Joey Comeau

Joey Comeau
Image of Joey Comeau in London, England, April 2008
Joey Comeau in London, England, April 2008
BornJoey Comeau
(1980-09-26) September 26, 1980 (age 44)
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
OccupationWriter
SubjectTransgressive fiction, horror
Notable worksA Softer World, Overqualified, Lockpick Pornography
Website
www.asofterworld.com

Joey Comeau (born September 26, 1980) is a Canadian writer. He wrote the text of the webcomic A Softer World, and authored the novels Lockpick Pornography and Overqualified.

Career

[edit]

In 2003, Comeau co-created the webcomic A Softer World with Emily Horne. His first novel, Lockpick Pornography, was serialized on the A Softer World site prior to publication in book form by Loose Teeth Press.

Excerpts from his novel Overqualified were included in the 2010 Best American Nonrequired Reading. The first 20 chapters of his novel One Bloody Thing After Another were serialized on the National Post's book blog[1] and the book was nominated for the 2010 Shirley Jackson Award.[2] One Bloody Thing After Another was also nominated for the 2011 ReLit Awards.[3] The Globe and Mail review of One Bloody Thing After Another was generally critical, concluding that the novel did not succeed as either horror or comedy,[4] while the reviewer in the Toronto Star wrote "As a fast-paced, fragmented tale of terror for an accelerated culture, it's bloody good."[5]

In 2012 a sequel to Lockpick Pornography titled We All Got It Coming was released for free on the Internet[6] before being published together with the original in The Complete Lockpick Pornography.

A review of Comeau's 2017 novel Malagash in The Globe and Mail called it "a surprisingly quiet, moody affair", but observed that "some characters and plot lines could be more deeply developed",[7]

Kickstarter campaign

[edit]

In 2013, Comeau and collaborator Emily Horne ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to publish the fourth print volume of A Softer World, titled Let's Do Something Wrong.[8] The campaign raised over $78,000, on a goal of $25,000. The project was described as being "A book about dead moms, queers, sexy extremism and sad feelings. In photo comic form with words on the photos, like, over top of them!".[8]

Recognition

[edit]
  • 2011 Finalist, Shirley Jackson Award[9]
  • 2017 Anne Green award recipient[10]
  • 2018 American Library Association Alex Award winner[11]
  • 2018 Golden Cowbell Award (Swiss Group of International Schools (SGIS)) for Ninja-rella.[12]

Personal life

[edit]

Comeau describes himself as queer. He studied linguistics at Saint Mary's University.[13] He currently lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[14]

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Lockpick Pornography (Loose Teeth, 2005)
  • Truth and Beauty Bombs (A Softer World book 1) (Loose Teeth, 2006)
  • It's Too Late To Say I'm Sorry (Loose Teeth, 2007)
  • Overqualified (ECW, 2009)
  • Second Best Isn't So Bad (A Softer World book 2) (Topatoco, 2009)
  • One Bloody Thing After Another (ECW, 2010)
  • Bible Camp Bloodbath (self published, 2010)[15]
  • The Girl Who Couldn't Come (self published, 2011)[15]
  • Everybody Gets Got (A Softer World book 3) (Topatoco, 2012)
  • The Complete Lockpick Pornography (ECW, 2012)
  • Bravest Warriors Vol. 1 (Comic series collection) (KaBOOM!, 2013)
  • The Summer is Ended and We are Not Yet Saved (ChiZine, 2013)
  • Let's Do Something Wrong (A Softer World book 4) (Topatoco, 2014)
  • We Are Become Pals (Topatoco, 2013)
  • Bravest Warriors Vol. 2 (Comic series collection) (KaBOOM!, 2014)
  • Bravest Warriors Vol. 3 (Comic series collection) (KaBOOM!, 2014)
  • Ninja-rella (Capstone Press, 2015)[16]
  • Overqualified 2: Overqualifieder (ECW, 2015)
  • Anatomy of Melancholy (A Softer World Best-of collection) (Breadpig, 2016)
  • Ben Size Fazlayım (Turkish translation of Overqualified) (Tefrika Yayınları, 2016)
  • Lockpick Pornography (German translation) (Luftschacht Verlag, 2016)
  • Surqualifié. Lettres à des sociétés sans visage (French Translation of Overqualified) (Mémoire d'encrier, 2017)
  • Malagash (ECW, 2017)
  • Malagash (Chinese translation) (Bai Hua Zhou literature and Art Publishing House, 2018)
  • Überqualifiziert (German Edition of Overqualified) (Luftschacht Verlag, 2018)
  • Ask-Ninjan (Swedish translation of Ninjarella) (Hegas Förlag, 2020)
  • Ninja-cienta (Spanish translation of Ninjarella) (Aparicio Publishing, 2020)
  • Malagash (German translation) (Luftschacht Verlag, 2021)

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "One Bloody Thing After Another". National Post Ampersand, July 12, 2010. Archived from the original on July 11, 2012. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
  2. ^ "2010 Shirley Jackson Award nominees". Shirley Jackson Awards, April 2011. Archived from the original on April 17, 2011.
  3. ^ "2011 ReLit Award Shortlist". Relit Awards, August 26, 2011.
  4. ^ Kasturi, Sandra (June 7, 2010). "Review: One Bloody Thing After Another, by Joe Comeau". The Globe and Mail. ProQuest 2385802651.
  5. ^ Good, Alex (July 25, 2010). "Sentimental gore, with a twist, for an accelerated culture". Toronto Star. ProQuest 706584475.
  6. ^ Comeau, Joey. "We All Got IT Coming". Retrieved December 13, 2013.
  7. ^ Corkum, Trevor (December 14, 2017). "Review: Joey Comeau's Malagash will delight you and break your heart". The Globe and Mail. ProQuest 2382981184.
  8. ^ a b Comeau, Joey. "A Softer World 4 Kickstarter". Retrieved December 13, 2013.
  9. ^ "Shirley Jackson Award". Shirley Jackson Awards. Archived from the original on December 16, 2021. Retrieved December 10, 2021.
  10. ^ "Anne Green Award". Calgary Word-Fest. October 15, 2017.
  11. ^ "Alex Award 2018". American Library Association. January 28, 2019.
  12. ^ "Golden Cowbell Book Award". SGIS.
  13. ^ Dupuis, Chris (March 15, 2006). "In Print: Joey Comeau". Xtra!. Retrieved September 9, 2013.
  14. ^ Comeau, Joey. "Blogger".
  15. ^ a b Darbyshire, Peter (March 6, 2011). "The book is dead - long live the ebook". The Province. p. 58.
  16. ^ Goodwin, Prue (Summer 2016). "Ninja-rella (Far Out Fairytales)". The School Librarian. 64 (2): 90. ProQuest 1800368466.
[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related to Joey Comeau.
  • A Softer World Comeau's webcomic, created with Emily Horne; also hosts some of Comeau's other work
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joey_Comeau&oldid=1247617165"