We chat with Mattie Lubchansky about Simplicity, which is a vibrant new graphic novel about a timid academic sent out from the walled dystopian security territory of New York City to investigate a cult in the wilds of the Catskill Mountains
Hi, Mattie! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi! I’m a cartoonist, illustrator and writer. I’ve been making and putting comics online since about 2009 – People might know me as the former Associate Editor (and a weekly contributor to) the Eisner-winning nonfiction comics publication The Nib. I’m also the author of The Antifa Super-Soldier Cookbook (Silver Sprocket, 2021) and Boys Weekend (Pantheon, 2023).
When did you first discover your love for writing and illustrating?
I was always a doodler, as long as I can remember. My middle- and high-school notebooks are like, 95% drawings and 5% class notes. I was really obsessed with newspaper cartoons and Matt Groening’s old comic “Life in Hell.”
Your latest graphic novel, Simplicity, is out July 29th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
“The Wicker Man” meets “Jaws.”
What can readers expect?
Readers can expect romance, dystopia, thorny political questions, and (I think most importantly) horny monster stuff.
Where did the inspiration for Simplicity come from?
The big inspiration for me was reading about the huge explosion of (sometimes religious) socialist communes in the Northeast U.S. in the late 19th century. There was just this massive upheaval due to the industrial revolution of what American life looked like, and people were looking for all sorts of answers. Belief in the biblical “Millennia” – a thousand years of peace and prosperity after the second coming – was rampant. It was just a really fascinating time, and the setting in Simplicity really grew out of that.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or illustrating?
I *loved* drawing Lucius’s visions with the various creatures in the book, these were the first real seed of the story I had after I had the setting down. I almost had a parallel experience to Lucius in the book, where I just had these almost ecstatic visions of this stuff happening to this guy, and it was a mad rush to get it all down before my waking brain made it any less uncanny or too legible.
Did you face any challenges? How did you overcome them?
This was a tough book to write! It was way more convoluted of a plot AND setting than Boys Weekend, and people’s motivations were a little more complex. I have to give credit to my editor Anna Kaufman for really shepherding me through it in a way that didn’t come out an absolute knotty mess. The main thing for “overcoming” the challenge (which I hope I did!) was really obsessive outlining, I think the plot that’s on the page is the 5th iteration. A lot was changing right up until the end of the writing.
What’s next for you?
I’m working on another graphic novel right now for Pantheon! The working title is “Between the Collapses,” it’s a story about getting so mad at your girlfriend that you steal her car, but the car is a time machine. I think that’s my elevator pitch. I’m hoping it’ll be out in a couple years.
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?
I just finished Lincoln Michel’s “Metallic Realms” which I really loved, he’s one of my favorite sci-fi writers working right now. Grace Byron’s “Herculine,” is out later this year, and I was lucky to read an early copy of it and adored it! It’s also about trans people and separatism, which I guess is in the air.
