An interivew with graphic novelist, documentary filmmaker, and cartoonist James Spooner.

“The band is the excuse…for us to get together.” James Spooner on his memoir The High Desert

What was it like growing up as a Black punk?

Photograph by Lisa Nola, both it and graphic novel cover sourced from James Spooner press kit available here.

“Part of memoir is knowing where to start and where to stop. It’s a little bit easier than writing fiction in that the plot has already happened,” James Spooner says in his chat with Ledger: A Writing Podcast.

Growing up in a California town, and especially in the ’80s, may seem like the best way to discover punk and be accepted into that community.

Like so many other things, that outside perspective doesn’t match up with firsthand experience.

The books subtitle/tagline of “black. punk. nowhere” came about as a way to succinctly tell potential readers what existed inside its covers, but also a way to preview the themes Spooner wrote about.