1. What initially drew you to comics?
Having tried to write actual novels as a struggling writer in my 20’s, and then having returned to my earliest love, drawing, as a children’s book illustrator in my 30’s, I found in comics the perfect combination of verbal and visual language. I’d loved comics as a child, but lost track of them as an adult, and boy was I delighted to discover graphic novels as I was recovering from breast cancer at the age of 43.
2. What do comics allow you to do as a storyteller?
Comics allow me the broadest range of emotion I have ever squeezed out of an art form, and are as close as I can get to telling stories around the kitchen table. I am a kitchen storyteller of some repute—if I do say so myself—and comics are the real home of the storyteller. With comics, I could get to the heart of the story in a way I couldn’t with words or pictures alone. They force me to tell the truth.
3. Please tell us a bit about your creative process.
I write and draw my stories simultaneously. The assembly line process doesn’t work for me—writing a script, then doing thumbnails, then pencils, then inks. Each day I write, then pencil, then ink (and now paint) a panel or two, discovering the story as I go. I want every panel to be a surprise. Luckily for me, I have a publisher (Top Shelf) who gives me absolute freedom once the general idea for a book is approved.
4. Any new/recent/upcoming titles you’d like to share about?
Currently I’m finishing a graphic anti-cookbook for Top Shelf called Where There’s Smoke There’s Dinner (a direct quote from my husband.) It’s my first book in full color, so it’s taken a while to create, but should be done next year. During quarantine I made another graphic novel that grew out of a travel story. It’s an insane combination of travelogue/literary criticism/autobio and memoir, but I love it and hope it becomes a book someday. And I’m very excited to see the French translation of my graphic novel The Story of My Tits coming out this fall from Presses de la Cité. It’s called Nénés Chéris and includes some new original art I made for this edition.
5. Where can we find out more about your work?
My website is http://jenniferhayden.com and I’m on Instagram (jenhaygoddess), Twitter (JenhayGoddess) and Facebook (jenniferhaydenauthor).
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