Episodes is the “darkly humorous and emotionally engaging” new graphic novel from illustrator, copy editor and friend of Ensemble, Alex Scott. With an evocative and minimalist style, Episodes confronts our strange obsession with television, advertising and social media. 

Scott takes us on a journey from the scheduled programming of the mid-90s to the ever-present social media updates of the 2020s, exploring the effect these fictional realities have on our day-to-day existence. Through a range of different characters and stories, Scott challenges the “seductive advertising fantasies” that we engage with every day, and asks us whether this is truly normal?

Published by Earth’s End (Aotearoa’s favourite indie comics publisher), Episodes is a sharp, poignant commentary on the intersections of our offline/online experiences – and it should definitely be next on your reading list.

Writer, founder of Rat World magazine and graphic novel fan Jennifer Cheuk visited Scott’s Auckland studio to chat about the process of creating the book, her journey into illustration, and how Scott’s personal experiences with television and advertising inspired the stories in Episodes.

How did you get into illustration? I know that your trajectory wasn't super linear. 

It’s been a pretty long, meandering path. I started working in magazines straight out of uni, but was painting at the same time. I had a project where I painted 500 miniature oil paintings on matchboxes and that was what I really wanted to be doing. But I obviously needed to pay the bills, so got a job at Women’s Weekly. I did that for six months and saved enough money to paint full time for like four months. 

What was the matchbox project? 

The Matchbox Collection was a series of miniature oil paintings of pop culture moments. I poured myself into those for like a good two and a half years. So, I was freelancing in the building of Bauer media when the Listener editor – who knew I painted – asked if I had any cartoon ideas. I was like, I don’t… but I’ll try think of some. I gave her some ideas, they bought one, and I’ve been contributing as a cartoonist ever since 2015. But I always felt like I was in the wrong place. I never found another project that was as big as the matchbox series. 

In 2020, I lost all my work and Bauer closed down. I had got to the point where I really wanted to do a big project and now, I was able to get stuck into it. I’d read probably like, five graphic novels at that point and was ready to do something big. I read On Writing by Stephen King, and then Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud because I didn’t really understand comics. Then I read a couple of screenplays, like Being John Malkovich. 

‍Love that selection.  

I would go into the garage, early in the mornings, and just write. Nothing in particular. But after a while I wrote the first story in Episodes, and I was like, that would make sense as a comic. 

Then I came up with the idea of separating each story with adverts because, well, that was a big thing for me as a kid. I don’t know what it was exactly but I really believed the world that existed in advertising. I wanted whatever was on TV to make my life cool and fun. But there was always that inevitable disappointment: you get the thing you want and then you realise that life is exactly the same.

I was going to say how much I love the rhythm of Episodes with the commercial breaks in between each story. The products you ‘advertise’ are just so real! 

Those parts didn’t really change from the first draft. I feel like I can make up ads in my mind because I am so in tune with what I watched as a child. I would memorise slogans and repeat jingles.

I did the exact same thing! 

Yeah! And being really annoying when everyone was trying to watch TV. 

I think there’s something quite magical about the world that’s created in advertising. Is there a particular advertising memory that has stuck with you since a kid?

Definitely the jingles. When me and my partner first got together, we would both repeat ads – whole ads – completely verbatim. Memphis Meltdown used to have great ads. There were also lots of Western themed ads from the 90s, which you don’t really see anymore, like the old Crunchie bar.

I’m curious what you feel is so potent about those experiences that you have framed an entire graphic novel around advertisement media? 

I think it was about really buying into it as a child. Wanting the world to operate like that, but also realising that that’s not how things worked. At school, we did a module on the language of advertising and I had a moment of really understanding that adverts are just telling you what to do and how to think. I’m not a big consumer now, but I really was obsessed with money as a kid. 

It’s so cool that Episodes has such a direct lifeline to your childhood experiences. 

I’ve actually aged all the characters to the age I was when each story was set. I guess I feel funny about writing someone else’s experiences. I always feel like it needs to be rooted in something I at least understand. 

Absolutely. And I heard that Nick Drnaso’s Sabrina really pushed you to start writing a graphic novel. What was it about Sabrina that impacted you so much? 

I think it was the beautiful simplicity of his work. His drawings are so pared-back, they are almost like icons of people and technology. I also loved how cinematic it was. I’m very much a ‘show, don’t tell’ storyteller, so I’m not drawn to comics with a lot of narration – and Drnaso does that to perfection. Everything’s so understated. 

I feel you on the cinematic aspects – so much of Sabrina has these long establishing shots before you get to the action or dialogue.  

And they’re also quite creepy stories, maybe more creepy than I would write myself, but the pacing is so beautiful. It could be a movie.

I was gonna say though, Episodes does have a layer of real tension and almost terror throughout it. Was this an aspect you envisioned from the beginning?

I’m very optimistic, but also quite cynical – I think this concept of yin-yang comes through a lot in the book. I’m very much like a child in a lot of ways, but also quite mature. I don’t know; I don’t like things to be too easy or simple, story-wise. Everyone’s life is hard and everyone’s life is good, in ways.

‍There is a real uncanniness when you look at old forms of media, especially advertising – it’s a perfect, false world that both never existed and only exists in memory. It’s truly unattainable. I think you’ve really captured that strange underlying uneasiness around media and nostalgia. So much of Episodes looks oddly familiar.  

A few of the houses are actually places I grew up in. They are all based on real locations because I wanted it to feel real. 

Episodes is also concerned with the way media bleeds into our everyday lives. A lot of cartoonists have talked about social media altering their arts practice and I’m curious how you feel about this?

I hate that social media has to be a part of it. I wrote this book in response to feeling like I was only making work to put on Instagram. Everything funnels down into this tiny screen and people see your work behind glass for a split second. I wanted to make something that was real, and enduring – that would take me a long time. I didn’t want to rush to draw something because I hadn’t posted in a few days. Finishing this book made me dislike social media even more. But… you have to promote yourself if you want to keep doing this kind of thing. 

I can really feel that in Episodes, especially with the changing aspect ratios of each story. I was really struck by the penultimate section that is drawn in a vertical format. It really hit me how strange this was.  

It’s so unnatural, right? Our eyes aren't one on top of the other, they're side by side! But it does control what people produce and how. 

What was the process working on Episodes? 

I wrote it pretty quickly during lockdown – it would have been a couple of weeks to get a first draft. Then I printed it out at Warehouse Stationery and started doing a very scribbly storyboard, just to map the flow. When I applied for funding, I came up with a very detailed breakdown of how I was going to approach it, source material, initial sketches, characters, which was mostly so I could reassure myself that it was possible. But then I got funding, which is awesome. I worked on Episodes full time for at least six months. It was basically me learning how to make a comic through a very long winded process of piecing together my sketches, then scanning them and putting them into frames, page by page. 

And you weren't trained in illustration? 

No. I was learning as I went along. I did go back and do quite a bit of refining because my drawing became more consistent and had a clearer style. I also rewrote parts of it because there were opportunities to link the stories in new, interesting ways. 

I love the little connections between the characters. 

That happened quite late in the process as well. The original script has very separate stories. But I came back to it and thought it would be more satisfying for the reader to find those connections, even if they aren’t overt.

It definitely gives a John Malkovich / Charlie Kaufman vibe – where you want to rewatch and just focus on some tiny connection in the background.  

Yes! And I love rewatching stuff. I know I love a movie immediately when I know I’ll watch it again.

How has working on Episodes impacted you personally?

I’m definitely ready to write a more grown up book.

Book or graphic novel? 

Graphic novel, yeah. I feel like I'm done with childhood at this point. I might come back to it, but I want to tell the next story now.

Do you have any ideas for your next project? 

The next one will be a graphic novel based on my experiences in 2008 as a sub-editor at Women’s Weekly. I don’t really like to say too much about things before I begin.

Do you have any advice for people interested in writing a graphic novel? 

Make as much as you can and make it for yourself. Don’t think too far ahead to what people will think about it. Just start.

• Episodes by Alex Scott is out now, $40