A million reasons to love “Unlovable” comic artist Esther Pearl Watson
“Mail Order Interviews” are illustrated interviews with awesome humans conducted via mail. This particular one is with Esther Pearl Watson, a Los Angeles based comic artist. Here’s what you need to know about her:
Esther Pearl Watson is a very special lady for a number of reasons – one of our favorites being the fact that she re-imagined a diary from the 1980’s that she found in a gas station bathroom into what is probably the funniest comic to exist to date. It’s called Unlovable and it’s hysterical. Like laugh out loud funny. Not just “lol” in a text message when you’re not actually laughing, but THE REAL DEAL. Its title should really be lovable — because it’s not unlovable in the slightest!
Unlovable peeks inside the always hilarious, sometimes tragic, and often cringe-worthy life of a high school sophomore, who Esther Pearl Watson has named Tammy Pierce, (and yes, we’re going to call Esther Pearl Watson by her full name at all times during this interview because it’s a really cool name that a princess or a duchess or someone very fancy might have). Unlovable is also incredibly relatable for anyone who was once a teenager, which is everyone.
Despite the fact that the original diary was written in the 1980s in a time when FaceTime and Facebook were just Back To The Future dreams, Unlovable feels like it could be your teenage diary talking about your inner most embarrassing secret thoughts. The smart ladies over at BUST Magazine saw Esther’s Unlovable mini-comics back in 2004 and asked her to create their back page comic. After a while, the alternative comic book and graphic novel publisher Fantagraphics Books got wind of her work in BUST and now she’s got three volumes of Unlovable-ness out in the world!
When Esther Pearl Watson’s not making us crack up with her Unlovable comics she can be found making other magical comics with her husband and fellow artist, Mark Todd or creating paintings of her childhood memories growing up in Texas — one such memory is that of her father building flying saucers in her back yard. . . but that’s a whole other interview.
Esther Pearl Watson — we commend your awesomeness. Keep on shining that wonderfully quirky light of yours. The world needs it!
And without further ado, the Mail Order Interview :
(Photos via, via & via. Featured image by Jennifer Juniper Stratford)