When we were told we were nominated for an Eisner for our short story "I Wanna Be A Slob" by our editor/publisher (Birdcage Bottom Books) it came as a massive unexpected surprise. We were still in the wake of the pandemic, Mike had a brush with death due to illness and were were grappling with the fact that we were getting older, more isolated and defeated as a species. The content of the TOO TOUGH TO DIE anthology [that this comic was made for] was just that - how do you deal with being an aging punk. Do your ideologies age out too? Or does your body turn on you? Are you still able to hold on to the essence of rebellion and stand up against it all or collapse under the weight of a dying world?
We tried to be funny about it all, but when we sent the comic in to our editor/publisher we got a simple e-mail back that basically said "I'm crying right now. This is so sad." We took that as a badge of honor that we joked about between us. But we didn't think it would have resonated with people the way it did. Never in our wildest years would we ever think it would be nominated for the Oscar's of comics - a sad black and white indie comic about identity and death saddled up next to DC and Marvel titles about superheroes. I don't think either of us have had a more humbling professional experience and so grateful that our strange little story connected with enough people to have deemed it important enough to nominate it for an award. And, though we lost award that night, we still won in our hearts.
You can read our 2022 Eisner Award Nominated comic below.
Illustrated by Steven Arnold and Written by Michael Kamison & Steven Arnold
