Graphic novelist of Nod Away, Driven by Lemons and Skyscrapers of the Midwest
Cartoonist Joshua Cotter creates compelling, personal graphic novels that delve into themes of creativity, compulsion, and existentialism. Cotter first grabbed the attention of the comics industry with his 2008 story Skyscrapers of the Midwest (AdHouse Books), which earned Cotter Ignatz Award nominations for Outstanding Series and Promising New Talent. He followed it up with Driven by Lemons, a surreal stream-of-consciousness graphic novel that Comic Book Resources ranked as #6 in their listing of the top 100 comics of 2009.
Cotter’s newest graphic novel, Nod Away, is coming from Fantagraphics in February 2016. The 230-page story is set on a near-future version of Earth. Deep-space transport has been developed to take a small crew to a 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 the new nexus on the second International Space Station.
NAv1.coverIn a 2010 Robot 6 email interview, Joshua Cotter wrote about his conception of existentialism:
I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m not intelligent enough to be an intellectual, and not self-righteous enough to be a priest. My glass isn’t half full or half empty… I’m not even certain there is a glass. I am what’s been designated as human and, with age, I’m finding that a human’s function of perception and ability to clearly process what is happening to us in relation to the external world is incredibly limited. We can keep making comics, movies, commercials, games and lattes, but nothing is going to keep the universe from expanding, folding in on itself, or whatever else it happens to be doing.
More about Joshua Cotter
Tumblr: http://jwcotter.tumblr.com/
Twitter: http://jwcotter.tumblr.com/
Comicbookdb.com: http://jwcotter.tumblr.com/
