Pia Guerra channels her anger into political cartoons
Pia Guerra is well known in the comics world as the co-creator and lead penciller of wildly popular post-apocalypse series Y: The Last Man. She started drawing iconic single-panel comics for The Nib after the 2016 election.
A collection of her powerful political comics, Me the People, debuts this month from Image. Pia lives in Vancouver, BC. We are offering 50 copies of Pia’s new book to readers who sign up to The Inkwell the $8 level (or higher!) and enter the promo code “methepeople” at checkout, where you’ll also get a copy of Nib magazine and some exclusive swag.
Tell us a little about your book. What did you like about putting it together?
After the 2016 election, I started drawing cartoons to blow off steam from everything happening in the news. I shared them with friends on social media and the response was really positive which made me want to do more and more. After one of my cartoons, Big Boy, went viral, I was asked by the Nib to be a contributor and so began a second (albeit inadvertent) career.
After a year-and-a-half, a friend suggested I collect these cartoons into a book and shoved me in the face of Eric Stephenson over at Image. Eric liked the idea and suggested putting this together for release just before the midterms to get people thinking about voting. It was a fast scramble with cartoons being added in right up to the print date as more events kept happening. It was exciting.
What makes this book unique in the world of political cartoon collections?
That it’s not typical editorial cartooning. It’s an expression of opinions and frustrations with current events using skills from a very different field. I didn’t set out to become an editorial cartoonist, I always wanted to do comic books. All my studying and work over the years was geared toward sequential and long form storytelling. What started as snarky doodling for friends became a crash course in political analysis and reflection through single images. The collection, I hope, shows the progression of that learning and finding a voice.
What’s your absolute favorite thing to draw?
Sarcastic animals.
What’s something you’re excited about that’s not related to comics?
Do Marvel movies count? I really want to see what they do with Captain Marvel and the 4th Avengers movie. Other than that… we’re moving house, so I’m ready and raring to tear up a new garden plot. Cherry tomatoes, man, can’t get enough of them.
What’s a slogan or quote you keep in mind when all looks bleak?
Besides “Fuck you, bleak!” I’d have to go with another Marvel movie quote (sorry, you can take the girl out of comics but you can’t take comics out of the girl): “Compromise where you can. Where you can’t, don’t. Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right. Even if the whole world is telling you to move, it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye, and say ‘No, you move’.”
If you could invite any three artists, living or dead, to do a comic jam with you, who would it be?
Barry Windsor Smith, David Bowie, Naoki Urasawa. THAT would be a hoot.
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Follow Pia on Twitter at @PiaGuerra. Interview conducted by Sarah Mirk.
Daddy’s Home!
Yer Outta Here!
Read more of Pia’s comics at The Nib
