Setting the Scene

The book is set in the 1950s with an art style to match. The girls settle their scores in impossibly high heels and impossibly tight skirts – normally I’m the first to be annoyed when an action heroine is forced to run around in impractical clothes, but these women seem like they’re making a real stylistic choice, and I respect it.

They drink liquor out of bottles with skulls and crossbones on the label, they brandish clubs and old-fashioned rifles, and their dialogue is full of mid-century insults and obscenity. Their names are Sweets, Wanda, Wendy, Pinky, Blackie, and McQualude. They’ve got tattoos, weapons, and perfect pincurls. They know who they are and what they need to do to live in a world determined to keep them down.

The Story So Far…

The plot of this stand-alone book is pretty straightforward: after the police attack their clubhouse, the Mean Girls Club decides it’s time for action and hijacks the radio to let the townspeople know that the Short Wave New Wave Crime Wave (SWNWCW) is on, and they need recruits.

Antagonists of the book include the corrupt, fat cat mayor and his police lackeys as well as the leaders of the church-run orphanage, who are getting girls ready for a lifetime of subservience. 

The main character arc follows Roxy, a down-on-her-luck mechanic taking care of her sick grandfather. In need of money, she agrees to infiltrate the Mean Girls Club on orders from the Mayor. You can probably guess where the story goes from there, but the journey is just as enjoyable when you know the destination. We also get to learn the girls’ backstories and how each of them was found, saved, and cared for by another member of the group.

An Eye for Detail

The more time you spend with the pages, the more you see. The drawings are filled with minimalist color – just white and shades of black and pink – which draws the eye to the details. 

As you would expect in a 50s romp, not much is subtle: the bad guy is so evil that he keeps hungry pigs (guess how that turns out for him in the end). People’s faces turn bright pink when they get bad news. Thought bubbles of dollar signs pop up when discussing money. In response to the SWNWCW, the Mayor establishes ROT: Reclaim Our Town, and posters in support of this effort include “Wives not Knives,” and “Keen Girls Club.” 

In Conclusion

This book is nothing but fun, and doesn’t take itself too seriously: the girls all look like pinups, and even when one turns into a giant monster, she still looks great. There’s not a lot of body diversity or diversity of any other sort, and the point of view is not interested in a more nuanced discussion about sexism or gender roles. But sometimes you don’t want that. Sometimes, you’re angry at the world. You’re angry at the people who are supposed to protect the interests of women, but you can’t go smash up city hall because you have to go to work tomorrow so you can pay rent. When the anger gets to be too much, turn to the Mean Girls Club. They’ve got your back.

Marina is a West Coast native living in Washington, DC. She loves writing anything, from sci-fi to creative non-fiction to romance, often drawing inspiration from the frequent travel required by her day job. Her work has appeared in such literary magazines as DistrictLit and Corner Bar Magazine. When she’s not writing, you can find her hosting bar trivia, baking something involving peaches, or bothering her extremely patient dog, Daisy. You can read more of her work on her website and find pictures of Daisy on her Twitter.

The post Not Just Dudes in Tights: Mean Girls Club appeared first on DIY MFA.

I love etymology, but not once until today did I look up the origins of anthology. To my delight, it derives from flowers and the human propensity to gather them together. How, as a lover of words and gardens had I missed this connection?

My go-to source for word origins is a two-volume Oxford English Dictionary I keep by my desk that I now need a magnifying glass to read.

Anthology: a flower-gathering; a collection of the flowers of verse.

The word compounds from two ancient Greek words, anthos meaning flower and logia referring to a collection of writing. What makes the OED an adventure in squinting are the extracted quotes included to establish a word’s journey through the panoply of work printed in English. From the entry for anthology, I find this quote:

“In the anthologies of earth…one flower beyond every other is liable to change, which flower is the countenance of woman.”

Thanks, Thomas De Quincy for that gem from your 1822 memoir Confessions of an opium-eater. A classic mansplain of a woman’s nature. What a chuckle.

The Best American Comics

Still, I love that the word once meant a gathering of flowers. It brings the literary anthology out of the dusty storage bin of textbooks to offer color and beauty to the world. My brief etymological research has given me a kinder view of anthologies as a species of book, one I will apply to reviewing the latest issue of The Best American Comics, guest edited by cartoonist Jillian Tamaki.

Since 2006, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has been publishing these annual anthologies of comics. Each guest editor sifts through hordes of submitted work from the previous year to gather together a bouquet of comics. Each issue combines the art of the times with the tastes and intentions of the guest editor. Of course, reader preferences come into play, which is no doubt why the series has different guest editors each year, not just to expand the boundaries of bestness, but to attract new readers by offering more diversity in selections.

How to read an anthology of comics?

It’s a book, so the first instinct is to start at the beginning and slog through to the end, but once upon a time…the end is hardly how one enjoys a collection of flowers in a vase or in a garden. The eye scans the scene, delighting in singular blooms at the same time appreciating the overall composition and the effect of contrast, texture and color. A well-designed garden or flower arrangement begs a meandering kind of enjoyment. This garden-stroll approach works for reading anthologies, especially those that are visual.

To enter into an anthology of comics, first scan, then read, and by read I mean look more carefully at the drawings and read the words, simultaneously. As with flower bouquets or planted mixtures of blossoms, an anthology editor can arrange work so it comes together to create connections that one might not notice if taken in isolation. Too many of the same kind of flower or too much uniformity between plants in a garden breeds boredom. Too much variety could be amazing or confusing, depending on how it’s arranged.

A scan through the 2019 anthology reveals restraint in color, a spectrum of greens balanced against bright primary hues and tempered by a large field of black and white comics. My eye falls on “Vanguard” by Leslie Stein, the splashes of watercolor and loose lines appealing to my nature. I’m further intrigued by how Stein draws to music, something I’ve been doing for a few years as well. It’s awesome how much expression her characters convey when they often have just two tiny dot eyes to signify a face. The sequence of panel-free vignettes follows a narrative exploration of drawing to music, ending in her experience of drawing to live jazz at the Village Vanguard in New York. The writing is introspective and funny.

“Vanguard” is my favorite flower in the bunch, but you may pick another. Such is the abundance of bouquets.

What comics do that a bouquet of flowers likely won’t is expose social injustice and personal torment. The 2019 Best American Comics includes excerpts from work that navigates the balance between being a mother and an artist, the urgency of finding friendship at summer camp as an immigrant child, the struggle of finding intimate human connection after the death of a transexual spouse. It grapples with thin interpretations of Martin Luther King Junior’s legacy, faces climate change while on a road trip, reveals the sad futility of explaining polyamorous relationships with nonbinary lovers to a sick mother who won’t stop saying ‘he’ when ‘they’ is what’s desired.

Comics gathered together in the 2019 Best American Comics represent much of what makes comics art compelling. How they draw you close with the craft of line and get you to linger with their stories. How they stay in your heart after you return them to your anthology shelf. Like a garden lures bees with its beautiful blooms, and, once-sated, off they buzz, their bodies dusted with pollen, ready to help make flowers bloom elsewhere.

Rebecca Fish Ewan, a poet/cartoonist/writer and founder of Plankton Press, teaches landscape architecture at Arizona State University. She grew up in Berkeley, California, and now lives in Arizona with her family. Her recent books: By the Forces of Gravity, a cartoon/poetry memoir, and coming this Fall (June release delayed due to pandemic) Doodling for Writers (Books by Hippocampus). You can connect with her at rebeccafishewan.com 

The post A Bouquet of Comics appeared first on DIY MFA.

Just what defines a graphic novel? Why are kids reading them? And are kids getting as much from graphic novels as they do from novels without pictures?

What Graphic Novels Are, and Aren’t

There’s no singular definition of “graphic novel” so pinning it down can be tricky. The borders between a picture book, an illustrated novel, a comic book, and a graphic novel may seem confusing at first. (DIY MFA has a nice introductory post here.) 

Graphic novels typically:

• Consist predominantly of sequential illustrations to tell a story (like a comic). Text may or may not be present, and is usually secondary to the art.
• Are longer, with more room for subplots and deeper examination of themes.
• Are bound like books (hard or soft cover, glued or sewn binding) rather than comic periodicals (stapled with paper covers).

“Graphic novel” does not denote genre or age category, as it is used for everything from middle grade nonfiction to gritty adult superhero reboots. Picture books are shorter and aimed at young children. Illustrated novels are works of prose with single illustrations peppered throughout the text. (Think Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or the original printing of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.) 

Why Kids Love Graphic Novels

We start babies with picture books, and a thick novel may look intimidating, so it makes sense that a growing kid would want something that feels like a transition between the two. Carrying something with a hundred pages can make a kid feel accomplished, but knowing that those pages are filled with artwork is reassuring. Graphic novels are great for kids in transition.

Let’s talk about the artwork. Often it’s visually magnificent. Even when it’s quirky, messy, or “simple,” great care goes into them, especially when they’re aimed at young readers. That’s because the images convey just as much, if not more, information than the text. 

Illustrations provide context clues to what’s happening in the story. A character could say, “I’m sorry” but the expression on their face will tell the reader how they’re saying it. For kids who struggle with prose reading comprehension the pictures can be a big help. 

Whether a reader has difficulty or not, graphic novels are a pleasure to read. Visual cues reinforce themes, subtle running gags appear in the margins, and color and ink create an immersive world. 

But Grown Ups Don’t Always Love Kidlit Graphic Novels

Some teachers and parents look down on comics and graphic novels as “not challenging enough” but those adults may not be familiar with what’s currently on shelves, or the latest science. 

Turns out that reading graphic novels engages the same parts of the brain as reading text. Having pictures and text together can improve recall and learning. The pictures actually help the reader instead of “dumbing down” the experience. (For citations, see this post at Northwestern University, and Teach.com’s guide for teachers.) 

All Reading Counts

There’s a reason “novel” is part of the term used for these books. Novels are known for their deep themes, emotions, and intricate story telling. There are many graphic novels being published that tackle harsh subjects. Perhaps the most famous is Maus by Art Spiegelman, which recounts the Holocaust using mice and cats as proxies for humans. Maus has heavy themes, but it has helped countless adults and older kids understand a human tragedy. 

On the October 2019 New York Times list, the kidlit graphic novels cover themes of debilitating anxiety, friendship and peer pressure, Japanese internment in WWII, sisterhood, diversity in schools, classism and racism, and growing up. Beyond the list, there are graphic novel adaptations of Anne Frank’s diary, A Wrinkle in Time, Shakespeare, and even The Odyssey. Whether your young reader wants fart jokes or an introduction to classic literature, there’s a graphic novel for that.

Maybe the most important thing for grown ups to remember about kidlit graphic novels is that all reading is reading. How matter how a story is consumed, it’s still important. Even better, graphic novels are sticky–they turn reluctant readers into story-hungry lifelong readers. 

Writing a Kidlit Graphic Novel 101

First, you’ll want to understand how graphic novels are created. It starts with a script, then storyboarding (rough sketches), then art, ink, color, lettering, and so on. 

In comics there are often teams who make a comic happen, but in traditional book publishing it’s more common for an agent to sign an individual writer or illustrator and then a publisher will match writers and artists. Being a writer/illustrator may be the easiest path to representation, but other models are still possible. 

If you’re a debut you’ll need to show that you are capable of finishing the work, and what that final work will look like. That can mean different things, from a synopsis, to a complete script or rough illustrations, and if you’re also the illustrator you’ll definitely want a sample chapter or two with finished art and letters. Querying a graphic novel isn’t easy, but neither is querying a prose or verse novel either. 

You don’t have to go traditional with a graphic novel. You can go indie or self-pub with a combination of webcomics, crowdfunding, doing it all yourself, or approaching small publishers directly. 

All the usual rules of writing kidlit apply. Make sure you check out The Special Responsibility of Writing Kidlit and Defining Kidlit for what makes a story kidlit and what to keep in mind when you’re writing for kids. 

Bronwen Fleetwood writes fiction for young adults, and nonfiction for writers. Bronwen studied creative writing at Eugene Lang,The New School for Liberal Arts, has acted as leader of the Princeton Writing Group, and as a Municipal Liaison for National Novel Writing Month. Bronwen currently lives on the Whale Coast of South Africa, between the mountains, the sea, and a lake. You can connect with her at bronwenfleetwood.com.

The post A Whole New World: Graphic Novels for Kids appeared first on DIY MFA.

Dylan is a cartoonist, writer, and illustrator. While she has pursued visual art since she could hold a crayon steady, her formal education has been concentrated in the liberal arts. She studied Western history, literature, philosophy, and French in the College of Letters at Wesleyan University, where she soaked up in-demand, market-ready skills like reading Chaucer in the original Middle English. (She has no regrets.)

Her comparatively practical career as a professional comics artist actually began in college with the online publication of her first book, Bite Me!. She also spent several years daylighting as a visual communications consultant and designer, before she transitioned to work as a full-time comic book creator and freelance designer.

In 2012 her short story “Outfoxed” was nominated for an Eisner Award in the category of Best Digital Comic, and in 2014 Family Man was nominated for a Reuben Award in the category of Best Digital Comic–Longform.

Her latest project is the middle-grade graphic novel Queen of the Sea, and is now available.

So listen in as Dylan and I chat about this amazing book and how to craft a story in multiple art forms.

In this episode Dylan and I discuss:

• How to bring the day to day life of a historical setting to the page.
• Comic scripts, what they are and how to use them the right way.
• Constructing a story both visually and textually without confusing your readers.
• How the layout of each page determines pacing in a graphic novel.
• Privileging the story’s tone over a single visual style.

Plus, Dylan’s #1 tip for writers.

About Dylan Meconis

Dylan Meconis is a cartoonist, writer, and illustrator. While she has pursued visual art since she could hold a crayon steady, her formal education has been concentrated in the liberal arts. She studied Western history, literature, philosophy, and French in the College of Letters at Wesleyan University, where she soaked up in-demand, market-ready skills like reading Chaucer in the original Middle English. (She has no regrets.)

Her comparatively practical career as a professional comics artist actually began in college with the online publication of her first book, Bite Me!.

Once she disembarked from academia, she then spent several years daylighting as a visual communications consultant and designer, facilitating dozens of sessions with Fortune 500 companies, global NGOs, tech startups, and more. Dylan worked directly with clients to produce illustrations, animations, information graphics and visually compelling presentations.

In 2008 Dylan transitioned to work as a full-time comic book creator and freelance designer. In 2012 her short story “Outfoxed” was nominated for an Eisner Award in the category of Best Digital Comic, and in 2014 Family Man was nominated for a Reuben Award in the category of Best Digital Comic–Longform.

Dylan is also a member of Helioscope, the largest studio of freelance comics professionals in North America, and lives in Portland, Oregon, with her wife, the attorney and speaker Katie Lane, and a collection of small but demanding mammals.

Her latest project is the middle-grade graphic novel Queen of the Sea, and is now available.

To connect with Dylan check out her website at www.dylanmeconis.com.

Queen of the Sea

Cult graphic novelist Dylan Meconis offers a rich reimagining of history in this beautifully detailed hybrid novel loosely based on the exile of Queen Elizabeth I by her sister, Queen Mary.

When her sister seizes the throne, Queen Eleanor of Albion is banished to a tiny island off the coast of her kingdom, where the nuns of the convent spend their days peacefully praying, sewing, and gardening.

But the island is also home to Margaret, a mysterious young orphan girl whose life is upturned when the cold, regal stranger arrives. As Margaret grows closer to Eleanor, she grapples with the revelation of the island’s sinister true purpose as well as the truth of her own past. When Eleanor’s life is threatened, Margaret is faced with a perilous choice between helping Eleanor and protecting herself.

In a hybrid novel of fictionalized history, Dylan Meconis paints Margaret’s world in soft greens, grays, and reds, transporting readers to a quiet, windswept island at the heart of a treasonous royal plot.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 258

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio or Google Play and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

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Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 258: Multi-Style Visual Storytelling — Interview with Dylan Meconis appeared first on DIY MFA.

I can only write about books I love and read voraciously to the end, because there are so many books to write about. Why spend time on the ones that I either can’t stand reading or can’t look at because the drawings hurt my eyes? Life is too short and I’m too slow a reader for that kind of torment. I selected four to show variety, kept the reviews short, and because I loved these books: three are graphic memoirs, because, big surprise, I love graphic memoirs, and the other is a collection of fictional vignettes that feel based on somebody’s real life experiences (doesn’t all great fiction feel that way, even fantasy/sci-fi?).

I Am Young by M. Dean

My wheelhouse is not fiction, but the images pulled me into this collection of story vignettes, linked through the characters of Miriam and George, about love, music, growing up, becoming who you are. The drawings are exquisite, loose yet expertly rendered. As I read, I kept trying to figure out how the drawings were created. They carry a weight to them (aided by great paper) that gave them a feel of wood block prints.

The color palette is limited to colors I associate to the 1970s—burnt orange, avocado green, various shades of taupe and grey—which allows the line work to not drown in color. I have trouble reading graphic novels that have heavy color-saturation. It’s hard for me to focus on any one part of the image, like looking at fruit salad and trying to follow the story of how this chaos was once a pile of distinct fruits. So, I really appreciated the reserved color palette, because the line work is so great. (Although I did love the hyper-colored pages when Miriam was tripping on acid!)

The thread that ties each vignette to the others are snippets from letters exchanged between Miriam and George as they go through life not being together. The result is a bittersweet sense of the fleeting nature of young love and how memories of it linger long after the relationship all but disappears. It’s published by Fantagraphics, a company that produces so many awesome books that I was surprised they only represented 0.35% of last year’s comics retail market. So, buy a billion copies of I Am Young and knock Marvel and DC down a peg or two!

Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

This graphic memoir is fabulous. It chronicles Krosoczka’s childhood, raised by his grandparents because his mother was a heroin addict, and shows how he used drawing as a kind of social connector to his peers, family and teachers. So much of this story resonated with me, I barely know how to distill the compelling reason to read this book, but I might go with the characters, if I had to pick one thing (which I don’t, yay!).

The characters feel so real, flawed, lovable (even the heroin-addicted mom). Their dialogue feels genuine (versus dialogue used to dump info needed to push the narrative forward, my least favorite reason to have a character speak in a story).

The book is done almost entirely in comics form, without solid panel boundaries, and rendered in muted colors. There is so much motion and emotion in the way this story is conveyed. As I read, I was reminded of how I felt reading Tom Hart’s graphic memoir, Rosalie Lightning, the controlled looseness of the lines, the spare color palette that creates a kind of gaping hole in your heart as you read. Each chapter in Hey, Kiddo begins with a photograph of a letter, childhood drawing or other memorabilia. These lend authenticity to the story.

Something I’ve found about graphic memoir is that some readers, because there are comics or cartoons in the book, believe the story to be fabricated, even if it’s memoir. (I’ve had people who have read my graphic memoir ask me if it’s a true story. The answer is always yes). People are conditioned to assume comics/cartoons are the domain of children’s fantasies. So, I totally got what Krosoczka was doing by putting these chapter starters in, like little reminders to the readers that these comics characters are real people, going through real-life experiences. The story happened in real life. This is what memoir means.

Krosoczka did the readers a solid kindness by turning his friends and family into cartoon characters so the recollections are tempered by cartoon cuteness. This is not cheating the reader out of the ‘true grit’ of life. It’s acknowledging that Krosoczka’s particular true grit might be too hard to handle outside of his cartoon universe. Hey, Kiddo was published by Scholastic.

Flocks by L. Nichols

So much of this book resonated with me—the use of math and physics to express emotions and interpersonal exchanges, the expressive characters, the story of wanting to belong, but always feeling on the fringe in every social group. Flocks chronicles Nichols’ experience growing up in a fiercely religious environment and the long arduous journey towards self-acceptance as a trans man. Nichols draws himself as a buttoned-eye rag doll whose simple form makes him both relatable and identifiable as other among the rest of the realistically rendered characters.

One of the strengths of the storytelling is in the use of lyric techniques—repetition, in particular. In poetry, repetition creates mounting tension, a beat and rhythm. In prose, it can sound like a mistake. In comics, it can work like in poetry. In Flocks, the repeated panels, particularly the one with mouths from his Christian flock saying hateful things, work like a chorus, a technique as old as Plato’s plays and as familiar as a pop song. In fact, the poetic structure of the book carries the main refrain—that in anyone’s life they will move through and belong to many communities (flocks) and hear everyone else’s voices—hurtful, loving, neutral, bossy, friendly, encouraging.

If I write what I heard the loudest, it will sound corny, but pause for a minute and think about the value of love and community. Sing love, find others who sing love, be yourself in love. I told you it’d sound cornball, but Flocks has so much story and craft in its pages, when I got to the end, I loved this book, cornball and all.

Chlorine Gardens by Keiler Roberts

I read this book cover to cover into the wee hours, stifling my belly laughter so as not to wake my family. Before I read a book, especially one in comics form, I flip through it to sense the feel of the images. I sensed a calmness, the images rendered without color, the characters never seeming to move. Comics are sequential, a kind of moving picture, so stillness feels different. I hadn’t read any of Robert’s comics before, so I thought, huh, I like line drawings, could be an interesting story about motherhood. When I read the back cover blurb by Emil Ferris (author of My Favorite Thing is Monsters, a book I adore), who called Keilor Robert’s soul “funny-as-f**k,” I was intrigued, but I still didn’t expect to be up all night guffawing into my hand, hoping not to pee in my bed.

Here’s the thing about deadpan humor. It’s always unexpected. The six-panel pages recalling Robert’s memory birthing her daughter, Xia, took me back to my own experience when my daughter was born, so was totally relatable. And so hilarious. The mood was more somber for the panels when Roberts was diagnosed with MS. I want to buy a stack of Chlorine Gardens and hand them to anyone who smiles when I say: “The main character has a baby and MS. It’s so funny.” Those people are in my flock.

So, there you have it. I wrote these reviews while recovering from hip replacement surgery. I recommend having a fat stack of graphic hybrid stories at your bedside whenever you come home from the hospital, no matter what was done to your mind or body while you were there. Laughter and feeling connected to the larger community is therapeutic. Ask a scientist. She’ll back me up.

P.S. Science is Real! And Mealtrain, let a friend sign you up for Mealtrain for those postoperative days when you have no idea what food is!

Rebecca Fish Ewan, a poet/cartoonist/writer and founder of Plankton Press, teaches in The Design School at Arizona State University. She grew up in Berkeley, California, and now lives in Arizona with her family. Her cartoon/free verse memoir, By the Forces of Gravity, was published in 2018 through Books by Hippocampus. You can connect with her at rebeccafishewan.com

The post ICYMI: Four Lovely Books With Pictures Released in 2018 appeared first on DIY MFA.

Yesterday, Hart’s new book, The Art of the Graphic Memoir: Tell Your Story, Change Your Life, arrived at my doorstep. I intended to read the whole book through before writing this post, but I’m too excited about sharing it with you! Once I finish this, which includes a brief interview with Tom Hart, I’ll get back to devouring his excellent new book.

When I read Rosalie Lightning, I was astounded by Hart’s generosity in sharing this story with strangers, and by the raw honesty and emotion conveyed in his words and images. My manuscript and drawings for By the Forces of Gravity, a cartoon/free verse memoir, was under review at the time, so I had just spent several years writing/drawing a story that had broken my heart. I could imagine the sorrow he must have endured in creating Rosalie Lightning so soon after his daughter’s death. I was stunned by the hugeness of his heart to share such loving memories of Rosalie.

I soon learned that Tom Hart taught comics art in Florida, and contemplated ways to take time away from life to enroll at the Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW), a comics school he started in 2011. I’m still trying to figure this out. For those of you who, like me, can’t move to Gainesville, there are online and low residency alternatives to the year-long program.

But for starters, I recommend you get your hands on a copy of The Art of the Graphic Memoir. It’s the only instructional book I’ve ever read that moved me to tears. It’s that amazing. Using his experience in creating Rosalie Lightning and the work of other renowned comics artists like Art Spiegelman, Alison Bechdel and Lynda Barry, Hart guides you through the making of a graphic memoir from start to finish. As the subtitle promises, working through the book will help you tell your story and through the experience you can change your life.

Fair-warning: this book does not teach you how to draw. Rather, it offers ample inspiration and encourages you to discover your own visual voice. If you’re a writer who declares “I can’t draw!” with little or no provocation, fear not. This book is a treasure trove of wisdom and inspiration, gleaned from Tom Hart’s decades of teaching experience (he taught in an art college before founding SAW). He will empower you to try to draw, or paint, or collage your personal story. And even if you cling to your belief that you’re a never-drawer (a truth you perhaps haven’t revisited since you arrived at it in 3rd grade, along with other truths like that you’ll love Timmy Fudbottom until the end of time or that you’ll always wear pig-tails like Baby Spice), The Art of the Graphic Memoir is a fabulous guide for writing a words-only memoir.

I’m so excited to share this interview with Tom Hart. Please read it, while I finish The Art of the Graphic Memoir!

Why Graphic Memoir? What do you find most compelling about telling true life in comics form?

My particular book, Rosalie Lightning, was an act of desperation. I don’t know if I have a compulsion towards memoir other than in that instant. I love art and story, and I especially love transmuting our experiences into art and story, but often I like some fiction or myth-making tied into it. I feel like lies and creations can lead us to truths we don’t always see.

But in the case of my daughter’s book, the intensity of the experience made me need to tackle it directly.

Do you storyboard, thumbnail, write a script or have another creative process, like, do you draw every day, in bursts, at home, in a notebook, only on a certain kind of paper?

It depends on what I am doing. For comic strips, which I have been doing lately, I tend to write them as 6-sentence outbursts, and then draw them a week or two later. For longer pieces like my memoir, I had a general structure and then thumbnailed 3-5 pages at a time, and then would pencil and ink them before moving on to the next section.

Drawing well is pretty difficult for me, so I go through many drafts, tracing and refining as I go.

You are very engaged as an educator, how does teaching inform/impact your art?

I think teaching has raised my standards in so many ways and opened my tool box of potential creative solutions exponentially. It’s hard to be lazy when I’m constantly asking students to open their minds, try new things and push their abilities. I got better at drawing when I started teaching what to look for in a drawing. Same for writing.

What’s your favorite drawing tool(s)?

I was raised on pen and ink, and I still love it. Dipping a pen into ink and drawing with it connects you to your breath, connects your hand to the paper. It’s one of my favorite experiences.

What advice would you give to writers with a hankering to draw?

Ok, three big things:

• One: Let your characters have real gestures and expressions. Move past the emoji and traffic sign to real physical expressions. You can do this with a long deep drawing practice, or you can do it with stick figures (Matt Feazell’s Cynicalman is a good example, so is Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half ), but either way you have to push your drawings to represent real human emotion and narrative, which is deep and complicated.
• Two: Study graphic design, and how shapes work together in a drawing. There’s a clarity that comes with making sure all the parts work well together.
• Three: Be present when you draw. That presence is your gift to your readers.

Thanks so much, Tom, for sharing your experience, skills and love of sequential art. You’re an inspiration! And now, readers, let The Art of the Graphic Memoir guide you into the magical world of telling true stories in words and images!

Cartoonist Tom Hart started The Sequential Artists Workshop, a school and arts organization in Gainesville, Florida, after teaching at the School of Visual Arts for 10 years. His graphic memoir about his daughter, Rosalie Lightning, was a NY Times #1 bestseller and has been translated into French, Italian, Portuguese and Chinese, was featured on many best of 2016 lists, and was nominated for two Eisner Awards. His new book, The Art of the Graphic Memoir, a survey and how-to book about creating a graphic memoir, is now available.

Rebecca Fish Ewan, a poet/cartoonist/writer and founder of Plankton Press, teaches landscape architecture in The Design School at Arizona State University. She grew up in Berkeley, California, and now lives in Arizona with her family. Her cartoon/free verse memoir, By the Forces of Gravity, was published in 2018 through Books by Hippocampus. You can connect with her at rebeccafishewan.com

The post The Art of the Graphic Memoir: New Book by Indie Cartoonist Tom Hart appeared first on DIY MFA.

Today I am so excited—and I’ll admit I’m also having a bit of a fangirl moment—because I’m interviewing Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin, and Giovanni Rigano on the show!

Together, they comprise the powerhouse team behind the heart-wrenching and powerful graphic novel Illegal.

You probably already know Eoin Colfer as the bestselling author of the Artemis Fowl series (one of my favorite middle grade series of all time!). What you might not know about him is that before becoming a full-time writer he worked as a primary school teacher and he spent four years working in Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Italy.

Eoin’s co-author, Andrew Donkin, has written more than sixty books and graphic novels for children and adults, including collaborating with Eoin on the Artemis Fowl graphic novels. His books have been translated into thirty languages around the world and have sold more than eight million copies in the last decade.

And the master behind the artwork of Illegal, Giovanni Rigano, is an Italian artist and illustrator, who may be most well known for his role in the creation of the Artemis Fowl graphic novels. He has also created graphic novels for Disney books, including The Incredibles.

Now listen in as we all chat about their latest and amazing graphic novel, and how the comic format offers ways to draw readers in unlike any other media.

In this episode Eoin, Andrew, Giovanni and I discuss:

• The different steps in creating and completing a graphic novel.
• Combining words and pictures to create a greater emotional response in readers.
• Structuring a story with alternating timelines, and how to do it right.
• Why it is necessary to represent the perspective of children in books.
• How to use the graphic novel layout to control the pace of your story.

Plus, each of their #1 tips for writers and artists.

About Eoin Colfer

Eoin Colfer worked as a primary school teacher before becoming a full-time writer. He spent four years between 1992 and 1996 working in Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Italy. His first book, Benny and Omar, was based on his experiences in Tunisia.

In 2001, the first book in the bestselling Artemis Fowl series was published and is now comprised of eight books. Over the years, his works have been named a Book Sense Book of the Year nominee, an L.A. Times Book Prize finalist, and a Virginia Readers’ Choice Award nominee. Eoin lives in Ireland with his family.

For his latest book, the graphic novel Illegal, he once again teamed up with author Andrew Donkin and graphic artist Giovanni Rigano to create this amazing and timely story. Illegal is now available from Sourcebooks.

To connect with Eoin check out his website at eoincolfer.com.

About Andrew Donkin

Andrew Donkin is the author of more than sixty books and graphic novels for children and adults. His books have been translated into thirty languages around the world and have sold more than eight million copies in the last decade. He currently lives in London.

His latest graphic novel, Illegal, was yet another wonderful collaboration with bestselling author Eoin Colfer and graphic artist Giovanni Rigano and is available now.

To connect with Andrew check out his website at andrewdonkin.co.uk.

About Giovanni Rigano

Giovanni Rigano is an Italian artist and illustrator born in Cantù, Italy. He is most well known for his role in the creation of the Artemis Fowl graphic novels, the first of which came out in 2007. Giovanni has also created graphic novels for Disney books, including The Incredibles and Pirates of the Caribbean.

In 2012, Giovanni also illustrated Eoin Colfer’s book The Supernaturalist which was also released as a graphic novel. Giovanni currently lives in Como, Italy.

His latest collaboration with Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin is Illegal which is now available.

To connect with Giovanni check out his website at riganogiovanni.blogspot.com.

Illegal

A powerfully moving graphic novel by New York Times bestselling author Eoin Colfer and the team behind the Artemis Fowl graphic novels that explores the current plight of undocumented immigrants.

Ebo is alone. His brother, Kwame, has disappeared, and Ebo knows it can only be to attempt the hazardous journey to Europe, and a better life—the same journey their sister set out on months ago.

But Ebo refuses to be left behind in Ghana. He sets out after Kwame and joins him on the quest to reach Europe. Ebo’s epic journey takes him across the Sahara Desert to the dangerous streets of Tripoli, and finally out to the merciless sea. But with every step he holds on to his hope for a new life, and a reunion with his family.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 227

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio or Google Play and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 227: How to Craft a Knockout Graphic Novel — Interview with Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin, and Giovanni Rigano appeared first on DIY MFA.

As a former comic book subscriber (X-Men 4evah, y’all), I’m glad to see this trend. Kids and teens have always loved graphic novels and their shorter, serialized cousins, comics. But now with more parents, teachers, and librarians realizing the very real benefits of reading graphic novels, it seems graphic novels have been ushered into the Big Time.

What is a Graphic Novel?

Graphic novels include both text and images in panels like comics. But graphic novels are distinct. They are longer, bound like books and not with staples like comics*, and tend to be more complex in plot and theme. They usually have one entire storyline completed in a single book, even if it’s a series…each book has its own problem and solution, just like with series novels for kids. (*Sometimes a series of comics are collected and bound into a graphic novel, just to make things confusing.)

By the way, the word manga refers to Japanese comics that are serialized like comics, but can be longer and more complex like a graphic novel. Traditionally, manga follows the pattern of Japanese writing: top to bottom and right to left. (Also, extra bonus info for you, to sound very in-the-know, pronounce it /mahn’ga/, with a soft /a/ like an old timey movie star saying daaaaahling, not the hard /a/ used in mango, the fruit).

Good for All Readers

Graphic novels (and comics and manga) are particularly wonderful for young readers and older reluctant readers. For these students, the combination of text and images allows them to read without feeling overwhelmed. The pictures help them decode and interpret meanings.  The faster speed with which readers can finish them also builds confidence.

For more advanced readers, though, there are still benefits. Graphic novels offer a different kind of reading experience, one that still requires a great deal of inference and often surprisingly sophisticated vocabulary and witty humor.  Through exposure to these kinds of books, students learn how to compact a lot of information into a concise number of words, which is much harder than it seems.

Want to Write a Graphic Novel?

It may be that you’ve toyed with the idea of writing a graphic novel. If so, this is a very good time to give it a shot.  The graphic novel Adventures in Cartooning: How to Turn Your Doodles into Comics by James Sturn is for children, but like many how-to books written for children, I found it to be very informative and enjoyable to read. You should also listen to this wonderful interview with Neil Gaiman by NPR, during which he describes in some detail what it was like to write the The Sandman series, without being a visual artist himself. (And for encouragement about enjoying the process of creating art, read or listen to this Gaiman interview also by NPR.)

Want to see what the big to-do is about graphic novels?  Wondering if you’d enjoy writing one?  Then check out the following excellent books.

Great Graphic Novels to Study and Enjoy

For younger audiences:

Binky the Space Cat, by Ashley Spires. For young and new readers, there is limited text and the humor is outstanding.

Fashion Kitty series, by Charise Mericle Harper. Cute and fun about a kitty who becomes a superhero after being hit in the head with a stack of fashion magazines. Naturally, she saves other kittens from terrible fashion.

The Lunch Lady series, by Jarrett J. Krosoczka—Lots of gross and silly humor, this super hero is also the school’s lunch lady. Her weapons of choice are kitchen utensils and cooking equipment.  Fast and zany.

Zita the Spacegirl, by Ben Hatke.  An excellent book and series with Girl Power!  It’s also touching.

The Amulet series, by Kazu Kabuishi  The kids at the local 3^rd-5^th grade school have these books checked out all the time. The creepy cover brings to mind Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, which has a graphic novel adaptation.

For older audiences (tweens/teens):

El Deafo, by Cece Bell. In this award-winning biography in graphic novel form, we follow along with Bell as she experiences hearing loss as a young child and then goes on to attend traditional school with the help of a special hearing aid that allows her to hear but sets her apart from others.

Smile, by Raina Telgemeier.   Smile is a memoir about when the author loses her two front teeth as a sixth grader and had to deal with a lot of trauma, both physical and emotional.

Sisters, also by Raina Telgemeier.  Sisters is a bittersweet memoir about her relationship with her little sister, set during a long car trip. Flashback is used to weave past memories with the current tale..

Ms. Marvel, by G. Wilson (author) and Adrian Alphona and Sarah Pichelli (illustrators). When 16 year old Kamala finds herself transformed into Ms. Marvel, she’s got the usual transformation issues to contend with, but Kamala is also a Muslim daughter of Pakistani immigrants, which brings its own cultural differences to work through as well.

The Dark Knight Returns, by Frank Miller. Technically this is one of those sets of Batman comic books that were grouped together, but it ushered in the dark, gritty kind of superhero story that’s so popular today. This one is aimed at older teens and adults. *Note, graphic novels abound for adults, to include the popular Walking Dead series.

What about you?  Do you read graphic novels?  Share your favorite in the comments!

Amy holds a Masters of Library Science along with a certification in school librarianship.  She is a former reading and English teacher, mostly for 6^th-8^th graders.  Her debut book, FAIRY KEEPER, is an upper-middle-grade fantasy, now available from Curiosity Quills Press.  She currently lives in Germany with her family, though they still call Texas home. Her daughters are 9 and 11 years old. As you might imagine, middle grade books are a hot commodity around their house.

Amy‘s next book, MER-CHARMER, will be released May 9, 2016.

The post Getting Graphic: A Closer Look at Graphic Novels appeared first on DIY MFA.

Supernatural, eerie, weird. These are some of the words readers have used to describe Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (Quirk Books), a fiction novel based on antique photographs of children that author Ransom Riggs had collected. Now a New York Times bestseller, the book follows a 16-year-old boy named Jacob, who experiences a terrible family tragedy and then finds himself traveling to an island in Wales, where he discovers an abandoned orphanage that holds secrets about his grandfather’s past.

The story is told partly through fantasy storytelling and partly through vintage photography, making for an enhanced reader experience. But what started out as an unconventionally written story back in June 2011 has now been transformed into its own graphic novel.

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Visual Storytelling

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children: The Graphic Novel (Yen Press) was released on Oct. 29, more than two years after the original book came out.

Crafting a graphic novel based on a pre-existing book that already possesses visual elements might seem simple, but it takes a lot more than just cutting and pasting text and then adding a few drawings.

For Cassandra Jean, the graphic novelist for Miss Peregrine, it’s about pacing and story flow. It’s about figuring out what scenes in the book are most important, counting the number of comic pages each scene will take up, and shortening scenes as necessary.

“Since I can’t make the graphic novel a thousand pages, sometimes I have to edit scenes so that they will make sense in the more condensed version that I am producing,” says Jean, who read the book twice after her publisher handed it over.

As part of the planning process, Jean first marked the pages that included particular scenes, locations and character descriptions that would make up the bulk of the graphic novel. Those textual descriptions turned into Jean’s initial character designs, which Riggs had to approve of before signing Jean on as the official artist for the project.

Every detail about a character’s personality contributed to the visual depiction of that character – or, in Jean’s words, “you don’t just read about Jacob reacting to the Peculiars, but actually see him reacting.”

The Graphic Novel versus The Book

Jean, who usually draws in black and white, says she had to draw Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children entirely in color and work with Riggs’ photographs – neither of which she’d ever done before.

“Both incorporating the pictures into the comic as well as designing characters based on these very old, very strange photos, was a new experience,” Jean says. “The novel itself was already pretty visual, so there was some pressure to make sure that the graphic novel was worth it, that it could really contribute something to the Miss Peregrine universe that the novel itself wasn’t already doing.”

Inevitably, some story content had to be removed so that the graphic novel read smoothly throughout.

“[That’s] always tough because you want to keep true to the book, but you have to keep in mind that it is a different medium and sometimes changes need to be made,” Jean says.

One of the greatest drawing challenges for Jean was the mysterious house that the orphans live in, a significant part of the novel’s setting. After making changes to several pages that included designs of the house, she says the final version of the house matched up with what Riggs had envisioned.

Jean says novels inspire readers to use their imagination and visualize the scenes in their minds, and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is no exception.

“Hopefully, the graphic novel adds a new layer to the experience by bringing the words to life in a visual way,” she says.

The Beauty of Graphic Novels

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is one out of many books that have been adapted into graphic novels – others include Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, and soon, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.

Jean says the attraction behind graphic novels lies in the artwork, which makes the entire reading experience much more visual than if there are only words to unfold the scene for you.

“When I’m reading a novel, I usually speed through it, eager to find out what happens, to get to the ending. But when I read a graphic novel, I linger over each page more. Not because I don’t want to find out what happens, but because there is just so much to see,” Jean says. “I like to pause and admire the artwork, to look at the characters, the style, the backgrounds. To look at the subtle expressions that you can see on the character’s faces.”

Her next project will be The Secret Treasons, a graphic novel that will be part of fantasy author Cassandra Clare’s The Shadowhunter Chronicles. While Jean says she “adores drawing illustrations based on novels,” working on The Secret Treasons will be exciting because it is a new work to be published rather than an adaptation of one.

For aspiring graphic novelists and writers, Jean says it’s imperative to keep working and staying dedicated to the craft.

“It’s a hard business to break into, whether it’s the writing or the drawing side of things,” Jean says. “Creative jobs are hard to get into, because it takes a lot of dedication and passion (be it writing, drawing, acting, music, etc.). But it’s not impossible, especially if you are willing to put in the time and energy needed to always be improving and finding new projects to work on.”

Cassandra Jean is a freelance illustrator and comic artist who spends her days toiling with a pen in her hand and her faithful dog sleeping at her feet. The radio is always on, and Gatorade is a constant source of power! Email her at casspiedra@gmail.com, tweet her @CassandraJP, or follow her on https://cassandrajeanart.blogspot.com. Check out her art at https://cassandrajp.tumblr.com.

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Wendy Lu is co-editor of The Durham VOICE and the entertainment editor at Blue & White magazine. She is also a former book publishing intern and a NaNoWriMo 2008 winner. Her work has appeared in The Daily Tar Heel, Raleigh Public Record and Chapel Hill Magazine’s The WEEKLY. She blogs about creativity and happiness at https://wendyluwrites.blogspot.com.

The post New Spin: The Graphic Novel of “Miss Peregrine” appeared first on DIY MFA.