Dejects, a chronicle of a career’s rejected comics by Emmy award-winning cartoonist Jay Stephens, launched in Montreal last week, raised money and awareness for mental health.
Dejects is a crowdfunded, mature comic book from an artist otherwise known for his work as a writer-illustrator for Chickadee Magazine, OWL Magazine and as a cartoonist for Nickelodeon, as well as the creator of the two-time Emmy award-winning show, Tutenstein on Discovery Kids.
The Link profiles Jay Stephens on the release of his new book.
A comic in Dejects, “Twerp” is a rejected daily-newspaper pitch about a guy whose life is falling apart, and whose wife and kids hate him. He jokingly wondered where he got that idea. “It’s terrible that I thought anyone would be interested in this,” [Jay] said.
I know Jay from Oddville and Oh, Brother.
Broke and on the verge of a mental breakdown, he was drawing newspaper comics.
“My total take for the month was $750, that didn’t even cover my car,” said Stephens. “I also went through a divorce where the money kind of went away.”
In 2010, Stephens “retired” from drawing.
Over the years, many of [Jay’s] comics have been collected in several volumes: The Land of Nod Treasury, The Land of Nod Rockabye Book, Go Power!, Oddville, Jetcat Clubhouse… but what of those characters and pages and strips that didn’t fit in any collection? What became of the Dejects?
Dejects can be gotten from Black Eye Books.