Today’s interview is with the creative team behind the contemporary fantasy webcomic Nakesake, artist Isabelle Melançon and writer Megan Lavey. Namesake is a fascinating comic about a young woman who discovers that the worlds described in faerie tales and legend are in fact real, and that she can visit them (or at the very least the Land of Oz, where the story is currently firmly rooted in). Meg and Isa were quite happy to answer questions about themselves and on how Namesake came about.
What do the two of you do for a living, and what experience or education did you two have going into starting your webcomic?
Isa: In my case, I am currently living the “Batman” lifestyle, but with less money and capes. I work a tech support job during the day and draw comics and illustrations during the night. I work on Namesake of course, but also on printed comics. My goal is to be the next Jeff Smith, but I know it won’t happen overnight, so I work hard and try to support myself as much as possible.
I studied visual arts and cultural management. Most of my “comic knowledge” is self-taught. I’ve been reading comics since I was a little girl. I think everything I learned to help me start the webcomic I learned through observation and discussions with artists. There’s not really a webcomic 101 class (too bad, that would be ridiculously awesome). The most important thing I learned is that building a webcomic involves a lot of trial and error (which is great, you can try so many things as the story unfolds), a lot of social media and a lot of passion. The more you love your story, the more others will love it. Also, a really important thing I learn quickly is that regularity is the key to success. People like things that update on set times. Webcomics that are already popular can get away with my erratic schedules. But when you just start out, it’s good to have good art, a good idea and a schedule. It’s what brings people back to see you.
Meg: As for me, I don a couple of hats. I’m a copy editor and designer for the Patriot-News right outside of Harrisburg, Pa. I’m also an editor with The Unofficial Apple Weblog (www.tuaw.com) on a freelance basis in addition to writing and handling the back end of the Namesake stuff. I’m lucky in that all three of these are jobs I really love doing, so I figure I’ll help Isa become Jeff Smith.
I studied journalism at the University of Alabama and until now all of my professional writing was nonfiction. I indulged in fiction writing with fanfics in a variety of fandoms, and I still write some fanfics in my spare time. While I was pretty well-regarded for my fiction in the fandoms I participated in, I’d never written for a comic. It’s been a really steep learning curve for me as I’ve had to learn to write in a different way. The original Namesake scripts were complete prose. Now I write in a loose script form that’s a combination between a full script and the Marvel format.
If you were to try and sum up your comic in a couple paragraphs, what would you say about it?
Isa: Humm…. That’s a very complicated question. we have tried to resume Namesake to a single paragraph a bunch of times. It’s so… difficult. This is why artists should not resume their own work.
Generally, it’s a story about people growing. Fairy tales in general are almost always coming of age stories. Even though most of the characters are in their twenties, they still have a lot to learn about themselves and they have to learn to accept and love themselves. Namesake is about love, fairy tales, adventure and fear. The main character, Emma, is a world-traveler. She goes to fairy tale worlds, then back home, then away again, etc. With every trip, a piece of herself is going to be revealed, and she can either reject or accept it. She’s a pretty quiet girl, but she has a strong heart. She just doesn’t listen to it enough.
I think Namesake is, like most fantasy stories, a story about the discovery. A story about a journey. It’s a story about stories. A collection of stories forming around a single individual.
Also, there’s some cool villains in there. And talking shoes. Just saying.
Meg: I think Isa sums up Namesake pretty well. If I had to add to it, I think Namesake is a story about potential and choice. In life, you’re always face with moments that change everything drastically based off a decision made at a particular moment. You’re thinking that the story is going to go one way, but then you find out that because someone else made a choice about something completely unrelated to you, you find yourself locked into a situation. Namesake is a story about growth, as Isa said, and it’s also about the ability to make your own future.
What inspired you initially in creating your own webcomic, and how did the two of you start collaborating together?
Meg: I pretty much poked Isa until she began doing something with the Oz parody, as she said. We’ve been friends since 2006, and she had such amazing story ideas. I really believe in Isa, and we discovered that we work scarily well together.
Isa: That is a bit of a strange story in itself. The bare bones of the Namesake story appeared when I did a parody story about myself and friends in Oz. I was in Toronto for a summer, I was rather bored, and reading a lot of fairy-tale related books. I posted the parody online, along with sketches of other characters that qualified as “world travelers” (Alice, Wendy and Jack, in their first forms). I was kinda saying “hum, I could do something more with this. I think. Maybe” to which Meg responded “HECK YES you can.” Then I kept developing the idea, asking Meg regularly for input. I eventually asked her to help me write the dialogues, since English is my second language. I needed some help. Then eventually, she was suggesting so many interesting elements to add to the plot that the team up kinda just… happened. It was amazing and motivating to push each other. So we united our forces.
Then we had to decide what medium to do Namesake in. At first it was a comic, then a novel with illustrations. Then a webcomic. That was a good idea.
How much time goes into each comic, and what steps do you take in making your comic?
Isa: For the drawing process, it takes maybe 5 hours per page. Meg gives me a scenario, written in a novel format. We usually figure out the contents of the scenario for a chapter together, but Meg writes it out and composes the dialogue. Then, I sketch out a set of three pages using col-erase colored pencils (a whole week’s updates) and scan them and send them to her to get her seal of approval. I then ink the pages by hand using pens of various sizes. The pages are then scanned and the sketch lines removed in Photoshop. The shading/coloring is also done in Photoshop. I then send the pages back to Meg, and she adds and edits the dialogue. Meg then takes care of preparing the posts for the website. Posts are usually prepared a few days in advance and update automatically. We try to be a week in advance most of the time.
Meg: The initial writing all depends. It usually takes me about 2-3 hours of generating an initial scenario that will create anywhere from 3-6 comics. Some times we’ll use the original draft as is. An example of this is the prologue. I handwrote that out, then typed it in and we largely used it as I originally wrote it. Other sequences will take a couple days of rewrites, bouncing things off of each other and wailing and gnashing of teeth. I find that I usually need to get out of the apartment to write, else I get distracted by things such as books and naps.
The rest proceeds as Isa describes it. She does the original sketches and I approve them. She’ll do the final art, then I’ll take the text from the scenario and sketches and rewrite to the final comic. Sometimes the final script matches the scenario, other times I will do a full rewrite. It’s funny because at times I’ll look at a page and ask Isa if I really wrote something, and she’ll poke me and remind me that I did. But, we work together on everything.
After this, I’ll update the site with the finished comics. We use ComicPress as our back end.
What elements of your comic do you wish you had more time to expand upon?
Meg: Right now, I’m pretty happy with the way things are going with the actual comic itself. I’m really enjoying our storylines and I think the recent strips with Renge and Anlise and now the Shrine of the Dorothies is spectacular. Personally, I’m looking for more ways to connect with readers and get the story out there to more people. I also want to make sure our readers are happy with the site experience and not only want to come back for more story, but to interact with each other.
Isa: I agree with Meg on this. What we are interested in currently, is getting readers to connect. The story pretty much moves to the pace we want it to and everything we want to put in will be put in, in some form or another. The advantages of fully controlling a webcomic!
Have you tried to insert subtle elements into your artistry and storytelling besides the recent use of spot color for certain floral elements and what have you done to try and prevent increased complexity within the art and story of the comic from cutting into your update schedule?
Meg: Oh, absolutely. There’s things we’ve already dropped in the comic that we can’t wait for the full reveal. It’s been great reading some of the theories and some of the things readers have completely overlooked. I was raised on Babylon 5 and Rurouni Kenshin among my writing influences. Both of these tales — one TV and one manga — are excellent at planting seeds of stuff early in the story and having that really influence stuff later on. Speaking on the writing in, I enjoy the complexity and it doesn’t add that much work. It’s really weighing the dialogue and the situation the character is in now knowing what will happen in the future.
To quote G’Kar [ed. - of the television series Babylon 5] : “Let me pass on to you the one thing I’ve learned about this place. No one here is exactly what he appears. Not Mollari, not Delenn, not Sinclair, and not me.”
I want to tell a story that people will not just enjoy on the first reading, but on subsequent ones as well.
Isa: The art and story have always been complex and multi-layered. We started off the comic with that style. It’s what we wanted. We wanted details to matter, to ad to the drawing or story.
On the art side, I do a few things to try to keep the quality constant while still being able to update three times every week. Not having full color is part of those things (though i’m quite happy it’s gradually becoming a style that I may want to keep, even if I do get the time to color in full…). The drawing tools I use also help. Bristol board as a drawing base, some fineliner pens instead of liquid ink, some col-erase pencils so that I can ink the sketch directly… I think I really got used to the speed and modified my work space and tools to keep up.
Do you read any other webcomics? If so, which are your favorites, and why do those stand out for you?
Meg: In the pure fun aspect, I enjoy “Something Positive” and “Girls With Slingshots.” Both have great storylines and S*P is actually one of the few comics that’s made me cry. I also enjoy “Girl Genius” and adore “Red String,” both of which are great examples of ongoing webcomics that are pretty complex and have an overall arc to things. I just finished “Phoenix Requiem” which was just beautiful in both art and story. I followed “Punch an’ Pie” and “The Adventures of Ellie Connelly” and both of those stand out to me because of the lack of updates. They’re great stories, and I wish we could see more of them.
Isa: My webcomic reading list is way to long. I love a lot of French “comic-blogs”. Those are like webcomics, but usually more autobiographical. Like http://diglee.com/ and www.bouletcorp.com (this one actually has an English version). Among my favorite English webcomics there’s “The Meek”, “Gunnerkrigg Court”, “Phoenix Requiem”, “Chester 5000 XYZ” (contains victorian steampunk erotica, beware!), “Family man”, “Girl Genius”, “Sister Claire”, “Girls with slingshots” and “Fall on me”. As you can see, my tastes are all over the place, story wise. I tend to go for webcomics that have a very distinct style, both in story and art. Stuff that deserves praise from all corners of the internet. And my goal is to be as beautiful and enjoyed as these.
When Garth Cameron Graham ended Comedity for contemporary fantasy comic Finder’s Keeper, I must admit I looked forward to seeing him write a storyline-based comic. What I didn’t expect was that I’d grow to miss the wry comedy that Graham was apt to indulge in with his old format. Admittedly, it is a lot easier to write humor in a less structured format compared to in a storyline comic (though some cartoonists, such as Phil Foglio, have proven apt at consistently combining the two). Thus I rather enjoyed seeing the flash of humor in the latest comic with protagonist Cailyn being given a Coat of Useful Things by the fae Puck. While she was initially skeptical as to the coat’s worth, watching her reach into the pocket and pull out a flask that undoubtedly contains liquor was an absolute delight (especially as I own one myself – a flask, that is, not a magical coat that gives me booze). Finder’s Keeper may tend toward more dramatic storytelling, but it’s nice to see the occasional whimsy showing through. Touches like this adds little spots of light to help contrast the more dramatic moments and make for more effective storytelling. 
Skin Horse Interview
Today’s interview is with Shaenon Garrity, the cartoonist behind the award-winning mad science webcomic Narbonic (having won the 2005 Lulu of the Year from Friends of Lulu, along with the 2005 Web Cartoonist Choice Award for “Outstanding Writer”) and Skin Horse (winner of the Outstanding Small Press award at the 2008 Stumptown Comics Fest). (I have to apologize for the awkward phrasing of the first sentence; I’m still working on how to effectively say that. Sad, really.)
I have to thank Shaenon for participating in the interview. Unfortunately I didn’t exactly choose the best of questions for her to answer; some of my later questions didn’t really provide her with the opportunity to expand on things. Fortunately she was quite patient with the two rounds of questions and I appreciate her taking the time to answer my questions.
Inspirations that inspired, eh? Narbonic came out of a couple of things. One was my decision, at the end of college, to make a webcomic by smooshing together characters from all the previous comics I’d drawn. Mell was a character in the strip I’d drawn in high school, Dave came from the strip I drew for my college newspaper, and Helen was in a three-page comic I drew for a contest in the excellent comic book Thieves and Kings. The other thing that caused Narbonic was watching City of Lost Children back-to-back with Mystery Science Theater 3000.
With Skin Horse, I’d been toying for a while with the concept of a Black Ops Social Services department dedicated to assisting the nonhuman creations of super-science. One day I realized that the agents themselves should be nonhuman, and the whole thing fell together very quickly.
What got you initially interested in creating your own webcomic?
I always liked doodling and drawing comics. In high school, I drew a comic strip called North of Space for the kids’ section of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. It was about space aliens. In college, I drew a strip for my college paper; it was about college students, which was similar. Near the end of senior year, I suddenly realized that when I graduated I’d have no further excuse to draw comic strips. Fortunately, or not, some friends introduced me to webcomics. Like so many people, I immediately thought, “I can do that!” I launched Narbonic a couple of months after graduation, immediately after moving across the country for an internship at the Cartoon Art Museum and a job at manga publisher Viz Media.
What are some of your influences and inspirations, and why do you find them inspirational?
Obviously I’m a big-time comics nerd. I can’t possibly list all the comics that have influenced me, but classic comic strips like Thimble Theatre, Little Nemo, and Barnaby are up there. Like most kids of my generation, I devoured Calvin and Hobbes and Bloom County when I was growing up. Nowadays, I love Lynda Barry, Carla Speed McNeil, and Moto Hagio, among countless others. I also read tons of science fiction. Right now I’m going through a 1970s New Wave sci-fi kick.
My single greatest literary influence, as well as my mentor and spiritual guide, is probably children’s writer and NPR essayist Daniel Pinkwater. He’s the best guy.
Do you read any other webcomics? If so, which are your favorites, and why do those stand out for you?
Right now my webcomics trawl is pretty light. There are some longform comics I save up and read in big chunks, including Girl Genius, Family Man, and Dicebox. I love and deeply admire Achewood, but that’s on a kind of hiatus right now. Aaron Neathery’s Endtown is wonderful. Generally I like webcomics that are very different from my comics, that do things I don’t know how to do.
No, not really. I don’t have a smart phone myself, and I have only the vaguest idea how these things work. I’m kind of Luddite for a webcartoonist, as you can probably tell from my primitive website designs.
If you were to take a critical look at your own artistic talents and storytelling skills, what aspects would you consider flawed and how would you go about improving it?
I’m always bagging on my artwork, but recently I’ve reached a point where I’m pretty happy with my basic drawing and cartooning. What I’d like to do now is expand my toolbox. I can’t ink with a brush or dip pen, I have no experience with painting, my grasp of color needs work.
My storytelling skills are awesome. I am an excellent writer. When writing comics, though, I could always stand to think more visually. My strips tend to be talky.
What is your opinion on webcomic criticism, and how do you cope with negative or destructive criticism?
I don’t pay a lot of attention to online criticism, to be honest. I’m kind of out of the loop of the whole comics blogosphere, so I don’t know what, if anything, people are saying about my comics. Usually, when I come across negative criticism, it’s stuff I already knew needed work. Or else it’s totally wrong. You know the Internet.
I guess I should accept criticism as constructive and use it to make my work better, but screw that, I’m too immature.
Given your partnership with Jeffrey Channing Wells in your current comic Skin Horse, what are your experiences of working collaboratively on a webcomic and what advice would you offer new writer/artist collaborative teams in the effective creation of a new webcomic?
I don’t know how to create an effective webcomic, so I don’t really have any advice. I work with people because I enjoy the collaborative process. Usually I write for artists, so doing the cowriting/drawing thing with Skin Horse is interesting. I like brainstorming plots with Jeff. He’s a fantastic writer with an endless supply of ideas I never could have thought of.
I draw a week of strips at a time. That usually takes about three days. I’m really low-tech: plain ink on bristol, hand lettering. It takes about half an hour to scan each strip and clean it up for publication. Recently I’ve started adding screentone on Photoshop, which adds a little time to the process.
How do you overcome writer’s or artist’s block, and does working with a partner help you overcome blocks?
We’ve got a bunch of stories we already know we want to tell, so it isn’t too much of a problem except when we have a difference of opinion or have trouble figuring out how to get from Point A to Point B, the latter of which happens pretty often. I tend to write storylines by coming up with cool or funny scenes I’d like to include and hoping they all link up; it’s the linking up that’s the problem. Oh, and figuring out how to make expository strips funny.
And last, what types of subtle elements do you insert into your artistry and storytelling? Do you have any concerns that increased complexity with the comic could constrain your update schedule?
That’s…kind of a broad question. Do you have any examples in mind?
A couple of examples that comes to mind would be your insertion of book titles in Narbonic and movie posters, as well as some of the laboratory equipment shown in the background, which you have commented on in your Editorial Commentaries for Narbonic.
Oh, well, that stuff is what makes the strips interesting for me. Nobody else seems to care one way or another, so it’s basically for my own amusement. I have these ridiculously complex systems of referents in Skin Horse that probably entertain only me.
[Editor's note: I think Shaenon underestimates how interesting those background details are; while I unfortunately missed most of them the first time through, I have been enjoying reading about them in her Cartoonist Commentary reposts.]
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Posted in Interviews
Tagged Mad science, Webcomic commentary