comics can be about friendship

Simple ambitions, complicated tea.

This is the story of a ballerina who stopped dancing so she could learn to write songs. Or perhaps she learned how to write songs because she stopped dancing. Either way, the artistic life of Jill Zmud has not been plotted or charted, and it seems to be working out just right.

The Saskatoon native agrees to meet in a coffee shop on a recent sunny spring afternoon in downtown Ottawa. She orders an improbably named Osmanthus Scented Silvery Green Tea – (earning an ‘A’ when she is asked by the hardcore coffee-drinking interviewer to spell the name of the tea) – and she settles in to discuss words, music, grief and beauty.