Hello! May has been profoundly, distinctly weird over here. I know it’s very cliche to joke about the moon, or whoever, messing with your stuff. So I won’t do it. But if the moon is reading this? Lose my number man.
Chazzerei
Like I said: Weird. I got some surgery (not the fun kind, I’m fine mostly now), started doing press for my Book and also the news came down that my beloved home for almost ten years, The Nib, is shutting down publication at the end of the summer. More on that way below.
MOST IMPORTANTLY: BOYS WEEKEND is out in A WEEK.
Ok. So you’ve heard me chatter on and on and on and on about this book. But I know how online works, and not everyone sees everything, and you gotta plug and plug and plug and plug and plug. And if you’ve already ordered your copy? Thank you! And if you haven’t, here’s my final pitch: if you like my work, and want me to continue making it, there is no better way to support me than to get this book. It’s my lifelong dream to publish fiction work of this length, and I absolutely cannot believe I’ve gotten here. And I want to keep making books, and I want the people who have supported my work all along to read them the most. So please consider picking one up or requesting at your library.
Publisher’s Weekly said:
Ingenious. . . . Lubchansky’s script and art both achieve a deadpan style reminiscent of Daria and 1990s Nickelodeon, which amplifies the surreal delirium. . . . A hilarious and terrifying send-up of capitalist-driven masculinity and a poignant story about the perception-altering blessings (and burdens) of queerness.
Oh yeah: BOOK TOUR
NYC! Boston! Phoenixville PA! Chicago! LA! SF! Portland OR! I am coming to you with a stacked cast of conversation partners at some wonderful bookstores. Check if the stop near you is ticketed, some are! See you there?
I will also be at CAKE in Chicago this coming weekend! I’ll have copies a few days early >:)
Mattie’s Career-Defining Publication Eulogy Corner
This week’s “Corner” Corner is a sad one, I’m afraid.
I’ve got a lot of thoughts about The Nib shutting down, and I’m doing my best to gather them here. First of all, I’ll always be thankful to Matt Bors, the founder and EIC, for giving me my first paying work as a comic artist. This is something I keep hearing and seeing from other people as well, and it’s hard to overstate the kind of impact that has on a young career. The Nib took the first chance on me anyone ever really did, and taught me more than I could ever list in one place easily. I came out in a comic that ran there to most people in my life! I forgot about that.
I’m especially grateful to my colleagues Eleri Harris, Shay Mirk, Andy Warner, Whit Taylor and Mark Kaufman – for being a dream to work with and a daily inspiration. Former interns and assistants too - Mary Shyne, Erlend Sandøy, Sim Mau, Delta Vasquez, all wonderful people to work with and talented cartoonists. I’ll always treasure the time we had and what I realize now is the longest job I ever held down. The contributors, too many to name, was an absolutely dizzying array of generational talent that I can’t believe I got to work beside and even edit sometimes. They made the publication what it was with inventive and beautiful work. I feel immensely lucky now for those relationships.
Comics is a hard industry. It’s grueling, poorly-paid, and under-respected work. The stakes are often minuscule but feel enormous. Bors at first, and then the whole team tried to do what we could to make a real editorial process for people, a place that fostered good and interesting work – things that couldn’t find homes elsewhere – and more importantly, a publication that paid well and on time. For most of the run, I think we managed alright. I’m proud of what we did. And it’s sad because it’s ending, but ten years is a long time for a publication in a media environment completely hostile to our plan, which was: put out comics, pay people, make enough money to keep publishing. Exponential growth, pivots to whatever, that was never the point. We survived two (!) tech overlords and even managed to make a decent run as a completely reader-funded pub. We paid out $2 million to cartoonists. That’s good enough for me.
Comics this month
Over on my Patreon (where you can see these puppies as they come out, earlier than anyone else! For the low low low low low price of $2/month):
And over on The Nib, where I’ll still be running weekly til the end of the summer:
Odds and Ends
The Beat calls Boys Weekend “important to our current moment.”
Vulture says you have to read the book at the beach. Legally!