Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sage Coffey. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Sage, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I first started drawing when I was just a kid and I’m grateful to my mom for always being so encouraging back then otherwise I would’ve never gone to art school. I do want to say that art school isn’t for everyone but for me, the structured learning really helped cement the foundations I needed to become the storyteller I am today! There’s a quote my old professor used to say that I really like. “You have to learn all the rules to break them.” After graduating, I didn’t have that structure so it that progress immediately felt staggered on top of managing two part-time jobs. It’s hard not to be frustrated when you put pen to page and it just doesn’t come out like it does in your head! Something that helped me out of that rut was people watching. It’s like a life-drawing class but free and in motion, haha. Also, picking up a random book every now and again whether it be a local zine or a graphic novel. You never know where you’ll find inspiration and it’s important to take a chance on art that isn’t like what you make!

Sage, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Sage Coffey! I’m a trans nonbinary cartoonist with a passion for making autobiographical comics and goofy but heartfelt fiction. I’m best known for my work on the GLAAD Nominated video game BUGSNAX and the comic work I’ve done for outlets including The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and The Nib. I also illustrated I AM NOT A WOLF written by the wonderfully funny and kind Dan Sheehan. I also have my first original graphic novel coming out! Wine Ghost Goes to Hell published by Iron Circus Comics.

Sweaty Palms, the anthology about anxiety I edited with my dear friend Liz Enright is probably one of my proudest achievements. It was a lot of hard work and I learned so much about what it means to be an editor and work with so many people at once to create this singular, beautiful and important book. It might be easier to boil it down to: I do a bit of everything! I hope this doesn’t just feel like a laundry list of the things I’ve done, haha. In all seriousness, I’m so grateful I get to have the career I do because not everyone gets to make art for a living.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

It has to be one of the worst ways people have chosen to monetize their art not only because it’s terrible for the environment but there seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of what NFTs are and the copyright to the art attached to them. Most people don’t realize they’re not buying the art when the buy an NFT. They’re buying a long string of numbers that link to the art and not the art itself. It’s like buying a CVS receipt rather than whatever the receipt is listing. It’s so frustrating to me too because a lot of young artists are being pulled into doing them thinking they’re going to make big bucks when in reality the majority of transactions are between just a few people. “The average sale price of NFTs is lower than 15 dollars for 75% of the assets, and larger than 1594 dollars, for 1% of the assets.” according to a Mapping the NFT Revolution by IBM Research published in Nature Oct. 2021. They actually may be losing money depending on how expensive their minting fee is. It preys on hopeful artists who want to make money off of their work. If I could use one word to describe NFTs it would be: scam.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

For artists to thrive we need to support them during the time they create and not just their creations. We look at tipping systems like kofi or patreon as passive forms of income for artists but they need to be able to pay for their basic human necessities in order to create exactly what they want to make in exactly the way they want to make it. I think we’d see a lot more variety and experimental art if we supported things like universal basic income. There’s this false idea that great art is born from suffering. Once someone has secure housing, secure food and have financial stability – they thrive! They can make what they want without having to break their bodies to make sure they can eat. Supporting creatives just means supporting people.

Contact Info:

• Website: sagecoffey.com
• Instagram: @sagemcoffey
• Twitter: @sagecoffey