Andrew Aydin is no stranger to helping people tell their stories: not just for themselves, but for historical documentation, so that we don’t forget. Aydin cowrote the critically acclaimed March with Congressman John Lewis about his life and his involvement in the Civil Rights movement. And now Aydin is focusing his lens on his own home.
Hurricane Helene left the southern Appalachian area of the United States decimated last fall, with the communities and nature forever marked with the storm’s destruction. All across Appalachia, residents struggled to rebuild what they could and move forward. And they struggle still. But like all people from the area, their resolve was unwavering, their unity unbreakable.
Their stories of resilience and resolution are what Aydin wanted to focus on his latest graphic novel anthology Islands in the Sky, a new project backed by the Appalachia Comics Project, which was launched by Good Trouble Comics. The book pairs survivors with powerhouse comic creators, including: Matt Fraction, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Steve Orlando, Brian Michael Bendis, Steve Orlando, Valentine De Landro, Aster D’Amico, Josh Adams, Anthony Del Col, Nate Powell, Greg Pak, Alex Segura, Thien Pham, Nriana Loewinsohn, Gene Luen Yang, and more. In documenting these stories, they can be preserved for posterity and not forgotten.
This past July, the anthology was fully funded through Kickstarter. The funds help pay the survivors who told their stories for the book and bring the book to print. While the campaign is over, you can still pledge late for available backer rewards.
I spoke with Islands in the Sky editor Andrew Aydin about the Appalachia Comics Project, the book itself, the impetus of bringing this graphic novel to life, and what he hopes readers take away from the book.
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted earlier this year. Due to technical issues, we had trouble getting the interview to post. Now that has been resolved, we are publishing the interview in full.
FreakSugar: Before we get into the campaign, can you tell us a little about yourself and the Appalachia Comics Project?
Andrew Aydin: I live in Edneyville, North Carolina. I live right next to Bat Cave and Chimney Rock. We just got hit so hard by Hurricane Helene.
I live in my mother’s house. She passed in 2017 and while I was still working in DC for Congressman Lewis. I’d been taking care of the farm on weekends, and Congressman Lewis used to make fun of me. He’d say, “well, I spent my whole life trying to get off the farm, and now you’re trying to go back.” So, after he passed, I moved here. It was the closest thing I had to going home. I loved working the land and keeping my garden. And it was a peaceful place to write and heal after everything.
Over time I made a lot of friends, people who helped me figure out how to live out here, how to fix my tractor, when to plant and what to plant, how to navigate a different life than I was used to living in DC, traveling all the time to give speeches and book talks. And I was a lot happier. So, when Helene hit, I felt I had to do something to help.
Around that same time, I read a graduate thesis from the MIT media lab that came out a few years ago that talks about how one of the reasons that Appalachia is so poorly depicted in media is because so few people from Appalachia are given the opportunity to write about the region, their experiences, their life in fiction or nonfiction. They just weren’t given the opportunity. In that thesis, the author had proposed a solution, which was a co-authorship model. And obviously that perked up my attention. And at the same time, at the Frankfurt Book Fair, they released a report on essentially how comics just had better outcomes with kids when used in the classrooms. One reason for the better outcomes from using comics is that comic creators are more accessible. Children who have the opportunity to meet the creators are more likely to be able to fully actualize their ideas and also engage in creative professional pursuits. Because by seeing comics creators, by interacting with them, it seems like something you could do. And I thought about myself, going to comic conventions when I was a teenager and meeting creators, and being so amazed that these people were able to make a living from the power of their ideas.
I put all that together into an idea blender and talked to my partners Kelly Sue, Matt, Val, and Vaughn, as well as our production team Lauren and Chris. And the Appalachian Comics Project idea is what came out of that. We wanted to start with a history of Helene for two reasons: One, this is an example of something that has never happened before in the United States, but that will happen more and more frequently, namely that we had a region the size of Connecticut completely cut off from the rest of the world by road and communications. And two, for those of us who survived it, who lived in this world where cash was the only way to trade, where gas stations ran out of gas, and people were walking on the side of the road as the only way to get anywhere… where you didn’t know if you took a wrong turn, if you would be stuck there overnight because the road would be jammed and you wouldn’t be able to turn around. For those of us who lived through this, there are a lot of lessons that the rest of the country needs to know.
FS: On to the comic itself, what can you tell us about Islands in the Sky?
AA: Islands in the Sky is a first-hand account of what happened before, during and after Hurricane Helene in the Southern Appalachia region. We’re using the co-authorship model where survivors are paired with professional creators to co-write their first-hand accounts of what happened. The professional writers are donating their time so that the money we raise goes to paying the survivors as professional writers.
And the stories span a wide range of experiences. On the one hand, Dr. David Easterling, formerly of NOAA’s climate office in Asheville, is writing about the science of the storm. And on the other hand, survivors are writing harrowing stories of survival, and stories of hope and humor, everything that happened. We received dozens more submissions than we could afford to commission so we’re hoping this will open a door to doing more because there is a tremendous appetite here from people who have endured unbelievable hardship wanting to tell their story.
FS: Can you tell us about some of the contributions and contributors we can expect in this book?
AA: We’ve been working hard to put a lot of pieces and people together to build a book worthy of the event we’re depicting, particularly Lauren Sankovitch and Michele Abounader, who are carrying a lot of the water on this book and this campaign.
For me, I’m excited about Jarrett Rutland’s art, who’s local, and he just turned in this beautiful piece. It’s sort of Bruegelesque. I think he’s a fantastic creator that I hope people see more of. Jarrett is also illustrating the story written by local comics scribe Matthew K. Manning, who will also be debuting his new Superman book at the kickoff event. Valentine De Landro is illustrating the story I’m writing. Nate Powell is working with Dr. Easterling, doing double duty as co-writer and artist. C.A.P. Ward is illustrating a survivor’s wedding story with Brian Michael Bendis. And June Kim is working with Steve Orlando telling the story with a reporter and what the aftermath was like from someone trying to make enough sense of the damage to write the news. Josh Adams is illustrating a harrowing story with a survivor who was stranded on their roof as the floodwaters rose. Oh, and Nick Filardi, he’s a local colorist for a lot of comics, he and his wife Shannon are writing their first comics story that is being illustrated by Brett Schoonover. Some of the early art will be on the Kickstarter page when it launches. And Gene Yang brought some serious talent with his friends Thien Pham and Briana Loewinsohn illustrating the story of a survivor who runs an animal rescue shelter and what her team went through trying to save all their animals.
FS: I’m from and live in southeast Kentucky, and everywhere from the Carolinas to Kentucky have been hit hard lately. I’m very heartened by this project because I feel too often that some—not all, but some—of the media cares for a little while about what happens in our area and to our people, but then moves on. What are your goals for this project, tangible and otherwise?
AA: I hope this project helps people outside of Appalachia understand this region better. And I hope people here get a little hope and feel empowered, and earn a little money when they need it most. We have to see by now that no one is going to tell our story for us, so we have to get creative and do it ourselves. I hope we can build this project into a self-sustaining entity that can make comics and creative works about the many facets of Appalachia that are beautiful and inspiring but overlooked, and through that help empower the region, because the region has tremendous power if we recognize how to work together to use it.
FS: This is a little off topic, but you cowrote March with Congressman John Lewis and now you’re working on this Kickstarter campaign. Art is so motivating and transformative to viewers and readers and society as a whole. We live in a very uncertain time right now. What do you hope readers take away from Islands in the Sky?
AA: I hope people see that what they’ve been told about the region and what happened during Helene is largely made up to serve the wealthy and the powerful. And I hope people see how beautiful and inspiring the people here are—they’re an example for us all. When the storm hit, no one asked who you voted for or what party you belonged to, they saw neighbors in need and they helped. We need more of that.
FS: If you had a final pitch for Islands in the Sky, what would it be?
AA: The lessons you will learn in this book may save your life one day.
The Kickstarter for Islands in the Sky was successfully funded in July, but you still have time to late pledge for available rewards.
You can check out the Appalachia Comics Project’s website for more information about the organization and the graphic novel.
Next week, the Appalachia Comics Progress is holding an exclusive work-in preview event in Asheville, North Carolina. Check out the organization’s website for details.