Artist Jim Mahfood on Los Angeles Ink Stains and his start in Kansas City

Artist Jim Mahfood began his career in Kansas City. While the St. Louis native attended the Kansas City Art Institute, his work for zines like Flavorpak, as well as his own self-released comics Cosmic Toast and Girl Scouts (to say nothing of his illustrations for The Pitch) made him a respected name around the area. After graduation, Mahfood found work doing Clerks comics for Kevin Smith, as well as the well-regarded Generation X Underground Special for Marvel. Then Mahfood went underground, developing his style with a series of self-released comics and drawing the attention of Colt .45, which commissioned him for a national campaign. All the while working for “the Man,” Mahfood created fan-friendly freebies like the Beat Bee Sessions podcast, devoted to sharing music and stories alongside his cohort Jane Dope, as well as Los Angeles Ink Stains, an autobiographical comic about Mahfood’s work as an artist and adventures at parties. Those strips are now collected in a new book, due out later this month from Image Comics. We recently checked in with Mahfood via e-mail about his career and the new book.