Nicholas Gurewitch’s ‘The Perry Bible Fellowship’ is printed in Maxim, The Guardian (UK), The Boston Weekly Dig, The Baltimore City Paper, The Chicago Reader and several other publications. A Syracuse University alum, Gurewitch first printed ‘The Perry Bible Fellowship,’ or ‘PBF,’ in The Daily Orange, where he was art director for a semester in 2002. Current art director Evan Reiser conducted a Q & A with him last month.

Daily Orange: How important is humor to you in comics?Nicholas Gurewitch: I prefer a crudely drawn funny comic to an expertly drawn unfunny comic, any day. Comedy to most people is expected. [Comic strips] are referred to as ‘comics,’ and they’re on the ‘funnies’ page. (pause) It’s interesting that we make room for comics in papers. But yeah, humor’s important. If a comic isn’t funny people can respond in disappointment, even hatred.

DO: So which comics would you say have influenced you the most?NG: ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ and ‘The Far Side.’ I don’t know if those inspired me so much as they’re my favorite comic strips, however.

DO: You were a film major in VPA at Syracuse. Did your film classes here serve as an influence?NG: Sure. I use a lot of film rules when constructing comics, a lot of the aspects of visual storytelling in general.

DO: At what point would you say the comic really took off, in popularity?NG: I think I can remember the exact date. It was October 30, a few years ago [laughs]…

DO: Do you receive much feedback from readers?NG: (pause) Sometimes. The most feedback I’ve gotten were in response to two strips … One was an homage to (pen and ink illustrator) Edward Gorey, another was drawn to look like the old Nintendo game Punch-Out. A lot of people really liked that one. It’s surprising how humor travels, really. When I first started, I always thought of it as a college comic.

DO: I read it occasionally in high-school, on your Web site. I personally know a handful of people from my school that read it, or at least had seen it.NG: That’s interesting. I guess the humor isn’t so specific. I probably think of it that way because I started it in college.

DO: What is the origin of the doughy, stark white character in ‘PBF?’ Or rather, the character design, since you’ve drawn many characters with the appearance.NG: That was determined by my attempt to show as minimal an amount of information as possible. I often like to keep the scene completely clean, visually. I opt for that, just as a default.

DO: But you do emulate other artists and reference other media frequently.NG: Yeah. I guess emulating other people’s styles is like, playing dress up. The Edward Gorey comic is a good example.

DO: Are you working on any other projects at the moment?NG: Well, I guess you could say I’m an aspiring filmmaker. I’d like to make more films. But right now I’m putting together a collection of ‘PBF’ for Dark Horse comics.

New installments of ‘The Perry Bible Fellowship’ can be seen every Wednesday this semester in The Daily Orange.