What does it mean to feel at home, especially when life takes you from one place to another? For cartoonists Ben Hatke and Lily Kim Qian, that question has inspired comics that explore the pull of familiar places, the excitement of discovering somewhere new and the complicated feelings that come with being caught between the two.
Hatke, the creator of the Zita the Spacegirl series and Mighty Jack, explores the tension between home and adventure in his work, including his graphic novel Home/World. Qian, whose graphic novel Until We Meet Again draws on her experiences living in different places, uses comics to explore displacement, identity and belonging.
The two creators will discuss these themes at the Boston Comics Arts Foundation’s upcoming Picture + Panel event, where they’ll share their perspectives on the meaning of home, the creative process and the stories that have influenced their work. The event is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET this Monday, Oct. 5 at the Boston Figurative Arts Center.
Ahead of the event, Hatke and Qian shared how they approach the idea of home in their comics, the challenges and rewards of being between places, and the books, films and art that have inspired them.
How did you become interested in home and the idea of being between places?
Ben Hatke: Truly I can’t remember NOT being interested in the tension between home and the call of the road. Even when I was very young I would lull myself to sleep by imagining what it would be like to jump into the back of a truck full of hay and let it take me across bridge over the river and down the road into the wide world. When I was very young I would walk part of my way to school along the railroad tracks. Every once-in-a-while there would be an open boxcar. I was always thinking about those open boxcars.
Lily Kim Qian: The question of what “home” is has always crept up on me in different periods of my life. Particularly when in the transitional stage of getting used to a new place, there is a longing for the familiarity of people and places you are used to, yet, there is also the anticipation of getting to discover oneself somewhere new. So in a way I have always been curious about its strange tug of war, since it has informed much of my life and identity.
Why did you start making comics about this topic?
Lily Kim Qian: I started making comics about this in college, and it hit particularly harder in senior year when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. I was separated from many of my friends and family overseas, so the homesickness really drove me to do more work exploring home and the idea of being in between places as a method to ground myself.
Ben Hatke: This was an itch that has needed scratching for a long time. I’d been circling the idea through fiction in my other books, but it was time to put my actual feet on the road.
How is it integrated into your work?
Ben Hatke: It’s certainly not a new theme for me. Zita is a traveler taking the long way home, but growing through her travels. Jack’s story is very much about the tension between the responsibilities of home, and the pull of adventure, which is represented by Lilly. In Home/World I trace the theme back to my very earliest storytelling, a character I called “Detour.” He’s a kid who, while walking to school, goes a little out of his way to help someone, then a little further out of his way to help someone else. The pattern keeps repeating until he’s on the other side of the world having wild adventures, even though he’s ostensibly trying to get home. And of course I’m a big fan of Quantum Leap….
Lily Kim Qian: There is a lot of moving around in Until We Meet Again. Each chapter explores a different place where I have lived in my life, so in that way the moving is quite literal due to the constant change of environment. Though, I also like exploring the emotional disconnect of a lot of this “in-betweenness” through surreal scenes. Like the feeling of being unable to plant your feet on the ground, or inhabiting a space that doesn’t seem to exist in reality while accenting it with moody color palettes.
What’s your favorite thing about home and the idea of being between places?
Lily Kim Qian: I love the idea that the idea of home is not rigid, but something that can be formed through time and connection. Even when in between places, I feel like the people you meet can bring a sense of home. I love when you run into someone and you can share fond memories about a place you once lived, or even if the experience is not shared — find a shared ground through talking about never belonging to one place. Both are such universal ideas that can bring people together in unexpected ways.
Ben Hatke: One of the secrets to traveling well, I think, is embracing discomfort. To enjoy being sweaty and having aching feet. And so I enjoy, in a way, the uncomfortable tension between home and the road. When I’m home I want to be traveling. My feet get itchy. When I’m on the road I’m thinking of home.
And what’s your least favorite thing about it?
Ben Hatke: Well. It’s hard to have pieces of your heart scattered all around the world.
Lily Kim Qian: I dislike any exclusionary ideas when talking about displacement or the right to a home. Particularly when people force definitions onto others. I think everyone has a right to define what they think about being between places, or what they believe to be a home, and that should always be respected.
What misconceptions have you found people have about this topic?
Lily Kim Qian: Since it is such a personal subject, it is easy to push arbitrary opinions about both ideas. But at the end of the day I am happy to discuss and share what people have experienced.
Ben Hatke: I think maybe it’s easy to idealize travel. I do it. I’ve seen people get a little disappointed that a place did not live up to their conception of it. But places have no obligation to live up to a visitor’s ideal. Openness isn’t a state of being, it’s an active thing.
Are there other media that have inspired your work?
Ben Hatke: So many. Quantum Leap, Pinocchio, The Hobbit, Huckleberry Finn, The Magician’s Nephew, Firefly …there are so many.
Lily Kim Qian: My favorite movie growing up was Spirited Away, I would often re-watch it when I moved somewhere new and it always made me feel braver. Miyazaki is also such a legendary storyteller, his pacing and moments of contemplation, along with his imagery has very much inspired my work.
I love a lot of East Asian cinema as well, particularly Jia Zhangke’s Still Life and Edward Yang’s Yi Yi explore the ideas of home and being between places in such a masterful way. I can only dream of capturing the scope that they manage to fit in those movies.
Also a shout out to the fine arts — Do Ho Suh’s transparent sculptures where he chronicles every place he has lived in in this translucent fabric have always blown me away. I loved how he tried to capture a memory of home through recreating ghosts of his past. It really inspired me to revisit many of my memories and places I have lived and create work about, albeit in a graphic novel form.
If you could recommend one other graphic novel on this subject to people who love your work, what would it be (and why)?
Lily Kim Qian: There are so many, but I will have to give a shoutout to Belonging by Nora Krug, who was such a mentor to me. Her work has such a sense of intimacy as she explores her identity and sense of belonging by literally digging through archival photos and objects. Limbo by Deb Lee is also a great book that explores the Asian American experience, and how it feels to be in between identities while growing up. The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen beautifully explores how stories can create a sense of home, particularly when facing the complexities of family dynamics. Here by Richard McGuire, which is a novel that takes place in a fixed spot in the corner of the room bouncing through time. I think it very elegantly explores a sense of transience while still illustrating a concrete sense of space, or a home. And also, The Arrival by Shaun Tan, which is such a classic when exploring the immigrant experience.
Ben Hatke: I do love me some Elfquest! There are a lot of themes swirling around home and travel in those stories. It’s about the loss of one home and the traveling out into the world to find something more akin to a “true” home.