In Mattie Lubchansky’s New Graphic Novel, ‘Boys Weekend,’ Forced Bro Bonding Is the Ultimate Horror Scenario

When I meet author Mattie Lubchansky for quesadillas and cold-brew horchatas at Los Angeles’s beloved Guisados, it doesn’t take long for us to start comparing tattoos (or as I like to call it, “the queer handshake”). Lubchansky shows me a freshly inked one on their arm in the shape of a horseshoe, which is all too fitting: The protagonist of their new graphic novel, Boys Weekend—Sammie, a newly out transfemme artist’s assistant who takes a not entirely relished trip back to the Land of Bro Bonding for their best guy friend’s bachelor party—has the last name Kowalski, which means “blacksmith” in Polish.

Boys Weekend is a book about gender, to be sure, but it’s also about friendship, community, compassion, capitalism, cults, and ritual dismemberment (yes, you read that right). Watching Sammie move through a cishet-male world that never really served them is painful at times, but Lubchansky’s razor-sharp satire, eerie sci-fi sensibility, and distinctive illustration style make Boys Weekend the perfect mix of darkness and light. I spoke with them about coming out of what they called their “little hole” of writing to go on a book tour, building a full and rewarding life in fiction and IRL, and writing the kind of character that might have made them feel seen decades ago.

Vogue: First off, how has your book tour been? 

Mattie Lubchansky: It’s been going great. Cartooning is weird because it’s so solitary and so much of it is auteur-ish—although I hate to use that word—especially in the tradition of cartooning I come from, where one person just does everything. It’s just sort of like, Well, I go in my little hole and make the book. My editor was great, but besides getting her notes, which happened earlier on at the scripting stage, I’m just getting up and doing my little pages every day.

Do you have a page count you try to hit per day or some other organizing system for writing? 

I’ve got a spreadsheet that is basically my boss. I made it, and it’s automated, so it’s sort of like I built an AI boss for myself.

It’s hard watching Sammie in this world of cishet bros where they don’t really fit in, but something I loved was seeing them talk to their friends and partner back home and be reminded of the new life they’ve built for themselves. Were you tempted to make that even more of the book?