Staff Writer

When it came time for Jefferson Coniaris to publish his second comic book, he decided to stick to what he knows best.

The 25-year-old comic book artist from Dayton spent 10 summers working at Huot’s Seafood Restaurant in Camp Ellis and knew he had plenty of material to keep the laughs going. Coniaris recently published “Chum: Is That for Here or to Go?”

As with his first published comic book – “Chum: Would You Like Fries With That?” – the comic strips revolve around the experience of working in the restaurant industry and dealing with “annoying customers and co-workers,” Coniaris said. The book features three characters: Kid, Jay and Kelly.

“It’s pretty much crude teenage behavior at its best,” Coniaris said. “Most people can relate, even if they haven’t worked in restaurants.”

Coniaris said his love of drawing and comic books began early and overlapped easily. 

“I’ve been drawing since I was two, I’m told,” he said. “Growing up I always had a pen and paper in my hand.”

Coniaris fell in love with comic books at age 6, when he could be found flipping through books featuring Batman, Spiderman and X-men. He found himself “drawing those characters 24/7,” he said. His interests later grew to include Japanese art and comic books designed for adults.

During his time at Thornton Academy, Coniaris drew a half-dozen comic books as long as 40 pages each. A few years later, while studying illustration at Maine College of Art, he drew his first Chum comic book.

After college, Coniaris spent a year teaching English in South Korea. After school, he’d return to his apartment and draw Chum strips. He sketches each strip in pencil before tracing the lines in black ink.

“As I started doing that, I got more and more ideas. I filled up sketchbooks,” he said. “I said ‘why not do a second book?’”

For the second book, Coniaris again drew heavily from his restaurant experience. The three main characters are modeled after the types of people he encountered working in Camp Ellis. Jay, the protagonist, is a typical goofy teen boy who thinks about drinking, girls and food, he said.

Kelly, who cooks alongside Jay, “is the one who wears the pants. She’s in your face,” Coniaris said. Kid, who always wears a snorkel mask, shows up at the restaurant to complain and cause trouble.

“He symbolizes every annoying customer I’ve ever had to deal with,” he said.

Since self-publishing the second Chum book, Coniaris has done book signings at comic book shops in Maine and New Hampshire. He said he is working on a third Chum book and already has more than 30 strips to include.

Though he would like someday to make a living as a working artist, Coniaris said he will always find pleasure in putting pen to paper.

“If I have a stressful day, I sit down and draw. I draw when I’m in a good mood,” he said. “It’s kind of like air for me. You just sit there and let the pen do the talking.”

Coniaris displays his work at jconiarisillustration.blogspot.com.

Staff Writer Gillian Graham can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 213.