Comicsgirl

Teen Boat! Buy at Powell’s

Teen Boat! (2012, Clarion Books) is about a teenage boy who turns into a boat named Teen Boat (in case, you know, the title didn’t immediately tip you off to that), Originally a series of (Ignatz Award-winning) minicomics, creators Dave Roman and John Green pull in amazing amount pop culture influences (Turbo Teen is an obvious reference point, as are teen dramas like Dawson’s Creek) into something that’s still fun and original. Trust me when I tell you that Teen Boat! is really one of the best things ever.

Teen Boat is mostly a typical teenager — he has a platonic best friend, Joey, and is in love with the exchange student Niña Pinta Santa Maria. He tries to impress the cool kids and he gets into trouble. He runs for class president and gets a part-time job. And yes, quite often he turns into a boat.

Roman and Green clearly had a so much fun making this — there’s a giddiness to the writing and the goal seemed mostly to make each other laugh first. They throw in pirates just because, why not? The characters travel to Italy mostly so Teen Boat can fall in love with a gondola (and the silent montage sequence of the date between Teen Boat — in his boat form — and the gondola is probably one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen). There are explosions and mysteries and monster trucks. The writing is quick and clever and Green’s art has an animator’s eye for character design and expression. The rich primary colors do give a new dimension to the art that wasn’t present in the minis.

Despite all the references that are packed in here, Roman and Green just use those as a starting point. They provide a bit of a backdrop and texture, but the book doesn’t rely on them for its humor. If you’re too young to be familiar with them (or just don’t catch them), the book is still a delight.

I have one tiny complaint, though, but I want to emphasize it’s tiny. I don’t think the new material has quite the same energy as the material that appeared in the minicomics. I think this is probably only something you’d noticed if you’ve read the minis and that’s not to say I was at all disappointed. It’s all such great fun I just almost felt like I needed to complain about something.

Buy this book! Read it! Laugh! Tell your friends! I absolutely love that things like Teen Boat! exist in this world.

And just to link to it again, here’s Abby Denson‘s Teen Boat! song:

News, interviews and reviews:

• Iranian-French author shares culture, Karolina Ramos, GW Hatchet
• Toronto Comic Arts Festival 2012 Questionnaire: Deanna Echanique, Mark Medley, National Post.
• I love this book: ‘Hit By Pitch’, Whitney Matheson, PopCandy.

Debuts and new issues:

• Bamn: Rob’s Adventure — free digital comic by Jay Payne (artist) and Troy-Jeffrey Allen (writer)
• Cartoon Picayune #3 — anthology edited by Josh Kramer. It is currently available online and should be in Politics & Prose and SMASH! soon.
• Starseed — ongoing webcomic that updates Tuesdays and Thursdays by Sarah P. (artist) and R.M. Rhodes (writer).

Upcoming releases:

• Team Cul de Sac: Cartoonists Draw the Line at Parkinson’s, various artists, Andrews McMeel Publishing. Benefit book for cartoonist Richard Thompson. June 5.
• Xoc: The Journey of a Great White, Matt Dembicki with colors by Evan Keeling, Oni Press. July 25.
• Mr. Big: A Tale of Pond Life, Carol and Matt Dembicki, Sky Pony Press. Sept. 1.
• District Comics: An Unconventional History of Washington, DC, various artists, Fulcrum Publishing. Sept. 11.

Events:

• Ongoing until June 17: “Life Unreal: Art by Evan Keeling and Scott White,” Northside Social, Arlington, Va. Artist reception is May 26 from 7 to 9 p.m.
• May 11: Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick, creators of Feynman appearance, 6:30 p.m. at American Institute of Physics, College Park, Md. Free and open to the public.
• May 12-13: Curls Studio (Carolyn Belefski and Joe Carabeo) at Asbury Park Comic Con, Asbury, N.J.
• May 12-13: Rafer Roberts at Asbury Park Comic Con, Asbury, N.J.
• May 12: Full Sanction (Rusty Rowley and Joe Mochove) at Winston-Salem Toy and Comic Book Show, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m, Winston-Salem, N.C. Admission is $2 and children younger than 12 are free. Presented by Ssalefish Comics.
• May 18-June 23: Christiann MacAuley (artist profile) at Artomatic, Arlington, Va.
• May 19: Super Art Fest 2012, noon to midnight, Metro Gallery, Baltimore, Md. Benefit for Ulman Cancer Fund. More information on Facebook or at Super Art Fight.
• May 24: Henry & Glenn Forever #1 release party with Ton Neely and Ed Luce, 7 p.m. at Atomic Books, Baltimore, Md.
• Beginning June 7: “Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women” at the Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery, Jewish Community Center, Washington, D.C. More details to come.

Have comic news or events related to the D.C. area to share? Email me! Submit no later than Wednesday at 9 p.m. for inclusion each Thursday, but the earlier, the better! More information is here.

While you were off seeing Avengers (or I guess recovering from seeing it at a midnight showing the night before), the rest of us were doing what could be considered the exact opposite: Seeing Alison Bechdel at Politics & Prose. And if the large crowd was any indication, enough of us did care about this more than a superhero movie.

Promoting her new book, Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama, Bechdel’s presentation was delightful but much too short. She said this was not a sequel to Fun Home, even thought that was about her father and this is about her mother. Still, she said it’s about quite a bit more than just her mother — it’s also about her experiences with psychotherapy and psychology.

She gave a quick glimpse into her process of creating comics. She does a lot of sketches before drawing the final page, experimenting with angles and layouts. She also works quite a bit from reference photographs, most of which she takes of herself. She also said she’d “not be able to do what I do without Google Image Search” since she also looks up places and brands for reference. She showed several of these with the final comic image for comparison and it was really fascinating how much work she does before she even starts drawing.

She laughed about all the scenes in the book that take place in her therapist’s office — she said the abundance of these images was “inexcusable” and finding a way to make these images dynamic was “problematic” but they were necessary to the story she was telling.

After reading two segments from the book, she took questions from the audience. One asked, in reference to a Virginia Woolf quote that appears in the book, if Bechdel felt she’d “put her mother to rest.” Bechdel said she doesn’t know yet — yes, the book was an attempt to do that, but it’s still too soon to say if it worked.

Going back to her process, another question asked how much she plans her layouts before drawing. Bechdel said she writes in Illustrator and while she doesn’t draw there (except for maybe rough sketches or a few placeholder images), it helps her figure out the pacing and the rhythm of her book first. I wanted to hear her talk more about this and I hope I get to one day.

A few questions concerned her family’s reactions. She said her mother isn’t exactly pleased with the book, but can separate the content from its existence. She’s happy to support and defend Bechdel even if she’s not delighted that her daughter wrote a book about her. Bechdel did remark that her mom said “Please, I hope you’re done now.”

Bechdel said she hasn’t heard from her other family members and it’s likely they haven’t read it yet and implied that they mostly know it’s just kind of what she does at this point — tell stories about her family.

In conclusion, she did joke there’s one reaction she’s worried about. “The big thing is, I’m waiting to hear from my therapist.”

(I know that’s not a great photo of Bechdel, but it’s the best one I was able to take — I was far enough away and there were too many heads in the way. But it was a good thing it was crowded. Bechdel absolutely deserves that.)

You know Marjane Satrapi as the creator behind her autobiographical comic, Persepolis, about growing up during and after the Iranian Revolution. You may also know her from her other comic works, Embroideries, and Chicken With Plums. If you know more about her, you also know of her work as an illustrator and filmmaker.

What you may not know is that she’s an absolute delight to hear speak, as a diverse (and, I’d like to point out, mostly female) audience at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium last Friday found out. Satrapi, stylishly dressed with adorable wedge shoes (look, I was sitting close enough to notice, OK?) and bright lipstick, was relaxed and animated throughout.

On paper, two women sitting on a stage talking shouldn’t be this entertaining, even if the two women are Satrapi and Iranian author Azar Nafisi. But if anything, the 90-minute interview felt a bit too short. Satrapi can talk, but everything she says is charming, insightful and hilarious.

If there was one theme of the conversation, it was Satrapi’s insistence that people be true to themselves. Far from being a message of “peace and love” (Satrapi laughed about that later, saying she knew that’s what she sounded like she was advocating), her stance was presented as more of a challenge. Prompted by Nafisi, who brought up that Stephen Colbert called her “dangerous,”, Satrapi said that the truth is always subversive and she doesn’t think Persepolis is a particularly mysterious story. It was just “her voice against those voices” — of the Iranian regime, certainly, but also those who think that’s all there is to Iran.

Satrapi then launched into an entertaining rant about how so many people have abandoned pleasure. “Fear makes us stupid” she said, and she’d rather enjoy life while she’s living. So many people, she said, spend all this time taking care of themselves — not drinking, smoking, eating or having sex — when they’re going to die just the same as she is.

She recounted that when she decided to become an artist, it was because she couldn’t think of anything else she wanted to do more. She mentioned with dismay that art students ask her at what point she started making money. It was never about that for her and she doesn’t think it should be about that now.

Nafisi asked about how Persepolis got made, and Satrapi said she didn’t want to do it at first but only relented because she was given money to have a “new experience.” She did say she tried everything she could to get out of it — she wanted to be animated, in black and white, in French — and the producers, to her surprise, said yes to everything. She knew she wanted to be animated because it made it more universal. It was about her experiences growing up, yes, but animation made it more abstract and easier for everyone to related to than if it had been live-action.

Her experiences making Chicken with Plums, though, was different. She said she had trouble getting it financed and what she wanted to do was questioned, including why she wanted it in French if it took place in Iran. She brought up to these people there are plenty of movies in English where people are playing Germans or Austrians and she really didn’t see the difference. Still, she lamented the dearth of creativity of the film industry — no one has a problem making another Transformers movie but a movie like Chinatown, which is one of her favorites, would never be made today.

Asked by Nafisi about her views on the Internet got some laughs since Satrapi said she’s “technologically inept” and she can’t even type. She’s not interested in the Internet and made some good points — out of your 500 Facebook friends who “of these people would come cook you chicken soup when you’re sick?” She said she dislikes that the Internet makes the world a small village and that everyone knows what you’re doing all the time. She said she’d rather live in a “big city.”

Satrapi also joked about how only men should take women’s studies and that she was always confused that women were expected to be modest as to not tempt men. “Where’s the men modesty?” she asked.

As they typical are, the audience questions were a mixed bag, but I liked the woman who asked about the relationship between truth and creativity. Satrapi said that everyone remembers things different and truth is not reality. She also thinks it’s OK to cheat for the sake of the story, recounting that one event in Persepolis that happened when she was 14 in the book actually happened when she was 18. It worked better for the story she was trying to tell at the earlier time.

The last few questions were related, mostly about the power of individual voices. Satrapi said she doesn’t consider herself a spokesperson for Iranian immigrants because she doesn’t want that responsibility — she said it’s hard enough for her to be responsible for herself.

Satrapi said she’s not inclined to trust governments because politics aren’t going to change the world. Instead, she said “all the changes in the world was started with words.” And if there was one summary of everything she said Friday night, that having your own opinions and ideas is “not to be rebellious. It’s just to use the brain.”

And then with characteristic playful charm, Satrapi concluded the evening with a goodbye and a claim she really needed a cigarette.

(Lisner did not allow photos so I respected that, which is why there are none. And as thanks to the people who made this possible for me, you should shop at Big Planet Comics — especially U Street and Bethesda, but shop at them all! — and read the webcomic Sam & Lilah.)

Princeless, written by Jeremy Whitley, surprised just about everyone as it became a hit earlier this year. This independent comic about a princess who refuses to follow the path set out for her connected with readers with its combination of wit, action and powerful message. It’s even been honored with two Eisner nominations — for Best Single Issue (Princeless #3) and Best Publication for Kids (ages 8–12).

The collection of the first four issues should be out soon and Whitley was kind enough to answer a my questions via email.

Comicsgirl: Congratulations on the Eisner nominations. How much of a surprise was it? Anything you want to say about it?

Jeremy Whitley: It was a huge surprise! Action Lab has asked if I was okay with them sending it in for consideration, but I had never imagined that it was an actual possibility, especially not for the individual issue award. Obviously I believe in the book but there is a lot of great competition out there. I’m ecstatic about being nominated.

All I really have to say is thank you to those who believed in the book and please vote if you haven’t already.

CG: There’s a tendency to make action heroines nearly perfect — they’re strong and smart and without flaws. Adrienne is definitely smart and capable, but she’s also someone who doesn’t seem to quite know what she’s getting herself into. How did you make sure she was still a character to admire while still feeling real?

JW: I based her a lot on my wife and my sister-in-law (after whom she is named). She’s somebody who seized her freedom and overflows with determination, but the reality is that determination does not necessarily win the battle for you.

It’s very important to me that if she’s a character that girls are going to look up to, that they can also see themselves in her. It doesn’t do any good to have a role model if you can never live up to them.

CG: Adults have happily embraced this title, but we’re not necessarily the target audience. What has the reaction from children — girls as well as boys — been?

JW: Well, understandably not as many of them write Internet reviews and send me Facebook messages about how much they love it, but all the kids and parents I have talked to have said they loved it.

I met sci-fi author J.L. Hilton at a convention last year and sold her the first few. When she found me at another convention a few months later, she snatched up the other two issues saying “My daughters and I read the first two issues every night before bed. They love them. We NEED these other two.” I’ve actually had a couple reviews where the reviewers have mentioned handing them off to their kids or reading them with their kids. Those are some of my favorites.

CG: You touch on many social issues — race and racism, gender roles for both boys and girls — as well as media presentation of female characters. While one of my favorite scenes is Adrienne’s horrified reaction to the skimpy “armor” Bedelia initially presents to her and I think it does work in context, it’s still very self-aware in the statement its making. How do you balance the points you want to make while maintaining telling a good story?

JW: To be honest, when I wrote issue 3, I wasn’t sure that I had. I kept having people read it and asking “Is this too preachy?”

Thankfully, they mostly said that they didn’t think it was and I left it. That seems to be one of people’s favorite scenes too.

As far as race, I wanted it to be a part of the book, but in the way that it always is. As a fact that isn’t constantly talked about. Adrienne is black and that’s the way it is. Too often I think that people struggle when they spend their time pointing it out. In Adrienne’s land, however, she is one of the royal family. White girls can look at Cinderella and Belle and Sleeping Beauty and relate to them without constantly having to be reminded that they’re white. Black girls deserve that sort of comfort as well. I made a point of pointing it out in the first issue, gave her a chance to jump up and down and shout it, then I moved on.

As for the armor chapter, I wanted it to be both a bit of pointed satire and a kind of mission statement for the story. I want to tell and action story about girls that’s for girls and doesn’t feel it’s necessary to rely on some of the older tropes.

CG: Princeless: Save Yourself, which should be out soon, collects the first four issues of this series. What’s next? How much more of this story can we expect?

JW: Well, the original plan was to continue to produce mini-series until we finish the story of Adrienne saving her sisters, which should run about 25 issues.

In addition to that, we’re actually now working on a series of short comic stories about the characters and their world. These stories are being illustrated by a team of amazing female artists for a collection due out late this summer. I think fans of the book so far are really going to enjoy these.

Meanwhile, Volume 2 is well under construction and should be available this winter. I’ll be posting a lot of the progress on both the second volume and the short stories online at princelesscomic.tumblr.com and on my (@jrome58) and the Action Lab‘s Twitter accounts.

Whitley will be signing copies of the Princeless: Save Yourself that collects the first four issues (copies should be in stores soon) May 5 (Free Comic Book Day!) at Big Planet Comics in Vienna from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and at the College Park store from 3 to 5 p.m. Jorge Aguirre, writer of Giants Beware! from First Second will also be signing copies of his book.

And yes, I know that the Vienna signing conflicts with watching The Legend of Korra (although these signings were scheduled before the airdate for Korra had been set so it’s forgivable), but I’ll just have to catch it later.