches from the paper. Getting a Wacom Cintiq, a tablet screen that lets you draw directly on the display, changed that for me. Now I can use references, turn the drawing, and zoom in or out with ease, and it’s really freed me up. My art has grown a hundredfold since they were so kind as to donate one to me.

It has been frustrating at times, especially the pre-tablet days, but I’ve always kept at it. Due to my disability, writing and art are really all I have as a means of earning a living.

NS: What artists inspired you as you made the efforts to learn to draw?

LT: Tim Bradstreet made me want to be an illustrator, back in the days that I was playing Shadowrun and Vampire and all these games he drew for or did covers for. That’s when I really started taking my art seriously. I wanted to do what he did.

NS: Can you give a synopsis of your comic book?

LT: A Voice in the Dark is about a young woman who is just starting college, and is gradually becoming a serial killer. She’s always had these urges, but was able to resist them until recently. Now that she’s finally killed, she’s realizing that she can’t put the genie back in the bottle, so to speak. She’s going to have to learn to accept and deal with what she is and find ways of controlling it. It’s a psychological horror/noir.

NS: In what ways will Kickstarter help you complete your comic?

LT: It allows me to raise the funds I need to cover the costs of making the book, from paying for my electricity and food and rent, to renting motel rooms or paying other location fees and feeding my models when I shoot my reference photos. All of my work is referenced from my own photos, but it’s not cheap. This Kickstarter allows me to make a small wage and fund production of the book. I live on Social Security Disability and am well below the poverty line.

To support this project visit Larimie’s Kickstarter page.

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