Em here! I called Dan this morning to tell him how nervous I was about this episode because we attempt to tackle so much in this short 30 minutes. We move from the idea of having a creative process to applying that process toward writing about identity to the use of identity as a pathway to creative genuineness... and all of the ways that telling a "genuine story" has shown up as a guiding light through Dan's career with SLG. Dan has a personal credo on the value of making art that one NEEDS to make as opposed to making stuff you want to make or think you should make, and that serves as a major undertone for a lot of these early episodes.

One big piece of SLG History you'll hear us referencing is Jhonen Vasquez's Johnny the Homocidal Maniac, which attracted a fair bit of attention when Dan was publishing it in the 90s. (Or so I've been told -- I was a baby at the time so my knowledge of alternative comics was somewhat limited.) I'll add that to the links below if you want to check it out.

BTW -- we have an instagram: @unexpectedmentorpod where I post little video clips of our favorite episodes bits.

Also check out The Unexpected Mentor Patreon. We're putting together a little list of nice things we can do for patrons, so if there's something you want to see or have (t-shirts, full uncut episodes, live recordings, etc) let us know on Insta.

Other links:

• The Unexpected Mentor official website
• The Art Boutiki official website
• Me on Instagram: @indie.sweetheart.emily
• The Art Boutiki's Instagram: @artboutiki
• Mentioned in this episode: Johnny the Homocidal Maniac

Okay thanks see you again soon :)