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Today's adventure: Spotlight on Hope Larson

“When I first discovered Hope’s work through Girl-a-matic, I knew I was looking at one of the brightest comic artists on the scene.  What I didn’t expect was how wonderfully prolific she would be. With this much talent and work ethic, it’s going to be difficult for the world not to notice.

” - Kazu Kibuishi, Daisy Kutter, Flight, Amulet

Ever since I started this weekly column at Pop Syndicate, I’ve wanted to use it as a place to encourage comic book professionals. There’s so much negativity floating around; I figured I could offer a positive alternative. Simply to spotlight talented individuals, and give a quirky (if not sometimes disjointed) perspective on the artform we all know and love, ambiguously named “comics”.

I first discovered Hope’s work through my obsession with Oni Press and the Flight anthology. Later, I interviewed her for Fanboy Radio‘s monthly Indie Show (episode #239). As I’ve read both Salamander Dream (published by AdHouse Books) and Gray Horses (published by Oni Press), I see Hope as an artist who enters the comic book medium fresh with no prejudices or expectations for what makes a comic book what it is. Armed with only the loosest of definitions for graphic storytelling, she experiments every step of the way. As a result, she creates something refreshing and brand new for the medium.

www.hopelarson.com

“I guess if anything I just want to call attention to the fact that Hope wasn’t even interested in making comics three years ago. Now she’s got two books and countless short stories under her belt, plus a two-book deal for the future. This time last year, her first book hadn’t even been released. She moves fast.” - Bryan Lee O’Malley, Hope’s husband and creator of Scott Pilgrim, Lost at Sea

 

** The Pixie Stix Incident **

“All I remember is that Hope’s husband was doing a signing at the Oni booth and she was ready to bail and go see the convention floor. James Lucas Jones and I had brought it upon ourselves to bring a heavy stock of gigantic pixie stix to the con, and before Hope left the booth I noticed she had a Pepsi in her hand. We all knew what happened when you mixed the two, so I shoved one of the two foot long stix in Hope’s hand and sent her on her merry way across the convention center. Like an hour later she comes bouncing into the Oni booth, laughing to the point of hysterics. Laughter is contagious to me, so I immediately burst into a fit, and within 60 seconds of her return arrival, Hope was in tears. Literal waterfall-down-the-face tears. Except she’s still laughing so hard that she can’t breathe. And she’s still crying, too. Hope is hardcore.” - Ian Shaughnessy, Strangetown, Shenanigans

Hope’s side of the story:
“It was my first (and only!) San Diego, one of my first cons period, and I didn’t know to plan ahead and bring food with me.  Plus I was vegan at the time, so finding anything for me to eat was a challenge, and I hardly ate that weekend… I can’t remember another time when I was so hungry for so long.  At some point I was confronted with both a giant Pixi Stick AND a Pepsi, and consumed them both.  This is an insane amount of sugar under normal circumstances, but on an empty stomach?  I remember racing around the con for a while, laughing my head off, then returning to the Oni booth where I laughed so hard I literally cried. It was pretty extreme!”

Pixie Stix: OTC crack

Representatives for both the Pepsi-Cola Company and Pixie Stix were unavailable for comment in relation to this story.

 

Hope Larson Signs Two-book Deal with S&S
by Heidi MacDonald, PW Comics Week—5/30/2006
(http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6339176.html)

Hope Larson, the acclaimed cartoonist behind Salamander Dreams and Gray Horses, has joined the ranks of comics artists making the move to big publishing houses, signing a two-book deal with Ginee Seo’s YA imprint at Simon & Schuster.

The first book under the deal will be Chiggers, which Larson describes as a story about two nerdy 13-year-old girls. “Abby and Shasta meet at summer camp and bond over a crappy fantasy novel they both love. Abby is naive and unsure of herself, and her friendship with the more dynamic Shasta quickly takes over her life at camp. But Shasta has a secret. If I was writing shameless copy, it would be ‘an electrifying secret.’ “

The book was inspired by Larson’s own youth. “I wrote Chiggers because, at 13,

I was a huge nerd. I read fantasy novels, played Dungeons & Dragons, had a deck of Magic cards—but I also read Seventeen magazine and hung out at the mall.

There are lots of comics about nerdy boys, but fewer about nerdy girls, and I think there should be more!”

WIKIPEDIA OF THE WEEK: HOPE LARSON—>
She grew up in Asheville, North Carolina, and attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she graduated with a BFA in 2004. She then moved to Toronto with her husband, Bryan Lee O’Malley, where they remained for a little under a year before moving to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

“I’m very pleased to have been given the chance to work with Hope Larson, for a number of reasons. For one, she makes the type of comics that I really enjoy. Part innovative, iconic and ‘designy’, I think it’s

a new type of vocabulary that is being used within the sequential arts.

Second, she has taken the word to the street. With Salamander, she undertook an East Coast tour and promoted her book at a mainstream show, an alternative show, and a children’s book shop. And third, she’s a nice person. I look forward to reading her new creations.” - Chris Pitzer, AdHouse Books

THE SCOTT MCCLOUD CHESS CHALLENGE—>
The French Defense. Winawer Variation.

Hopkins - McCloud
1. e4   e6
2. d4   d5
3. Nc3   Bb4
4. e5

Remember the official 50 state tour begins in September! Keep reading Scott McCloud’s blog for more details.

This concludes my fourth week of “Beneath the Underdog” for Pop Syndicate. Feedback appreciated. Discussion encouraged.
Come back next Thursday when we look at world events as shown through the graphic novel.