1. What drew you to making comics/graphic novels?
As a young child, characters like Snoopy and Superman captivated me. I would try to draw them, and eventually started drawing my own characters. I think I never lost that fascination with drawn characters who felt alive and could do magical things, on the TV screen and on the page.
2. Please tell us about your creative process.
I love pencil and paper - keeping a notebook, and a sketchbook. Sometimes I'm working in a few sketchbooks at the same time. I'll doodle, or sketch things from life, or thumbnail comics pages. And write poems, flash fiction, and dialogue, just to see what develops. Most of my ideas come out of the practice of writing and drawing regularly.
3. What do comics allow you to do in sharing stories and information?
I was always an introvert, so comics became my voice for communicating things to the world. At times, I have had the opportunity to get health information out in comics form, which is meaningful to me. And at other times, I am happy just to make a little joke in a comic strip, because people need to laugh.
I also enjoy exploring history in my comics, which involves a lot of research. So making historical comics becomes a way I interact with the world of the past, in an effort to present it as accurately as I can to readers.
4. What message would you share with young creators?
I teach comics to people of all ages, and an important thing that I like everyone to know is that making comics is something that most anyone can do. If you can draw some basic shapes, and write words, you have everything it takes to put your ideas into comics form. With practice you'll get better and better at it. So don't let anything stop you from creating the comics you want to make.
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