Archive for March, 2009

Gavin Hignight is a film and television writer whose credits include Fox Kids’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and numerous short films and screenplays. He is also the author of the novel Sweater Party, and has contributed to magazines such as Geek, and L’uomo Vogue. Motor City is his first comic book series.
Jetilla Lewis is an illustrator and designer whose work has appeared in American Junior, and throughout independent comic festivals and at Comic Con International. She counts Koshun Takami, Matsuri Akino, and J. D. Huxtable among her inspirations. Motor City is her first graphic novel.

Carmine Magazine: For the readers who are not familiar with Motor City, can you please describe it?
Gavin Hignight: Motor City is a graphic novel somewhere between Japanese style Manga and American style comic books. It’s a mix of retro, horror, and a coming of age story. It follows Lexi, the youngest member of a 1950s era human street gang trying to defend their turf from all kinds of monsters.
Jettila Lewis: Motor City is a unique comic. It’s like classic horror with a bit of a modern twist.
You know those movies about the 50’s with the neighborhood of trouble makers and gangs? Picture that with ghouls and monsters! It’s pretty neat!

CM: Why did you decide to work on a comic book? Has it been as fun as you had hoped?
GH: After writing tons of scripts, trying to sell ideas in Hollywood, etc… I got frustrated. I just wanted to tell the kinds of stories that were floating around in my head. The medium didn’t matter. I was doing some work on the Fox Kids Ninja Turtles cartoon and I started thinking about its roots, about Eastman and Laird, about how awesome the original black and white TMNT comics were. And I thought to myself, I’m gonna do that. I’m gonna tell my story one way or another.
Although I read comics I had never really planned on being a comic guy. But writing it, and with artist Jettila Lewis, finally getting to see these worlds in my head realized in a quality manner, I really grew to like the medium. Now I will always do comics–Hopefully in addition to other mediums. It’s such a great way to write and experiment with ideas I never want to abandon it. The other thing about comics is that they have made me a much better writer of other material. Writing comics forces you to really analyze your dialog, because you don’t have that much room, so what your characters say really has to matter. No space for dribble.
JL: Comic books have always been a major interest of mine. Both reading and drawing them. I decided to take up working on Motor City because before, I’ve only made comics for my own enjoyment. I wanted to take the next step in making illustrating a career.
I’m not sure if the word “fun” would be an appropriate description of the experience, although I did very much enjoy working on it. I saw it more as a learning experience than something “fun” to do.
I had to do research, find reference photos and study things which I’ve never done with the little comics I would make for myself.

Carmine Magazine: For readers that are unfamiliar with The Create a Comic Project, how would you describe it?
The Create a Comic Project: The Create a Comic Project is a youth program that combines art and creative writing to stimulate interest in self-expression among school children. As the name implies, I rely on sequential art – comics – as the primary medium. I’ve designed the project for kids aged 8-12, though I have worked with teens on occasion.

I walk students through the facets of comic creation – page layout, word bubbles, captions, etc. – and introduce basic storytelling techniques. Students create two kids of comics: filling in empty word bubbles on existing comics and original strips with blank panel layouts. The former serves as a guide to the latter; students see how various artists compose their work and gain exposure to the myriad of art styles. Over a hundred different artists have given me permission to use their work for the project, including David Willis (Shortpacked), Erin Ptah (And Shine Heaven Now), Faith Erin Hicks (Ice, Demonology 101), and Kazu Kibuishi (Copper).

Currently, I’m working with the Collegiate YMCA of Pittsburgh and their after-school program to deliver weekly sessions. I’ve held one-shot workshops at several locations, including the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Braddock Carnegie Library, and Human Service Center.

CM: How did this project begin and why was it started?
TCaCP: The Create a Comic Project started out in an overseas classroom. In summer 2005, I was in Taiwan teaching English. The activities in the curriculum focused on spelling and grammar – there weren’t any that explored the creative side of the language. Inspiration came from two sources: the popularity of manga among my students and Yukihime’s Penny Arcade Remix (http://goviolet.com/?page_id=633), which steered me to the idea of using webcomics.

The first comic I used was Okashina Okashi (http://www.strangecandy.net), a pastiche of many of the manga elements my students were fond of. The results were fairly spectacular: my students loved to compete in teams to see who could create the funniest – and most grammatically correct – comics. The place where I worked ended up publishing the activity so other teachers across the island could use it in their own classes.

A few months later, I returned stateside for graduate school in New Haven, CT. The public library needed volunteers and I missed teaching, so I retooled the project into a standalone creative writing and art program. That’s how the project’s been used ever since.

(J. Baird with one of his students during one one of the New Haven Library sessions.)