Ep. 10 - EMIL FERRIS "Benevolent Vampires and the Starfish Army"

The Art of Process with Aimee Mann and Ted Leo

Ep. 10 - EMIL FERRIS "Benevolent Vampires and the Starfish Army"

CW: childhood sexual assault

Welcome back! We have not actually been away for longer than our usual bi-weekly hiatus, but it feels like we have. IN THIS EPISODE we sit down in her home city of Chicago with artist and graphic novelist Emil Ferris. Emil's book "My Favorite Thing is Monsters" affected both Aimee and me deeply; SO deeply that, at our mutual friend, designer Gail Marowitz's suggestion, I was lucky enough to be able to enlist Emil into doing the art for my own last album, The Hanged Man (which was also, by the way, under Gail's brilliant design supervision).

Our conversation ranges from subtle energy and a race of benevolent vampires, to how blockages and limitations in one area of life can lead to deeper understanding and greater heights in others.

As mentioned, there is a self-imposed content warning on this one because we do delve a little bit into childhood trauma, specifically, sexual abuse. In accordance with MY experience and ever-changing perspective and standards CURRENTLY, it's not that heavy, but I realize that we're all wherever we are with this sort of thing, and I want to give you, the listener, the opportunity to opt out of approximately minutes 36:30 to 40:00. This is audibly mentioned in the episode as well.

There's also some light goofing about cigarette smoking and alcohol intake, a little earlier on, so I want to put up a flag about that for you as well.

I also want to link you to some resources, should you need them, and will do so below; both to RAINN, and an organization specifically geared toward helping men through this, called 1in6.

Trust me, though - there is more light and joy in this episode than what I'm describing may make it sound like here, and we hope you'll come out of it a member of the Starfish Army, under Commandante Aimee Mann, and, I guess… Subcommandante… me, with… Special Advisor Emil Ferris? I don't know. I think you get to choose your own rank. We have to figure that part out.

Volume TWO of "My Favorite Thing is Monsters" is due out soon, so please keep eyes peeled for that, and enjoy the show!

LINKS:

Emil Ferris online

"My Favorite Thing is Monsters"

"The Hanged Man" (at Gail Marowitz's design site!)

"Sunrise," the silent film we talk about on Youtube

RAINN

1in6

Find Us:

@Emilferrisdraws

@AimeeMann

@TedLeo

@artofprocesspod

@MaxFunHQ