Episode 170 – Chester Brown & Nina Bunjevac (w/#NJPoet’s Corner)

Virtual Memories Show #170:
Chester Brown & Nina Bunjevac, plus #NJPoet’s Corner

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“The Book of Job goes against what people think the Bible is supposed to be saying. It challenges people’s views about God and what our relationship is supposed to be with God. No one wants to confront what I think it’s saying: that God isn’t interested in human conceptions of right and wrong.”

The Paying For It Players return! During the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, Chester Brown and Nina Bunjevac rejoin the show to perform a chapter from Chester’s amazing new book, Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus! Then we talk with Chester about his understanding of God, the role of prostitution in the Bible, his favorite stories from the Hebrew and Christian gospels, and the girlfriend who inadvertently spurred his interest in Biblical scholarship. Then Nina Bunjevac discusses her response to the book tour for Fatherland, laments the loss of small bookstores in North America, explains why she’s changing course in her comics career, and more! Give it a listen! And buy Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus (Drawn & Quarterly)!

“I think we have a really big problem in North America, because the holy trinity of artist-publisher-bookseller doesn’t really exist.”

Plus, this month’s #NJPoet’s Corner with Charles Bivona talks about his evolution on Twitter! It’s a long conversation, so we only put an excerpt in this week’s podcast. (But you can download the full MP3 of #NJPoet’s Corner here!)

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Enjoy the conversations and the performance! Then check out the archives for more great episodes! You might like:

• Chester Brown 2015
• Nina Bunjevac 2015
• Seth
• Warren Woodfin
• Kaz
• John Porcellino

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About our Guests

Chester Brown was born in Montreal in 1960 and is best known for his nonfiction graphic novels: Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography and Paying for It. He is also the author of The Playboy, I Never Liked You, The Little Man, and Ed the Happy Clown, all published by Drawn & Quarterly. He lives in Toronto, where he ran for Parliament twice as a member of the Libertarian Party of Canada. His new book is Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus.

Nina Bunjevac was born in Canada in 1973. Having started her art training in Yugoslavia, she moved to Toronto in 1990, where she continued her studies. She is the author of the collection Heartless, from Conundrum Press, and Fatherland: A Family History, published in the US from Liveright Press. She lives in Toronto.

Credits: This episode’s music is Nothing’s Gonna Bring Me Down by David Baerwald, used with permission of the artist. The conversation was recorded at the Toronto Marriott Bloor Yorkville Hotel on a pair of Blue enCORE 200 Microphones feeding into a Zoom H5 digital recorder. The conversation with Charles Bivona was recorded on the same setup, at his home. I recorded the intro and outro on a Blue enCORE 200 Microphone feeding into a Mackie Onyx Blackjack 2×2 USB Recording Interface. Processing was done in Audacity and Logic Pro. Photo of Chester & Nina by me.