Rob Kirby

Sep 20, 2024 | publishersweekly.com | Rob Kirby

In Past Tense (Avery, Oct.), graphic novelist Sacha Mardou depicts how she unlocked years of personal and familial trauma through therapy. Did you draw the book while you were in therapy, as a part of your process? Or did you do it later, after you’d had some distance? I drew it later on. In my first therapy session, I told my therapist that I was a graphic novelist.

Aug 12, 2024 | solrad.co | Rob Kirby |Rob Clough

Today’s review from Rob Kirby is co-published with an editorial from former Publisher of SOLRAD and current Publisher of Fieldmouse Press, Alex Hoffman. 2020 was, by all reasonable measures, a top-tier terrible year. The COVID-19 pandemic opened up a Pandora’s Box of disease, death, rage, ignorance, political treachery, and cynicism.

Aug 9, 2024 | publishersweekly.com | Rob Kirby

Leavitt channels her grief over her partner’s medically assisted suicide into diary comics in Something, Not Nothing (Arsenal Pulp, Sept.). What role did journaling play in your grieving process? I’m aware that I won’t remember things if I don’t write them down. My overall feeling when my partner died was “I can’t believe this is happening.” Especially around Donimo’s death being an assisted death. Being a situation I didn’t have any points of reference for, it felt important to track.

Feb 27, 2024 | publishersweekly.com | Rob Kirby

In a panel from his 1991 comic 8 Pillars of Gay Culture, Maurice Vellekoop depicts a little boy in a makeshift dress as he performs, for a few playmates, the iconic line delivered by Gloria Swanson’s Norma Desmond in the classic 1950 film Sunset Boulevard: “I’m ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille.” It’s a misquote frequently made, but Vellekoop quickly clarifies, in a caption underneath, that the boy “hasn’t seen the film yet; only the Carol Burnett spoof.” With this little snapshot, Vellekoop...

Oct 30, 2023 | solrad.co | Alex Hoffman |Rob Clough |Rob Kirby

The height of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a lot of comics-making online; the Instagram boom is the catalyst for Crisis Zone by Simon Hanselmann, Dog Biscuits by Alex Graham, and Birds of Maine by Michael Deforge, to name a few.