Visions from WANDA JOHN-KEHEWIN and NICOLE MARIE BURTON adorn the pages of DREAM
- Andrew Irvin
- 3 minutes ago
- 15 min read
COMIC BOOK YETI: Wanda and Nicole, welcome to the Yeti Cave, and Happy New Year! What are you glad is behind you in 2025, and what are you looking forward to in 2026?
WANDA JOHN-KEHEWIN: What I am looking forward to in 2026 is the opportunities to continue to write which is what I love doing. I also look forward to completing volume 3 of the Dream series.
NICOLE MARIE BURTON: Thanks for having us! 2025 was such a busy year; I finished four short comic booklets, penciled a new graphic novel, and finished one of three informational posters in a series… I'm always happy to look back in December at all of the work I've done and just give myself the space to feel a sense of accomplishment. There are always things to do; it’s important to notice when things are done.
CBY: Turning the calendar page provides a good opportunity to break things down and sum things up. Now, before we get into things too deeply, I should note both your new volume of Dreams, Visions from the Fire and your previous release, Visions of the Crow, deal with sensitive subject matter, so if our audience is prepared for a serious conversation about challenging topics (including self-harm, forced separation, and various settler-colonial transgressions), this serves as a warning for those reading along. Wanda, you offered an afterword around why you began writing this story, but what steps led toward your collaboration on a graphic novel release with HighWater Press?
WJK: Thanks for saying that and for offering the content warning. These are definitely difficult topics, and I really appreciate the care that goes into creating a space where we can talk about them honestly. Visions from the Fire started as a very personal writing project from the beginning. My goal has always been to create content that could potentially help others struggling with the same issues in life. As a child, I never saw myself in books. My experiences of growing up on the reserve and living with the effects of colonialism like the issues that Damon and Marcus deal with were some of the things I saw growing up. Of course, some of those experiences have to be toned down for the reader, because as a writer, I also have a responsibility to take care of my readers. In my own life, my mother died of cirrhosis of the liver and was never able to quit drinking. Her sister and their mother, my grandmother also died of cirrhosis. Yes, these stories are true and I could definitely write about them, but I would also like to create hope AND I would have liked to see myself in books, even if it was toned down. I wanted to explore survival alongside loss and the ways people keep living, creating, and remembering even when the past feels unbearable.
The collaboration with HighWater Press came a little later. They approached me after reading a synopsis I wrote about Damon and his mother's journey through recovery, and what stood out to me was how seriously they took the emotional integrity of the story. They weren’t looking to sensationalize anything; they wanted to hold it with care and help me make it a great story for other youth that they could see their lives and issues reflected back at them which I know, makes people feel less alone in the world.
Working with the artist and the team was a really trusting process. We spent a lot of time talking about tone, imagery, and what should remain unseen, and those silences are part of the storytelling too. In the end, it became something larger than I initially imagined, a collaborative expression of resilience and witness, not just of harm.
CBY: I'm sorry to hear the struggle your own family members have faced did not follow the same path you've laid out for Damon's journey into self-reflection, resilience, and recovery for his family. For the first volume, Visions of the Crow, it was just the two of you credited as the creators, joined by Kielamel “Kiela” Sibal. For Visions from the Fire, you’ve been joined by Ryan Howe and Rhael McGregor. Can you tell our readers a bit about how everyone came on-board to fill their roles in both volumes? Are there any others who aren’t formally credited you’d like to make mention of for their contributions to making these comics a reality?
WJK: I would like to leave this for HighWater Press and Nicole to answer as this was part of this journey. It was done in a way it needed to be done, when it was supposed to be done and by who needed to do it. I truly believe we all learn from each other and I will leave the rest for Nicole to answer. Thank you.
NMB: The answer isn't particularly romantic. The short answer is that production was delayed by extensive revisions early on in the art, which stretched my finances very thin that year. Sometimes this happens as a freelancer, and you're suddenly expected to do maybe a month of work for no additional pay. It is intense, and as a single parent I had real limitations on my work hours. Then I discovered I was pregnant with twins, and decided that, after penciling was completed on Vol. 2, it was the right time to bring in some artistic support. I had no idea if it was going to be a difficult pregnancy, or whether further revisions would lead to more financial (and physical) strain. Comics are often a craft of immense collaboration and I was grateful that we were able to pull Ryan and Rhael in, though I didn't work directly with either of them and would need to defer to the publisher for any other questions related to their work.
CBY: Oh, I've got twins, and I can relate to the compounding strain of having twice the child to deal with at all times (and that's without having had to give birth to them!) I think the work carried through all the ideas cohesively both between volumes and across their contributions to build on your work in Vol. 2. There are also heavy themes of isolation explored within the context of response to abusive situations, and sensitized, bristling responses to non-threatening overtures of social interaction between characters. Intergenerational trauma manifests itself in many ways, and your protagonist, Damon, spends much of the story trying to unpack and alleviate his adolescent angst. How did both of you decide upon scenes and calibrate interactions to effectively establish the emotional state of the characters as they interact, and the degree to which their cumulative trauma informs interpersonal conflict in the story?
WJK: Thank you for that thoughtful question, it really gets to the heart of what we were trying to achieve with Damon's journey in Visions from the Fire.
Irene Velasquez was the quiet force that turned my poetic instincts into something visual and alive; that’s magic worth celebrating, especially when I went from synopsis to full graphic novel on sheer determination and YouTube tutorials. Mapping Damon and his mother’s arc together to include those rough silences, the clenched fists amid "safe" talks, the flashbacks shattering meals, came from us asking in every scene. Growing up the way I did, and pretty much how a lot of our society does as well, we all sort of know the non-verbal cues of emotion. Nicole had the tough job of deciphering my script and Irene also worked her magic. Like I said, it was written, drawn, and edited by who it was supposed to be by.
It was also personal for me too, writing for youth about Damon and his mother was important for me as I worked with children in care and saw the amount of unanswered questions the children and youth had. So for me, seeing the rawness of the pain the children and youth carried who had no answers, guided me to write for them with them in mind and to write in a good, kind way. It was important for me to capture the essence of them seeing struggles similar to theirs reflected back at them, and it was important for me to showcase how parents struggle as well to bridge understanding to those children and youth dealing with these similarities. I think the collaboration taught us all to balance the weight of hurt, understanding with glimmers of hope and healing.
NMB: When I go through a script, I take weird notes on the first few go’s. For Dreams, I would draw little hearts when I felt goosebumps, or when I could feel a tear pushing up inside me, reading Damon and his mum's stories.
This led me to make certain visual suggestions based on where I felt there were deep emotional beats. I do my best to facilitate the emotional tone of a story, to show and not tell, to draw people in. Wanda and Highwater were both very receptive to the visuals that I felts strongly about, which are usually the big spreads in both volumes.
CBY: There are many moments where the tug on the heartstrings is felt sharply throughout the story, and your visual touches, Nicole, definitely deepen the efficacy of how you lay out these challenging scenes, Wanda. In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts by Dr. Gabor Maté is given some space on the page in Visions of the Crow. I didn’t catch any similar titles getting profiled in Visions from the Fire in the same manner, but were there any other visual or narrative points of reference you’d both like to share that went into the development of this comic?
WJK: Honestly, that planted detail in the first volume of Visions from the Crow came from something I was reading at the time; it just flowed onto the page naturally. In the second volume, I realize now I didn’t plant anything new in my usual style, and that’s a great catch, something I’ll definitely weave in for the third to tie those threads forward. It’s personal to me, this instinct to foreshadow; it mirrors how trauma lingers and reveals itself over time, and I’m excited to honour that more intentionally in the final volume.
NMB: Yea, I'll be honest I was delighted to see that Maté Easter egg. I read Hungry Ghosts in 2018 and was deeply moved by the insight it gave me both about my own intergenerational story and relationship to addictions, and the insight it gave me about my old home, East Vancouver, where I lived as a young person for nearly a decade.
CBY: I look forward to seeing what pops up in Vol. 3! You’ve explored the roles of both traditional indigenous support structures and some state-based support mechanisms (school counseling and independent mental health services). There is a horrendous history of First Nations community and education structures across Turtle Island being systematically dismantled by the settler-colonial government of Canada. What mechanisms for reconciliation and reparation do you think might most effectively establish cross-cultural efficacy and restore trust in state institutions? Building on Visions from the Fire, what alternate systems would you like to see flourish as a means of responding to and addressing the socio-cultural divides embedded across civil society?
WJK: I write from a place of standing in my truth, so that others can stand in theirs too. Sharing stories through Indigenous literature, especially integrating it into K-12 and post-secondary curricula feels transformative, opening real dialogue and understanding across divides.
State institutions could rebuild trust through genuine land-back initiatives, fully funded community-led healing programs, and mandatory decolonial training for all people, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous , and prioritizing Indigenous people to oversee those initiatives to ensure accountability. Cross-cultural efficacy grows when non-Indigenous people actively listen and act on truths like the Calls to Action from the TRC, rather than just performative gestures that lose their meaning; like the land acknowledgement. I mean, who has the responsibility for doing land acknowledgements? What are the pros and cons of doing land acknowledgements and whose responsibility is it? Please see the link about land acknowledgments from the Baroness Von Sketch Show.
Building on Visions from the Fire, I’d love to see traditional circles, healing circles, Elder-youth mentorships, and community-owned mental health hubs and non-profits like friendship centers, flourish as primary responders to trauma and isolation with enough funding to carry out these much needed programs and initiatives so that the next generation will be better off then the last and so on until we are no longer feeling like we are in a race for time to be understood. These kinds of initiatives help to restore what was dismantled: family and nation-based support using story, ceremony, and kinship to heal cultural rifts from the ground up.
NMB: 100% agree with Wanda's thoughts here. A lot of my freelance work is in Indigenous science communication, and so I'd just like to add this piece, where we see numerous Indigenous scientists offering us new or revised frameworks that include both Western and Indigenous perspectives, from Mi'kmaq elder Albert Marshall's “Two Eyed Seeing” or Potawatomi botanist Robin Kimmerer’s “Braiding Sweetgrass,” and on. The good news is, there are meaningful paths forward.
CBY: Wanda, the sketch you shared definitely captures the sentiment I had upon first hearing Acknowledgement of Country upon moving to Australia (and I should note, all my writing these days takes place on the unceded land of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people, and respectfully engaging with their community in learning and creative collaboration has been a valuable part of living on their territory). In both volumes of Dreams, Damon wears a hoodie emblazoned with the band name, ONEISSIN. There are multiple scenes in which music is playing, and lyrics are shown. Can you share a bit about the backstory of your protagonist’s musical taste and his favorite band? What music have you both been listening to in the process of completing these graphic novels?
WJK: Oneissin , is another one of the seeds planted in I suppose. It is a play off of the Cree word, Wanisin. Wanisin means he or she is missing. I am also working on a script called Wanisin which is in its third draft phase. The lyrics are basically poetry i wrote which i wrote for how Damon was feeling. I listen to all genres of music pretty much. I think I was going for a rock or metal genre for this story. We can use music to heal and to feel understood.
NMB: I'd like to defer to Wanda on the first part of the question. For me, drawing Damon on streets that I used to walk in East Van, I found myself revisiting the music that pulled me into the punk scene of the city in the early 2000s. So I found myself listening to a lot of local punk and metal music that I hadn't heard in a while, even digging out an old demo tape from one of my brother’s bands from the time (he played drums for a number of East Van groups). East Van was also a hub for Indigenous performers, so I dug out some old favourites from those years: Manik and Oz12, JB the first lady, Jason Burnstick and Skeena Reece. Those live performances still live in my memory and since the '00s I've struggled to find live music that meant that much to me!
CBY: Nicole, you've just given me some digging to do for old recordings. Wanda, you take the opportunity to infuse the story with a variety of Cree phrasing and vocabulary; what drives your decision around which phrases to subtitle in English? Nicole, which aspects of the visual vocabulary were you most focused upon to distinguish Dreams from both your other work and position it relative to the rest of the HighWater Press catalogue and the broader comics landscape?
WJK: I really don’t think there was any strict rhyme or reason to choosing words; it felt like a natural progression, letting the story guide what needed to be said. I kept thinking about the power of words, especially across English and Cree, where meaning shifts and deepens. Take "table"—in English, it’s just a table, but in Cree, it translates to something like ‘’something made of wood that we eat off of’ so much more alive and specific.
Descriptive Cree-to-English translations often lose that richness; what’s vivid in one language becomes ‘flat’ in another. For instance, Cree uses the same word—nikihci-aniskotopan—for great-great-grandchild, great-grandmother, or any ancestor, honouring them all as one collective. English, by contrast, tracks exact generations, creating this precise, almost divisive order—your grandmother versus great-great-grandmother.
In Cree, they simply become your ancestors, timeless and connected, no matter the distance. I hope that lands—it’s about weaving that holistic truth back into the story.
NMB: It's interesting, both books are so rooted in a sense of place. A lot of comics put you just in… “some city” or “some place.” But in both Visions, we're in very real places and I was drawn to that from the beginning.
The stories are also infused with meaningful objects. At the start of a graphic novel, I draw character sheets but I also draw sheets for meaningful objects and places. I treat them like characters who are often on their own journeys.
CBY: I like that firmness of place and looseness of people in how identities are discreetly defined. In Voices from the Fire, a character uncovers their indigenous heritage, and reckoning with this part of their heritage shifts their perspective and subsequent relationship with your protagonist. It introduces a dimension of intersectionality to an antagonistic character otherwise depicted with a lack of introspection. What do you consider when addressing the complexity of different relationships and dimensions of belonging within the indigenous community? How can those looking in from outside the community take these examples and improve their sense of understanding and be better allies in the decoloniality effort?
WJK: Relationships and belonging in Indigenous communities are layered, shaped by Nation, territory, family, urban/rural ties, mixed heritage like Métis, and personal journeys that don’t fit neat boxes. In Visions from the Fire, the antagonist’s heritage reveal adds real thought to ponder and wonder: when Damon learns Marcus is Indigenous too, it shifts their tension, layered with that whole blood quantum debate.
A few years back, while working for the ministry, I saw foster parents take DNA tests showing 2% Indigenous blood and get deemed “Indigenous” to adopt Indigenous kids; that was deeply unsettling, and I still sit on the fence about it. Not sure where policy stands now, but it highlights how blood quantum distorts the connection.
Those looking in can deepen understanding by reading works like this closely, then acting: listen without making it about themselves, and prioritize real relationships over performative allyship. True decolonial work means showing up steadily for justice, always centering Indigenous leadership. This is a tough question and should be someone’s thesis for their doctorate!
NMB: Nothing to add to Wanda's points here. 100%.
CBY: I look forward to reading more as you explore these topics in Vol. 3 (and perhaps your doctorate down the line, Wanda). As Voices from the Fire concludes with a promise to be continued, what sort of arc do you have in mind for the Dreams series? More broadly, what other work can we expect coming from your individual and combined efforts in the near future?
WJK: When I write, the characters become real people to me. I know their quirks, what they love, how they move through the world. That’s why I want to land the series on a note that feels authentic, protecting them as I guide their arcs. There’ll be some tension around love, but you’ll have to wait for the pages to see how it unfolds!
NMB: Yea, I can't wait to see where Wanda guides these characters next. I found everyone so endearing, reading their bits and how they interact with the world and each other. I know as the artist in a bit biased, but they all feel like real people I've come to know.
CBY: I think all our readers will benefit from seeing how these characters evolve and mature to handle the issues they face. To close, we provide our guests with an opportunity to mention other, unrelated, work that has been providing inspiration. What other comics, art, literature, movies, music, etc. have you been enjoying? What do our readers need to know about?
WJK: All writers spark something in me, but Indigenous voices like Richard Van Camp, the late Richard Wagamese, Lee Maracle, and Natalie Diaz inspire me deeply.
I keep discovering more, and it’s heartening to see how each generation builds stronger, showing progress since my childhood when I rarely saw myself in books (and I’m sure many didn’t and either that, or I’m definitely aging myself).
Comics were Archie for me back then, just a way to escape into something light but now we have powerhouse storytellers like Katherena Vermette and Cherie Dimaline, plus so many more carrying the fire and the baton forward!
NMB: I love this question! Gosh I have too many recommendations, I'm always trying to get folks to pick up this book or that podcast. I've been in and around comics for over a decade now, with a focus on “social issues” comics, so to start there I'll just second Wanda’s nod to RVC and specifically recommend “Three Feathers” as one of my all-time favourite short stories.
Recently I enjoyed reading Rob Flanagan's Question 7, which is a reflection on growing up as a settler in Tasmania, among other things.
Reservation Dogs was one of the only shows I've followed in recent years (full disclosure: I would use Bear to practice character sketches for Damon!)
But since I'm a visual worker and I need my eyes almost constantly, I am much more a consumer of podcasts. My latest 10/10 recommendation is Slate's series, When We All Get to Heaven, an oral history of one of the only queer-friendly churches in the US during the AIDS epidemic.
CBY: Wanda and Nicole, the recommendations are deeply appreciated, and it has been an honor to have you both here today. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and if you have any other portfolio, publication, or social media links you’d like to share, now is the time and place.
WJK: I just updated my linked in.
Thank you for this interview, man, did you ever ask tough questions. All I want to do is write stories!
NMB: Yea, big agree with Wanda here, thank you for the thoughtfulness and really engaging with the material!
Just pasting my signature here, which has all the links I need to share at this time. Cheers!
NMB - Freelance Illustration,
Art Director + Lead Illustrator @ PETROGLYPH
Owner @ Ad Astra Comix micro-publishing
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