“I don’t mean that I had to change what happened, but I had to translate a story told from direct experience into comics. First, I had to decide what my appearance would be. And then I had to draw this character moving through space as if it had all happened to someone else. I certainly don’t remember watching myself hop over a balcony railing, so I had to invent what it might have looked like. And the emotions I felt needed to be transformed into facial expressions that I never could have witnessed. In order to retell my story, I had to extract myself from it.”--Jason Viola, “My Self and I”
Read Jason’s brainy, beautiful meditation on autobio comics and splitting of the “I” into literary and authorial selves, today on Festival Season.
Image: Flocks #2 by L. Nichols ( wormulus ). Also discussed: Sam Sharpe ( viewotron ), Asher Z Craw ( ashersprogress ), and Gabrielle Bell, with cameos by Rob Kirby ( robkirbycomics ), Liz Prince ( fuckyoulizprince ), and Georgia Webber ( geewebber ).
