Analise and Seb sat down last month in Midtown Linear Park to discuss Seb’s creative process as he explored a new medium and prepared to share his comics with an audience for the first time as Good Neighbor’s featured artist on this print issue
Seb: On the record, off the record.
Analise: You're officially on the record.
Seb: Off the record.
Analise: No, no - you’re on.
Seb: Okay.
Analise: What does it mean to be a good neighbor?
Seb: I think it just means being willing to help in any way you can. It doesn’t mean bending over backwards, but if you have the bandwidth, definitely show up. Like, my neighbor noticed I had a hornet’s nest. He let me borrow insecticide. I used all of it, and then I bought him the same can and left it on his doorstep. That feels like a good example. I love that. That’s a good neighbor.
Analise: What does “local summer” mean to you?
Seb: Definitely watering holes. We have the best secret swimming spots. I love Kingston Point Beach. It feels like such a safe space. I love being there, seeing other families having fun, being able to just disappear into the crowd. A lot of park access, nature, barbecues, rainstorms, thunderstorms.
Analise: What’s come up for you while working as the featured artist this month for the September issue?
Seb: A lot of overthinking… about the permanence of it. Like, whatever idea I put down on paper is going to be permanent. But I’ve been thinking, it’s better to put it on paper so you can move on and make other ideas. I’ve had story ideas percolating for years. If I don’t write them down, they just linger. Monogamy, commitment to an idea.
Analise: Do you see the zine, the comic, and drawing as juxtaposed with your projection work since projection is more time-bound?
Seb: I think they bleed into each other. With projections there’s a time crunch. There’s a time crunch here too, with the comic.
Analise: You said you were overthinking permanence, because in print your work exists beyond you, whereas with projection, people have to catch it live. You control when they experience it.
Seb: Yes, absolutely. With projections, I’m sharing space. I don’t want to blind people with the light. With comics, I also don’t want to dominate the space. I want it to be an addition.
Analise: Complimentary.
Seb: Exactly, a companion. Yeah. I hate a plain projection screen. I love weird surfaces. Using projection as an accent piece is always fun.
Analise: You also mentioned building sound systems, and that your work’s never the same.
Seb: Right. My work’s never the same. It’s always site-specific, not permanent. Always in the moment, live. I think I was tying that to the permanence of the comic, or print.
Analise: What has working in a more permanent medium opened for you?
Seb: Working in a permanent space has made me feel more okay about keeping things moving forward. But I think that has more to do with time. The deadlines.
Analise: Yeah, the time crunch. We feel that too on the editorial side. We finish one issue and suddenly it’s time to print again. But for creativity, it’s interesting. The formula and repetition create a kind of scaffolding. And within that structure, everything still comes out different. It’s good for creativity to be confined, otherwise I just let things drag out.
Seb: Same. I’ve learned I’m very process-heavy. Like, with the comic book ideas, I had excerpts for every character; their motives, their biography, maps of the setting. You can kill hours, even years, world-building. World-building will suck you dry. But with this project, I’m cheating a little, because I’ve been thinking about it for so many years that I can shove all that aside and just go off vibes. Guided vibes, I guess because I have all that background work stored away.
Analise: Guided vibes… I like that. What do you want to share with people who are going to read the comic? This issue includes part of a story? How much of the comic is in the zine?
Seb: I’m pulling from multiple storylines and characters. They all live in my brain, and since they all have pieces of me in them, they can coalesce. I can mix and match. This project is making me practice execution - actually getting things on the page. I’m hoping with this momentum, I can keep going and really empty my mind onto paper.
Analise: What does continuation look like for you?
Seb: A properly printed graphic novel in the future. I’ve always wanted to do the Kingston Comic Expo. The first year I thought, “Alright, next year I’ll do it.” But the years keep passing. Having an end goal, like a graphic novel, and building an audience would push me to deliver. It puts a fire under my a**.
Analise: How can Good Neighbor readers follow the unfolding of your comic and process?
Seb: For now, through Good Neighbor. Beyond that, Instagram. I might change my handle. @Sebi_Spaghetti was a joke that stuck.
Analise: We’ll double-check your Instagram handle before we go to print.
Seb: …Sebi Ravioli
Analise: That’s going to be the interview title. Is there anything else you’d like to say? You have a platform, an audience—what do you want to share?
Seb: Probably just—not to give up. Do something, one thing, every day. I want that to come through in the stories too.
Analise: That’s important. Yeah. I stepped on a pin today - different pair of shoes - and when I pulled it out, it read, “You make a difference.”
Seb: The pin said that?
Analise: Yeah! The guy cutting down a tree at my house said it was a sign. It was literally in my shoe.
Seb: Did it break skin?
Analise: No, just the shoe. But yeah, the not giving up resonates. Thriving to me is having the capacity to keep going.
Seb: I think I agree. When you’re just surviving, you’re not planning for the future, you’re just reacting.
Analise: Right. And that’s not to blame anyone in that situation. But I think our purpose, being here now, is to reckon with that, because life constantly pushes us toward survival mode. Even world-building - which can feel like a burden - is a form of thriving because you’re imagining beyond survival. That’s a privilege, though.
Seb: Yeah.
Analise: So what do you think should be done with privilege—individual and collective?
Seb: If you have the bandwidth, and if you have the privilege, you should be a good neighbor.