Drawn

I’m a big fan of Hope Larson. She’s done some amazing work in some high profile anthologies (Flight I & II, You Ain’t No Dancer, and True Porn II), which has earned her a reputation as a rising star in graphic storytelling.

Hope released her first full length graphic novel, Salamander Dream, last month with AdHouse Books. I called her last week to ask her about the book, dig up some trade secrets, and find out how she’s finally getting over her fear of comic shops.

You studied illustration formally for a while didn’t you?

I only studied illustration for a year and then hopped over to the Art Institute of Chicago and was studying a mish-mash of different things. I was painting for a while, then I ended up in print-making and I was doing off-set and screen printing which really clicked with me.

You’re originally from North Carolina. Does Salamander Dream relate to your childhood there?

Yeah, completely. All the little bugs and the plants in there – those are all things I grew up with and things that I’m really familiar with and I wanted to share those so that’s why I included them in the book.

And I was thinking how cool it would be if maybe some kid out there gets the book and maybe they live some place where those things are around and they could use the book as an introduction into the creatures outside.

What drew you to comics?

I fell into comics by accident. Scott McCloud found my site and posted on his blog that I should be doing comics and immediately after that I got an offer from Leah Hernandez to do Girlamatic, which is an on-line subscription web-site so I tried that out and it didn’t really work out because I wasn’t ready to be doing a regular scheduled comic and I had no idea what I was doing.

So I went away from comics for a couple months and I when I came back I started doing more experimental things and book art and that just lead right back into doing comics and graphic novels and stuff.

Salamander Dream was originally serialized on your web-site where it was snapped up by a publisher. That was a clever way to use the internet.

I don’t really see myself as a web-cartoonist at all. Everything I do is intended for print eventually. But pretty much every cartoonist I know and a big chunk of my audience is on the Internet so it seemed like a natural thing to do.

The whole book is still available for free on the Internet. How has this affected the marketing of the book?

I have no idea. There’s a debate going right now at The Engine about whether it was a good idea putting the book on-line and keeping it on-line. That was one of the things that was important to me, though. I knew that after the book came out I wanted to leave it on-line as well. But we really have no idea how that’s working out.

Why is that important to you?

Because it’s so hard to find a comic book in a store. You have to put so much effort into actually finding stuff and you might have to pre-order it or you’re going to have to go into a store and deal with a jerk who’s not going to be very helpful especially if you’re a girl or somebody who doesn’t read a lot of comics and you’re not familiar with that whole system. That can be really intimidating.

So I wanted it to be available and I was thinking if people like it, maybe they will take the extra step and actually buy it.

Why don’t you think girls feel comfortable in comic shops?

When I first started looking for things in comic shops I was in my early teens. I was never really comfortable in most comic shops because I’d go in there and I’d look around and I’d see that almost nothing in the shop was intended for me.

It’s all comics with people with practically no clothes on and huge breasts and fighting and that kind of thing. I don’t have anything against that stuff but it doesn’t connect to me at all and it just kind of intimidates me.

Have you read Persepolis (by Marjane Satrapi)? Do you feel a connection with women writers?

Yeah, I’ve read it. I like to read stories about girls. And I like to read stories by girls. Because I think there are things that they understand that boys wouldn’t understand if he was writing a female character. Not that I have anything against books about men or books by men about women.

It’s nice when somebody’s coming from the same place that I’m coming from.

Do you feel restricted by the comic direct market?

Well, yeah. One of the problems is that there are only a couple of people who buy comics for Barnes & Noble and Chapters and Borders and if they don’t like your book it’s not going to be in any of those stores. It’s tricky to get in there. But I feel like that’s where I would like to be and need to be or I’m not going to get to the audience that I need to get to.

And as wonderful and supportive as everybody’s been in comics, it’s such a small community and you just can’t make a living off of that.

Your husband (Brian Lee O’Malley) is a comic book artist and you guys share a studio. I’m curious about how critical or supportive you are of each others’ work; what the professional relationship is.

We pretty much leave each other alone professionally. We share the space and we talk all day and listen to music, but there’s not a whole lot of somebody walking over to the other’s desk and looking over the shoulder. If one of us needs an opinion then we’ll ask for it but it’s just I think it would be too hard if we were constantly critiquing each other.

I want to ask you a few technical questions too because you have a very distinctive style. What do you use? A brush? Vectors?

Yeah, I use a brush. I use a Winsor & Newton (Series 7) No.1 brush although I want to switch up to a No.2 because I don’t think I’m getting quite the line variation that I’d like to get and I just use whatever ink is around.

Some people are really picky about their ink.

I’m starting to get pickier because Mal uses nicer ink than I do and his flows so much more nicely. I think I’m converted. Once I’m done with this bottle of ink I’m switching.

Maybe you could walk me through a page that you would do.

Alright, I’ll walk you through it. I take my page which is usually a sheet of 11×14” smooth Bristol board and I have a template for the page. So I just put the cardboard template on the page and I trace around the edge which is the dimension of my page, exactly.

Then I go in there with a triangle, with a pink or a blue or a green pencil and sort of loosely put in my panels and do all my sketches right on the page. I ink on top of that and never erase any of the blue pencils, so the inks stay sharp.

What’s your computer set-up? What’s the next step?

Then I scan my page and I have a whole bunch of actions set up. Actions are just the best thing, they save so much time. I threshold the page, I resize it, then add my spot colouring and lettering and I’m good to go.

You use Photoshop?

I use Photoshop for almost everything, except for the lettering when I use Illustrator for that.

How do you threshold?

I scan in the art at 600dpi (bitmap) and then I ramp it up to 1200dpi as a grayscale file, then I threshold and convert back into a bitmap at 1200dpi. I set it up as an Action in Photoshop and you never have to touch it again. Just press the button every time.

What comics are you reading right now?

The Clouds Above, by Jordan Crane. It’s full colour and it’s about this kid and his imaginary friend. It’s really beautiful and the colour is so amazing. It looks like the whole thing’s spot coloured, you can’t see the grain. I actually got to talk to him about it at SPX.

Well, he literally wrote The Book didn’t he, on scanning and colouring techniques? The Repro-Guide. (See reddingk.com for a free PDF of the Repro Guide)

He did. I can’t recommend it enough.

What are you listening to? What’s in your CD player?

Ryan Adams. Have you heard the new album?

No.

It’s really good. You should listen to that. I like the new double album. And a lot of Of Montreal. Which is good drawing music because it’s up-beat and it’s high energy.

What’s next for you?

I’m working on a book for Oni Press called Gray Horses. It’s loosely based on the time I spent in Chicago. It’s about this French exchange student who moves to Chicago and tries to fit in. She has crazy dreams about this sick little girl who she’s trying to help.

I’m really excited about it because I think it’s a big step from Salamander Dream.

How is it different from Salamander Dream?

It’s a lot denser and there’s dialogue. I just feel like it’s all clicking a bit more with this book.

Are you more comfortable with something?

I have this whole system set up now so I didn’t really have to start from scratch

I know you have a pretty rigid schedule.

I do six pages a week, usually. I pencil two pages one day and then I ink two pages the next.

Does that take a lot of discipline or is it always fun?

It’s not fun. (laughs) It feels like work. But it’s really rewarding afterward and I really prefer doing the longer pieces to the short stories. I think that people get a lot more out of it and it allows me to explore things a lot more fully.

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Salamander Dream can be read in its entirety on-line at: http://www.secretfriendsociety.com/

To purchase Salamander Dream or learn more about Hope Larson and her comics, visit her web-site:
http://www.hopelarson.com