It seems more than ever these days that many creative endeavors would not exist without crowdfunding – and thanks to such a wildly successful campaign, the world will soon have a new edition of Hard to Swallow, a gay comics anthology brimming with sexy sweaty erotica comics, arriving April 11 on Northwest Press. This upcoming edition has both old and new material by ten different contributors, many of them by Justin Hall and Dave Davenport. Hall holds an MFA in Comics, and his work on No Straight Lines earned a Lambda Literary Award, but he’s also worked as a porn actor, and some of the comics in Hard to Swallow are based on his experiences working as an escort and visiting some of Berlin’s decadent sex clubs. We caught up with Justin and some of the book’s contributors about making kinky comics and what’s different about them since Hard to Swallow was originally released.

How would you describe this book's origin story? 

I always wanted to collaborate with Dave Davenport, as he’s a dear friend and an incredibly talented artist. He finally agreed in 2006, suggesting we do an erotic comic series together. We had both done stories for True Porn (a collection of true sex stories from cartoonists) and enjoyed making them, so I was all for it. We both had a vision of doing our own brand of hot, uncompromising and personal erotic comics. So we put out four oversized issues over the next three years, full of sexy werewolves, pirates, ghost punks and porn stars, and we brought in a guest collaborator with each comic.

Then last year I realized that most of that material was out of print and it was coming up on the tenth anniversary of the first issue, so I talked to Dave and we went to Northwest Press to create a big, beautiful collection of the work.

What are some of your favorite stories in the collection? What sort of new material is going to be in the new volume?

I’m particularly proud of “Fluid”, a true story about a femme dyke who used to strap down her tits and put on boy drag in order to suck guys off in the back of the Powerhouse bar. I think I drew some hot cocksucking scenes, but it’s also a story to make you think about the fluid nature of sexuality. At its best, Hard to Swallow is as challenging as it is sexy.

One of my new stories is called “Berlin Buffet”, about my night at Berlin’s famous sex club Lab.oratory this January. I tried to be experimental about it, mixing explicit text with large illustrations of parts of my body and smaller pictures of food from the buffet I ate at every morning during my trip. I also love Dave’s new work, and the new story by Jon Macy for the book called “Ginger Dome”, which is an incredibly bizarre and sexy fantasy.

What's changed for you since this material's original inception?

Doing Hard to Swallow was good for me as it forced me to stretch my cartooning and illustration skills in ways that my previous, more understated indie comics hadn’t. I had to become comfortable with dynamic art and page compositions, which has served me well later on. We still hear from fans who really latched on to the material because there wasn’t a lot of stuff out there like it at the time; I also like to think that our book helped inspire some folks to make their own more personal and interesting smut comics.

Could you tell me about some of your favorite gay porn comic artists and influences?

I’ve been very influenced by the gei manga artists, especially Gengoroh Tagame and Jiraiya. When we first created Hard to Swallow, their work was virtually unknown in the States, but now I’m happy to say they’re finally getting some good English language editions due to the folks at Massive and Bruno Gmünder. I’m proud to say we got Tagame to even give us a blurb for the back of the book!

But I’d say that the majority of both my and Dave’s influences are from the non-erotic indie comics scene, from Love and Rockets to the artists in the early Gay Comix and Wimmen’s Comix series. I was also inspired by Straight to Hell, the zine that collected true gay sex confessionals for years pre-internet, part jerk-off book and part sociology treatise.

You talked about working in the adult film industry in an interview in Jetspace Magazine – how would you compare the process of creating sexy films with smutty comics?

When I make my comics I’m in full creative control. It’s one of the most wonderful things about the medium; it’s a very difficult art form requiring lots of time and energy, but you can make it all by yourself and have it represent your singular artistic vision. As a porn actor, I was only one of many people making the film.

I was lucky enough to work with a few excellent directors, including the legendary Joe Gage, but unfortunately the companies only allowed for so much creative expression. They weren’t interested in that zone where art and porn meet to get naked and sweaty together, which is where I want my comics to hang out.

Finally, where do you recommend people check out the book and your other projects?

Go to northwestpress.com for information on the Hard to Swallow book! I have a (sadly rarely updated) website justinhallcomics.com, where you can see some of my other work.

Stay tuned for part two of our interview with some of the anthology’s dirty contributors.