Episode 514 – Jim Ottaviani

Virtual Memories Show 514:<br /> Jim Ottaviani “He was a terrible husband and a terrible father. And maybe only a so-so friend to most people. At the same time, he did fundamentally change the way we look at the universe.” Writer Jim Ottaviani rejoins the show to celebrate his new graphic biography, EINSTEIN (First Second)! We get into his collaboration with artist Jerel Dye & colorist Alison Acton on telling Einstein’s story, the chutzpah involved in tackling the bio of the man whose name is a synonym for genius, and how he kept from falling into the rabbit hole of Too Much Research. We talk about how Jim used Einstein’s major theories as a way of exploring the man and his times (and why this book is more of a story than a biography), the way 20th century popular culture latched on to Einstein, how he contrasts with some of the other biographical subjects Jim has tackled, and the mystery of what happened to Einstein’s first child. We also discuss the process of working with a new artist, the writing hints that come from the subconscious, the physics teacher who helped him explain the trickier theories in the book, whether the pandemic-era anti-science movement has made Jim doubt his work or has him doubling down on it, and (of course) our running stories. Give it a listen! And go read EINSTEIN! (And go listen to our 2016 and 2020 conversations) “With all the science and all the work that I’ve done, I felt it was much more important to get across to the reader what it felt like to encounter Einstein, and what the broad strokes of the theories meant for the person who discovered them and for the rest of the world.” “In the opening letter that accompanies my scripts to artists, I write, ‘You’re going to see panels that have descriptions that are three paragraphs long, and there might be two useful words for you in those paragraphs, and that’s fine.'” APPLE PLAYER TK “There are a finite number of pages, and the artist has a finite amount of time (and muscle strength