Author Devon Code discussed writing his first novel, Involuntary Bliss and what advice he’d give to his past self. You can catch Code in Peterborough for a free event!

IFOA: What drove you to write Involuntary Bliss?

Devon Code: I was interested in reflecting on experiences, ideas and friendships of my early twenties. This is often a formative and tumultuous time in people’s lives and the novel tries to examine some of this through a long, circuitous conversation between two friends over the course of a weekend.

Though none of the novel was written in Montreal, much of it is set there. I have fond memories of my time in Montreal as a graduate student and the novel allowed me to revisit them. Stylistically, the novel provided an opportunity to learn from writers I admire like Thomas Bernhard, W. G. Sebald, and Roberto Bolaño, and to experiment with diverse techniques and try and make them my own.

IFOA: What was it like writing your first novel and has your process changed from writing short stories?

Code: It took me a long time to figure out how to write the kind of novel I was interested in. I didn’t want to follow a template, and I created challenges for myself in the way I told the story.

Coming from a background in writing short fiction, it was helpful to have feedback from trusted readers who suggested where I could develop certain scenes or aspects of character. The structure of the final product emerged organically after a lot of revision. I’m hoping that the process is more efficient for the next novel.

IFOA: What writing advice would you give to past you now?

Code: Don’t waste energy on self-doubt. Have faith that the work will be completed, that it will be worthy and will find a good home.

IFOA: What are you working on next?

Code: I’m researching and developing the conceptual framework for a longer and more ambitious novel that will deal with subject matter that’s new to me.

While writing Involuntary Bliss, I also wrote a lot of short fiction, much of it very short and resembling parables, fables or aphorisms. Some of this work was recently published by Found Press. I conceive of an eventual book-length collection of short fiction tentatively entitled Misgivings.

IFOA: What are you reading now?

Code: I just finished reading Geoff Dyer’s Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room, which is about my favourite film—the masterful Stalker—by Andrey Tarkovsky. I was impressed by the depth of Dyer’s fixation with this film, which surpasses even my own.

I’m currently reading Michael Helm’s After James, which was highly recommended to me and does not disappoint.

Devon Code  is a novelist and author of short fiction. Involuntary Bliss, his first novel, was published by BookThug and selected as a Best Book of 2016 in The Walrus magazine. In A Mist, his short fiction collection, was selected as a debut of note by The Globe and Mail and long-listed for the ReLit award. In 2010, he was the recipient of the Journey Prize for short fiction. His work has appeared in Canadian publications such as The Globe and Mail, National Post, Canadian Notes & Queries, and Geist, and in journals and magazines internationally. Originally from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, he lives in Peterborough, Ontario.

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Cartoonist Kean Soo spoke to us about what he’s reading, how he approaches creating comics and March Grand Prix: The Fast and The Furriest. You can catch Soo in St. Catharines for a free event with fellow comics creator, Michael DeForge!

IFOA:  What drew you to writing about March Hare and his pals?

Kean Soo: The story actually started well over a decade ago! Someone I knew had started filming a documentary about illegal street racing in Hong Kong, and I was absolutely fascinated by the idea.

I sat down and wrote an angsty story that was geared more towards a younger audience or older audience, but the story never really came together in a satisfying way for me. So I tucked it away into the far recesses of my hard drive and never gave it a second thought.

Flash forward about 10 years later, and I was in a Sanrio store in Los Angeles with a friend and his son, and watching this three-year old tearing around the store with his toy car in one hand and a plush penguin in the other, just set my brain off in all directions. So I dusted off that old story, dropped in cute anthropomorphic characters, and I was off to the races!

It was great writing this story for younger readers, because I was able to tap into all the things I loved at that age—Richard Scarry, the Incredible Cross-Sections books, racing cars…it was incredibly fun!

IFOA:  Did you have to do research on race car driving for the comic?

Soo: I did! Luckily, I’ve been an on-again, off-again racing nut, and while I was writing March Grand Prix, some amazing documentaries (Senna, Truth in 24) had come out right around that time that really informed the stories I was writing.

The race in the first book, The Race at Harewood, is loosely based around the Monaco Grand Prix, and the third book, The Great Desert Rally, was based on the original Paris-Dakar rallies.

IFOA:  When you start creating a comic, what comes to you first? The words or the visuals?

Soo: When I’m first starting out, it’s usually a mix of both words and visuals. I always start with the characters, so when I’m working in my sketchbook, I’ll be scribbling long hand notes about the characters and story in the margins while I draw and sketch out the characters and their designs.

But once I have the ideas for the characters and story, I’ll write the whole thing out as a prose piece, like a very detailed short story. Once that’s been refined, then I’ll dive into drawing the thing.

IFOA:  What are you working on next?

Soo: I’ve been working on a couple of things, but right now, I’m working on a fantasy. younger audience graphic novel based loosely on Chinese myths, and set in the modern day. Kind of a modern day Chinese Little Mermaid. There will be shapeshifters, kung fu ghosts, and smartphones!

IFOA:  What are you reading now?

Soo:  I’ve actually been reading a lot of science fiction and fantasy short fiction lately. Short story collections like Ken Liu’s The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories and Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life and Others have been fantastic, but I’ve also been digging through lot of online short fiction, like Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers by Alyssa Wong, Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar, and Auspicium Melioris Aevi by JY Yang. All great stuff!

Kean Soo was born in the United Kingdom, raised in Hong Kong, trained as an electrical engineer in Canada, and currently writes and draws comics in Toronto. A former assistant editor and contributor to the Harvey Award-winning FLIGHT comics anthology, Kean wrote and illustrated the Jellaby series of graphic novels, which was nominated for an Eisner Award and won the Joe Shuster Award for Best Comic for Kids in 2009. Kean’s latest series of graphic novels, March Grand Prix, was published in 2015 by Capstone Books.

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We spoke to cartoonist, Michael DeForge about his new comic, what he’s working on next and who he’d cast as his lead character. You can catch DeForge in St. Catharines for a free event with fellow comics creator, Kean Soo!

IFOA:  What inspired you to create a story about an arrogant self-obsessed Canadian in the wilderness?

DeForge: I like writing about city-dwelling Canadians and their awkward relationship with nature. We all have some idea of what the Canadian landscape or Canadian wilderness is in our heads that never quite syncs up with reality.

IFOA: When you start creating a comic, what comes to you first? The words or the visuals?

DeForge: One doesn’t really come before the other. I script pages using thumbnails where I break down what’s going on in each panel at the same time as I’m hashing out dialogue. I’d have a hard time working off of a “screenplay”, I think.

IFOA: Which Canadian would you like to play Angelica if your comic was turned into a CBC miniseries?

DeForge: That’s tough since I’d sort of imagine it being claymation. Catherine O’Hara would play a good Sticks, I think.

IFOA: What are you working on next?

DeForge: I draw a daily comic called Leaving Richard’s Valley that I serialize online. I have a short story collection coming out from Koyama Press in 2018 that I’ve just put the finishing touches on as well.

IFOA: What are you reading now?

DeForge: I just finished Exit by Nelly Arcan, which I loved, and I’m in the middle of How To Kill a City by Peter Moskowitz.

Michael DeForge was born in 1987 and grew up in Ottawa, Ontario. He has published the books Very Casual, Dressing, A Body Beneath, Big Kids, Ant Colony, First Year Healthy and Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero. His strip Leaving Richards Valley is serialized daily, and his illustrations have been published in The New York Times, Bloomberg View, The Believer and Maisonneuve.

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