I first met Sina Sparrow not in a sleazy darkroom or at some glitzed up disco party but at a local punk rock show put on in a far-fetched seeming fish restaurant on the outskirts of town with bad bar service. The gay geeks – and that included me – congregated in one corner, close to the cool punk rock girls. Not long after Sparrow and I began chatting, he showed me his… artwork on his iPhone. Even though that isn’t the most ideal way to check out anyone’s anything, Sparrow’s art immediately struck me. The Londoner appealed to the punk and the geek in me, reminding me of a mixture of Raymond Pettibon and 1960s Marvel Comics. Images of hot boys, huge cocks, hardcore sex and female rock icons the likes of Patti Smith, PJ Harvey, Liz Phair and Kate Bush impressed me immediately, and I knew we had a Dandy artist on our hand. Based in London, Sparrow is the brain, hand, and dick behind the comic ART FAG and the zines Pretty Boys Ignore You, The Mysterious Element Of Beauty and Dirty Mind. But don’t take it from me, here it is from the fag’s mouth. And hand!

Who inspires you, and what inspires you to do your art?

I've always loved drawing since I was little, and my dad would draw things with me. My mum and dad always encouraged me to do art, so they are big inspirations. That said, they are now banned from looking at most of my work! ;) I've always been inspired by art – whether that's on the more official end of art, "fine" artists like Keith Haring and Frida Kahlo – or, more often, by comic artists – whether that's people working in the mainstream like Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko or Harry G. Peter who drew the original 1940s Wonder Woman (very kinky) – or more contemporary alternative cartoonists like Los Broz Hernandez, who does Love & Rockets, and gay erotic comics artists like Jon Macy. 

How long have boys, cocks and female rock stars been at the forefront of your work?

I started drawing female rock stars relatively recently, in the last three years or so; I started drawing them as posters to decorate the dance party that I run monthly in London, which is called DEBBIE. DEBBIE is devoted to playing a range of music from rock and pop to disco, but the theme is that it must have female lead vocals, so drawing female rock stars was a natural, of course. Most of my work has always been about my own life, experiences, thoughts and fantasies, so, since I was 16, boys and cocks have been pretty important to the autobiographical comics I do. My old comic was called BoyCrazyBoy and the main new one is called ART FAG.

Your comic works seems to focus on sex and the occult. Does the occult factor into your own sex life?

Aside from the autobiographical comics in ART FAG, yes, I am working on a fantasy comic called ATASH – the word means "fire" in Persian – about the gay god of love and passion and all the other Man-Gods of the Homoverse. I really like the idea of thinking about Gods and Monsters to sort of try to make sense of why the world can feel so confusing, fucked up or amazing at times. That's what the ancient people who we got our mythologies from were trying to do, explain why the world was the way it was, so that's my attitude in my more mythical comics. I am trying to explore real life through the occult and fantasy. I am pretty interested in the occult, but so far I haven't done any sex magick – maybe I need to find the right Magus to teach me ;)

Does your art come from your own sexual fantasies, or do you create the art only to have it influence your sex life later on?

My art is based on my own sexual fantasies and sexual realities! A bit of both, I think. I remember once I had done a comic about this time I asked a boy to spit in my mouth during sex – because I think that can be really hot sometimes, and with the right person or in the right situation, I should probably add – but he was grossed out by it, and that made me feel a little ashamed for asking. Then a couple of weeks after drawing the comic, I slept with this other guy who was really into spitting in my mouth – without my asking – and apologized for it after, and I was like "No, it's really weird, I just did a comic about how much I like that!" So maybe the comic was a sort of spell for attracting spit – I don't know!

Comic artists are rock stars themselves. Does your work ever get you laid? If so, do guys expect something specific of you because of your art?

This is a really interesting question... I don't know if my work has ever directly gotten me laid, but a boy I was dating a few years ago told me he felt more confident asking me out because he'd read my comics. He said he thought I was "too cool" for him at first but then he read my comics and saw I was human and vulnerable. That was pretty interesting. I don't know what guys expect from me sexually because of my art, though once after I had sex with this guy, I showed him a picture I'd done of this guy being rimmed called "Once he started doing that I never wanted him to stop" and the guy is hairy like me and looking really ecstatic, and he was like, "THAT'S YOU!" Which it wasn't supposed to be, but actually, that was pretty accurate.

Check out Sina’s website here.
Follow him on Twitter at @boycrazyboy
Or get your own original Sina artwork at his shop!