Comicsgirl

Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery are the co-creators and writers of the IDW series Kill Shakespeare. They will be speaking at The Folger Shakespeare Library on Tuesday (I will be there — I wrote it down months ago). In preparation, they were kind enough to answer my questions via e-mail.

Comicsgirl: I like that Kill Shakespeare includes a broad range of Shakespearean characters, from the ones everyone knows to ones that are more obscure. How did you pick which characters you wanted to include?

Conor McCreery: We always joke that they chose us. After the main characters, though, we did do a bit more work on choosing the cast. Oddly enough we agonized a lot more over the inclusion of the Parolles and Philip the Bastards of the world then we did over Iago or Juliet.

Anthony Del Col: As Conor said, the main characters came very naturally to us. We immediately could see Juliet and Othello fighting together, Falstaff serving as a comedic sidekick/mentor, and Lady Macbeth and Richard III fighting against them. Hamlet was the last main character that we realized should be in it, which is a tad surprising as he is the main character. But once we realized we need to include him it brought everything together.

CG: How do you balance the legacy of Shakespeare with the need to keep the story moving and accessible? Do you feel like you have any responsibility to stay true to the spirit of Shakespeare?

ADC: We’re trying to make Kill Shakespeare appeal to those that love the Bard (by playing fantastic ‘What if?’ games and including Easter Eggs) but – just as important – making his work accessible in a whole new way to new audiences. We know that we could never write anything better than Shakespeare does. He is the best writer of all time – no debate on that. However, we’re trying to shine a spotlight on his characters in a very interesting, unique manner.

CM: True to the spirit? Absolutely. We VERY much want to tell a story that has sophisticated human emotion and that is, at its core, a humanist tale. But we don’t feel too much responsibility to regurgitate
scenes or tropes from Shakespeare’s plays – at least not ALL of them, GRIN.

CG: The reaction overall has been very positive. Have any of the reactions surprised you?

CM: It is always a pleasant surprise when people like your work. I think I might have been a bit surprised at how much intellectual rigor has gone into the criticism (both good and bad) of the work. That’s actually
very flattering.

ADC: The best reactions are the reviews where the writer states that reading Kill Shakespeare has made them want to go back to re-explore a play that they had read/watched in their pasts. Or, on the flip side, hearing from people that are big Shakespeare fans but have never read a comic book before and now want to check out other series. Those are the best reviews we could ever receive.

CG: Neither of you really had much of a background in comics before this. What do you find satisfying about the medium of comics? How does it compare to the other media you’ve worked in?

ADC: I love the instant – and unfiltered – feedback. It’s very creatively fulfilling to be able to put out an issue and talk about it with fans and readers to see what they liked and what they didn’t like. We’ve tweaked aspects of our story as we’ve gone on based on this feedback. I also like that comic readers are very honest with their feedback – if they like or don’t like something, they are NOT shy to tell you. It’s quite refreshing.

CM: I think the speed at which your ideas become reality is very satisfying. Working in film and TV takes a long time and you never know when the whole thing could come unplugged. I’ve also loved the ability of comics to be the perfect delivery system for both melodrama and delicate emotion. Plus in a comic if you want 600 guys on horses charging a 2,000 person army of lizard men, well, you just have to buy your artist a lot of beer.

CG: After Kill Shakespeare wraps up, what are your future plans?

ADC: More Kill Shakespeare, hopefully! We’d love to continue the series beyond the current twelve-issue arc and know what subsequent stories could involve. We’ve had a lot of people ask for more so we’ll see if we can make it happen. We really love working on this series and it would be a dream to be able to continue.

CM: We also had a kid’s show we did together that we’d love to find a home for. And of course we both have a lot of projects that have gathered dust while we worked on Kill Shakespeare. It would be a dream come true if this work gave us the credibility to move some of that forward.

Check back tomorrow for my review of Kill Shakespeare: Vol. 1

With all the talk of women in comics and comics for women that has gone on over the past few years, I’m always surprised that very few people brings up BoHoS. Unlike most comics aimed at teenage girls, this was actually written by one.

Published in 1998 by Flypaper Press/Image, writer Maggie Whorf tells the story of four friends — the contemplative Catherine, the sarcastic Amy, hippie Vicki and rock-star wannabe Stew — as they navigate late ’90s pop culture. References to Hanson, Kevin Smith movies and Dawson’s Creek do feel a little dated now, but the emotions and interactions between these friends still remains genuine. Byron Penaranda’s quirky angular style and the candy colors give the comic a bright and distinctive look. The issues also featured essays and commentaries by teenagers and women about topics ranging from dating to pop culture.

Inspired by the latest round of “women making comics for women,” I decided to track down Maggie Whorf to get her thoughts on her experiences with BoHoS via e-mail.

The comic had its origins after Whorf and two friends created a zine called “Whore-Hey,” which was “filled with the teen angst of three over-taught and highly privileged private school girls,” Whorf wrote, adding “We also said fuck. A lot.”

This, along with the fact that they were selling their zine on school grounds, led to some trouble for the three — they were suspended for three days. (The punishment “wasn’t very effective,” Whorf wrote and that the girls’ parents were proud.)

After attracting some media attention, Flypaper Press came calling and Whorf was the one to respond.

Whorf says she had creative control over the comic: “There was an amazing sense of freedom and my opinions were always respected. I was set up with a great editor and she taught me how to break down a scene and write with the panel in mind.” and that she “created the characters, the storylines and supervised the design.” She does admit “There were times I was treated like a commodity” but also understood “The story of a 16-year-old girl writing a comic book was the thing they could sell.” She wrote that she “loved it” and “felt very grown up” during the whole process.

After some movement on pitching it to production companies, Whorf headed off to college, thus ending her comic book career (for now, anyway).

I asked Whorf if she had been comic book fan previous to BoHoS and she wrote that she used to draw pictures of X-Men to sell to friends in elementary school and came back to comics through Tank Girl. She wrote that she’ll “always love Batman” and loved the Civil War run. Other than that, she hasn’t kept up with any of the other attempts to entice teenage girls to read comics, like DC’s Minx line. “That’s kind of shameful, isn’t it?” she wrote.

Whorf is currently working for “a large internet company” and writes a fashion blog call The Pudge.

I was delighted to be in touch with her and even more delighted to hear her experiences with BoHoS were good ones. As for the comic itself, it’s never been collected, but issues are pretty easy (and cheap!) to come by on eBay.

DC Comics assistant editor Janelle Siegel has already made quite a name for herself in her career so far and she’s definitely an up-and-coming star in the comic book industry.

Siegel grew up around Omaha, Neb., graduated from high school in Malvern, Iowa, and attended Southern New Hampshire University. She’s about to start on her Master’s of Science in Publishing at Pace University. She lives in New York.

Siegel gives some great answers via email about she got started in comics and what her job entails.

(Full disclosure: I know Siegel online, but I was delighted to have her answers my questions.)

Comicsgirl: When did you first start reading comics?

Janelle Siegel: I first bought a comic when I was 10, and it was Spider-Man Annual #9, featuring the Cadre! I don’t know why I chose that one, but it was on a rack in a gas station while my family and I were on our way to the Black Hills in South Dakota. I had watched the Spider-Man and X-Men cartoons and really enjoyed both and my older brother had a few comics here and there that I had picked up, but comics were just not something that were easily obtained for a 10 year old kid in a town with no comic shop.

On that very vacation, I ended up buying a whole bunch of comics including some other Spidey books, some X-Men stuff, and the Rogue mini-series, because I have always loved Rogue.

So I read for about a year, but the fact was that I had a hard time really figuring out comics. No one in the shops would talk to me, because I was a 10-year-old girl and I didn’t really get how the numbering and stories went. I stopped reading for a long time, until I was about 19 and I started dating someone who was nerdy like me. One day I mentioned that comics weren’t abhorrent to me, and next thing I knew, we were sharing a $200 a month comic book habit. That was really when I got fully into the world of comic books. I started with the X-Men books I had already been interested in, and then moved through pretty much every Marvel series at the time. Eventually I made the jump to reading DC stuff, starting with Birds of Prey by Gail Simone and then stuff like Green Arrow and Young Justice. And even later I started trying out indie stuff and branching beyond superhero books. But superheroes are always going to be my main comic book love.

CG: How did you end up working for DC Comics?

JS: Well, about 5 years ago I realized that editing was what I wanted to do and that perhaps I could combine that desire and my love of comics and be a comic book editor! I started going to conventions and really immersing myself in the comic book world. I basically just talked to as many people in the industry as I could. I have a rather ridiculous collection of friends from all walks of life who all share one thing, a love of and desire to create comics. Through this collection of friends I met people like Troy Brownfield, who asked me to join the Best Shots @ Newsarama team and later the Fangoria Comics editorial staff as a part time assistant editor. However, after endlessly sending out my resume and trying to get my foot more firmly in the door, I realized that unless I lived in the same city as a comic book company, it was going to be really hard to get a job. So I decided to move to New York! Once the plans were in place, I started really working to find out what job openings there were at the big two. There were some openings at DC, so I submitted my resume, and now here I am! It’s all made even better by the fact that the group editor I now assist, Mike Marts, was the first editor I met, years ago at a convention, and who gave me advice about being an editor!

CG: I’ve always been curious about what editors (and assistant editors) for comic books do. What’s your typical work day like? (If you have a typical work day.)

JS: Oy, a typical work day, huh? Well, not much of it is typical, but let’s see. First, I grab a Diet Coke and chug half of it as fast as possible to wake up. :) There are really only two things that happen on a mostly regular schedule every day – one is that I meet with Mike around 10:30 and the other is that I eat lunch around 1. Everything else is really based on urgency. For instance, in the morning I might get in and see an email that some inked pages are in that desperately need to get to the colorist. The first thing I’ll do is ask our production department for printouts of them so I can turn them in. Once they get turned in they eventually make their way back down to production, who sees them as “approved” and sends them to the colorist. Other mornings, I read a script that I never find time to read in the afternoon and get my notes together. Or I proofread lettering on a book and mark up my copy to add to the other copies floating about our office. Or I get together vouchers for an artist or writer that just started working with us. But honestly, a lot of my day revolves around my email. What comes in there can completely change what I’m working on from moment to moment.

Some other stuff that editors (or at least this assistant editor at DC!) deal with are getting artists and writers paid, putting together paperwork to get a new series approved or get a new artist or writer set up with a rate, talking to writers or artists on the phone about what they’re up to or what they might need, signing off on the different steps of the publishing process from lettering to the final version that goes to the printer, and ummm … even more paperwork for routing lettering, artwork, etc. And of course then there are meetings to talk about the future of our group of books or the entire DCU, which involve either just the Bat-group or, of course, all of DCU editorial. I feel like I’m not making it sound very exciting, but I have to say, it’s very fast paced and I find it endlessly thrilling. I am a geek, after all. We have weekly deadlines but beyond getting those books out the door, we’re also planning far into the future. It’s a lot of juggling, but ultimately it’s worth it to not only be working to put the best books out in the now but also planning for the best books in the future.

CG: What DC Comics titles are your favorites right now?

JS: Here’s a guilty admission – the one book that I have to read as soon as it comes in my stack every month is Tiny Titans. MAN that book is good. :) And of course, honestly, I really do love all of the books I work on. For the curious, the monthlies I work on would be: Batman and Robin, Batman, Red Robin, Batman: Streets of Gotham (featuring the Manhunter co-feature edited by yours truly!), Gotham City Sirens, Azrael, Batman: The Widening Gyre, and Batman Confidential. I’m also currently working on the Arkham Reborn mini and have a couple of upcoming projects that I can admit are my favorites when I can talk about them. :) Outside of the Bat-group, like everyone else, I’m enjoying the Blackest Night stuff, although it is giving me nightmares a little bit. JSA vs. Kobra and Secret Six are other books I really enjoy.

CG: Any advice for young women who’d like to work in the comics industry?

JS: Learn your craft and the industry and find your place, but most importantly, don’t give up and don’t believe the naysayers! This industry may be “male dominated” but that doesn’t mean it will stay that way, and in order for it to not stay that way, women have to be willing to take a chance to work in comics. Even since I first read comics, things have changed and changed for the better. I have had an amazing experience working in comics and I have never been made to feel weird because I’m a woman. I know not everyone has that experience, but that has been my experience, and I don’t see any reason why it can’t be repeated for others.

I think if you are a woman and you’re trying to break into comics, focus on the work you want to do and the industry, not your gender. If you’re an artist, become the best damn artist you can be; ditto if you’re a writer or an editor. Learn your craft and also learn the industry. It’s important to find your place, because not everyone is suited to doing the same thing. Certain art styles work better at different publishers and certain people are less comfortable in big corporations. That’s true in whatever industry you work in. But ultimately, the important thing is to not be distracted by the gender of the people in the industry but instead focus on the work.

Instead of linking to a Web site, I’m just going to recommend you pick up any (or all!) or the books Siegel works on.

Tonya Kay is already a real-life superheroine — she’s an actress, a stage performer, a raw vegan, a chaos magician, an athlete and activist — so it’s really no surprise she’s making the leap to comics, too. After being a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Superhero?, this versatile personality gained a following of comic fans who will probably be delighted to see her in the upcoming November issue of Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose.

Kay is a sweetheart so it’s no surprised she happily answered the questions I e-mailed to her.

Comicsgirl: You’ve been involved with several comics-related projects since Who Wants to Be a Superhero? Have you always been a comics fan? Are there any comics you read regularly?

Tonya Kay: Do comic strips count? My favorite is Garfield. Now who’s the geek of geeks? I learned to draw that cat and gave mine a new character name an personality. His own adventures. You see, my Garfield was different though because he wore a bow tie and had no mouth. Call it: style.

CG: How did your appearances in Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose come about?

TK: Conventions are almost cosmic intentional communities. Magickal meetings are mishapped upon and families are formed with afore strangers. I met a photographer from Germany named Steffan Volkmer when I was appearing at San Diego Comic Con in 2008. He followed my work and we kept in touch. The real life action hero things I do in my career and spare time include whip cracking, knife throwing, fire dance … you know, the fun stuff the other girls don’t do! Well, I had just modeled for LA photographer Dave Klingsick of Day Bright Studio with some weaponry my talented Hollywood film blacksmith friend, Dave Baker of Hollywood Combat Center forged. Seeing my recent broadsword warrior shoot, Steffan was inspired to introduce me to the owner of Broadsword Comics, saying we might be a tight fit. I sent one of the photos to Jim Balent and to my astonishment, he responded right away saying he was familiar with my character on Stan Lee’s original season of Who Wants to Be A Superhero? and more specifically, appreciated that I was open about my lifestyle, wearing a small upside-down pentagram around my neck on national television. Then Jim said he’d like to feature me this year!

I hardly knew what was in store for me at that point. Working with Jim Balent has become a powerful and fulfilling ritual! Through the year I’ve gotten to know Jim and his wife/business partner, Holly GoLightly and what extraordinary human beings, artists and business people they are. I’ve reference modeled for my character, offered personal life experiences for storylining, written a Chaos spell for the comic and have had much of my modeling work published as well. In July, I experienced a full circle, when Jim invited me to appear at the Broadsword Comic booth with him and Holly at San Diego Comic Con 2009. There I got to see Jim’s rendering of the cover of Issue #59 starring me! I almost fainted when I saw myself featured on the cover of the Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose comic. I also got to interact with fans, meet new friends and Steffan, the man who originally introduced Jim and I, even arrived to officially complete the circle – conventions really are cosmic intentional communities!

CG: Do you have any other comic-related projects on the horizon?

TK: I am available for comic reference modeling. I’m a real life action hero! And if you would like to see my heroism in action, look for me playing a reoccurring role on Comedy Central’s Secret Girlfriend this fall. Secret Girlfriend is a new series airing in the time slot right after South Park. I will be playing Cassidy, the lesbian burlesque dancer who beats up boys. I will be cracking whips, throwing knives, and grinding sparks off my metal warrior bikini – no kidding! I hope to continue combining my acting talents and action skills in unique roles like this. And I hope to continue modeling for comic artists, like Jim Balent.

CG: I think one of the most awesome things about you is that you’re a raw vegan. How did you get started on that path? Do you have any recommendations for someone who wants to pursue it?

TK: I’ve been vegetarian for 25 years, 15 of which were vegan and the past 7 raw vegan. I got started on the raw vegan path, specifically, when I decided that I was one of the animals I wanted to take care of. Basically, I had been taking care of all the other animals and hadn’t discovered yet what it was really like to be a healthy human animal! If there is anything on this earth that makes a real super hero, it’s eating straight from nature. She’s never wrong and I don’t question her. I am fit, emotionally and athletically, I am connected to the seasons and can process higher levels of stress without problem, the people whom are drawn to me reflect the care I give myself — it is definitely worth working into your life as well.

For virgins who wish to experience a little of the raw vegan goodness, I’d suggest working in more and more raw food (how else?). What I mean is, I don’t suggest going 100% raw vegan over nite. Heck, if you look at my progression through dietary change, you could say it took me over two decades to make the transition from vegetarian to raw vegan. The good news is, you can work a smoothie in as your breakfast, 3 pieces of hand fruit in as your snacks, and a phat salad instead of your pasta or rice at nite and … for virgins, that IS increasing their raw food and they WILL feel a difference.

The difference just might be so easy and so rewarding that you decided to work more in in another six months. You started out as 40% raw and within 2 years you might find yourself at 70% without really having felt like you’ve made any changes at all.

Make raw friends now. Even if it is just on the internet at first. Get to know the community and how supportive it is. Make some easy recipes. Soon you’ll be the one inspiring people around you.

My first hero was Popeye, by the way. He said, “I YAM what I YAM”, dated a woman named Olive Oil, cared for a child called Sweet Pea and ate spinach to get those hulky forearms. He’s still my hero.

CG: And finally, any advice for girls or women who want to also be real-life superheroines?

It’s the perfect time to be a woman and I wouldn’t trade it for the world! Not long ago, women weren’t allowed to attend University. As recent as my own mother’s youth, girls sports weren’t an option in the school curriculum. And today, women control 53% of the nation’s wealth! We’ve come a long way in a short period of time, grrls, and that’s not only because it’s right and it’s fair, but because our feminine energies are needed, now more than ever to balance out a structured civilization that got way out of hand. Over the years, women have learned a lot from our magnificent men. And now I see men thirsting to learn from us. Do not hold back, ladies. It is our diplomacy, ability to communicate, compassion for nature and sensuality that is being called upon to “save the world.” We are all heroes and heroines when we balance our male and female energies.

I have an unstoppable performance career. I am a female business owner. I am a green role-model, fitness expert and animal activist. I am a fun friend, good neighbor and devoted Lover. I do not feel like anything is holding me back and I’m going all the way. All I have to say to other girls and women who are budding real-life superheroes is … welcome aboard – we value you!

A colorist’s contribution to comics is often overlooked, so it’s always awesome when one gets recognized for his or her talent. That’s the case with Eisner- and Harvey-winning colorist Laura Martin. Her artistic background and eye for color has added depth and emotions to titles such as Astonishing X-Men, Planetary and many more. She was picked by Dave Stevens to recolor his work for The Complete Rocketeer, due out next month from IDW Publishing.

Martin was kind enough to answer my questions via e-mail before her upcoming appearance at Baltimore Comic-Con.

Comicsgirl: How did you first get into comics? Was there a title that initially inspired you?

Laura Martin: I was in college studying graphic design, hoping that I’d land a job in the art department of some theme park in Orlando. I was working nights at Kinko’s, and made friends with several hardcore comics geeks there. I’d read comics off and on, but these guys reintroduced me to them. One of them was my friend Ian Hannin, who answered a talent search in the back of a Wildstorm comic. He got the job, and convinced me that I should pursue comics as well. I changed all of my senior projects to comics-related stuff and, as soon as I graduated, I headed for San Diego to join Wildstorm.

During that year when my friends immersed me in comics (1994 to 1995), I began absorbing every title I could that had the “Image style” of coloring. So my biggest inspirations were WildCATs, Wetworks, Witchblade, and Cyberforce. I very much wanted to be a part of that magic.

CG: While I’m sure every project is different, what’s your typical work process?

LM: Typically, I’ll start by receiving scans of the pages from the editor, along with the script. I’ll take a look through the book and see if there’s anything that requires clarification, such as characters I’m not familiar with or settings that might have been established earlier. The next step is to flat the page. Essentially, this is where each object on the page is filled in with a flat color, so that it is separated from adjacent shapes. The result is kind of like old-style comic strips or animation. I’ll often hire a flatter to do this part, so that I can concentrate on the rendering.

The color choices that my flatters choose are not necessarily my color choices, so when I get the flatted page back from them, I’ll go through and choose the colors that I want on the page. This helps me to establish a color scheme to set the mood for the scene. This step moves straight into the rendering step, which is where I add highlights and shadows to give the objects dimensionality, depth and focus.

When the page is finished, I’ll send a jpeg to the editor and the penciler for any possible corrections. Notes come back, I make any necessary changes, and I trap the page (kind of a difficult process to describe, but essentially, trapping is a system to make sure the page prints correctly) and send the final file back to the editor.

Regardless of what kind of art I’m coloring, or how I adjust my technique to compliment the art, these steps are constant throughout every page.

On average, I color about three to four pages a day. This can change drastically depending on the art; the more detailed it is, or the more rendering I have to do, the longer it takes. The time I spend on each page also changes drastically based on the deadline. When a book’s gotta go out, it’s gotta go out, and I gotta color fast!

CG: How much freedom do you have when it comes to coloring?

LM: It depends on the penciler. Some pencilers are very hands-on, and I’m happy to accommodate their requests, while others just let me do my thing. I like having an open line of communication with the colors, because ultimately, the book is a collaborative effort.

CG: While you’ve already worked on some of the biggest titles and creators in comics, do you have a dream project?

LM: I’m pretty sure I just did my dream project — recoloring all of Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer. I mean, it doesn’t get any better than that, and it really was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I wouldn’t mind revisiting The Authority one day; I’ve always had a soft spot for those characters. And I’m just a tiny bit jealous of Chris Sotomayor for getting to color Pet Avengers!

CG: Is there anyone at Baltimore Comic-Con you’re looking forward to seeing?

LM: It would be lovely to see old friends I haven’t seen in a while, like JG Jones and Tom Raney, and to meet people I’ve worked with but never met, like Doug Braithwaite. I hope I get a chance to get out from behind the table a bit — I tend to stay put most of the show, but really, I need to walk around this time! This is my first Baltimore Con so I have to check it out.

See Laura Martin this weekend at the Gaijin Studios table — #2108 — at Baltimore Comic-Con. Find out more about her and her work online at Gaijin Studios and at her blog.