Sunny (with a Chance of Trees)
We've got a new podcast with Keiler Roberts, my close call, notes from Philadelphia, MOAR ART, and an adorable Instax
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Podcastery
This week, I posted Episode 639 of The Virtual Memories Show, with Keiler Roberts. She may be able to quit comics (for a while), but she can’t quit my podcast! With her wonderful new book, PREPARING TO BITE (Drawn & Quarterly), Keiler returns to comics with a collection of (mostly) hilarious vignettes about domestic life, middle-age, the impact of her multiple sclerosis diagnosis, and having too many pets. We talk about why she walked away from comics and how she came back, how she avoids memoir in favor of memory (and humor), how she still has anxiety over drawing but is way too tired to have social anxiety anymore, and why she branched into kitschy craft-modes that no one would mistake for art. We get into why she wants her kid to read her journals when she’s gone, how MS taught her how to be bored, how men have no idea what perimenopause is like, what it means to be the best appointment of her doctors’ day, and the reward of teaching comics to her friends and her mom. We also discuss how Karl Stevens helped her back into comics with this book (& encourages her in every other artistic idea she has), how weird it is to see two of Karl’s super-detailed pages beside her sparse drawings in Preparing To Bite, and why she loved collaborating with her brother on the grownup fairytale Creepy. Plus, she teaches me the difference between living more and doing more, and I read you guys a Rilke poem in the intro. Give it a listen! And go read PREPARING TO BITE!
(And go listen to our 2017, 2020, and 2021 conversations!)
Last week I posted Episode 638 with Peter Kuper & his new graphic novel, INSECTOPOLIS: A Natural History (W. W. Norton), which brings us the 400-million-year history of insects in their own words as they take a post-human tour of the New York Public Library. We talked about how INSECTOPOLIS began when he was around 4 years old and saw the 17-year cicada brood, how Peter needed a new mode of comics-making for this book, and how he made the NYPL a key character in the project. We got into mankind’s dependence on insects, his experience getting a Cullman fellowship at the NYPL during COVID and how he found all the great & secret rooms while the place was near-empty, the INterSECTS exhibition that evolved from the fellowship and how it grew in scale, and his realization that entomologists are like comic fans. We also discussed the fun of getting experts to vet every chapter of INSECTOPOLIS, the alchemy that happens when people’s passions overlap, how he harnesses the dread of imminent apocalypse to make his art, and more. Give it a listen! And go read INSECTOPOLIS!
(And go listen to our past conversations: 2015, 2019a, 2019b, 2020!)
Recent episodes: Vauhini Vara • Craig Thompson • Ari Richter • Dan Nadel • See Hear Speak • Peter Trachtenberg • David Shields • Meeting Across the River
Sunny (with a Chance of Trees)
I’m in Philadelphia for another trade show, and have to head out for day 2 shortly, so here’s a quick couple of notes.
Day 1 was tiring: 20-min. presentation, immediately followed by 90-min. panel (I was moderator), then a 90-min. roundtable discussion (no audience, just recorded for an article), so I had to get all my schmoozing done in the interstices.
But then I got to go out to dinner with an old friend from my grad school days. We’ve texted/emailed over the years, but haven’t seen each other since 2010, when I had a trade show out in Portland, OR. It was a blast catching up with him, sharing stories, talking about art, eating tacos, asking about how parenthood has changed him, and learning about Taylor Swift (his daughter is 14).
And 3 hours after I left the house on Monday afternoon, a massive tree that would have crushed my car fell across our driveway. (Amy’s was untouched, thankfully.)
And now I’m concerned there’s a Final Destination scenario brewing, and I’m going to get killed in some particularly hideous way by like FIVE trees on the drive back to NJ this afternoon.
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Instaxery
I took a pic of my old pal’s forearm tattoos at dinner last night. His right arm is his old doggo, his left is a repro of his daughter’s iPad-drawn self-portrait.
Artistry
Trying to sketch with a brush-pen each day. Here are a couple from last week You should go to the Flickr album of most of the art I’ve made & find something you like.
Postcardery
Let me know if you want to be on my postcard-a-day list. (Financial supporters of the podcast get a hand-drawn or painted postcard as a thank-you.)
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far. I’ll be back on Sunday with links, books, & workout-/meditation-craziness, and on Wednesday with a new episode, and maybe some art and/or an Instax.
I know it makes no difference / To what you're going through / But I see the tip of the iceberg /And I worry about you,