A Few More Slices of Heaven _{by Alessia Belsito-Riera}

Whether you’ve seen him tearing up stages across Aotearoa with his band DARTZ or you get his YeeHawTheBoys comics delivered straight to your inbox every week, Daniel Vernon (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Te Wairoa) is a creative force with his fingers in many artistic pies.

You may think music and cartoons aren’t in the same realm, but where the award-winning post-pub-rock band and doodles intersect is in the convergence of humour and political satire. Vernon’s work is woven together by his distinctly Kiwi comedic voice and a deep love for the communities that inspire it, as can be seen in the new DARTZ album 3 hangi pit and his new book A Few More Slices of Heaven. His style takes affectionate digs at New Zealand quirks and culture while still serving as a love letter to the country he calls home.

As for A Few More Slices of Heaven, Vernon says that “this collection is really about celebrating the stories we tell each other as New Zealanders – those little cultural touchstones that make us laugh because they’re so deeply familiar. If you’ve ever argued about the correct way to eat a mince pie or discovered life’s meaning while stuck in traffic on State Highway 1, this one’s for you.”

On the day of the book’s release, Vernon and I dove into his creative inspirations, the everyday absurdities we all know and love, and the things that define the Aotearoa experience.

As an artist and a musician, creativity seems like an important facet of your life.

It feels like a means of communication. I was a visual learner, and it’s always been the way I preferred to communicate. Sometimes it’s hard to talk about things, so it’s easier to show and tell.

Do music and visual art scratch different itches for you?

Music is more of a collaborative effort. I’m working with my three best friends and there’s a lot more editing between the three of us; more cooks in the kitchen in a good way. That scratches the itch of wanting to work with people and collaborate. The comics and art are only me, which I like because it’s focusing on honing that one craft. Being able to have a balance to work on things myself and then launch into something that’s more collaborative scratches both those itches.  

How would you describe your art style?

In terms of content, I would say it’s satirical and a bit odd and weird leaning. But visually, it’s based in the cartoons that I grew up with, like Cartoon Network-y. Everyone keeps telling me that the eyes look insane, which I like leaning into, especially when you’re going for more political stuff. It’s easier to disarm people when they look a bit off-putting.

What draws you to humour and satire in your art and in your music?

It’s a great form of communication, especially in times like these where things can seem very overwhelming and hard to digest. Things are purposefully made that way sometimes so people can’t learn or process. Humour is a great way to break it down to the bones and make the evil seem cartoonishly evil. It gets straight to the ridiculousness of it. Comics and music are a great way of communicating to people without talking down to them, which I really like.

What draws you to the political side of art?

It was kind of an accident, to be honest! It just ended up feeling like what I was really good at. But it’s being able to communicate or highlight what’s happening to people who may not have a direct interest or feel like they can’t access those topics. I grew up in small town New Zealand, and I think people can get disinterested or disengaged from politics and stuff like that. This is a creative way to get people engaged and learning without them being made to feel like they aren’t smart enough.

Tell me about your new book A Few More Slices of Heaven!

It’s kind of the opposite. I spend most of my days making political stuff, which can at times be very depressing or make you feel angry and disheartened with the world and the country. I wanted to do something that is the opposite and celebrates what I love about New Zealand. I did a book last year called Slices of Heaven, so this is the direct sequel to that. It made me feel reinvigorated with drawing and creating. It was therapeutic for me, in part. I like the reaction that people have when I share those specific stories – less anger and more people being together and remembering [shared experiences]. It’s about reminding people what can be celebrated about New Zealand.

What is Kiwi culture to you?

It’s a lot of community stuff, so people coming together. We are very creative in terms of both arts and music and also just ingenuity when it comes to how we engage with education and how we do things. Then there are some things that are institutions that are really weird and unique to New Zealand. Like the lolly scramble, for example, just doesn’t happen in any other country – it’s really insane! But funny New Zealand-specific things that are more collective than individual.

How do you capture that in your art?

With the book, it’s about putting it into genres to highlight the cute things about New Zealand. So, the lolly scramble is done in a horror, Hunger Games theme with kids trying to fight each other off to get lollies. And finding ways that they can do that with Nerf guns and things that you might have grown up with as a kid. Then there’s a detective-noir story about banned items at school, and there’s Harold the Giraffe being in our lives as adults running a spin class or an intervention. Finding out how those things can fit in with in a different genre, which is fun to experiment with in writing and drawing as well.

How is the process different in creating a book versus one-off comics?

There is a lot more thought, because I try to structure them more as stories than just as one panelled, to-the-point things. It’s a bit more fun in terms of scripting and researching, which involves talking with people and comparing experiences. It’s slightly more collaborative, but also, it’s a little bit more thought-out and pre-planned. I get to enjoy the art side a lot more because there are less time constraints.

What’s next for you, both with DARTZ and solo?

With DARTZ, currently, as we speak, we’re in the studio writing a new album, so that’s my focus for the next month. Then I’ll probably take a month off after intensely doing this book for the last three months and then heading straight into the album. So I’m going to enjoy summer! Then, I’ve got a few more book ideas and a few other comics that I want to get back into soon. Obviously, the Substack still needs to be fed. So, just keep on going, keep on trucking.

Got a small New Zealand tour to take these new songs out on the road for our own sake and to do a little summer roady. There’ll be one here at Valhalla [on the 22^nd of January], so that should be fun!