Joshua Cotter draws the reader in by rendering the indescribable complexity of consciousness

Joshua Cotter’s debut book Skyscrapers of the Midwest was nominated for an Ignatz Award. His book Driven By Lemons is a challenging and deeply personal exploration of unstable psychological states. We talk about how creating Driven By Lemons informed his breakout book Nod Away, which was on many top ten lists in 2016. And how reading a random article about the transference of consciousness into an electronic medium provided the “spark” for the Nod Away series (https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/nod-away), which is this massive, expansive story that considers the reductio ad absurdum possibilities of that sort of still science fictional, but increasingly more plausible, technology. He says that he wishes he could find the specific article that sparked the idea for Nod Away, but also seems to suggest it’s less important than just being open to the things in the world that are going to “click with you.” Incidentally, I really liked the way he admitted that he can’t exactly explain how his stories develop. He says it’s mostly intuitive, and compares his creative process to a rock tumbler, in the sense that there is a necessary but indeterminate process of refining your ideas. One of the things he notes-–and I think this is relatable for any artist or writer--is that he now feels more confident with his rendering of this epic story, and that he attributes the level of confidence he feels right now to the experience of being in one place, in a fixed space with a reliable routine. That might not work for everyone—others might be more nomadic–but I’d say that I think I function in the same way. The second installment in the Nod Away series (https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/nod-away-vol-2), released in 2021, advances the plot in exhilarating ways. To give you a sense of what the books are about–since I really tried to avoid spoilers in this interview, here is a summary from Multiversity Comics: “Nod Away is set on a near-future version of earth. A deep space transport has been developed to take a small crew to an earth-like, habitable planet in a nearby system in an attempt to begin colonization/repopulation. The internet is now telepathic and referred to as the “innernet.” When the hub is revealed to be a human child, Melody McCabe is hired to develop" a new nexus to replace that human hub. The books are really beautiful. And I ask Josh a number of questions about his specific cartooning style. The wireframe chaos that has become sort of a trademark, for example, is rooted in a dedication to Representing psychological states that can’t be expressed in words. It was amazing to hear that, while these panels seem to be frenetic and out of control, they’re actually conscious, controlled experiments in abstraction. We talk about how those choices are always in service of the story, despite the temptation to lean heavily into the aesthetics of splash panels and spectacle. Overall, he says the goal is to explore the “true costs of technology” without resorting to “didacticism.” I think the books definitely do that–-there are all these suggestive ideas surrounding technology-–the way it can act as both a source of escapism and serve as a site of destruction.