by Alex Wells
John Mejias is a quiet legend of the underground comics scene—his Pa-Ping was one of the longest-running, beautiful, and funniest zines in any punk house zine library and his Puerto Rican War has recently garnered attention from no less than New York’s Museum of Modern Art. We caught up with John as he was on the verge of publishing a major new project…
Puerto Rican War was the first of your zines to break through but some readers will know you from the DIY punk zine days, can you lay that history out for us?
I grew up with DIY punk. As I was going to art school in the 90s, I regularly created a zine (Paping). It was a personal zine that I would sell and trade wherever I could. As time went on, it became my favorite art endeavor until it took over my life.
Why do you think the Puerto Rican War zine made a bigger splash than usual?
The Puerto Rican War (as very few folks call it) is a fascinating and important piece of history that not many people are aware of. An attempted revolution, and attempted presidential assassination during a time when the Puerto Rican flag was literally illegal. I’ve had countless people read my book and tell me it was their first time learning about this. Additionally, the book is all woodcut pages that took me six years to carve. I think some folks are just interested in that feat.
You’ve done a number of puppet shows in a variety of venues, can you talk about the impetus behind that? Does the puppet show allow you to reach a different audience?
I grew up also loving the muppets. Like comics, it’s a creative, problem solving approach to story telling. When I wanted to promote the Puerto Rican War book, I assumed nobody would want to see a book event that was just me talking/showing slides. I made the puppet show as a tool to promote the book. I also just love puppet shows built for grown ups. There aren’t really venues that just exist for puppet performances so the other challenge is finding a welcoming space. A few art galleries, libraries, bookstores, public gardens have taken it on. Sometimes the indie comics scene can be a bit too exclusive so it’s nice to reach out in different ways.
You’re working on something about Lolita Lebrón, can you tell me about what was inspiring about her?
For the last four years, I’ve been working on the life of Lolita Lebrón. She was a woman disgusted with the way Puerto Ricans were treated. In 1954 she led an attack on Congress. I wanted to take a deeper dive into her motivations, the world around her and her absolute bravery. I also wanted to continue to figure out how to create a woodcut novelette.
You are known in the small press world for your long-running zine about being a public school teacher—an unusual subject for a punk zine—what was the animating idea there?
When I used to make comics about being a public school art teacher, my impetus was the same as the PR War. It was something that folks just didn’t understand. Poor people get ripped off at public school. Punk isn’t just loud guitars, drums and yelling. It’s a diy way of questioning things and taking things into your own hands.
Who are the artists who influenced you? Your style seems influenced by classic expressionist woodcuts—are you into that work?
I have a romance with South American tradition of printmaking especially Posada. I also love the raw angular approach of German expressionism (Otto Dix, Max Beckman). My narrative hero’s range from Jack Kirby to Lynd Ward. Plus I love the designs on old olive oil cans.
I hear you’re in a hardcore band—have you been doing music all along? Do these kinds of creativity overlap?
As a person who spends most of his life hunched over a table drawing/carving in silence alone, being in a band performing and creating music is incredibly important to me. It’s a really special thing to create a song with friends. It’s also incredibly cathartic. I’ve tried lots of different bands over the years. With my current band False Starts, I think we’re just writing a love letter to our record collections. Which happens to be punk rock.
Do you have any other projects I haven’t mentioned? What’s next?
April 2025 I’ll be in an anthology book published by the Museum of Modern Art. My book about Lolita Lebrón will be finished this week.
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John’s Instagram is @john_vasquez_mejias
Images: Courtesy of Artist