Virtual Memories Show 694: Nate Powell
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“I’ve been drawn my whole life to a certain type of mystery: mystery that is not to be solved, but about the state of mystery.”
With DIANA (Abrams ComicArts), Nate Powell has completed his “accidental triptych” of Ozark horror & the punk scene. During SPX weekend, he returned to the show to talk about the creative leap he took with this book, the ways that DIANA fulfills but doesn’t complete the stories of COME AGAIN and FALL THROUGH, why this book is set during the transitional period of the early ’90s, and the challenge of writing characters in their early 20s while he’s approaching his 50s (and what it meant for Frank Miller to write about 50-something Bruce Wayne when he was in his 20s). We get into his re-imagining of the punk music/art scene in Arkansas, the ways horror-genre gave him a framework on which to build story, his use of duotone and spot colors to get a midcentury color palette for the book, how he’s making his art messier as an unconscious reaction to generative AI, and his lead character’s self-identity and the importance of being your own canon. We also discuss how Bob Ross got him started on art, and what he got from rewatching Bob’s show during lockdown, the joy of his annual pilgrimage to Small Press Expo and embrace of the comics community, his formative experiences at School of Visual Arts, the total lack of crossover between the readers of his John Lewis biography and his personal work, the right age to expose kids to the golden age of the X-Men, why his ultimate goal is to channel Alex Toth, and more. Give it a listen! And go read DIANA!
“In terms of talking about the underground punk of my era, as a creative community, and the transitional moments and what they meant for me personally and generationally, I feel like I’ve finally said all I want or need to say. . . . But maybe in 10 years . . .”
“How do you prepare young ones for a future in which you feel like it’s been yanked out from under their feet?”
“Comics-making is such a solitary pursuit that coming to SPX is like a pilgrimage for me, driving across the Appalachian mountains, getting the very first whiff of fall in western Maryland, listening the esoteric Maryland band Moss Icon: I treat it like a ritual.”
Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes!
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About our Guest
Nate Powell is a National Book Award-winning cartoonist who began self-publishing as an Arkansas teenager in 1992. His work includes Fall Through, Come Again, Save It For Later, Swallow Me Whole, civil rights icon John Lewis’s MARCH trilogy and its follow-up RUN, a comics adaptation of James Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me, and more.
His work has received multiple Eisner and Ignatz Awards, ALA and YALSA distinctions, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, the Comic-Con International Inkpot Award, and he is a two-time finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He fell into the hardcore punk community in 1991, playing hundreds of shows in underground legends Soophie Nun Squad and other bands, and managed do-it-yourself label Harlan Records from 1994 to 2010.
Follow Nate on Instagram and Bluesky, and listen to our 2021 conversation.
Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded at the Bethesda North Marriott during SPX weekend on a pair of Shure Beta 58A microphones feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4 digital recorder & interface. I recorded the intro and outro on a Zoom H2n. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photo of Nate by me. It’s on my instagram.