Veronica Post zigzags through stories of care, crisis, migration and trauma

Veronica Post is a furniture maker, teacher and an award-winning graphic novelist based in Nova Scotia. She’s written two graphic novels so far, published by Conundrum Press; the books are part of a planned trilogy focused on the trials and tribulations of their title character Langosh and his trusty dog Peppi. The first two titles, Fugitive Days and Hot to Trot, are journalistic explorations of Veronica’s experiences that think through the realities of war, history, migration and trauma. In this conversation we talk about Langosh, Peppi and Yeva: Hot to Trot, an adventurous, ponderous romp that takes the reader across the United States on a tour not only of different spaces and cities, but also the characters’ emotional lives. The book is a thoughtful study of how relationships evolve often through friction. I thought the friction that came out of differences people had about specific social issues was really relatable. People argue about religion, about capitalism, about the crisis of unhoused people that has spread like wildfire since the outbreak of COVID. There are triumphant moments, too, where splash pages take us into heroic moments of women leading with care, people connecting over their shared outrage, and linking up in spite of significant differences to be there for each other. It’s a great book. It’s also beautifully drawn. Veronica has a real eye for landscapes, and because Hot to Trot is taking you on this big adventure, she has an opportunity to capture all kinds of different sunsets, spaces and methods of movement. People don’t stay in one place very long, and the characters in the book have a pretty restless attitude toward time. Especially Langosh. Langosh doesn’t want to think about the future, but the future has him. He can’t avoid it. But this isn’t his fatal flaw. Veronica reveals what that is, from her perspective, in this conversation. If you read the book, though, you’ll pick up on it. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s also really full of sympathy, speculation on how people work (or don’t work) as social beings, and some of the ways that time takes us through a meandering path toward something like realization and connection.