interview transcript

During the 1990s, while still in high school, Ariel Schrag produced a number of autobiographical comics — Awkward, about her freshman year, Definition, about her sophomore year, and Potential, about her junior year. The series started off as a relatively light, entertaining look at high school life — crushes, getting drunk, obsessing about bands, hanging out with friends. Over the course of the three books, however, Schrag dealt with more and more fraught material: her parent’s divorce, her coming out, and finally her devastating relationship and break-up with her girlfriend, Sally.
Schrag finished the writing and drawing for Likewise, about her senior year, soon after she graduated from high school, but then college and life — including a stint writing for the L-word — intervened. She didn’t complete the inking for another decade. The book was finally published by Touchstone this year. I spoke to Schrag about it on May 1.

Those of you who have already gotten your hands on a copy of the hot-off-the-presses "Buzz" issue may have seen Janet Miller's interview with artist Jerilea Zempel. Zempel, a radical knitter (among other things), was featured on The Colbert Report a few months back reading a copy of Bitch! Although the print interview with Zempel in "Buzz" has some great information, there is even more to learn about Zempel and her work. Read the full transcript of the interview after the jump!