Skip to Content
Talkhouse home
Talkhouse home
Film

An Exclusive Comic From My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea’s Writer-Director Dash Shaw

The day before his debut directorial feature comes out, Shaw shares a cine-centric comic from his latest book, Cosplayers: Perfect Collection.

6:00 AM EDT on April 13, 2017

While drawing My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea, I did a series of pamphlet comics titled Cosplayers. The character Verti appears in both stories, partly inspired by how Osamu Tezuka would use the same character designs across different comics. The Cosplayers stories are little allegories about how people relate to and use popular culture. This short story is about being excited to see a blockbuster movie, being disappointed by it, but still holding out hope that the next blockbuster will be good-- something we all can relate to! My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea is my dream blockbuster movie: an explosive, disaster art film. A collection of Cosplayers short stories appear in the book Cosplayers: Perfect Collection (Fantagraphics), the "perfect collection" a reference to anime box sets. Thanks for reading, and thanks, Talkhouse, for hosting this online.

Related Stories

Stories of Beauty and Strength

Native actress and producer Cara Jade Myers on her deeply personal connection to her new film How We Stand, which is currently playing festivals.

October 15, 2026

Three Great Things: Garth Jennings

The director of the new concert film Pulp: What Do You Do For An Encore? on the joys of classic Lubitsch, his sons and unbridled enthusiasm.

October 14, 2026

Nobody’s Ever Asked Me That: Kathryn Grody

The actress and writer, whose one-woman show The Unexpected 3rd is starting a new run, returns to the podcast for another highly engaging chat.

Three Great Things: Hiam Abbass

The hugely acclaimed Palestinian actress, who is currently starring in the war drama Atonement, picks a trio of personal favorites.

October 9, 2026

The Camera is a Womb

Model turned filmmaker Sophia Dunn-Walker challenges the idea of the male gaze, explaining the lens through which she sees the world.

October 8, 2026

Two Halves of a Chalky White Pill

Writer-director Chris Merola, whose debut feature Lemonade Blessing is out now, on life and filmmaking on Lexapro.

October 7, 2026