This is it. Get moving.

Coming back out of the cave into the harsh light. Regrouping and recalibrating.

I sincerely hope that people are rightly alarmed, and that you’re already taking steps to find your people and interconnected networks to help look out for each other— as well as ways in which you, as an individual, will directly participate to protect each other and what remains of democracy.

Over these past few days, I’ve regularly had conversations with people who have become parents in the past five years or so, asking advice about how to explain this election, fascism, democracy, protest, consumer culture, iconography, and more to a new generation of young people. As I’ve been gathering my notes, it’s apparent that my 2021 book Save It For Later is evergreen in the worst of ways.

I strongly encourage you to read Save It For Later (sure, buy one, or just check it out from the library for free) and reflect upon how these observations of intergenerational reckoning throughout the 2010s increasingly apply today. The time has arrived for this book too late, but that’s why it’s crucial to put it at the top of my pile of work.

Save It For Later received starred reviews at both Publishers Weekly and Booklist, was nominated for Eisner, Ringo, and Harvey Awards (as well as an Ignatz Award nomination for its central chapter, “About Face”), and appeared on “Best of 2021” lists through the American Library Association, Publishers Weekly, NPR, CBR, and Geekcast Radio.

You can get signed/sketched copies directly from me, or through Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, Powells, Amazon, Abrams, or go find your local comics shop and buy/order one.

My other books, including the March trilogy and Lies My Teacher Told Me, will also be crucial reads as we fight to preserve each other and the hope of a free society.

Death to fascism. Do not give up. Do not comply in advance.

April roundup: podcast interview & cartooning workshop video

It’s been a few weeks, so here’s a quick roundup of recent stuff while I keep my head down to finish drawing Lies My Teacher Told Me by the end of the year— both that book AND Fall Through will be released in 2024!

• Here’s a recently-published interview I did last year with the thoughtful Chauncey Devega about my work (specifically Save It For Later, “About Face”, and the March trilogy) and how it intersects with our world.

• March was recently included on this great list of “22 of the Best Graphic Novels of All Time” over at Book Riot!

• Here’s a video recording of a recent class I hosted at Sequential Artists Workshop— the theme is “Crossing Senses: Conveying Sound, Smell, Taste, Touch, and the Spidey-Sense Visually.”

Thanks for checking in!

roundup for SAVE IT FOR LATER

Thanks to everyone who’s stood behind Save It For Later over the past year and half, reflecting what we’ve collectively weathered over the past decade— unfortunately it’ll only be increasingly relevant as both a time capsule and a letter to our days of future present.

Along the way, Save It For Later received 2 starred reviews, 4 award nominations, and was featured on 5 best-of-the-year lists. You can order a signed/sketched copy directly from me here.

Keep fighting, keep loving, look out for each other and stay human. See you in the streets.

'SAVE IT FOR LATER'-- new expanded paperback edition out today!

Today marks the release of a new, expanded paperback edition of Eisner Award-nominated Save It for Later, with 16 new pages of post-2020 conversation between Derf Backderf and myself (including citations), a recommended reading list of work which informed or influenced my book, some creative process images of formative thumbnail and script, and more.

You can learn more and order through many outlets here, or you can order via Bookshop, IndieBound, Powell’s, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon here.

If you’re in Indiana tomorrow (August 10th), I’ll be having a book-launch discussion with Erin Tobey moderating, followed by a signing— Morgenstern Books (849 S. Auto Mall Rd.) at 6:30 pm. See you there!

New "About Face" interview for Gear Patrol

I was honored to speak with Evan Malachosky for this Gear Patrol piece about the infiltration of “tactical” paramilitary aesthetic into every corner of our consumer lives, and how that relates to our social and political reality— it’s a thorough and nuanced look into the history of many outdoor and tactical equipment companies as well as their marketing considerations, and I encourage everyone to read it! I learned a lot along the way.

It remains a profound honor that my comics essay “About Face” has continued to serve such a crucial role in our larger cultural discussion about the crisis of mainstreamed fascism— and how our lives as consumers play into this nightmare. “About Face” is the central chapter of my essay/memoir hybrid Save It For Later, which was an Eisner Awards nominee for Best Graphic Memoir this year. Please pick up a copy if you haven’t yet— thanks!

German edition of SAVE IT FOR LATER!

I just received a copy of the brand-new German edition of Save It For Later, published by Carlsen— both an extreme honor and nervewracking to discuss the threats of fascism and other anti-democracy forces in the context of parenting and our private lives, as translated into German.

It looks like I’ll be coming to Vienna in 2022 to discuss Save It For Later as well— more info soon!

SAVE IT FOR LATER is out today!

Today is the day: Save It For Later is on shelves everywhere!

(Order here via your local comics shop, indie bookstore, directly through me, Abrams, or Amazon if you must.)

So much gratitude for all the folks at Abrams ComicArts, The Nib, Popula, and my agent Charlie Olsen for their faith and support getting this work out into the world.

I’m gonna be signing & packing the next wave of mailorders today— thank you, friends near and far, for sticking with me & each other. <3

Here are three new interviews today:

• Virtual Memories podcast

• Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

• Columbus Alive

And two book launch discussions:

• Tomorrow (Wednesday, April 7th) via Politics & Prose, in conversation with the great Eleanor Davis!

• Thursday, April 8th via Left Bank Books!

First copies of SAVE IT FOR LATER have arrived!

It’s real— the first copies of Save It For Later just arrived on my doorstep, and the books turned out beautifully!

It’ll be out April 6th from Abrams ComicArts— and you can still order signed/sketched copies via my local shop Vintage Phoenix here.

More soon!

2nd starred review for SAVE IT FOR LATER!

I’m moved to find that Save It For Later has received its second starred review, this time from Publishers Weekly!

“Powell perfectly sums up his mission: ‘It is we, together, who will determine what kind of society our kids grow into— by what we each choose to do, or not do.’ This sincere volume carries off parenting inspiration with gravitas.”

Save It For Later will be released everywhere on April 6th— there are still a few days left to order signed & sketched copies via my local shop, Vintage Phoenix Comics, and these copies will hopefully arrive before release day.

Starred review for SAVE IT FOR LATER at Booklist!

It’s an honor to find a starred review for Save It For Later over at ALA Booklist!

“Much of this work feels like visual poetry: the line-by-line sentences mirrored by stacked horizontal panels that become image-stanzas; spare, nuanced colors punctuated by fearsome splashes of aggression and encompassed by expressionistic darkness… This is a deeply personal, deeply partisan book, distinctly not a call for national unity… A virtuoso work of artistry with important content that might alienate some but powerfully stir others.”

Save It For Later will be out April 6th from Abrams ComicArts— go here for more info and multiple ordering options.

If you’d like to pre-order signed/sketched copies of Save It For Later, do it here— thanks!

Signed SAVE IT FOR LATER bookplates for retailers!

If you’re a bookstore or comics shop, please holler at me about signed bookplates for Save It For Later— Abrams ComicArts and I will send as many as copies ordered. Available everywhere April 6th!

Please email me at seemybrotherdance@yahoo.com, and we’ll work it out— thanks!

Readers: signed & sketched copies of Save It For Later are still available for direct pre-ordering here.

New interview up w/ Noah Van Sciver!

In case you’ve been missing my excessive hand movements in-person, I’ve got a brand new video interview up at Noah Van Sciver’s YouTube page, discussing my new book Save It For Later, creative process, my fiction vs. non-fiction comics, parenthood, pandemic, the puppies and the kitties.

Thanks for inviting me, Noah!

Related— you can pre-order signed & sketched copies of Save It For Later here.

"Pecking Order" online now at The Nib-- plausible deniability, pop culture, and our ongoing armed fascist threat

In light of last week’s violent, premeditated armed siege of the U.S. Capitol by organized white supremacists as part of an ongoing fascist movement to overthrow democracy, The Nib has made my comic “Pecking Order” available online here.

“Pecking Order” was originally published last summer as part of The Nib’s “Power” issue, and is a crucial chapter in my forthcoming book Save It For Later (out April 6th from Abrams ComicArts)— pre-order it here.

Since the January 6th fascist siege, there has been a huge level of interest in my comics essay “About Face” (also included in Save It For Later)— reupping that link here too.

Stay safe, stay vigilant, stick together. We’ve gotta do everything we can to hold on to a fragile democracy.

Love and solidarity,

Nate

SAVE IT FOR LATER-- PW's "Top 10 of Spring 2021" list!

In the blur of everything, I totally missed that Save It For Later made PW’s list of Top 10 most anticipated comics/graphic novels for Spring 2021!

Pre-order Save It For Later here from your outlet of choice, and/or through your local bookstore or comics shop— it’ll be out April 6th.

Early ARCs of SAVE IT FOR LATER

A few ARC copies of Save It For Later just arrived in the mail today!

The final version of the book will be everywhere on April 6th from Abrams ComicArts— here are tons of pre-ordering options. Thank you!

SAVE IT FOR LATER-- printer proofs are here

Printer proofs for Save It For Later just arrived, and they look fantastic!

The book will be released by Abrams ComicArts on April 6, 2021— here are a bunch of pre-ordering options. I encourage you to order through your local bookshop or comic book store instead of Amazon— a vast majority of local shops simply won’t survive the reality of a prolonged pandemic. Thank you!

"About Face" and the plausible deniability of fascist aesthetic.

The fascist aesthetic shift of replacing the US flag with a parallel alternative is purposeful, expected, and terrifying.

1) a sequence from my 2018 essay “About Face” (now included as a key chapter in my forthcoming book Save It For Later, out 4/6/21):

2) The stage at last night’s fascist rally in Wisconsin:

CXC interview video is up!

Thanks to everyone who tuned in to my conversation with Caitlin McGurk for CXC yesterday, discussing Save It For Later and more! Here’s the full video interview.

Save It For Later will be released on April 6, 2021 by Abrams ComicArts— pre-order here.

Announcing SAVE IT FOR LATER

I’m eager and proud to announce my next book, Save It For Later, to be released on April 6th, 2021 by Abrams ComicArts!

Save It For Later is an essay/memoir hybrid covering the intersections between my family’s personal experiences and social/political engagement throughout the 2010s, as mass people’s movements have emerged in resistance against horrifying (but entirely predictable) shifts toward authoritarianism and fascism in the US.

Here’s the book’s cover reveal and announcement from The Hollywood Reporter.

The more personal narratives highlight my parental experiences, as so many millions of us have worked to equip our children, at their respective levels, to handle such a chaotic, foreboding future. Interspersed essays trace the American consumer’s complicity in normalizing a clearly-telegraphed paramilitary fascist presence, with much of white America blinded by intergenerational myths of exceptionalism, security, and by our own privilege. These essays include both “About Face” (my viral comic from early 2019 about paramilitary aesthetic evolution and fragile masculinity) and “Pecking Order” (my new comic in The Nib’s “Power” issue about fascist cosplay and geek subcultures).

This is a book for everyone. It’s neither a parenting guide nor an activist handbook. Save It For Later lays bare feelings and reflections we’ve been gaslit into denying or suppressing in the past five years, reckons with our own delusions of the inevitability of progress, and contains an urgent call to speak truth and stick together if we’re to have any hope of salvaging an eclipsed promise of a shared society.

I look forward to making this book a part of our vital, ongoing conversations and work. Thanks for being there with me— for the People Power.

160-page color hardcover // ISBN: 978-1-4197-4912-4

(I’ll be doing signed pre-orders in partnership with my local shop early in 2021, but for now, you may pre-order it from Abrams, at your local indie bookstore or comics shop, at Barnes & Noble, or on Amazon.)

Steve Bannon's snake oil in "About Face"

In light of fascist grifter Steve Bannon’s arrest for (alleged) intentional duping of the pro-fascist base, I’ve been thinking a lot about my last paragraph in the above excerpt from my essay “About Face”, written in late 2018 as the Wall Scam was launched, but also applicable to the regime broadly.

“About Face” will be released in print— stay tuned for a big announcement next Tuesday involving my next book!