Yesterday was father’s day and one of my favorite TV fathers is Greg Universe from Steven Universe. Apparently I’m not alone, as the guitar dad was recently given his very own one-shot comic courtesy of KaBOOM! Studios. And one of the people tasked to write the further adventures of Greg is Liz Prince, a cartoonist that made a name for herself with autobiographical comics like Will You Still Love Me If I Wet the Bed?, her Ignatz-award winning debut. Last year, Prince turned her talents to the YA market, releasing an account of her adolescence called Tomboy, a story that’s been a hit with teens and adults alike. With all that, she still had time to answer five questions for us.
I just read your story in the Steven Universe: Greg Universe Special and it was really great! How did you get involved with this special? Were you a fan of the show prior to working on the issue? And what makes Greg such an appealing character?
Steven Universe is great: I’d been following the show before I was contacted by kaboom! to contribute a story to the comic. Greg Universe is an awesome character because he provides a lot of comedic relief and heart to the show. Also, he is voiced by Tom Scharpling, so you know he’s got street cred!
This issue was your first published work that you wrote but didn’t draw, is that correct? What was that like? Did you feel confident sending your script off to Rachel Dukes or was there a feeling of anxiety about not having control over the art?
Yeah, as someone who has always writes AND draws their comics, this was a totally new experience! I was pretty confident in the script, but mostly because the way I write comics is panel by panel, with a lot of character direction. Since then I have had the pleasure of writing the Clarence comic series (also for kaboom!), which is drawn by Evan Palmer, and the whole experience has really shown me how much someone else’s hand can really enhance the story. I’ve been continually blown away by other artist’s ways of problem solving and storytelling in comics; I’ll visualize it a specific way in my head, and when I see what Rachel or Evan did instead, it’s almost always BETTER than I was picturing.
Your audience has grown a lot in the past year thanks to the release of Tomboy, which was your first work created specifically for the YA market. Were you a fan of YA lit before working on Tomboy and if so, what are some of your favorite books and authors? Were there particular titles you looked at for inspiration when creating Tomboy?
Honestly, writing Tomboy for a YA audience was very stressful for me at first, because I didn’t have a solid understanding of what is “age appropriate” for the genre, so I decided to write the book the way it felt natural for me to write it, with the idea that the editor would point out things that didn’t work. When all was said and done, we kept the book the way I wrote it, so either I hit the mark, or we’re just redefining what “age appropriate” really is. It has been a little frustrating to see reviews of the book that admonish it for it’s use of curse words and/or frank discussions of sexuality, because the message of the book is so much more important that keeping kids away from those things, but I think that the book really gains strength from not shying away from what my experience as a kid really was.
I was looking at Raina Telgemeier’s book Smile a lot while I was writing Tomboy, because that book is, at least as far as I’m concerned, the epitome of all-ages comics; my book is, of course, a lot different from Smile, but I’d like to think that I’ve been able to craft a story that is enjoyable for adults as well as teens.
I’ve found from being a librarian that Tomboy has not only been popular with young people, but with their parents. Was that kind of cross-generational appeal in your mind when creating the book and how has the reception made you feel?
Y’know, it’s funny, because I was very focused on creating a book for teens that would have appeal for adults, but the idea that PARENTS would read the book had never crossed my mind (I still live in a punk bubble and a lot of my friends don’t have kids, so I don’t interact with a lot of parents). But a lot of parents have read the book, and have written me some very inspiring emails about their own gender nonconforming children, and it’s turned out to be the most rewarding aspect of this whole experience (well, the fan letters I’ve gotten from some choice 9-15 year old tomboys rank just as high).
I was at wedding yesterday and a woman was there with her husband and 2 kids, and she was very excited to meet me, and to tell me that reading Tomboy helped her understand her own daughter better, who was (I think) 6 years old, wearing a striped t-shirt and khaki pants at a formal event. Those kinds of interactions will never stop blowing my mind.
Comic book fans and punk rock fans are some of the most intensely passionate people about their interests. Do you find a lot of similarities between shows and conventions? What is something one group can learn from the other?
One of my favorite things about punk, at least at the DIY level, is how accessible and approachable it is; for the most part, my experience in punk has been as a fan who has been able to foster friendships with the musicians whose music I enjoy. Small press comic shows and zine fests definitely reflect that same accessibility, but mainstream comic conventions seem to have too much of a hierarchy, with SPECIAL GUESTS and long lines to get autographs and stuff like that.
I’m not throwing shade, but it seems like the kinds of interactions at a larger scale con have a distinct line drawn between “fan” and “creator,” with less mingling in-between. I think that ultimately the goals and interests of punk and comics are pretty different, so I’m not sure that they can “learn” from one another, if anything, a zine fest is like a perfect marriage of the two.
Thank you, Liz! For more Liz Prince, check out her website: http://lizprincepower.com/
If you want to pick up a copy of the Greg Universe Special, head out to your local comic shop: http://www.comicshoplocator.com/
You can also get Tomboy at your local comic shop, or from your local library: http://ilsweb.lvccld.org/record=b1930386~S12
No Comments