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In February, I went to Toronto and interviewed Jacob Tierney about Heated Rivalry’s iconic soundtrack, which heavily features independent Canadian artists. My Sketchbook interview for the New Yorker was published on Friday. You can read it here.

This isn’t just for fans of Heated Rivalry: if you’ve ever had a wistful feeling about the enduring impact of music/film/art in your little life, this is for you. Over the past year I have been thinking so much about what it means to be shaped by art over time, and the amazing ways that it transforms and evolves when passed through the lens of the individual (I write about that a bit here:)

Speaking with Jacob and writing this article (and by writing, I mean “drawing until my arms go numb”) was no exception.

Here are a few of my favourite frames:

we binged the first 5 episodes on New Year’s Eve and it broke me

We started watching Letterkenny during Covid - it is a note-perfect show, and the music selection feels almost virtuosic and so deeply personal. I have probably watched the episode where this scene takes place a dozen times (or more) and we included this song in our wedding.

I asked Jacob about his “anti-fascist” directorial style (which he’s mentioned in past interviews) and I loved his answer (more in the full article!)

It was so surreal walking around Toronto after the interview and hearing strangers talking about the show everywhere I went — but of course this was also happening before I did the interview, what a crazy time

I am very proud of this — I enjoyed the process of reporting and writing last year’s Radiohead article so much, and I made a goal of publishing at least one long-form graphic journalism piece this year. It was a LOT of work — COMICS ARE SO MUCH WORK — but I’m so glad everyone came together to make this happen (I’m always so humbled by the number of people (editors, fact-checkers, etc) who have to touch a piece of writing before it’s released into the world), and there is nothing in the world I’d rather be doing.

Alright, this has been the obligatory post about the thing I made. I’ve been working my ass off this year on multiple long-form things and it feels really good to actually finish and share something. I loved making this with my hands, even if they were going numb by the end, and I fricking love comics and visual narrative: images aren’t just the window-dressing on top of the written word, but accomplish something entirely different. So grateful I get to think obsessively and publicly about these things in the medium that feels the most natural to me.

Thanks, as always, for reading (an act that I definitely don’t take as a given or for granted, especially these days)

xo Zoe

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The Jacob Tierney / Heated Rivalry interview

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