RiYL
RiYL
Brian Heater
Episode 075: John Porcellino
1 hour 14 minutes Posted Oct 15, 2014 at 3:49 pm.
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Show notes
I’d spoken with John Porcellino not all that long ago for Publishers Weekly feature
discussing The Hospital Suite, the indie cartoonist longest
self-contained work to date. Published by Drawn & Quarterly, the
book is deeply personal, exploring long standing health concerns that
caused Porcellino to be hospitalized numerous times over the years. Toward
the end of that conversation, I asked the artist whether he’d be
willing to meet up again for yet another interview when his book tour
brought him to New York City. He’d only be in town for a couple of days
for the Brooklyn Book Festival and would only have a couple of hours to
spare, but he happily agreed to devote one of them to sitting down with
me in front of a microphone yet again. Porcellino greeted me in
the lobby of his Brooklyn hotel a few weeks later in a white t-shirt
bearing the visage of celebrity cat, Lil Bub. He recognized me before I
recognized him. He looked different than the last time we’d met, when
I’d interviewed him on-stage at the Minneapolis Indie Expo a few years
prior. Back then, he’d been in the throes of the health concerns at the
center of his new book.  “I’ve put on a little weight,” he said
proudly. “I just turned 46, after all.” He didn’t look overweight, he
just looked, well, healthy. He offered me an English muffin and
apologized for tucking into the hotel breakfast that had only just
arrived. He was making the most of his limited time as I set up the
recorder. After five ten minutes of discussing the relative niceness of
various hardcore frontmen (Ian MacKaye, Kevin Seconds and Keith Morris
all get gold stars), any concerns I harbored about our ability to fill
yet another hour’s worth of SD card with conversation melted away. For
episode 75, here’s a wide ranging one with one of the most fascinating
and longest lasting figures in the world of self-published comics. Punk
rock, buddhism, nature, health and art all abound.