It's not often that Chester Brown
comes out with a new book, but his latest, Mary Wept over the Feet of Jesus, was
released last month from Drawn & Quarterly...giving
the Two Guys with PhDs an occasion to celebrate. And
compounding that celebratory spirit is the fact that the
artist is now appearing on The Comics
Alternative podcast! In this episode, Andy and Derek are
pleased to have Chester as their guest, where they talk with him
about his new book, the research that went into it, and the
reaction he's been getting from readers and critics. Mary
Wept over the Feet of Jesus is a series of
adaptations of Old and New Testament texts as they relate to
prostitution and religious observance. In it, Chester interprets
the stories of Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, Mary of Bethany, and
Mary, mother of Jesus, along with other narratives that surround
Book of Genesis, the Gospel of Matthew, and the Parables of
the Talents and the Prodigal Son. What all of these explorations
have in common, and what Chester makes clear during the interview,
is how all inform a reading of scripture surrounding sex workers.
The guys talk with their guest about these issues and how his
previous works -- Paying for It as well as his
earlier comics adapting the Gospels of both Mark and Matthew -- may
have laid the groundwork for the current study. Much of the
conversation is spent on Chester's almost-lifelong research into
biblical scholarship, especially as it comes out in the extensive
notes he includes in Mary Wept...hand-written
annotations that take up almost a third of his book! But Andy and
Derek also ask Chester about his earlier comics, such
as Ed the Happy Clown, The Playboy, and Louis Riel, the
death of serialization within small-press comics, and his
single-panel method of composition. In other words, the guys cover
a lot of ground during this interview. But as Derek and Andy point
out toward the end of this episode, there was some interesting
conversation that took place after the guys turned off their
recording devices. But fret not; Derek was able to capture some of
that talk once they realized how appropriate it would have
been in their recorded interview. So if you listen all the way
through to the very end of this episode, after the closing theme
music, you'll be able to hear a few comments as an extra added
bonus.
Much thanks, not only to
Chester Brown, but to Sook-Yin Lee who helped to make this
interview possible by providing her Skype account (and who can be
heard in the background toward the end of the podcast preparing
dinner).