I would watch a lot of particularly American talk shows where the host is trying to connect with the guests and it's not happening. It was always the transition that interested me, where it goes from one to the other. When you lose yourself and speak openly and stop performing, it stands out and you remember it. And just as the book depicts, saying the bare minimum of words just to get through the interaction. Because I'm guilty of performing a lot in my conversations with people. When those meaningful, genuine conversations have happened for me it's really stood out. Is the subject of connecting with other people an important topic for you? So yeah, those aspects are autobiographical that I've transcended conversations where I feel like I've stopped performing. So that felt like a rich enough idea to dive into and build a world around.

And I've had a couple of conversations like that previously, with friends and family members. I was really fascinated with the mechanics of conversations and how specific words in the right order can be used to change a discussion into something that stops being a performance and suddenly becomes just you and the person immersed in this thing. Will McPhail: Someone (I forget who) once said that the autobiographical aspects of writing a story are like the stones that you rub together to ignite the spark of creativity that makes the story. Publishers Weekly: How autobiographical is your protagonist, Nick? Nowadays Will encourages others to follow their dream careers too: “Education is a good thing – but I think a lot of the time, people feel like they need some sort of academic permission to be creative, and you don’t, you can just do it.PW talked to McPhail, usually a single-panel cartoonist, about storytelling with all the extra space of a graphic novel and the availability of color, and the ability to riff on serious issues like mental health and the need for human connections-either through small talk or more intimate conversations. The artist mentioned that he was pressured into choosing a “realistic” career path since he was young but eventually realized he didn’t need permission to be creative. It’s super inspirational when it comes to coming up with ideas.” #3

“There’s all sorts of fascinating social avenues you can go down and find people from all backgrounds. “It’s my job to capture all different walks of life, the idiosyncrasies of life, and Edinburgh and Scotland have got a plethora of different classes and niches of people,” said Will. The artist says the country has a draw on him and creative people in general. Even though The New Yorker is based in, well, New York, Will chose to stay in Scotland.

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