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Whatve you got coming up?Ill start withShare Your Smile, which is kind of a how-to-journal book.
And thenGutsis a memoir in the vein ofSmileandSisters.
It takes place beforeSmile.
Its the true story of my struggle with anxiety as a young person.
It sees young Raina through therapy, which was a bit of a taboo subject at the time.
It feels to me like a bit of a prequel toSmile.
The inner workings of young Rainas head before she was in middle school.
Along those lines, what are the challenges of getting into young Rainas head?
Theres a little bit more writing involved and imagining all of the linking pieces of the story.
I actually spoke with an old teacher of mine briefly to channel some specific details of the story.
Whoa, what was that like?It was great.
It was a very short Facebook interaction.
And then I said, Hey, can I pick your brain for a second?
I just wanted to remember the name of an activity that we used to do in class.
So Ive been able to dig through those and those memories as well.
Im still somebody who deals with anxiety, so its almost like therapy.
For me, this is always a helpful exercise.
An hour is great, but most of these storytellers would like more in-depth, hands-on guidance.
Hopefully, itll inspire kids to create comics about their own lives.
Did you consult any of the classic works about how to make comics?
Will Eisner, Scott McCloud, any of that?Not really.
Were going for a younger audience than any of those books are used for.
This isnt a comprehensive how-to-make-comics book.
I was a kid that made comics without any guidance.
I read them and then I started making them.
Thats all I had to go on.
I know for sure there are plenty of young budding cartoonists out there who are doing the same thing.
Theyre reading a lot of graphic novels these days and they really like what they see.
So, Im hoping that this will give them another tool for their tool box.
It was done a page a week.
I wrote it and drew it and slapped it up on the internet.
People could read the story as it was unfolding.
It definitely had more of a punch-line structure.
Every single page had to stick on its own.
You were not going to get another page for a week, so there were beats on a page.
The reading pattern ofSmilefeels like a beat, whereas now, I write the whole story in one go.
So that means that not every page has to have a punch line on it.
Each bottom-right-hand-facing page has something about it that makes the reader want to turn the page.
So Im looking at my stories with that in mind, as opposed to a single-page format.
And, of course, now I have my editors weigh in from the very beginning.
This book,Guts, went through a lot of conversational stages with my editor and my beta readers.
One of my beta readers was a child psychologist and one of them was a teacher.
Because theres a therapist character, I just wrote from my memories.
This story had a slightly different shape at the beginning of this process.
It grew and it shifted and it became what it was about a year and a half ago.
Once it locked into place, it felt like it had always been there.
I know Im onto something good when its a story Ive thought about a lot anyway.
It feels like its always been there.
Im relieved, Im delighted, Im so glad I get to share it with my readers.
My favorite part of the onstage events is the Q&A.
I encourage the kids to not hold back.
I tend to get pretty real and dont pull punches when Im answering questions.
Its a really vulnerable experience.
Ive cried on stage, Ive had to take breathers sometimes.
I love seeing these young minds coming into themselves.
It really helps me, too.
Its for them, but its also very much for me, and I love it.
But we still have a year until the book releases, so Ive got time to get ready.
Anything else readers should know about the books?Just know that Im really excited.
I cant wait to talk to my readers.
So Im looking forward to doing it all over again.
