Hey, everyone. If it's cool with you, I'm just going to draw for a little bit.
嗨,大家好。 很高興見到大家,我現在只是要稍微畫一下圖。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Story has always helped me understand the human experience. Growing up, I took solace in the books that I would read, and those book characters that I met offered me friendship. Characters like Ralph S. Mouse from Beverly Cleary's "The Mouse and the Motorcycle." Snoopy, Garfield. They offered me companionship as I dealt with the trauma of my mother's lifelong struggle with an opioid addiction, the fact that I didn’t know who or where my birth father was.
故事總能夠幫助我去了解人們的經驗。 當我長大之後, 我能夠從我讀的書籍中得到慰藉, 而書中所遇到的角色, 成為了我的朋友。 那些角色像是:老鼠拉爾夫 來自貝弗利·克萊里的兒童小說「老鼠和摩托車」。 還有史努比、加菲貓。 當我面對我的心理創傷時, 他們總是陪在我的身邊, 我的母親終生都在與藥物成癮奮鬥、 還有事實上我不知道我的生父是誰 而他又在哪裡。
Story has also helped me understand my family's history. My grandfather, who raised me, would hold court in the living room, regaling me with stories of life during the Great Depression. And telling me all about his parents who had emigrated from Poland. Now, my great grandparents died many years before I was ever born. But through these stories that were shared in our home I always felt like I knew them.
故事也幫助我更了解我家族的歷史。 我的祖父, 他養育我成長, 在大蕭條時期, 他會坐在客廳吸引我的注意, 用一些生活故事逗我開心。 告訴我有關他的父母的事情, 比如他們是從波蘭移民過來的。 我的曾祖父母遠在我出生之前就過世了, 但透過這些分享給我的故事, 在我們的家, 我一直覺得我認識他們。
Now creating my own stories, that offered me an escape portal. You see, it was a home that was filled with so much dysfunction. My grandparents drank a lot. There was a lot of yelling, a lot of chaos, and I controlled none of it. From the pages of my comics, I was the one calling the shots. Creating my own worlds, creating my own characters. Sharing them with my friends and family members. I thrived off that creativity.
現在創造我自己的故事, 為我提供了一個逃生門。 你可以看出, 這是一個充滿了功能障礙的家。 我的祖父母酗酒, 家裡總是有很多吼叫, 很多混亂, 而我完全無法控制。 但在我的漫畫中, 我能夠掌控一切。 創造我自己的世界, 創造屬於我自己的角色, 和我的朋友和家人分享, 讓我從創作中茁壯成長。
Now my mother was an incredibly talented artist. And even though she spent a majority of my childhood incarcerated, she spent her time drawing cartoons and mailing them to me. And these cartoons that arrived from prison from my mom, it was her way of, you know, it was her way of letting me know that she loved me and letting me know just what I was capable of.
現在我的母親是一個非常有才華的藝術家。 即便她在我童年大部分的期間都被監禁, 但她還是會花時間畫一些卡通 然後寄給我。 我媽媽從監獄里送來的這些卡通插畫, 我知道這是她的方式,你知道的, 是她讓我知道他愛我的方式, 並讓我知道我的能力。
Now bearing witness to the stories of others helped me put life into perspective. When I was a teenager, I volunteered at a camp for children with cancer. And I spent several summers after that working there as well. And of all the kids I met over the years, the kid that sticks out the most in my memory is Eric. Eric was the very first kid that I was charged to care for. I was 16 years old. He was four and had recently been diagnosed with leukemia. Now ... Despite his thinning hair, despite the shunt in his chest, this boy wielded a Power Rangers sword and went after life with so much energy and an ear-to-ear grin. Now, in my years of working with kids with critical illnesses at camp, I was often lauded, but that just always felt unnecessary and backwards, because it just felt like such a selfish endeavor. I was given a front-row seat to some of the most remarkable stories in human history. Eric died shortly before his sixth birthday. Twenty-five years ago. You know, there isn't a day that I don't think about him, there isn't a day that I don't think what he meant to me or what he was able to do with his short life. And I do remain in touch with his family. When I visit his grave site, I don't bring flowers. I bring a Power Rangers action figure.
現在,見證他人的故事 幫助我正確看待生活。 當我還是青少年的時候, 我在一個為患有癌症的兒童 設立的營地做志願者。 在那之後,我也在那個營地 持續工作了幾個夏天。 這些年來,在我遇到的所有孩子中, 最讓我印象深刻的是艾瑞克。 艾瑞克是我負責照顧的第一個孩子, 我當時才十六歲, 他才四歲, 而且最近被診斷出有白血病。 現在, 儘管他頭髮稀疏, 儘管他胸前有分流導管, 這個小男孩還是揮舞著金剛戰士的光劍, 帶著許多的能量 還有燦爛的笑容去追求生活。 現在,與患有嚴重疾病的孩子們工作的這幾年, 我經常受到稱讚, 但這只會讓我覺得不必要且倒退, 因為會讓人感覺這是種自私的努力。 我之所以能夠坐在前排, 是因為人類歷史中一些最傑出的故事。 艾瑞克 在他的六歲生日前不久過世。 至今已經過了二十五年。 我沒有一天不想到他, 我每天都在想他對我有多重要, 以及他本來能在他短暫的生命中獲得什麼體驗。 我仍然與他的家人保持聯繫。 當我去拜訪他的墓園時, 我沒有帶上花束, 我帶了金剛戰士的光劍圖。
I've recently completed a graphic memoir recounting my time working at camp. And working with this population. And that time with Eric. Now, creating a graphic memoir is a daunting experience. There is, of course, the physical labor of a book that is hundreds of pages long. That has multiple panels of art on every single page. But it's the emotional toll that is the most difficult to deal with. I'm face-to-face with these loved ones that I've missed. I'm in that room again and often for the first time dealing with stuff I had never dealt with at the time. Now I went into this process knowing full well how intense this experience would be. I'd previously created a graphic memoir called "Hey, Kiddo," about my own childhood and my mother's addictions. So I know what you're all thinking. Books for kids about a parent with heroin addiction, pediatric cancer. And yes, I'm just chasing all of the hot trends in children's literature.
我最近完成了一本圖像小說, 講述了我在營地工作的期間, 包含與這群志工一起工作, 還有與艾瑞克相處的時間。 創造一本圖像小說是一個讓人氣餒的過程, 那就是,對一本書付出的體力勞動, 總共有一百多頁要畫。 每一頁都有多個藝術面板。 但最難處理的是情感上的損失。 我面對這些我想念的人們, 我又回到了那個房間, 而且我第一次, 去處理那些我當時沒處理的事情。 現在我進入了這個過程, 我知道 這個經驗會有多強烈。 我之前也有創作過一本圖像小說, 叫做《嗨,孩子。》 這本書關於我個人的童年經驗, 還有我母親對藥物的成癮。 我知道你們在想什麼。 給小孩看有關父母對海洛因成癮的書? 小兒癌症。 對,我只是在跟上兒童文學的熱門趨勢。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
But when I was working on "Hey, Kiddo," even though the most important people in my life had since passed -- my grandfather, my mother -- production on that book brought me closer to them. And the same now has happened with Eric via "Sunshine."
但當我在進行《嗨,孩子。》的創作時, 即使我生命中最重要的人已經過世了, 我的祖父、我的母親—— 在這本書製作的過程中, 又讓我更靠近他們。 而現在也發生了同樣的事情 與艾瑞克 透過《陽光》這本書。
We all have loss in our lives, and we all have pain in our life, and that can be so incredibly difficult. And I know all too well that ... No matter how much I talk about these people, no matter how much I write about them, no matter how much I draw them, there is nothing that I'm going to do that's going to bring them back to this Earth. I miss them. But I take solace in knowing that their stories are being shared and that they are being remembered, because my grandfather was right. Stories keep people alive and real to us.
我們都面臨過失落的時刻, 我們也會在人生中經歷痛苦, 而這可能會非常的艱難。 我非常清楚, 不管我說了多少關於這些人們的事, 或者我寫下了多少關於他們的故事, 不管我畫了多少關於他們的圖象, 我仍然什麼也做不了, 我無法讓他們回到這個星球。 我想念他們。 但我感到很欣慰, 我知道他們的故事會繼續流傳下去, 我知道他們會被永遠記得, 因為我的祖父說的對, 故事讓那些人們永遠在我們心中真實的活著。
Thank you.
謝謝大家。
(Applause)
(掌聲)