Interview with Publishers Weekly

Here's an interview with me about Mom's Cancer posted yesterday by Publishers Weekly, THE industry journal of the book business. Writer Dean Simons and I had a good, long conversation that he condensed into this article that hits the high points.

I didn't mention it earlier because it appeared to be behind a paywall, and when you click that link you, too, will hit a paywall that reads "PW Pro Content." But I think I stumbled onto a glitch: if you click on the "Questions?" prompt on that pop-up screen, it opens a new tab while revealing the article on the original tab! So just click back to that first tab and it should/might be there.

If you want to go to the trouble.

Getting a write-up in PW is a big deal because booksellers, librarians, critics, and other people in publishing pay attention to it. I'm grateful! 

Comics 4 All Podcast

I had a great time Sunday afternoon doing a LIVE podcast for Jameson Rohrer's "Comics 4 All" show. Jameson is a librarian with a passion for comics in general and graphic medicine in particular, so we took some deep dives into those subjects plus pretty much my entire life as a cartoonist. 

Two notes: 

1. The Australian psychiatrist whose name I couldn't remember at 24:40 is Neil Phillips. To be fair to me, I haven't seen him in nine years. To be critical of me, I bought two pieces of artwork from him, so I probably should have been able to conjure his name.

2. I didn't realize until I watched some of the replay that I was blinking weird. I just want to reassure viewers that my twitchiness is not due to an undiagnosed neurological condition, but because I have terrible hay fever irritating my eyes right now and my choice was to either blink weird or claw at my corneas with my fingernails. I think I chose wisely.

Thanks to Jameson for the invitation and his time, I appreciate it!

Mom's Cancer in the Press Democrat

My hometown newspaper, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, published a feature today about me and the Mom's Cancer Anniversary Edition. Writer Dan Taylor has been a real champion of local arts in general and comics in particular, and it was good to talk to him again.

Dan also interviewed my friend MK Czerwiec, who did me the favor of writing a new foreword for my book. I wasn't surprised that Dan quoted MK, since I asked her permission to give Dan her contact info, but I was surprised he also reached out to librarian, teacher, and graphic medicine wrangler Matthew Noe, who luckily for me also said nice things. Thanks to them both!

Two quick stories about the photo. Photographer John Burgess, who is a pro's pro, came to my studio and tried to wring some liveliness out of me. He was joking "Work it, work it!" and got me laughing, until I said to him, "Here's the thing. I don't want to look like I'm yucking it up promoting a book about my mother's cancer." John immediately switched gears. "Got it. Mona Lisa smile." Click.

Second story about the photo is that in the top left corner you can see an out-of-focus stained-glass hummingbird hanging in my studio window. Mom made that, and my sisters graciously gave it to me after the fire. If you'd like to interpret that as Mom literally watching over my shoulder, be my guest.

A Book Launch Q&A

Timed nicely with yesterday's launch of my new anniversary edition of Mom's Cancer, here's an interview with the Substack pub Autobiographix. This was a Q&A I did a few weeks ago with Amaris Ketcham, who I thought asked some good questions on topics I don't usually get asked about, such as my origin story and stylistic development. For being relatively brief, it goes pretty deep!

Thanks to Amaris and Autobiographix! It's a nice way to mark the occasion of putting a new (or at least updated) book into the world. 

SerioComics Interview

NEW INTERVIEW! 

Graphic novelist, writer and publisher Dave Cowen has done a nice review of A Fire Story and a good interview with me for his SerioComics Substack thingy (also posted to LinkedIn and Instagram, but I don't do those). The mission of SerioComics is to "make serious comics fun and take fun comics seriously." 

Dave has done 70 weekly reviews of nonfiction graphic novels and managed to land interviews with many of their creators, including some pretty big names, so I was honored to be asked. We focused on A Fire Story but also touched on Mom's Cancer, Expressionism, trauma, and advice for storytellers. 

Thanks to Dave for the thoughtful questions!