DF Interview: Ravi Teixeira has readers facing our own demons in the ‘Heaven, West Virginia’ OGN

By Byron Brewer

Lamont's father was not a good man. And now Lamont's father is dead.

When Lamont arrives in the tiny Appalachian town of Heaven, West Virginia, its lush landscape feels stubbornly at odds with the roiling anxiety that's come to define his inner life. Living there and learning the art of foraging and tea-making from his kind, stoic aunt LaToya should be idyllic — even a paradise. But in the shadows of Heaven's woods, Lamont sees a dark, hulking figure, long, glimmering teeth, and piercing red eyes. No one else seems to see this beast . . . not his aunt, and not the handsome cowboy, Coyote, whose gentle voice evokes the comforting, electric aroma of LaToya's brews. Escaping its voraciously hungry pursuit feels impossible, and Lamont will have to face more than the darkness of the woods to do so.

From Oni Press comes Heaven, West Virginia, a story for anyone struggling with both inner and outer demons. An original graphic novel from cartoonist Ravi Teixeria (A Quick & Easy Guide to Coming Out), Heaven, West Virginia is a powerful and compelling tale that deals with the fallout from tragedy, and the sometimes-terrifying journey to healing.

I had an opportunity to discuss the OGN with Ravi. This is what they told me.   

Byron Brewer: Ravi, you have said that your coming original graphic novel Heaven, West Virginia is a personal book to you, and may surprisingly be a personal book to many readers. Tell us the genesis of the OGN and how it may connect to your own story.

Ravi Teixeria: Yeah! When I first started plotting out this story, believe it or not, it wasn’t a horror story! It was a cute story about moving to West Virginia, where everything is perfect and green and nothing bad ever happens. It was a fine story, but it wasn’t real at all. I think we as readers like these stories where queer people face no stakes or danger because in real life, being queer IS dangerous. There ARE real stakes. Especially now. And so we like the escapism of happy, sometimes boring, stories of queer people just being okay. And those stories absolutely have value, but I think to ignore the very real stakes of being queer in today’s world is to ignore the reality of being queer. Being queer is beautiful and powerful and amazing BECAUSE everyone is against you, not despite it. So I got on the line with my editor, Shannon, who is the most awesome supportive editor ever, and I just sorta had a breakdown. I didn’t want to tell a story where everything was easy and nothing mattered. I wanted Lamont, my main boy, to suffer as I had, at the hands of both societal pressure and his own father, not because he deserved it or I’m a mean author or whatever, but because in his suffering, he became understandable. He became human. And his story became real, too.

Byron: Talk a bit about the canvas we will be visiting, the small Appalachian town of Heaven. Its location type is not unknown to me since I live in central Kentucky and have visited what is considered Appalachia many times in my life. Describe this lush wooded “world” which seems almost a character in its own right here.

Ravi Teixeria: The very beginning of planning Heaven, West Virginia, before all the connections to my own life and my own trauma, started with a visit to West Virginia itself. I’m from Massachusetts originally, and everything there is fairly close together, at least where I grew up. There isn’t this “wide open space” or “big sky” that we associate with cowboys and their kind of freedom. But then, during lockdown, I travelled, as safely as one could, to West Virginia, to meet a friend I had met online that I felt very strongly that I was in love with. This is going to sound silly, but being in love in West Virginia is the most incredible thing. The sky there is so huge, and that makes sunsets huge, and in the passenger’s seat of his car, watching the trees float by and the rolling hills and mountains that seemed to go on forever and ever, I was so sure that West Virginia, with this random dude I had nothing in common with, was where I belonged. I think anyone could feel a sense of belonging in a place like that, and when this guy broke my heart and sent me back to Boston, and clarity hit, I wanted other people to see West Virginia as I saw it: this beautiful world where anyone could fall in love, this holy land where politics and religion and sickness and my very own father all fell away, and all that mattered was the woods and the hills and being in love.

Byron: Introduce readers to Lamont. Who were they, who are they now that they have arrived in Heaven, and what was the relationship between Lamont and their late father? Can you discuss the father’s death?

Ravi Teixeria: My friends and I jokingly refer to Lamont as “the worst to ever do it”, by which we mean he’s got some really deep daddy issues and mixed boy blues. He’s Cape Verdean and white, like I am, with a white father and a Cape Verdean mother. His sense of identity, for the longest time, was based around his father– what Lamont Sr. thought of him, his approval, and Lamont Sr.’s own identity. Junior, as he was called, was hardly even Lamont at all until Senior died. And now, where the story begins, he has the enormous job of figuring out who LAMONT is, without his dad’s shadow to hide in. So there’s grief there, sure, but larger than the grief is this identity crisis, that I think so many queer people– or really anyone that's ever lost a parent– can relate to.

Byron: Would you mind spotlighting Lamont’s Aunt LaToya and also handsome cowboy Coyote. Can you talk about the relationships Lamont has with each?

Ravi Teixeria: So Aunt LaToya is Lamont’s mother’s aunt. Technically a great aunt, but that’s just an auntie to me! She’s really cool, this elderly stud– a butch lesbian– who runs her own business out of her farm and has lived by herself for like 40 years. Lamont moves in with her after Senior dies because he’s running away from his grief, right? He could have moved in with mom, or friends, or anyone in the city he’s from, but he needed to get away, and there’s LaToya right where he needed her. Their connection is very much queer mentor and queer mentee. LaToya is the queer “mother” we all need.

Coyote on the other hand… he’s the direct opposite of Lamont. Grew up in the woods. Definitely non-binary, if he had the words for that. Stick and poke tattoos. Unkempt scraggly facial hair and sun-bleached mullet. Not a care in the damn world. He represents a person completely free, and I think in being into him, Lamont is also a little jealous of him. Hell, I’m a little jealous of him! Here’s Lamont, struggling so much with who he is and what he wants, and then there’s Coyote, who has never had to wonder. To Lamont, he’s kind of an unattainable goal, but he’s also just a nice guy, and hot. The whole package, but also kind of like if a cigarette were a walking talking person.

Byron: Not to have spoilers, but is there anything you can tell us at all about the giant menacing entity with red eyes that Lamont has seen in the woods? Any clue at all? (I’m afraid a “read the book” response is coming, LOL!)

Ravi Teixeria: A “read the book” response is absolutely coming! I can’t give away the entire story, but I will say one thing… The beast is more about Lamont himself and what he is going through internally than about the woods. A person can be a haunted house too.

Byron: A sound answer without the phrase “read the book”. Well handled. … Ravi, for you as a creator – an artist and a writer – do you find it easier to produce works reflective of you by creating solo, or do you enjoy collaborative efforts as well?

Ravi Teixeria: I definitely enjoy both! I find that I can get closer to the work while working solo, but for books like A Quick & Easy Guide to Coming Out, which “came out” (hyuck hyuck) last Fall, I really enjoyed working with writer Kristin Russo. We really clicked, and that connection made the book stronger as a result. I think it largely depends on the story I want to tell, which of course is kind of a non-answer. The great thing about comics is that you get to be as collaborative or as solo as you want, and either way you’re going to make some great art.

Byron: We all relate to books in different ways because we become participants in the experience through its characters. As Heaven, West Virginia’s artist and scribe, what message(s) would you like readers to take away from this OGN? Or is that for each reader to say for themselves?

Ravi Teixeria: I think regardless of what message I want to deliver to my readers, they’re always going to say for themselves, and that’s a good thing. The best thing about stories is that they mean something different for everyone, and those differences all connect us. That all being said, as an author I think I have the responsibility to do something good, and I hope at the very least my readers can learn from Heaven, West Virginia that the things society might deem degenerate or disgusting are actually beautiful. Queerness, and the connections that queer people find in each other, whether that be platonic or romantic or just sexual, is beautiful, and healing. Sex itself is healing! And an overall good thing. Sexual expression is a good thing, and if the powers that be tell you it isn’t… that’s a pretty good hint that those powers are wrong. Whether the powers are religion, or a particular government entity, or just your horrible dad.

Byron: Ravi, what else can you tell readers about upcoming projects from you?

Ravi Teixeria: That’s a great question! I have some comics upcoming with Oh Joy Sex Toy and Crucial Comics, and I’m in the next Power and Magic anthology and the next issue of Black Apple, as well as some other really cool stuff I can’t quite talk about yet. If you’re local to Ontario, I run around the convention circuit there too! Mostly, though, you can follow my writing and art and whatever other silly stuff I’m posting on bluesky @raviteixeira and instagram @fruity.hag

Dynamic Forces would like to thank Ravi Teixeira for taking time out of their busy schedule to answer our questions. The Heaven, West Virginia OGN from Oni Press is slated to be on sale November 11!

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