New Interview with Steven Padnick

My Tor editor, Steven Padnick, and I did an interview for book review blog The King of Elfland's Second Cousin. This fella Chris wrote a fantastic review for  Dear Creature, so he invited us to talk shop a bit. If you read it, you can learn Steven Padnick's fondest desire (other than wishing Batman: Arkham City had a good story): STEVEN: I wish I had written Casablanca.

CHRIS: Ok…

STEVEN: Just flat out that is one of the best scripts. Ever. I wish that I’d written it.

CHRIS: Any others? Or Jonathan, any thoughts on your end?

JONATHAN: I like how Steven is editorially concise.

STEVEN: I have go-to answers.

JONATHAN: I love Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove. I love the characters in that book.

STEVEN: That’s a good one too.

JONATHAN: Yeah, it’s one of those stories where its reach almost exceeds its grasp. But you love it anyway. That’s definitely one of my favorites. Moby Dick, because that’s another weird book that works. I like weird things that work.

Chris really likes Dear Creature. Like, maybe more than I do:

"I commend Jonathan Case for this excellent graphic novel. It is very rare to find a storyteller who is able to write something that is at once literary and meta-textual, while remaining touching and hilarious. To then combine that ear for dialog and prose with artistic talent is even rarer. If you enjoy sequential art, then hands down, you should pick up Dear Creature.

And I think that it should be on everybody’s short-list for the Eisner award."

On Twitter, Steven claims he rambles in this interview. Oh, Steven. What you must think of me.