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labor, language, and legacy

What do you do for work?

A LinkedIn page, a short bio for an event, jury duty documents, a friend-of-a-friend I will never see again, a stranger at a bar, a dating profile — in one way or another they all ask. I spin the imaginary rolodex in my brain as to what the right answer could be for this particular situation. How much do they want to know and how much am I willing to share?

By claiming, artist, it doesn’t feel complete somehow. Or rather, I feel too small to encompass such a massive undertaking. Contributing to dialogue and culture? No not me. I like freelance illustrator because it gives the “I work hard to pay my bills” aura, but some folks surprisingly don’t have many follow-up questions, and I like follow-up questions. I’ve been known to say comic book artist, but that description doesn’t include the multitudes of skills you need in order to make comics. With that label, I’m excluding any word that would elude to an ability to write a story — comic book artist simplifies the entire skillset and focuses on a product rather than the person themselves.

There’s actually a lot of discourse about creators not referring to themselves as cartoonists, or even media varnishing over the cartoonist label for a term more favorable for SEO or digestibility, like “author” or “artist” instead.

Cartoonist is the obvious answer, but admittedly it was one I didn’t feel qualified to occupy until recently.

I had been testing out recently calling myself a cartoonist, and then a big shift happened last week. The terribly devastating passing of one of my personal influences, Marjane Satrapi had large news outlets like The New York Times and the BBC, leaning into this renaming. The irony too, is that Marjane has spoken on multiple occasions how she feels about these terms.

“I hate this word ‘graphic novel.’ It is a term publishing houses have created for the bourgeois so they wouldn’t be ashamed of buying comics... I’m not a graphic novelist. I am a cartoonist and I make comics and I am very happy about it.”

She goes on in this conversation to describe a feeling that I haven’t exactly found words for myself, but I will try now with her encouragement.

People who make comics are storytellers at heart. Sometimes I feel like I have so much swimming in my brain, it’s not enough to tell or write to you about it. It’s not satisfying to just draw a single image. Cartoonists must do both of these actions again, and again, and again. The moment where I found comics was the moment I realized you could do anything with this medium. All the cartoonists I know would be creating and savoring our own comics too, even if no one was around to consume them. They’re an extension of ourselves, they are a reflexive calling.

I completely understand Marjane’s animosity towards the word “graphic novel” and correctly distinguishing it as a marketing ploy from big publishers. Reading “Comic Books” denotes stereotypes of yesteryear, while “Graphic Novels” are seen to be real literature. I witness parents attempting to push their kids away from reading comics (even when they’re showing interest in them) and over to other books because they don’t see their value, or they feel like are for inexperienced readers.

And now I know I must be projecting. As a kid, and still now, I had a really hard time with reading and comprehension. However when my older cousin first introduced me what manga was, I was completely stoked! Finally books about the everyday girl protagonists, the stories about magic and time travel, and the art!! Discovering manga really did ignite a spark to read again. Unfortunately, my mom did put the kabash on any manga.

This is why I have tangled feelings — if calling the comic book a “graphic novel” for marketing, would in-turn help convince a parent to allow their children to read them, then maybe it’s okay. I see the potential for a chain reaction here, the same one I see in little Andy. If one of those young readers gets their hands on that comic that can unlock their own love for the medium, I think that’s really cool that we have one more visual storyteller on our hands.

And luckily for me, even with mom’s manga embargo, I was still obessed with reading more comics. I snuck books into the house or borrowed them from classmates. I was then inspired to make my own manga/comic books and found my passion to be a cartoonist.

(awwww)

Thank you for reading Thistle Dew!
<3 Andy

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SHOW NEWS: It’s good that I am practicing my bio and job title introduction, because at the end of this month as I’ll be tabling at my very first ALA (American Library Association) Conference right here in Chicago!

I’ll be set up in the Artist Alley Table 1650! If you’re going to be at the show, swing through! I’ll have my books, information on my newest release FRAMED (available for preorder now!), and a ton of other goodies I made for the show!

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