M.S. Harkness on the up-and-down of TIME UNDER TENSION

Time Under Tension, the new graphic memoir by M.S. Harkness (Tinderella; Desperate Pleasures), is accessible now at your native comedian store and/or public library. To mark the event, The Beat caught up with Harkness over Zoom.

We requested Harkness all about her artistic routine, the significance of the e book’s title, and about touring throughout the nation in assist of Time Under Tension‘s publication.

This interview has been edited for readability and size.

AVERY KAPLAN: Can you inform us about the genesis of this graphic novel? 

M.S. HARKNESS: I’m placing this out with the hope and understanding that it’s choosing up the place the earlier e book, Desperate Pleasures, left off. It’s the third e book in the collection that I’m doing simply being in my 20s. The final e book was fairly emo and fairly darkish and type of simply navigating a reasonably constant throughline of like trauma memoir that’s “in” proper now, I’d say… or, , carrying everybody out to the level of perhaps a bit bit being exhausted with it.

So the integration of having a booboo childhood and saying, “Okay, and now what next,” is what this e book is about. It’s not something linear, continuously coping with the frustrations of life, however nonetheless having to dwell life.

KAPLAN: While will probably be instantly apparent to some readers, are you able to clarify the title Time Under Tension and the way it pertains to this e book?

HARKNESS: It’s not tremendous apparent to people who find themselves comedian e book folks. My writer even took a pair of months to ask, “Wait, this is a weightlifting term?” And I mentioned, “Yeah, it’s the implication here.” It refers to love a form of coaching tempo, that while you get extra intermediate into lifting weights, it may be described in sure varieties of applications, which is the up-and-down of a repetition.

So in case you’re doing a bicep curl, it’s the coming down. The eccentric half of the carry. And what number of seconds it takes you to really try this curl developing. So it may be actually fast, or actually gradual and drawn out.

I wished to construct that pressure throughout the e book: the up-and-down, and the issues which might be the very apparent tedium of life however then are additionally the issues that really feel heaped upon me particularly. And simply making an attempt to get a foothold in something.

KAPLAN: Did any specific narrative challenges emerge whereas working on Time Under Tension? Conversely, did any components of the e book come collectively comparatively simply?

HARKNESS: This is the first e book that I used to be actually making an attempt to focus on telling a really straight narrative. The starting jumps round fairly a bit, mimicking the construction of the earlier e book, which had a bounce-around, virtually phrase affiliation, means of making an attempt to construct some sort of sample. It’s like when you may have a bit trauma mind the place issues will not be essentially really including up in a means that is smart. But you’re making an attempt to fill in the blanks the place your reminiscence isn’t fairly there.

And so after the first 60 pages, the place I’m introducing this character and the different characters that encompass them, it’s like, “Okay, now no more fucking around. Here’s a year of life.” A yr that was very formative, the place it was, “you have to you have to get your shit in a row.” Postgrad. That’s satisfying. And so it was from January or spring by way of December.

KAPLAN: Can you inform us about the format? I discover it’s just like Desperate Pleasures. Does this replicate the unique artwork?

HARKNESS: When I used to be with my earlier writer, Uncivilized Books, we have been making an attempt to determine precisely find out how to format the covers and make them really feel completely different from loads of memoirs. There’s the primary character proper on the entrance, perhaps trying away, or it’s a again view or one thing. And it’s “My Sad Story by Author.” And it’s a bit overwrought.

I’d prefer to assume that each one the issues I’m speaking about will grow to be a bit bit extra relatable normally as I claw my means by way of the specifics. And I wished it to really feel like a comic book. Like the covers are panels and that is the meat-and-potatoes of what the e book is.

And I really like a bit chunky e book. I like that it’s a gentle cowl. It’s not too valuable, it’s this little factor you may throw round and whip in your bag. And I really like how thick it ended up being. I’m like, I really feel like I made a manga. It’s like a bit disc I might throw round. And so I wish to preserve working inside that dimension for the collection, the place all of them match collectively.

KAPLAN: What’s your artistic routine like (you probably have one)?

HARKNESS: I inform myself I’ll do a specific amount per day. And then I often fall quick of that by a pair of hours, simply because I run out of daylight.

But once I’m at residence, I’ll attempt to get some sort of exercise in. If I’m working in any regard, I may be coaching different folks for a pair of hours in the identical fitness center and/or educating a category at the Columbus College of Art & Design, I attempt to sneak in drawing as a lot as I can. Especially if I’ve a deadline developing, I’ll be bringing my pages together with me.

So if a consumer cancels, or if the college students have work time, I’ll say, “I’ll check it on y’all in an hour. I’ll just sit here and draw my own comics for a bit.” You know, I simply sort of preserve it at my hip always. Because I really feel like that’s the solely means that you simply get a graphic novel executed. When you inexplicably have 45 minutes and your stuff’s already sort of arrange, it’s simple to knock out some bizarre texture panel borders or one thing that’s kind of fussy and appears utterly unimportant. But finally, it’s simply hours executed.

Now although, I’ve a studio in my home, a separate storage. It’s climate-controlled, and I’ve all my weightlifting tools in there, too. So it’s fairly “me” while you stroll in. The two elements of my mind are on show.

KAPLAN: At one level in Time Under Tension, Frank Santoro brings up the topic on girls in comics. I’m curious you probably have any additional reflections on the topic you’d prefer to share with us?

HARKNESS: When I used to be placing that in the e book, I used to be clearly doing it with love, as a result of Frank’s superb and nice, and I’ve loads of respect for him. And as with every character in any of these books, it’s not a lot that they’d a particular dialog with me, a lot is this type of like a mirrored image of a number of folks’s conversations with me.

I feel that it’s at all times fascinating. It’s not even essentially in a mansplaining means: sure folks of any gender can sort of come up and say, “You should make a Patreon. I really just think you should make a Patreon. Do that.” And I’m like, “Actually I have one, you want to sign up?”

You know, folks will, with love, wish to join with you, however perhaps simply out of intuition or wanting to speak to you in a pleasant or acquainted means, try to offer you recommendation on issues. And I prefer to assume that folks do have good concepts and would wish to share them with me, and I’m not averse to listening to them.

But I feel that in lieu of folks telling me that like I’m the voice of a technology, or “obviously, I should just do these three things, and then everyone will care about me,” I’m simply sort of like, “Or you could just give me money and give a shit about what I do.”

KAPLAN: What goes into depicting drug use in comics? Do you may have a selected method you’re taking?

HARKNESS: As far as the acid journey scene in Time Under Tension, I imply, I keep very sober and really tight and centered once I’m writing, producing, and doing every thing about my comics. And so I really did that scene at the very finish. I mentioned, “I need to get out of my habit to do this.”

Because, you probably have had the expertise of taking medicine and laying on the ground and drawing in your pajamas with your mates, it’s simply enjoyable. And it doesn’t observe any of these common tips that I’m doing so far as being very particular with all of the decisions I make in service to this complete factor.

So for an excellent couple of weeks, I received to simply get up and smoke weed and attempt to piece collectively visually like a bunch of completely different puzzle items. What this scene was is the expression of me and my buddy carrying tiny little Lolita hats and tromping round by way of this drug scene, but it surely’s additionally a narrative of her life. And I used to be referencing loads of written and recorded conversations that I had along with her, mirroring the earlier half in Time Under Tension the place I’m speaking about my very own life. And so I had loads of subject material I might cowl, and I didn’t wish to cowl it as extensively for her personal privateness. So it was sort of beneath the guise of, “Oh my god, we’re on acid. This is crazy.” And additionally I wish to simply draw, like a motherfucker and luxuriate in how wild every thing will be.

KAPLAN: I’ve to ask about the 9-foot bong. Was this an actual bong? Does it have an origin story?

HARKNESS: Well, so this bong existed in my life as a bong that I had a number of bongs earlier than this era in Time Under Tension. Prior to being in school, I took a number of years off to work meals service and smoke bongs. We had a gasoline masks bong, which was terrifying. We had a number of completely different doodads and contraptions, gravity bongs, no matter. So this bong did exist in some unspecified time in the future. It was some extent in my life the place I used to be doing little or no drawing and consuming damaged Subway cookies for dinner.

I did that for an excellent two years earlier than I crawled out of that gap. And I’m positive it’s going to come up once more, in some unspecified time in the future, however not a complete lot of particular or fascinating tales from that point interval. Just something conceivable so far as being a deadbeat piece of shit.

KAPLAN: I perceive you’re presently on tour in assist of Time Under Tension. How has that been going? Do you may have any memorable experiences thus far? Any stops you’re particularly trying ahead to?