Gavin has posted an interview with local comic book writer/artist JJ Cano where he talks to him about Utah’s comic underground and his current work on his comic, “Utah Languish.” You can check out the full interview over at Gavin’s Underground!

Gavin: When did you start drawing up your own work, and what were some of the earlier stuff like?

JJ: I began drawing characters and stories around 1987 or ’88 (during class in junior high and high school when I was supposed to be learning). I’ll just say a lot of my early ‘”work” hasn’t seen light of day, but perhaps I’ll be able to re-work some of it for my mini-comic at some point in the future. I have hundreds of pages of notebook filler paper just filled with storyline comics.

Gavin: Where did the idea for Utah Languish come from?

JJ: I’d been drawing/cartooning for a number of years, and wanted to make a comic that I could get out into the hands of the unsuspecting public. Regarding how UL came about, a friend once said to me guys can’t be “just friends” with a woman and not think about a sexual relationship. That lead me to think about exploring relationships between men and women. UL and the story of Jim Weaver began mutating from there. Not exactly typical mini-comic material I guess.