Welcome to Corey Egbert, who introduces the road to publication for his new young adult graphic novel, Visitations (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2024). The blurb reads: “Inspired by true events, this haunting yet hopeful young adult graphic novel weaves together family dynamics, mental illness, and religion.” LDS theology and culture play key roles in the novel.
The idea of Visitations began in December of 2019. It was a bitter, New York winter. I was feeling the pressure of an illustration master’s program at Syracuse University while my wife and son were cooped up in a third-story apartment. I badly wanted to prove myself as an artist, but I didn’t know if I could even pass my classes.
Before Syracuse, I did graphic design at Southern Virginia University while taking odd illustration jobs on the side. I had some small successes with the Friend magazine and other LDS publications—enough to realize that illustration was my passion. Grad school seemed like the best path to that career.
But despite a scholarship and student loans, we couldn’t afford our monthly bills. I cold-emailed illustration agencies hoping to find work. To my elation, Nicole Tugeau of the T2 agency liked my portfolio. I signed with her at the end of that November, but she explained it would take a while to get regular work.
When a flare-up of agonizing jaw pain from anxiety left me feeling like my life was out of control, our bishop kindly set up a therapy appointment for me. Together the therapist and I dove into my past. I was beginning to come to terms with some of my childhood trauma.
On December 18th, I was in the library doing homework when I received an email from Nicole. With her permission, I’ve copied it below (and edited for relevance and clarity):
Dear Corey,
I have a question for you arising out of a meeting with Joy Peskin at Farrar, Strauss and Giroux (an imprint of Macmillan) who noticed your religious publications. She says she wants to collaborate on a graphic novel and wanted to know if your LDS religion is central to your life and would it play a part in your life story.
I could see snow falling in a field out of the library windows when I read it. I called my wife in excitement to share the news, then sent this response (again edited for clarity):
I am LDS (technically we’re supposed to say “member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” which is LONG haha) and it does play a big and complicated role in my life. I’m still a practicing member, but as a young teen, my mom used God to justify her abusive behavior and manipulate my sister and me with guilt and fear. After getting away from her, I struggled with faith and had to do a lot of searching, trying to differentiate my concept of God from my mother’s. I feel like I’m an open-minded person and for me, faith is a choice that I make every day and my church works for me, but I try to take truth from wherever I can feel it.
Later that day I heard back again:
I understand what a personal subject faith is so thank you for trusting me with your honest and straightforward notes. Joy would like to talk in January, so let’s use the time between now and then to sit with the idea.
I didn’t have to sit long to decide that the book was going to be about one particular time from my past: the month I lived in a car with my little sister and mom while she was suffering from undiagnosed schizophrenia. She led our family like a cult-leader, having visions of us being delivered from our dad like the Israelites were delivered from Egypt. In therapy, it was the thing I kept coming back to, the watershed moment of my life. The title Visitations came quickly too, combining the ideas of court-ordered parental visits and the appearance of a supernatural being.
I formed a fast connection with Joy during our first phone call. I sensed that she shared the same nuanced view of religion as me (she is from a Jewish background). I was also comforted that she had Latter-day Saint acquaintances who she didn’t think were weirdos. Our shared vision quickly gelled, and I signed the contract just as the Covid pandemic hit.
That spring, we left Syracuse and came back to Virginia. I was able to leap full-time into writing and illustrating thanks to the advance from Visitations. Reliving those moments in the car was harrowing, but it was also healing. Visitations was released on December 17, 2024, a day less than five years from that first email. It’s strange sharing such a personal experience with the world, but I think of it like pulling a tangled mess of threads out of my mental basement and weaving them into a tapestry that makes some sort of sense. I hope that turning my painful experience into art can give it meaning and help others.
Corey Egbert is an author and illustrator based in Virginia. He believes in creating imaginative and hopeful art that empowers young people to make their world better. He lives with his wife, son, and three cats in an old brick house in the Shenandoah Valley. Visitations is the second book that he both wrote and illustrated, after If Dinosaurs Could Talk for Me.
I love Visitations, and highly recommend it to all. I was struck by how emotionally rich it is, and charitable to all involved, despite their mistakes. And I am impressed that the publisher not only allowed, but encouraged a story in which the protagonist’s (and his family’s) religion/faith played such an important role in the story. While definitely a “nuanced look” at the way religious ideas can intertwine with mental illness, faith itself is presented in a refreshingly respectful way.
My friend Rachel Helps wrote in her review, “An excellent graphic novel memoir about the author’s experience with his mentally ill mother, which included some spiritual abuse (along the lines of telling the child to “pray for the right answer” while expecting a certain answer) . . . An interesting look at how religious upbringing and feelings of revelation can intertwine with abuse in pernicious sad ways.”
Corey, it is encouraging that your editor actually encouraged a story in which religion played such a key role. I think I remember Shannon Hale saying that some people in the industry encouraged her to tone down her references to religion in her autobiographical trilogy of graphic novels (the Real Friends series). Do you think you were just lucky with your editor, or are there any larger shifts in industry attitudes?
Thanks Andrew! I don’t know about industry trends, but I definitely was lucky with my editor Joy Peskin. Her bio says she’s “drawn to the things that make life complicated,” and like me, she has a fraught relationship with her mother involving mental illness (she’s written articles on the topic). So I kinda won the lottery with Joy and FSG. I think we need perspectives that allow for the messy reality of life, especially in this time of polarization. As an artist I want to integrate the diverse realities I straddle.
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Very excited to read this. Even more so now. Thanks for the intro, Corey! I thought your work on the 9-11 book was excellent and what turned me on to you.