Episode 601 – Jess Ruliffson

Virtual Memories Show

Virtual Memories Show 601:
Jess Ruliffson

“I started talking to some of my friends who were veterans with the idea of ‘what do you do when come home, after you’ve done your job but also been exposed to some weird stuff?'”

Comics journalist Jess Ruliffson joins the show to talk about the origins of INVISIBLE WOUNDS (Fantagraphics), her collection of stories from veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but we wind up talking about guys’ butts, among other things. We get into her focus on male vulnerability, the Tim Hetherington photos that led her to make Invisible Wounds, the differences between soldiers who enlisted pre-/post-9/11, what it’s like to come home from war with no idea what to do next, and the new comics she’s making with her husband, Ernesto Barbieri, about his work as an ICU nurse. We talk about her upbringing in Mississippi, what she’s learned about interviewing and how stories sometimes take shape in retrospect, whether it’s “permissible” to tell stories about people in a different demographic, the common thread of moral injury in her work, how she met her husband through an MFA open house, and how she found her way into comics and journalism. We also discuss her frustration at not drawing the butts she wants to draw, her experiences teaching comics and learning to give her students permission, what she’s learned from making the Terrible Anvil podcast with Tom Hart, why her therapist insisted she never make a memoir, and more! Give it a listen! And go read Invisible Wounds!

“I’m really excited about the work my husband and & I are doing about the ICU, because there are a lot of things people don’t understand about healthcare and end-of-life care, and how medicine doesn’t really serve making people well some of the time.”

“What I learned from interviewing is that I’m an interrupter, but out of enthusiasm, not rudeness.”

“I guess all roads in my life lead toward trying to impress men.”

Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes!

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About our Guest

Jess Ruliffson is an Eisner-nominated cartoonist. Her debut graphic novel, Invisible Wounds, was published by Fantagraphics Books in 2022. Her comic, Tenderness and Brutality, was nominated for an Online Journalism Award in 2023. Her work has appeared in The Boston Globe, BuzzFeed, Freeman’s Tale of Two Americas, The Gainesville Sun, The Nib, The Oxford American, Pantheon Books, VQR, Wildsam, and Wilson Quarterly. She teaches courses on the creative writing and the graphic novel at Boston University and comics studio practices at The Sequential Artists Workshop.

Photo by Jackie Ricciardi

Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded at Jess’ home on a pair of Blue enCORE 200 microphones feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4 digital recorder & interface. I recorded the intro and outro on a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Goofy photos of Jess by me; studio photo of Jess by Jackie Ricciardi. It’s on my instagram.