What up, y'all? I'm Penn, a Black-Asian genderqueer freelance pop culture critic, and this is my column, Queerly Nerdy, where I critique queer geekiness in comic books, anime, video games, and more. After a brief hiatus due to moving to another state, Queerly Nerdy is back in April to welcome spring (even if the cold weather is fighting back).
This month, I talked to Joamette Gil, founder of comic book publisher Power & Magic Press, about the publisher's triumphant return and its Kickstarter for the upcoming nonfiction comic book anthology Touching Grass. Check out the Touching Grass Kickstarter and read the interview below.
Penn: The phrase "touch grass" is often a retort used to tell people to step back from social media and go spend time in the real world. What does "touching grass" mean to you personally and how did this result in the creation of the anthology?
Joamette Gil: “Touch grass” became an inescapable refrain for me as of 2024. Whether I was listening to a podcast, watching a YouTube video, or hanging out in the wild, the plea to “touch grass” was repeated often. This was usually in reference to unhinged behavior by people clearly out of touch with reality, but increasingly, it was a true plea issued out of concern for people’s mental health.
That was also the year I learned that my health was greatly improved (physical, psychological, emotional) by owning a dog. Naturally, one can’t own a dog without literally touching grass multiple times a day, every single day! And finally meeting my neighbors, thanks to the social lubricant that is having a cute puppy with you, helped soothe my anxiety around Trump’s second term. As my bubble expanded, I began to feel a little safer.
Every Power & Magic Press anthology theme has been inspired by my deepest considerations at the time. These days, the fact that disconnection from reality (and from one another) is an escalating threat to democracy and the earth itself, is what looms largest for me.
Reclaiming the outside world can be difficult due to trauma, lack of time and accessibility, and feeling isolated. How will the stories and essays in How To Touch Grass address these issues?
The entire collection aims to tackle these very issues! Some stories dive into what the accessibility issues are, as well as their causes. (Like Soupfuzz’s “Everything Is Expensive: Why Should Community Be Too?” about accessible third places, and Zareen Choudhury’s take on Bay Area transportation as a person with mobility issues.)
Others share creative strategies and skill sets for how to reconnect in spite of barriers, while honoring our diverse needs. (Like Tuu’s beginner-friendly guide to mushroom hunting for people who feel more comfortable alone, and Bryn Forrester’s “Level Locked” about navigating through town while autistic.)
And many creators unpack their own trauma in these stories, with an organically recurring conclusion: reconnecting to the outside world isn’t an end goal for some “healed” version of ourselves – it’s the way through.
In addition to addressing how to figuratively touch grass, the anthology will also explore the role of grass and plant life in nature and relationships. Why is it important to affirm the connection between people and nature?
The connection between people and nature is the most important thing in the world, when you think about it! So much of identity and access is defined by the spaces we inhabit and the regions we live in (or come from originally). On a more basic level, nurturing our connection to nature is a need: we eat nature, we breathe nature, we are nature. The disconnect there is at the heart of why all life on earth is in danger right now. Getting right with the earth is a component of getting right with one another.
How To Touch Grass is the first nonfiction comics anthology from Power and Magic Press and also serves as a relaunch of the publisher. How does the anthology continue the publisher's theme of Power and Magic?
It’s a new foray into new territory, which is sort of what every single book we publish aims to be. Genre as a concept is fun but mostly exists for selling to certain niches, whereas the foundation of Power & Magic Press runs deeper than just “we like fantasy here.”
I had the company’s name in my back pocket for years before knowing what I would do with it, because those two words embody the types of stories I care most about. “Power” could just refer to the magic powers in a fantasy comic. Likewise, “magic” could just refer to that spark of creativity that makes a piece of art powerful. But that flexibility and interchange of meaning between them is what interests me! What is power, how does it work, where does it come from?
How To Touch Grass continues that line of questioning, this time opening our doors to a new school of creators working outside of genre fiction — because the more, the merrier!
The How To Touch Grass Kickstarter campaign is live through May 7 — check it out now.
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