An Interview with Lauren Weinstein
"Once a counselor at an afterschool program I went to asked me to draw what the inside of my face felt like, and that I feel is my stylistic goal. Draw the way something feels."
Describe your comics journey—how did you get into making comics?
The first comic I made was in college, sort of automatically for a zine my future husband was putting together. It was about having an identity crisis and going to Red Lobster where a shrimp told me to feel better because at least I wasn’t breaded. Doing this made me laugh (I read Mad Magazine and Life in Hell and Dan Clowes and they had made me laugh too.) I was going to Washington University in St. Louis for painting during the Postmodern Era, when all stories were said to have been already told. Cartooning seemed so direct, so “dumb”, so unpretentious. It felt like a great fit! That space where you could draw a picture when words failed you and vice versa.
How did you develop your voice/unique comics style? A lot of your comics are autobiographical: how do you decide what to write about?
My style developed from having two different gigs at once. A one panel, pretty surreal weekly strip for the alternative weekly newspaper, The Stranger in Seattle, and my auto-bio ones for gURL.com . My style for the autobio ones I think a little from Crumb, and Phillip Guston, and Lynda Barry (and I hadn’t discovered her yet, but Aline Kominsky-Crumb.) Once a counselor at an afterschool program I went to asked me to draw what the inside of my face felt like, and that I feel is my stylistic goal. Draw the way something feels.
I make comics when I am really interested in the subject matter and when I think they can make compelling work. When I became a mother I felt like that subject had barely been explored in comics and it was like breaking a silence of just how hard it was to both be a creator and nurturer of life and of art.
In 2019 I got this incredible offer to tell other people’s stories.. I became artist-in-residence at a long term housing facility for survivors of domestic violence. These women were trafficked here, they had survived murder attempts, and are now struggling to get a foothold in the workforce. There were layers and layers to making this work. I would start taking oral histories, and then edit down the essential stories. I also had to change their names and identities, and once I spoke to a lawyer to ensure their safety. Then I had to develop a style that matched their voices. I used an ipad and a fake pencil.
What are the joys and challenges of working in comics?
The challenge for me is finding enough time. Comics are too time consuming. (Maybe I make them too hard. I probably do. Also I putter around too much, and I should get to work more. Also I have two kids.) Also I think I’m better suited to making comic essays and short stories rather than graphic novels which I’m embarking on now.
Autobio comics have their own set of challenges and joys…Working with a memory is tricky because the minute you set pen to paper the true thing that happened changes for the page. It has to because it’s going through the filter of your drawing and sequence of your layout. However The story lives on the page in a different way, which can be revelatory and cathartic. And sometimes is truer than what actually happened.
It’s hard making work about anyone you don’t wish to offend or deeply wound—especially your kids, who are non-consensual adults. The concept of “The Ghosts in The Nursery” comes up all the time when I work. That it’s not just you and your child in that room, it’s how you were parented and how your parents were parented and generational trauma you may not have any idea is stored in you. So that’s why I have returned to working on a graphic novel about my childhood, exploring the ghosts of my past and how they affect the present. This work has become such an intense exploration of my past, my dynamic with my parents and friends, that I had to invent parallel characters to myself and friends. I’ve had to change my name. The events are true, but Right now I have a friend character who is rapidly becoming a “manic pixie dream girl” because so many traits from other friends I had in real life are being composited into her. She does not make consistent decisions. I hope she sheds the mundane trappings of the past reality and becomes a truer character.
Are you working on something now?
I am working doggedly on finishing a graphic novel based on my fraught adolescence coming of age in the ‘90s with a social activist mom who nearly worked herself to death. Every day I think about all the social forces at work that made me.
I’ve quit everything else and the only income I’m taking in right now is my Patreon, https://www.patreon.com/Vineshtein. Please join! I update it every week!
Lauren Weinstein's work as an artist in residence working with survivors of domestic violence is so important. Our society doesn't do enough things like this.