Pet Peeves comes after you’ve been Eisner Award nominated, you’ve worked on huge titles including those with DC, what was it that made you want to create this story now?
Pet Peeves was meant to be a break from big projects at big companies. It was a chance to stretch my writing muscles and to tell a story with no edits, no one telling me what do. Honestly, it was supposed to be much shorter than it is, just a quick story to refresh and re-inspire me between jobs, but I found that the story I wanted to tell needed more space and it grew into the full book that it is today.

You talk about Pet Peeves being a really personal story, how much of Bobbie is based on real-life Nicole’s life and experiences?
Nothing that happens to Bobbie in the books is directly from my life. More, the things that happen are metaphors for experience I’ve had, and hopefully, emote the way that those things felt in that moment of my life.

You choose to ink this book traditionally, how did that process differ from some of your other works?
Working traditionally is a much slower process for me. There’s no undo button, there’s not adjust size. For this reason I don’t usually like working that way on projects for big companies who have shorter deadlines and may ask for changes and edits. I still love working traditionally, though, and because Pet Peeves was entirely self dictated, I was able to take the time and care to work this way. This book is still partially done digitally. I do my my thumbnails and pencils on my iPad and then print out blue lines on bristol paper to ink traditionally on top of. It allows me the easy of planning and sketching digitally, while still getting to work in a physical medium for the end product.

Where do you start with a book? And which part of the creative process do you enjoy the most?
Every book starts with an idea. When I write for myself, I usually do a full outline, script, etc. but know that I have the flexibility to add or change things as I go. Then it’s thumbnails, pencils, inks. I think my favorite part is pencils because all the hard work of planning the page is done, but there is still a looseness and freedom that you can lose sometimes in the inking process.

Are there any big influences on your work? Whether in comics, or otherwise.
I could answer this the normal way, pick a few titles that are representative of things that inspire me, but I think the true answer is working with other comics writers. When you’re an artist, you get to collaborate with so many other creators, see how they do things, see what story ideas stick with you and that you connect with. Working one on one with another person can be an incredible learning experience and can give great insight into new and interesting ways to do things.

Back Pet Peeves here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/averyhillpublishing/avery-hill-publishing-spring-2023-line