Michael Cortez shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Good morning Michael, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
Writing and reading are bringing me a lot of joy recently. I used to love video games, they could keep me busy for hours, but I find myself looking for trouble these days. I like reflecting on nighttime adventures and writing about them as soon as they’re lived. Almost every day I read classic old books and odd stories that I can learn from and work into my own style of storytelling. Over the years I have gotten quicker at writing and am now incorporating it in my daily routines.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Michael Cortez, and I am a writer and illustrator from Houston, Texas. In the past I primarily worked on comics and have recently switched to drafting novels and poems. It would seem comics really can work as a gateway drug to reading and have brought me into a world I have been pleased to indulge in. Right now, I am working on a novel titled “The Hateful Heart of a Tramp.” The book catalogs my struggles with a plethora of addictions and the ways it can stunt a person’s growth. It is about love and depression as all my books are. While it is fictionalized there are many truths in it, and I believe a person who has lived such a life can relate to the many problematic and chaotic adventures that are had in the novel.
I believe the work is honest if not anything else. An unfiltered look at life and what it means to live the human experience.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
The moments of death in my life shaped how I see the world now. I have lost many people close to me and am still dealing with the reality of losing people close to me. Life always seemed so long and now it has never felt shorter. I can be here one moment and gone the next. All the money saved, clothes on my back, none of it means anything when I am gone. I am not a religious man so for me death is in fact the end of the line, the end of the road. It is why I value writing books and cataloging my artwork. Success to me would be my work carrying my legacy when I am no longer here. And I am not looking to be an angel or saint in my legacy rather a beaten man who saw it through to the end.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Suffering taught me not to judge people. I felt hurt and screwed by so many people close to me. I was looking for life to even out, for there to be some type of revenge, but life doesn’t always work like that. In my own suffering I was able to forgive others, I was able to move on from the hate I felt inside. I began to see how people could become so twisted the more twisted I became. Don’t get me wrong, it is not all gone, but I am definitely in a better place now than I was before.
Suffering for me was coming home high at five in the morning from every different type of drug and alcohol I could fill myself with. I was sweaty, stumbling, and angry. It was throwing up and shaking from all the filth I filled my body with. I never wanted to go home, never wanted to sleep in my bed. I wanted someone to kill me, stab me, rob me, I wanted my pain to be over. I would often forget where I was or what I was doing and lose track of time. I ended up using all my money to fuel every addiction and paid the price for all of them. I was a real mess to say the least.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
Yeah, probably too real. I lack the care to hide and be someone else considering this is my one life on Earth. I would rather people know exactly who I was as I lived my life and not some character that never was.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. What do you think people will most misunderstand about your legacy?
I could definitely see some average schmuck believing that my work is nothing more than violence and smut. My work looks and reflects so much more than that. The levels of depression people feel. The need to fill roles that are hard to fill. The idea that life is hard and many people struggle with feeling comfortable in life even though we all go through it. Violence and sex are a part of being human. I focus on that because these are moments when we are vulnerable. Not everyone gets to see us humans in the bedroom. The stories that are told. The complexities of relationships between partners, coworkers, and family. While my work gets graphic and does not shy away from reality, I would hope that it is not looked at as cheap sex appeal.
