Donald Calabrese discusses debut graphic novel ‘Coady’

Welcome to the True North Country Comics Podcast — originating in Canada and celebrating comic book and graphic novel creators and supporters.

On this episode, I chat with Donald Calabrese about his new graphic novel Coady published by Conundrum Press.

Donald Calabrese is a cartoonist, musician, academic and labour activist from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. His work has appeared in Nova Graphica (Conundrum Press, 2020), The Dalhousie Review, Broken Pencil and Word Hoard. In his work, Donald thinks about identity and history, interiority and pain. The graphic mytho-biography Coady is Donald’s first full-length graphic novel.

Coady explores the life of Moses Coady a Roman Catholic Priest born in Margaree, Nova Scotia who famously inspired and led The Antigonish Movement: the co-operative education / economic movement that spread internationally during the mid-twentieth century. The graphic novel reveals the personal triumphs and misgivings alongside a contemporary historian’s attempt to reconcile the spirit of Twentieth Century revolutionary economics with the vanishing political resistance of post-industrial Atlantic Canada. Donald uses archival material and the Coady papers to focus on private misgivings and personal struggles in addition to his contributions to the co-operative movement and social justice. It is also a metahistory that asks questions about how we mythologize our past and form our cultural identities.

You can discover more about Donald Calabrese on Instagram at @donaldhcalabrese

Discover more about Coady at Conundrum Press

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