Joey Comeau (born September 26, 1980) is a Canadian writer. He is best known for writing the text of the

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books. Webcomics can be co ...

'' A Softer World'', and for his novels ''Lockpick Pornography'' and ''

Overqualified Overqualification is the state of being educated beyond what is necessary or requested by an employer for a position with the business. There can often be high costs for companies associated with training employees. This could be problematic for c ...

''.

Career

In 2003, Comeau co-created the webcomic '' A Softer World'' with Emily Horne. His first novel, ''Lockpick Pornography'', was serialized on the ''A Softer World'' site prior to publication in book form by Loose Teeth Press. Excerpts from his novel ''

'' were included in the 2010 ''

Best American Nonrequired Reading ''The Best American Nonrequired Reading'' was a yearly anthology of fiction and nonfiction selected annually by high school students in California and Michigan through 826 Valencia and 826michigan. The volume was part of ''The Best American Series ...

''. The first 20 chapters of his novel ''One Bloody Thing After Another'' were serialized on the

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

's book blog and the book was nominated for the 2010

Shirley Jackson Award The Shirley Jackson Awards are literary awards named after Shirley Jackson in recognition of her legacy in writing. These awards for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror and the dark fantastic are presented a ...

. ''One Bloody Thing After Another'' was also nominated for the 2011

ReLit Awards The ReLit Awards are Canadian literary prizes awarded annually to book-length works in the novel, short-story and poetry categories."Three indie writers honoured by ReLit Awards". ''The Globe and Mail'', July 19, 2007. Founded in 2000 by Newfoundl ...

. ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' review of ''One Bloody Thing After Another'' was generally critical, concluding that the novel did not succeed as either horror or comedy, while the reviewer in the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'' wrote "As a fast-paced, fragmented tale of terror for an accelerated culture, it's bloody good." In 2012 a sequel to ''Lockpick Pornography'' titled ''We All Got It Coming'' was released for free on the Internet before being published together with the original in ''The Complete Lockpick Pornography''. A review of Comeau's 2017 novel ''Malagash'' in ''The Globe and Mail'' called it "a surprisingly quiet, moody affair", but observed that "some characters and plot lines could be more deeply developed",

Kickstarter campaign

In 2013, Comeau and collaborator Emily Horne ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to publish the fourth print volume of ''A Softer World'', titled ''Let's Do Something Wrong''. The campaign raised over $78,000, on a goal of $25,000. The project was described as being "A book about dead moms, queers, sexy extremism and sad feelings. In photo comic form with words on the photos, like, over top of them!".

Recognition

* 2011 Finalist, Shirley Jackson Award * 2017 Anne Green award recipient * 2018 American Library Association Alex Award winner * 2018 Golden Cowbell Award (Swiss Group of International Schools (SGIS)) for Ninja-rella.

Personal life

Comeau describes himself as

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

. He studied

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

at Saint Mary's University. He currently lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Bibliography

* ''Lockpick Pornography'' (Loose Teeth, 2005) * ''Truth and Beauty Bombs'' ('' A Softer World'' book 1) (Loose Teeth, 2006) * ''It's Too Late To Say I'm Sorry'' (Loose Teeth, 2007) * ''

'' (ECW, 2009) * ''Second Best Isn't So Bad'' ('' A Softer World'' book 2) (Topatoco, 2009) * ''

One Bloody Thing After Another 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

'' (ECW, 2010) * ''Bible Camp Bloodbath'' (self published, 2010) * ''The Girl Who Couldn't Come'' (self published, 2011) * ''Everybody Gets Got'' ('' A Softer World'' book 3) (Topatoco, 2012) * ''The Complete Lockpick Pornography'' (ECW, 2012) * ''

Bravest Warriors ''Bravest Warriors'' is an American-Canadian animated series. Set onwards from the year 3085, it follows four teenage heroes-for-hire as they warp through the universe to save adorable aliens and their worlds using the power of their emotions. It ...

Vol. 1 (Comic series collection)'' (KaBOOM!, 2013) * ''The Summer is Ended and We are Not Yet Saved'' (ChiZine, 2013) * ''Let's Do Something Wrong'' ('' A Softer World'' book 4) (Topatoco, 2014) * ''We Are Become Pals'' (Topatoco, 2013) * ''Bravest Warriors Vol. 2 (Comic series collection)'' (KaBOOM!, 2014) * ''Bravest Warriors Vol. 3 (Comic series collection)'' (KaBOOM!, 2014) * ''Ninja-rella'' (Capstone Press, 2015) * ''Overqualified 2: Overqualifieder'' (ECW, 2015) * ''Anatomy of Melancholy'' ('' A Softer World'' Best-of collection) (Breadpig, 2016) * ''Ben Size Fazlayım (Turkish translation of Overqualified)'' (Tefrika Yayınları, 2016) * ''Lockpick Pornography (German translation)'' (Luftschacht Verlag, 2016) * ''Surqualifié. Lettres à des sociétés sans visage (French Translation of Overqualified)'' (Mémoire d'encrier, 2017) * ''Malagash'' (ECW, 2017) * ''Malagash (Chinese translation)'' (Bai Hua Zhou literature and Art Publishing House, 2018) * ''Überqualifiziert (German Edition of Overqualified)'' (Luftschacht Verlag, 2018) * ''Ask-Ninjan (Swedish translation of Ninjarella)'' (Hegas Förlag, 2020) * ''Ninja-cienta (Spanish translation of Ninjarella)'' (Aparicio Publishing, 2020) * ''Malagash (German translation)'' (Luftschacht Verlag, 2021)

References

External links

A Softer World
Comeau's webcomic, created with Emily Horne; also hosts some of Comeau's other work {{DEFAULTSORT:Comeau, Joey 1980 births 21st-century Canadian novelists Bisexual men Bisexual writers Canadian comics writers Canadian erotica writers Canadian male novelists Canadian webcomic creators LGBT comics creators Canadian LGBT novelists Living people Queer writers Writers from Edmonton 21st-century Canadian male writers