That’s me on the right, on a hike with my wonderful wife, Michele, my chief graphic novel enabler. Photo by Tara Frederick
I am thrilled to meet you and grateful you’ve subscribed to the Flat Donkey newsletter.
My name is George Frederick. I am the owner and author of Flat Donkey. I live in New Jersey with my wife, Michele, and we are the proud parents of two wonderful daughters, Shannon and Tara.
My love for comics started when I was an elementary school kid in the 1970s. About once a week, I’d ride my yellow 10-speed Schwinn bike a mile to a 7-Eleven convenience store in Brick Township, New Jersey, and pore over its squeaky rotating rack of comic books. I’d use my newspaper route money to buy a Slurpee—usually cherry or grape—and one book—usually a superhero or horror title. Sometimes an Archie comic or other lighter fare. I’d enjoy my Slurpee and new comic while sitting on the curb outside the store. Then I’d pedal home, fighting bravely through severe sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia (Slurpee brain freeze), and add my new comic book to a shoebox trove in my closet.
Then I grew. I went to art school, became an adult, got married, had children, and built a career largely in journalism and publishing. Over the years, I worked as an illustrator, designer, writer, editor, art director, front-end engineer, and eventually became a design leader with impressive-sounding titles.
The demands of adulthood mounted, and so did the distance between me and comics. Decades passed without me looking at one. A cadre of colleagues at a former job dropped everything on Thursdays and “went to the shop”—a local comic book store. I did not. Although I was curious, I no longer spoke the language or understood the backstories and multiverses that had taken shape. Re-entry felt daunting.
One night in 2015, frayed and exhausted from yet another blistering stretch at work, I wandered into a big-chain bookstore. I don’t know what I was looking for—inspiration? Relief? Distraction? I veered down the graphic novel aisle (cue the timpani and crashing cymbals).
It was a jaw-dropping new world, light-years from that wire rack at 7-Eleven. Shelves burst with a dizzying array of colors and titles. There were costumed heroes, of course, but also an unfamiliar world beyond them. The diversity was astounding: hardcover books and collected editions from publishers I didn’t know; subject matter ranging from brutally challenging to chuckle-in-the-aisle funny; complex, inclusive characters; windows into cultures from around the world; inventive visual storytelling; and a wild range of artistic styles. All of it was sectioned into genres and age ranges, from adult to YA (young adult), by booksellers who’d figured it all out while I wasn’t paying attention.
I brought home a collected edition of a new comic series called Harrow County, by writer Cullen Bunn and artist Tyler Crook, whose gorgeous lines and watercolors lured me in. More than 1,000 books and many bookshelves later, I started this newsletter.
What about the Flat Donkey name, you ask? That’s another story.
I look forward to bonding with you over some outstanding graphic novels. I’ll probably be sunk into my comfy chair (good for my soul but awful for my back) with my coffee on the windowsill. I’ll talk to you soon.
