George O’Connor’s first graphic novel, Journey Into Mohawk Country, used as its sole text the actual historical journal of the seventeenth-century Dutch trader Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert, and told the true story of how New York almost wasn’t. He followed that up with Ball Peen Hammer, the first graphic novel written by playwright Adam Rapp, a dark dystopian view of a society’s collapse as intimately viewed by four lost souls. Now he has brought his attention to Olympians, an ongoing series retelling the classic Greek myths in comics form. In addition to his graphic novel career, Mr. O’Connor has published several children’s picture books, including the New York Times best-selling Kapow, Sally and the Some-Thing, and Uncle Bigfoot.
He lives in Brooklyn, NY.
EIGHT QUESTIONS from GEORGE O'CONNOR
What’s your favorite book that wasn’t written or drawn by you?
I have a few—the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman is very special to me, as is The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony by Roberto Calasso. Where the Wild Things Are will always have a special place for me as well.
If you were shipwrecked on a desert island, what one piece of media would you take with you? If it isn’t your favorite book, explain how you came to this peculiar decision.
Does my Mac count? Because then I would have access to lots of things to watch and read, and maybe I could even use it to email for help.
What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?
There’s this place near where I live that makes an amazing mango passionfruit sorbet. Every time I get it, I’m still stunned at the first spoonful.
How are you planning to survive the zombie apocalypse?
I have actually given this a lot of thought. I’m a firm believer that zombies are slow, and that after a few weeks they will be so hideously decomposed that they will no longer pose a serious threat. So I’m gonna barricade the doors, sit tight and eat a lot of canned goods as I watch from the windows. I also have a very well-stocked liquor cabinet.
What’s your favorite word?
dyspeptic
If you suddenly fell into a dimensional vortex and ended up in 1529, what profession would you adopt?
Is this the 1529 or our world, or the 1529 of some alternate earth? I ask because the cross-dimensional stuff is tricky. Either way, I’d become a prognosticator, but depending on how alternate the alternate history is of another dimension, I might also inadvertently become horribly burned alive at the stake.
Black or white? Cats or dogs? Apples or oranges? Robots or vampires?
In order: black, cats, oranges and cyborg vampires with built-in sunscreens.
What’s the worst fortune cookie advice you ever got? Did you take it?
I gotta say, I’m not really much of a Chinese food guy. I did have some hummus the other night that told me, “Vote Nader in ’08,” but I think it was confused at best.
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