Episode 34 with Writers and Illustrators Jorge and Megan Lacera,Creators of Zombies Don't Eat Veggies!

Show Notes and Links to Megan and Jorge Lacera’s Work

 

On Episode 34, Pete is honored to speak with talented writers and artists and creators, Megan and Jorge Lacera.

Artist Jorge Lacera was born in Colombia, and grew up in Miami, Florida drawing in sketchbooks, on napkins, on walls, and anywhere his parents would let him.

After graduating with honors from Ringling College of Art and Design, Jorge worked as a visual development and concept artist for major gaming studios and entertainment companies.

As a big fan of pop culture, comics, and zombie movies, Jorge rarely saw Latinx kids as the heroes or leads. He is committed to changing that, especially now that he has a son. 

Jorge is currently helping to create the next chapter in the Bioshock franchise as the Associate Art Director at Cloud Chamber Studios in Montreal, Quebec.                                                                                                                

Writer ​Megan Lacera grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, with a book always in her hands. She became a writer and creator of characters and worlds for entertainment companies like American Greetings, Hasbro, and Goldieblox and later formed her own creative company where she creates original content and consults on marketing, social media, and strategic direction for start-ups and large corporations.

After reading many stories to their son, Megan realized that very few books reflected a family like theirs--multicultural, bilingual, funny, and imperfect. She decided to change that by writing her own stories. 

 

 

Personal Website

Storyline Online Reading of Zombies Don’t Eat Veggies! By Jamie Camil

Storyline Online Reading of ¡Los Zombis no Comen Verduras! By Jamie Camil (en Español) 

Jorge talks about growing up with Spanish as his first language after moving from Barranquilla, Colombia, as a toddler, as well being a heavy reader of all books, and especially comic books as a kid; he also discusses solidifying his English reading abilities due to his older cousins’ influence on his reading material and how his parents joked that they had to tear books out of their print-curious young son’s hands-at around 3:00

 

Pete and Jorge bond over Batman: The Animated Series-at around 7:30

 

Jorge talks about going from children’s books and comic books to supernatural books to Star Wars and Animal Farm, which “blew [him] away”-at around 8:30

 

Jorge talks about Frank Miller and lines that provide him “chill at will”; and he does it off the top of his head!-at around 10:30

 

Megan talks about her childhood in Ohio and her love of reading sports books, particularly sports history-at around 11:40

 

Jorge talks about Gabriel García Márquez’s influence in his life-at around 15:30

 

Pete hopes to manifest the appearance of Marquez’s son, a writer himself, on a future podcast episode-at around 17:40

 

Jorge talks about his art-heavy education from middle school on-at around 18:00

 

Jorge talks about the intricacies of art education-fine art/illustration, storytelling etc.-at around 19:30

 

Jorge talks about the lack of representation in picture books and similar content as he was growing up-at about 21:40

 

Jorge talks about his college thesis and his conscious decision to create more diverse characters in response to the lack of diversity in so many areas of literature and pop culture-at about 24:00

 

Megan talks about writers and writing that have given her “chills at will”-at around 24:50

 

They begin to discuss their children’s book, Zombies Don’t Eat Veggies!, and its background in the shared job that Jorge and Megan had and their desire to create more inclusive stories-at around 27:05

 

Jorge and Megan talk about their desire to create fun and silly multicultural/bilingual books for children-at around 29:20

 

Megan talks about the increased appeal of zombies in recent years and the impetus for creating a book about zombies and as a vessel for a lot of topics they had wanted to include-at around 30:00 

 

Megan and Jorge talk about their separate and shared duties as writers/illustrators-at around 32:00

 

Jorge talks about the pitching process for the book-at around 32:40

 

Jorge and Megan discuss the thought process of writing the book using Spanglish-at around 33:30

 

Jorge talks about the “balancing act” between commerce and art and the seeking out of the proper audiences, and Megan talks about the importance of creating interesting content-at around 36:50

 

Jorge talks about the vegetarianism theme of the book and the dining habits of young children-at around 40:22

 

Jorge discusses the themes of the book and how to avoid bringing these themes in a heavy-handed manner; he discusses the importance of “authenticity”-at around 44:15

 

Jorge discusses the structure of the book and Pete, as a reader, affirms the power of the cliffhanger set up by Jorge and Megan-at around 46:20

 

Jorge and Megan read from Zombies Don’t Eat Veggies!-at around 47:30

 

Jorge and Megan shout some smaller bookstores from which the book can be bought: Book Shop, Drawn and Quarterly in Montreal, Lee and Low Publishing, Blue Willow Books in Houston, Mrs. Dalloway’s in Berkeley--at around 50:35

 

Megan and Jorge talk about the first time seeing their finished, published book-at around 51:50

 

Jorge and Megan talk about Storyline Online and how Jamie Camil got involved-at around 53:35

 

Jorge and Megan talk about balancing life and writing and how they complement each other-at around 58:00

 

Jorge and Megan talk about their The Wild Ones book, set to be published in 2022, as well as themes/ideas therein-at around 1:02:30

 

Pete and Jorge and Megan talk -at around 1:06:50