Interview Excerpt

EH: There’s so much that goes unsaid in comics and haikus. Both rely on readers to infer meaning from empty space, whether that’s a line break or a gutter between two panels. Could you both talk about working with that silent space?

SP: Do you want to answer that one first, Justin?

JR: I don’t know. I’m scared of that one [laughter].

To me, it’s always just like a feeling. Empty space can be very sad. It can be isolating. It can be cold. But empty space can also be very quiet. It can be very inside, you know? The way that I look at comics; it’s just like a piece of music. You create the rhythm either through the words or through the way that the pictures move your eyes through it.

SP: I was super curious how you would answer that question because as the artist, you’re dealing with physical space, visual space, in a way that I, as the writer, am not. How I think of empty space is more like interior space and the spaciousness of emotion. It’s a kind of imaginary space that’s given over to the reader to step into and inhabit, to project their imagination or their experience into the poem. 

Published 2024. Full interview here.