This is a very special episode for me personally, as someone who has a very close relationship with every animal in their life. Sina Grace has written a comic working through his own grief and love for his pet, which is currently running on Kickstarter. Support it here. When I saw the campaign, I texted Sina to set something up as soon as possible, because the grief of losing a pet isn't something we often discuss enough as adults. It's as if that pain is supposed to stop once you aren't a kid and lose a pet. Given the weight of this conversation, I was joined by a very special co-host who took it upon herself to co-host with me. Please welcome Kori for the second half of the interview. I have included the video of the interview so you can see her as she requested. Excuse the mess her canine sisters make of my office.
I was very lucky to get to have a less structured discussion with Sina about this project, as we planned it in under a few hours. It allowed both of us to be more raw than we may have been otherwise. There are some tears on both sides as we discuss animals. If you can support this project, I suggest checking out the Kickstarter. Personally, I believe Sina has a special way to show emotion in his art in a comical but stark fashion. This is no exception with some of the previews I will show below from the official Kickstarter below along with the project's description in Sina's own words.
"All my life, I grew up wanting a dog. When I was in my mid-20s, that dream came true with Henry. He was a sweet chihuahua terrier who went everywhere with me. My floppy-eared companion fit perfectly in my life, and made me a more responsible person every day.
It was only natural that, when I lost him in 2023 after a dreadful fight with lymphoma, I turned to art to process my grief. I didn’t know what else to do with my feelings. Thinking that I couldn’t be the only one struggling to move on from a pet’s death, I poured those emotions onto the page to tell a story that I hoped could heal others. From my own experience, I knew there wasn’t a book on the stands that did what mine was doing: talking about a legitimate and very specific kind of grief that every person goes through when they make the decision to bring a pet home. In the span of putting Henry down, there were at least seven friends I had to walk through the experience of pet grief with, and thought: “Wow, I wish I could give them a book on everything so they wouldn’t feel so alone.”
However, when I submitted this book to publishers, I kept hearing the same story. “This is beautiful, I’m crying, it’s not a fit for us…” Every publisher I sent the book to gave me the kindest rejections I’ve ever experienced in my fifteen years as a published author, but I couldn’t help but think of the friends who, like me, had no template for this kind of grief.
While these setbacks caused me to literally put the project on pause, I knew I had to tell mine (and Henry’s) story even if a marketing department could not see the vision. This is a very special project, and my hope is that a Kickstarter will allow me to deliver it to the readers who need it most.
If ever I had to put something completely personal on the line knowing that it boiled down to an individual’s relationship to the art, it’s Life on Paws. I’m no stranger to the Kickstarter community, so I’ve built modest goals with rewards that make the book as great and memorable as it can be. I’ve always had a strong vision for the final product: a square-bound volume that is sized to gift to loved ones in need. At the end of the day, the goal with Life on Paws is to heal people and celebrate how great it was to have a pet, and give a story to the people who need to move forward after losing their soul animal.
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