I first met Nicky in 2018. She was in the same cohort as fellow BAYlies cartoonist Breena Nuñez. I remembered her, because she was very adamant about the pronunciation of her name. It’s KNEE-KEY, not Nicky. I loved that she wouldn’t let people mispronounce her name.
We shared a very similar story, we both studied animation in undergrad, are both Bi and moved around ALOT. Maybe too much.
When I asked her to contribute to the first BAYlies anthology, I was amazed at how poetic her piece was. The thing I love about Nicky’s work is she is someone who is highly prolific, so it’s impossible to limit her to just one style. She experiments with her work and just when you think you can put her in a box, she shows you that you can’t.
I’M TOO ACE FOR THIS
HOW NOT TO GET A WOMAN
NICKY RODRIGUEZ INTERVIEW 2020
How are you doing?
N: I'm doing good! Actually a lot better now that I've moved from the Bay, coincidentally. It was a pretty stressful pandemic-related move, but now that I'm slowly getting settled in Denver things have definitely gotten easier even as my life takes on a new direction.
Are you from the Bay Area or did you move here?
N: I moved to Oakland in August 2013 to start college, then bounced around between there, Berkeley, and San Francisco for about 7 years. Just moved out of California in June for a "temporary-permanent" home base in Colorado because of the pandemic, but wouldn't be surprised to find myself back in the Bay sometime down the road.
If not, where are you originally from?
N: I moved to Oakland from New Jersey; I finished up my last three years of high school there but have been moving my whole life since my dad was in the army. I usually just say I'm Puerto Rican and leave it at that now, ha!
When did you start making comics?
N: I started making comics once I started the MFA in Comics program at CCA in 2017, actually; I'd always been interested in and a reader of comics but had never actually given it a go until then. It's weird to think I've only been making comics about 3 years now.
How has your progression of your cartooning career impacted your life?
N: Making comics has given me a lot more independence and freedom in ways I hadn't even begun to imagine. I travel(ed) a lot more than I'd ever done, and got to explore some cities I never thought I'd ever be able to visit, like New Orleans for NOCAZ. Making comics has somehow gone hand-in-hand with discovering who I am as an individual and the freedom I have to interact with the world on my own; in an undergrad film class I learned about the concept of the flaneur, which is basically someone who wanders the city around them and aimlessly explores. As my comics have brought opportunities my way it's like I'm unlocking parts of the world I didn't know existed and beginning to realize that I can engage with the world around me in spite of my being a queer, independent, solitary woman. It's also given me more self-confidence and gotten me into teaching, which is something I'm really passionate about. I'll be honest that it still leaves me gobsmacked when I get certain opportunities like invites for panels, workshops, and fests and whatnot, but at the same time, I can look back over the past three years and genuinely feel like I've accomplished something and have a purpose now.
How have you grown since your earlier comics?
N: My lettering has definitely gotten better since I stopped insisting on scrawling straight on the page! I think I've also gotten a lot more comfortable with the iterative process, as well as just taking a step back and throwing shit out that isn't working. It was always hard when I was in school because we were constantly working in a void, but now I think I've got a better grasp on the discipline to be an editor of my own work. I also think I've gotten better at expressing the ephemeral sentiments I tend to focus on in my work, like the fleetingness of memory and emotion, as well as how to incorporate more Spanish into my comics without fear.
What are some of your most memorable moments of your career so far?
N: I feel like everything has been memorable, to be honest. It's always been such a frenetic whirlwind of new experiences! If I had to pick one, though, I think it would be when I was moderating on a panel about asexual comics and comic creators at the Queers and Comics Conference. It was my first time moderating so I was hella nervous, but it was also nice to be on the flip side of the panel experience, and also to even be there in the first place. Never did I think that I would be doing something as cool as that. It helped put into perspective that I'm not just out here existing in a void, that my voice and my work means something.
What is different about The Bay Area comics scene compared to other places you have been?
N: I haven't had the chance to delve too deep into other comics scenes yet, planning to do that once I settle into Denver and this pandemic blows over, but I really loved how inviting the comics scene was in the Bay. There always seemed to be some kind of event going on where zines were welcome and on full display and any event I went to I would learn about a new artist and see some really inspiring work. People were also making zines about so many different things, but especially queer identity and that really helped me figure out what I want to say with my work in regards to my queerness. I can't imagine what my comics experience would look like had I not been in the Bay to discover the diversity of comics, study comics, and make comics there. It was a cultural immersion, and I hope when we can start attending fests in person again I can keep finding my way back to those Bay zine fests.
Any comics recommendations?
N: Poppies of Iraq by Brigitte Findlaky & Lewis Trondheim, Green Almonds: Letters from Palestine by Anaële Hermans are really good reads, also, A City Inside by Tillie Walden; I feel like there's a handful of comics that fucked me up real good but I can never remember when asked, so for now, those are what stick out to me. Saga, of course, and Paper Girls.
Any cartoon/tv shows or movie recommendations?
N: I've watched all three seasons of The Dragon Prince twice in the past two weeks, so I'm definitely in love with that show right now. I also LOVED OK KO. The Breadwinner is also currently one of my top movies, along with Song of the Sea. The Tales of Arcadia series is pretty sweet, too, and I'm stoked for the next installation to come out in August. Batman Beyond was formative in my love for comics and animation and the DCAU style has always been a big influence, so everyone should take a look at that. Into the Spiderverse is probably the #1 film in my heart, then the Iron Giant. Not a cartoon, but the Legion TV series that aired on FX was something I binged during the original shelter-in-place, and that show is gonna stick with me for the rest of my life, the visual language in that show had me reeling for days.
What influences your work?
N: What doesn't influence my work? I think a large part of it comes from Puerto Rican culture, history, and the fight for independence. I'm always keeping an eye on what's going on there because of my family and it really informs a lot of my work in different ways, whether it's a direct response to the political air there or commentary of what home means and how I can be homesick for a place I wasn't even born in or lived in. I also try to find ways to channel my escapist ideas and desires in my work and unpack where it all comes from, so art and stories that are steeped in fantasy and surrealism really inspire me. As a result, a lot of my comics tend to be cathartic in some way or another.
What do you want to do in comics in the next 5 years?
N: I think my two biggest goals are: to have some kind of collection or graphic novel out with a publisher and to be teaching comics at a collegiate level. I'm over day jobs that suck me dry after grinding away the past 7 years; I want to be making comics full-time with the goal of getting an agent and just putting my work out there. That's not to say that I haven't already been doing that on my own, I can definitely see how far I've come in 3 years and how far my comics have gone, literally. I'm also totally over capitalist-centric academia but still, I want to tear that down and find ways to talk about comics and their narrative power to heal, preserve culture and history, and how our cultural experiences inform how we make comics. I really just want to live and breathe comics in whatever ways I can at this point.
What are you working on now?
N: Man, I'm all over the place with my work because of this pandemic. I do have plans to expand on my Viajera series to get at least 2 new zines out before the year ends. I'm also slowly planning on diving back into my first MFA Comics thesis to completely overhaul it digitally and re-collect it into individual zines and distribute it that way. I also spent some time overhauling the narrative of my second MFA thesis, and actually started scripting part of that re-imagined story and really need to get back to it. I tend to work in spurts and mostly on short-form vignette comics, but am really trying to get myself to buckle down on completely writing and illustrating a long-form comic within the next year. Aside from that, I've mainly been doing short comics related to the emotional turmoil of this pandemic.
What does your work represent to you?
N: My work represents my uninhibited self, my freedom, and my newfound ability to listen to and care for myself in a way I hadn't done for years. Making comics has helped me confront a lot of things about myself that I simply didn't know how to and it's also helped challenge me as an artist and an educator.
Nicky’s Comic for The BAYlies 2018
Thank you to Nicky for doing this interview. It’s important for me as someone who is here right now to not only archive and document comics history, but to shine light on what has been and still is here. Nicky is a part of the next generation coming up in comics and I’m excited for y’all to experience what she is offering.
Please Check out her work
Peace and love
-Lawrence