Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: Dave Cowen, graphic novel

Should We Buy A Gun? A New Graphic Novel From Divided Perspectives

Dave Cowen is a left-wing writer, Gabriel Wexler, a right-wing artist. Together, they have created a new graphic novel, Should We Buy A Gun?

Dave Cowen is a left-wing writer. Gabriel Wexler is a right-wing artist. Together, they have collaborated on a new graphic novel, Should We Buy A Gun, looking at the ownership of guns in the United States of America, and created over the last eleven years. It has recently been published by SerioComics, a new publisher of graphic novels.

"Maggie & Adam are newlyweds building a life in Austin, TX. He's a NYC transplant and school counselor. She's a native Texan and NPR journalist. The like-minded pair are eager to try to start a family. But everything changes after a mugging. They're shocked to find they have opposing views on guns. Whether to buy one, try for a family, or even stay together is now in question. 11 years in the making, this book doesn't claim to have the answers, it only asks that we stay open-minded."

Dave Cowen, talking about Should We Buy A Gun, says;

"It started one night after a scary noise, my partner at the time joked, "What's the plan?" I replied, "Sacrifice myself, so you can run to safety, and marry someone who'll protect you." When I added maybe we should buy a gun and she didn't think it was the craziest idea, I freaked out. Abhorring violence, believing in gun control, I never imagined owning one. She asked if our choice was shoot or be shot, wouldn't I shoot? I said I didn't know if I could, even if our lives were at stake. This made her freak out. She believed if we had a family, I needed to be able to protect her, myself, and our possible future children. We're no longer married and never had children, for many reasons. But the project continued as a way for the pain of our disunion to help bring healing union to others."

"I read books from many perspectives whether that's Adam Winkler on gun law or Carol Anderson on race and guns to John R. Lott on anti-gun control or Dana Loesch on the 2nd Amendment and I exposed myself to both progressive and conservative ideology. On the left that might look like a diet of Brady Campaign newsletters or a Steven Pinker book about why violence has declined, on the right that might look like a Jordan Peterson podcast or NRAtv. There are spiritual and philosophical references and you'll see quotes from a Thomas Merton or Simone Weill. I come from screenwriting so there's DNA from movies like Judd Apatow's Knocked Up, David Fincher's Fight Club. And, of course, graphic novels like Nick Drnaso's Sabrina, Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis."

"In 2013 the project started as an action comedy screenplay. During Trump's first term it became almost polemically progressive. I struggled trying to adapt it into a prose novel before finally realizing it should be a graphic one because it's…so visual. I did an immersion into the medium, which I had enjoyed but hadn't worked in yet, and loved it. I met Gabriel in 2020 via his son's preschool friendship with my godson and hired him to be the illustrator in 2020. My father passed and I got divorced around that time and I connected spiritually, psychologically, and physically with new ideas and a new self. That and conversations with Gabriel transformed the one-sided argument into a two-sided exploration. Illustrating takes a very long time! I think Gabriel's artist friends were dismayed by how many times we redid things. But it's much more of a complete collaboration as a result!"

"It sounds quite ridiculous now but for a long time I thought I could make the book perfect enough to solve the problem of guns in America. It might have been when I finally shot a gun that I realized it's perhaps more of an inherent paradox to navigate than an eradicable problem to solve. That doesn't mean I don't hope and believe there can and will be less gun violence here someday. But there's a line in Art Spiegelman's Maus. Art's character quotes Samuel Beckett, "Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness." He continues, "On the other hand, he SAID it!" And his therapist replies, "He was right. Maybe you can include it in your book." Sometimes, that's all we can offer or get from a book. That we don't know the answers. Yet by learning we don't know. We sometimes know more than before…"

Should We Buy A Gun by Dave Cowen and  Gabriel Wexler is available now.

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