Ryan Sohmer, creator of the online comic strip "Least I Could Do," said his motto for life and writing is "Don't worry, read happy." Sohmer said writing an online comic gives him the freedom to talk about whatever subjects he wants, including sex and religion. Before he began working on his comic strip, Sohmer was a journalist with dreams of traveling overseas. But Sohmer found he didn't want to write for a newspaper because he didn't care about the stories he was assigned. His break into comic writing came when he realized his descriptive writing skills were strong and that long-form fiction, such as novels, intimidated him. Sohmer released the second volume of his comic strip in a book called "Velcro Pants Are Awesome."
Daily Lobo: How did you get started with the comic strip?
Ryan Sohmer: I found the first artist, Lar Desouza, about seven or eight years ago, and we just started producing a comic strip online. And the joy of doing it online was, of course, no editor. It really gave me a chance to learn and figure out what I was doing. And it gave me time to really find and develop my characters' voices and to develop the relationships and to see what would happen. The first couple years it was really quiet, and then it started to pick up and the site traffic picked up. We've done five books before that were sold online, and now we're finally getting them into retail shops around the world.
DL: The different thing about your comic is that you're putting it out there and you don't sugarcoat what you're talking about. Why did you decide to take the comic in that direction?
RS: As a former reporter, I understand the need for an editor. But in this format, with the content and context on which I want to touch, an editor wouldn't have done me any good. I think we're in a world now where we should be able to talk about sex freely. We should be able to talk about diseases and religion and these kinds of things.
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DL: Do you ever offend anyone with your comic strip?
RS: Oh yeah, I love it! On average I get about 400 e-mails every day. I always keep the hate mail because it's always the funniest. Because if you are offended and you don't like my work, then don't read it. If you are taking time to write this letter to me, then what do you think it is going to do?
DL: What are some of the things people say to you?
RS: They say, 'You don't understand women and you don't know anything about them' and I say, 'Yeah that's true.' I write what I know, and it's guy-oriented, because it's from the main character Rayne's point of view. Anything with religion you get a lot of flack for, or if I'm talking about overweight folks, but again, the people who come and defend that, it just boggles my mind. Obesity is one of the largest epidemics facing America, so why can't we address it? It's not a good thing. Being obese is a negative thing, so why are you defending it? Yes there are a small percentage of people who have a genetic disorder, but 99 percent of people don't get out of the house and they eat crap, so I try and touch on that as much as I can.
DL: Where do you get your material?
RS: A lot of it is really just I'll be talking to a friend or I'll be on the phone or I'll be in the car just talking to myself and it'll just come. Sometimes I just make it up, so it's really a mixture of both. I am a firm believer of writing what you know, so a lot of the relationships between the characters mimic the relationships that I have with people in my life, only a lot more exaggerated.
DL: Do you want people to use this comic strip as a way to help each other see eye to eye, especially when it comes to communication between males and females?
RS: I really like the idea of talking about things. When I grew up in my house we were encouraged to talk about anything. There was nothing that was taboo. We would sit down for dinner and we would just talk about everything. I have kept that and I still practice that in my own house and my own family. I want to be able to talk about everything. The one thing I'm scared to touch upon too much is religion. It seems to be a hot topic these days and I don't want to end up like the Dutch cartoonist (Gregorious Nekschot). That's sad to me that there are things I can't talk about for fear of getting killed. But other than that I try to talk about anything and everything that I can.
