Virtual Memories Show 689:
Dash Shaw
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“Something not being placeable sticks with me a lot longer, and I think about it a lot more.”
With his new book, LIKE SWIMMERS (New York Review Comics), Dash Shaw brings us a supernatural murder mystery set in COVID-era Richmond, VA. We talk about how he uses that story to explore memory, identity, art, marriage, and the social breakdown in America, how a murder mystery helped him reflect on the losses of COVID, LIKE SWIMMERS‘ pamphlet comic-feel and how that pay tribute to a lost friend who liked very different comics than what Dash usually makes, and how writing this story in the middle of COVID helped him capture details he’d never have recalled after the fact. We get into how we uncover different versions or aspects of the people we’ve lost, why he eschews three-act structures to find new shapes of storytelling, his use of Richmond as a character (and the very bizarre Kroeger that he couldn’t fit into the book), and what it was like to go jogging in 2020 when there were snipers on rooftops. We also talk about his peripatetic project management style, what he thinks about Roy Lichtenstein’s art and what it means to love cliches, getting inspiration from an unfinished Winsor McCay cartoon, working with New York Review Comics for several books, how coloring his comics is almost as tough as writing them, and more. Give it a listen! And go read LIKE SWIMMERS!
“Rashomon was different versions of an event, and this is different versions of a person.”
“When movies are good, they feel dreamlike, even more than comics.”
“I want a narrative structure that’s created by the story. I can feel the limitations of three-act structures; they just don’t work for me anymore.”
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About our Guest
Dash Shaw is a cartoonist and animator. His previous graphic novel, Blurry, from New York Review Comics, was named a graphic novel of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, and others. He’s also the cartoonist of Discipline, New School, Bottomless Belly Button, BodyWorld, and others. He’s written and directed two animated features, most recently the 2021 film Cryptozoo, which won the Sundance Next Innovator Award. He currently lives in Richmond, Virginia.
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Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded remotely via Zencastr. I used a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photo of Dash by someone else. It’s on my instagram.