Have you had the prospect to take a look at Look On The Bright Side by Lily Williams and Karen Schneemann? In case you haven’t heard, Look On The Bright Side is the sequel to the duo’s Eisner Award-nominated graphic novel Go With The Flow.
Since each books are out there from First Second now, The Beat leaped on the alternative to interview Williams and Schneemann over e-mail. We requested all about together with the subject of endometriosis within the comics, about why it was essential to incorporate queer themes, and about any Easter eggs that eagle-eyed readers may discover. And ensure and let The Beat know if you happen to’ve had an opportunity to learn Look On The Bright Side but within the remark part.
AVERY KAPLAN: Look On The Bright Side is a sequel to Go With The Flow. How did this sequel come about? Can you inform us a bit of bit in regards to the response to Go With The Flow?
KAREN SCHNEEMANN: We had all the time recognized the place we needed the women’ story to go after Go With the Flow. Originally Abby, Brit, Christine and Sasha had been in our web-comic as younger adults, so we really aged them down to put in writing Go With the Flow. We had already given them fairly intensive backstories and we knew the place they ended up, so it wasn’t tough to fill in among the gaps in Look On the Bright Side. In normal, we’ve acquired quite a lot of constructive suggestions from readers of Go With the Flow and there have been just a few items of the women’ tales that we didn’t get to completely discover within the first ebook, so we’re actually completely satisfied to publish this sequel.
KAPLAN: Why is it essential to incorporate the subject of endometriosis in younger grownup comics? Lily, I perceive from the notes within the again that you’ve got had endometriosis surgical procedure. Did your expertise inform Brit’s story in any respect?
KAREN: I feel it’s actually essential to point out that there’s a variety of experiences relating to menstruation. As youngsters are rising up, it could actually really feel actually isolating if nobody else in your good friend group is experiencing the identical issues that you’re. We needed to supply a number of totally different experiences in our story to hopefully give extra folks one thing they may acknowledge and not really feel so alone.
LILY WILLIAMS: I can’t write about intervals with out writing about interval ache as a result of that’s my expertise. I didn’t know I had endometriosis till we had been inking Go With The Flow and I had excision surgical procedure on our deadline. Because of this, Brit was undiagnosed initially within the first ebook as I had no thought what was going on with me. We edited in some particulars final minute so we might allude to endometriosis within the first ebook and we needed to resolve it for readers in Look On The Bright Side with out forcing Brit to be in ache for the entire ebook. I needed Brit to have success and be capable to transfer ahead with solutions at a younger age, which was one thing I didn’t get to expertise till 14 years after my interval began.
KAPLAN: Look on the Bright Side contains storylines that discover queer themes. Can you inform us about together with these essential themes within the graphic novel?
LILY: Similarly to sharing several types of interval experiences, it’s sincere to share totally different lived experiences in identification. Like Karen mentioned earlier, we knew the place the women story was going to go however couldn’t accomplish all the things in a single ebook… so Look On The Bright Side contains the pure development of our characters tales. It’s essential to replicate the world you reside in, which for us additionally contains reflecting a few of our personal lived experiences and additionally these of the folks round us.
KAPLAN: Are comics a uniquely certified medium to inform tales about younger adults and rising up?
LILY: Comics are an incredible medium since you get to present the problems characters are dealing with. I feel there’s one thing highly effective about viewing intervals and the opposite points our characters face, which is why we selected comics versus every other medium to inform our tales. Comics are improbable instruments of visible literacy and it goes with out saying: graphic novels are books!
KAREN: Comics are additionally a extremely thrilling option to get youngsters concerned with studying. I’ve all the time been drawn to graphic novels for the wonderful artwork and the totally different kinds of portraying characters and feelings. Having youngsters of my very own, I’ve observed that artwork and photos are a extremely enjoyable method for them to get drawn into the story. Comics might be very approachable and much less intimidating than among the chapter books, so it felt like a good way to method a taboo matter like puberty and intervals.
KAPLAN: What artwork type issues go into telling a “grounded” highschool story, particularly one which entails matters like romance and menstruation?
LILY: There was quite a lot of consideration that went into the best way to design the characters. Our characters are in highschool, however the ebook is a center grade ebook and we instructed the story so higher elementary readers might learn it. This meant our characters needed to look their age, whereas the artwork type wanted to be interesting to a youthful viewers. I needed to strike a stability between element and simplicity. I took care to emphasise their personalities in every single place I might from costuming choices to particulars of their houses.
KAPLAN: Do both of you will have a specific artistic routine? What does your strategy of collaboration seem like? Has it modified within the time because you first started working collectively?
LILY: Karen and I made a pact that we’d all the time be sincere with one another and we caught to that. We write collectively on the identical time on video name (as a result of we stay in numerous states) and in a single doc. Our phrases are actually written collectively and due to this honesty we’ve as mates and collaborators, I feel we’re in a position to actually dig into the work. When it involves the artwork, I feel having a background in animation has helped me deal with the sheer quantity of labor that’s required to make comics. I noticed once I completed the artwork, I’d completed over 1,000 pages on this ebook alone in a 12 months! This contains all of the rounds of revisions. I all the time make sure that to maintain Karen up to date on the artwork as I’m going by it and she offers me suggestions.
KAREN: Lily and I’ve all the time by some means managed to be in sync with one another relating to writing. We nearly all the time agree on the story arcs for every character and we all know them every so properly by now that it’s nearly as in the event that they actually exist for us. As Lily talked about, we’re very sincere with one another and it’s actually enjoyable to debate how every totally different character would react in numerous conditions. We do return and forth loads once we edit, and we all the time appear to get to a spot that we each really feel actually good about. I really feel so fortunate to have the ability to collaborate on this writing course of with such good friend and it’s really enjoyable to have the ability to dive in once we obtain a brand new set of notes from our editor. On Go With the Flow, we each lived within the Bay Area and had been in a position to get collectively in individual to put in writing collectively, however Lily has since moved to Colorado, so we’ve been working over video requires Look On the Bright Side. As a co-author of this collection, I feel my favourite half is seeing Lily’s paintings for every of the scenes. Sometimes I’ve an thought in my head of what it seems like or we’ll even speak about the place the characters needs to be within the scene, however once I see the precise drawings, I’m blown away. They’re all the time so participating and they actually convey the story to life.
KAPLAN: Have you had the prospect to listen to from any particular person followers of the collection, younger or outdated?
LILY: Yes, we’ve been so lucky to get to listen to from readers! When an creator launches their ebook, it’s usually like tossing the ebook right into a void the place you hope it’s going to land amongst the individuals who need it and want it. We can solely hope folks embrace it and like it and we’ve been actually fortunate that there have been quite a lot of readers who’ve reached out. We’ve heard from curious readers who requested about what would occur to every of the characters, readers who challenged their faculty to have free menstrual merchandise and even readers who used the ebook as a option to discuss to their youngsters. Anytime you let an creator know their ebook was appreciated… properly, we actually recognize it.
KAREN: I feel essentially the most thrilling half for me is to listen to from my very own youngsters and their mates who’ve learn the ebook. There had been quite a lot of requests from their mates for an additional ebook, so I’m glad that we’ve a sequel now! My daughter is already asking about what may occur within the subsequent ebook, which appears like such excessive reward. We even have acquired quite a lot of wonderful critiques from individuals who recognize a ebook that talks about endometriosis, or individuals who say they wished this ebook existed once they had been youthful, or from mother and father who mentioned that it supplied a option to discuss to their youngsters about intervals.
KAPLAN: Are there any Easter eggs hidden in Look on the Bright Side that readers may in any other case overlook?
LILY: I all the time make sure that to stay rabbits within the artwork wherever I can. Keep an eye fixed out for the bunnies! I additionally had quite a lot of enjoyable with the outfits the characters put on, particularly making an attempt to convey out the Pride and Prejudice storyline visually wherever doable.
KAPLAN: Is it doable we are going to see extra of Brit, Abby, Christine and Sasha sooner or later?
We hope so! The librarians who despatched emails and shared our books and the booksellers who hand offered our ebook by the pandemic had been instrumental in us attending to make Look On The Bright Side after Go With The Flow. We are so grateful to them. So solely time will inform if we do one other!
Go With The Flow and Look On The Bright Side can be found now at your native bookstore and/or public library.
Like this:
Loading…
Discussion about this post