There was no lightning-bolt AHA! moment, just a series of related ideas collected over decades (a few I’ve been saving in notebooks for over 30 years) that began to join each other in a way that suggested a direction forward. I started out with a general vision of what I wanted the book to be and a sense of where I could go with each story, but I’m mostly just working on instinct until the larger connective seams and patterns present themselves.

What is your writing process like? Did you fully script or plot Monica out before you began writing and drawing? Does revision play a large role in your creative process?

There are lots of revisions, but mostly early in the process, before I’ve started drawing. I tend to write a lot of stuff that isn’t seen in the book itself and once the beats in the story feel somewhat indelible, I play them over and over in my head until they become almost like lived experience. Once I’m ready to write a full script—usually just a few pages at a time—it’s more like transcribing than writing, but there are always panels or sequences that remain an unsolvable mystery, sometimes for years. I usually leave them blank until inspiration strikes (very rare) or I rewrite them hundreds of times until the simple Occam’s Razor solution presents itself.

How has your creative process changed since the beginning of your career?

I’ve tried every possible technique over the years, from super-carefully planned-out stories, with every word and image figured out in advance, to spontaneous automatic writing with as little thought as possible. At this point, I’m trying to balance my true, somewhat obsessive nature with a system that’s flexible and open to change, which unfortunately means I have to take a lot longer in the pre-drawing stages. I’d be much happier if I could just draw all the time, but I need for the stories to have a certain energy and mystery, something that keeps me emotionally engaged in the story over months and years, before I can get started.

The overarching story of Monica’s life emerges through a series of sometimes elliptically interconnected stories. How did you go about deciding how and when to draw direct connections between each chapter? How did you decide what to leave out?

That’s a good question. In a way, the stuff that’s left out is as impactful to the story at large as what’s shown on the page, and I have to have those unseen panels as clear in my head as the ones that make it in for the whole thing to feel right. The transitions between stories are the most important moments, almost like stories themselves.

Are there any recent or upcoming graphic novel releases that you’re particularly excited about?

I really enjoyed Rina Ayuyang’s The Man in the Macintosh Suit, and I’m looking forward to Rick Altergott’s Blessed Be.