Yesterday, we posted a contest in which we're giving away a copy of Matt Silady's "The Homeless Channel," a new graphic novel. Matt, a Berkeley resident, was both the writer and artist of this creative yet grounded fiction about the woman behind a 24-hour broadcast network devoted to covering the homeless. This Friday, the Isotope turns into party central (as it often does) to celebrate the book's launch, which anyone can attend.
Photo of Matt Silady and his fiance, Serena Schlake
We had a chance to ask Matt a few questions about his book his future plans:
1) Your book, 'The Homeless Channel,' obviously focuses on the problem of people living on the streets. What do you think about the measures being taken in the Bay Area to address the issue? (Not sure how familiar you are with "Care not Cash" over here in the city, but it's a very polarizing topic.) How are things looking over in your neck of the woods, in Berkeley?
I don't claim to be an expert when it comes to the issues surrounding homelessness. I am smart enough to know there are no easy answers to the problem and I think that's reflected in the book.
On both sides of the Bay, the issue is always going to be about money and the battle over who gets to decide how that money is best spent. Unfortunately, I think there's often more energy used up fighting for control of that power than on actually helping those in our communities who are really in need. I think that's what appealed to me about The Homeless Channel. The people starting the network decide to simply side-step the political system and get to work.
After the jump: What's with celebrities in fiction (Tegan and Sara?); and what's next on his agenda . . .
2) When we met a couple weeks ago, you mentioned a bit about the real-life celebs appearing in the book. Would you mind recounting that story for our readers? And just how, as a writer, do you handle the incorportation of real-life celebrities into a fictional work?
For the most part, the use of celebrities in the book serves to highlight the financial extremes found in our society. The Tegan and Sara thing was a little different though. I needed a musical act to play at a fundraiser concert in the third chapter of the story. I ended up firing off an email to Tegan and Sara's management asking if I could include them in the comic. I figured if I was going to put a band in the story, it might as well be one that I really liked. Management was cool with the cameo and I used a bit of photo-reference to draw them into the book.
I was really pleased with how it turned out. I even posted about it on a Tegan and Sara message board thinking they might get a kick out of it. Of course, that was when all the die-hard fans started pointing out that the photo I referenced was flipped and I'd drawn them playing guitar left-handed. It was a proud moment in my artistic career.
3) What's in the pipeline -- any projects in the works you can share with our readers?
I'm hard at work on a new book with new characters and a whole new story. Although recently, I've been spending a lot of energy keeping any evidence of the work hidden around the house. With The Homeless Channel, I showed my fiance every little bit of progress I made as I put the book together. By the time she sat down to actually read the entire thing, she was so familiar with every little nuance of the art and story that she never got to really experience reading it for the first time like anyone else would. I'm trying as hard as I can to keep all the story details a secret from her for as long as possible.
It's going to be a fun story though. I started doing a few preliminary photo-shoots in downtown SF just last week!
Sounds good to us! Thanks for the time, Mr. Silady; please remember SFist when you're famous . . .
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