In 2008, Dash Shaw arrived seemingly out of nowhere and the indie

comics community feel in love almost immediately. His Fantagraphics debut, the 720 page opus Bottomless Belly Belly Button, was a wide ranging, following the lives of a family over the course of three generation, which landed the young artist on numerous book of the year lists. Since then Shaw has regularly bounced back and forth between comics and animation, maintaining a singular vision with one ambitious project after another. This fall, the artist marks two major releases, a college of his book Cosplayers and the animated film, My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea. The film, which premiers at the New York Film Festivals this months, features an impressive voice cast, including Jason Schwartzman (as Shaw), Lena Dunham, Reggie Watts, Maya Rudolph and Susan Sarandon. Shaw joined me at a Manhattan tea house on a recent visit to the city to discuss his work, collaboration and moving from New York to an artist commune.