Today on the site, Rob Kirby interviews MariNaomi about her latest book, Turning Japanese.
What are some of the responses that have been particularly memorable to you?
Well, people who have had similar experiences reaching out to me, that's been great—especially because I wasn't sure anyone would. A number of people, from several different cultural backgrounds, talked with me about trying to learn a new language and how fatiguing that is; and there have been people of mixed race who have related to the stuff dealing with being alienated from your motherland.
Have you heard from many women who have worked at hostess bars?
A few… but I can't really talk about that—there's some delicate and even really awful stuff there. But I will say that having talked to other people that had jobs in this industry that I had a very benign, vanilla experience compared to others.
Meanwhile, elsewhere:
—Interviews & Profiles. James Kochalka answers ten questions.
When I was a teenager, a guy I knew in another state paid me to take his secret girlfriend to his High School Prom. His secret girlfriend was his official girlfriend’s best friend… and he couldn’t take them both. So.. my date was the secret girlfriend… but then his real girlfriend was like SO into me. Anyhow, I got paid $200 for that.
Newsarama talks to Tom Scioli about the end of GI Joe vs Transformers.
The approach to storytelling in the G.I. Joe comic was very different than what I was used to – it was a lot of vehicular combat seen from a distance, and now that’s part of my tool kit.
It was interesting to read a comic that had such a high turnover of characters, and how it dealt with that, how some characters wound up sticking around. It’s clear in any ensemble book there are characters who are favorites of the writer, even if they’re not always the favorites of the fans. I tried to keep a balance of who I wanted to see as a fan, and who as a creator I wanted to spend time with.
—Reviews & Commentary. Robert Boyd writes about recent comics from Matt Madden and Bob Fingerman.
When I first read Drawn Onward, I didn't realize that it was a reversible story. It wasn't until I got to the end of the comic did I realize that it had to be reread backwards. Unlike The Upside Downs, you don't turn Drawn Onward upside down--you just read the panels in reverse order.
Ann Telnaes writes about the influence of social media on editorial cartooning.
I stood frozen in front of my computer, watching my Twitter feed roll like a slot machine reel. My editorial cartoon criticizing then-presidential candidate Ted Cruz for his decision to have his 7-year-old daughter read from the script of a political attack ad had just been published online by The Washington Post, and four days of continuous emails, tweets, and comments had begun.
—News. A widow of one of the Charlie Hebdo staffers killed last year has sued the magazine, alleging that the publication has reneged on promises to compensate victims' families.
Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez's Love & Rockets is returning to its original magazine-sized format.
“Over the past few years, Gilbert and Jaime had each casually mentioned more than once that it might be fun to try their hand at a regular comic book series again after a decade of creating the new annual every year,” said Fantagraphics Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds. “Gilbert joked at one point that he would simply love to be able to draw more covers — with he and Jaime trading covers, he was only creating one new L&R cover every two years! We agreed that something needed to be done about this, and we’re very excited to return L&R to its comic book roots.”
The family of deceased British comics writer Alan Mitchell is asking for financial help to cover his funeral costs.
Our father was born into a solidly working class family and would have been proud to state that fact. He died at the age of 55, sooner than any of us could have possibly expected.
As such, there were no preparations made for his death. We do not have the liquid assets to hand to pay for the entirety of the funeral costs, which are in excess of £10,000.
