Amsterdam was initially conceived as an “odds and ends” collection, a little “expansion campaign” for Megahex. Hanselmann: I don’t really think things through at all, things just happen, everything comes together slowly. plus a bunch of new stuff just for the book. All of it somehow elegantly jigsaws itself into a workable–albeit stoned–narrative.ĭueben: After the success of Megahex, for this book were you thinking, “I have to do this in the same way, I need to try something differently?” Simon Hanselmann: The Amsterdam book is all the strips I did through Vice in 2014-15, plus stuff from places like the Pitchfork Review and The Lifted Brow, stuff from self published zines, out of print micropress stuff, stuff cut from Megahex. Recently, he opened up about his work, where he wants to go next, why that scares him, and what’s changed.Īlex Dueben: I’m sure that a lot of people have been reading you in Vice, so what does Megg and Mogg in Amsterdam consist of, exactly? Since the success of Megahex, Hanselmann got married and moved from Australia to the United States. The way that Hanselmann has treated Megg’s depression and the way that getting older has changed the characters are parts of what make the comic work., Hanselmann makes clear he’s interested in exploring more emotional fraught terrain, though wonders what that will mean for the comic. The stoner humor and the wild antics are what made so many people first take notice of the comics, and Hanselmann is a funny writer and cartoonist, but what’s made the comic so interesting for so long is how the comic is so much more than that.

Hanselmann explained that he sees this new book as a companion book to Megahex, taking place in the same time frame and exploring the characters in similar ways.

He started their journey in the 2014 book Megahex, which is a regular feature in Vice. In his new book Megg and Mogg in Amsterdam, Simon Hanselmann continues to explore the lives of Megg, Mogg, Owl and Werewolf Jones.

Megahex by Simon Hanselmann