INTERVIEW: LEA HERNANDEZ
BY ALEC AUSTIN

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Lea Hernandez is perhaps best known as the writer/artist of her Texas Steampunk graphic novels, Cathedral Child and Clockwork Angels. She's been working in comics for more than 14 years as an artist, colorist, and letterer, and once upon a time she was the writer for Wizard magazine's Manga section. In recent years, she's contributed work to Dignifying Science, The Big Book of Urban Myths, and Transmetropolitan, to name just a few of her credits. She's currently publishing Rumble Girls: Silky Warrior Tansie as a limited series through Image. You can learn more about her work at her website, divalea.com.

Q: I gather that Rumble Girls, as a project, is something that you've been working on for quite some time now. Could you tell us a little about the genesis of the series and how it came to take its current form?

It's genesis was in my disgust with lousy sci-fi, especially sci-fi aimed at girls/women. The sort of sci-fi where the protagonist is hugely talented, or unique, and everyone else either wants to posess her or fuck her over for it. The "Everyone hates me 'cause I'm so special." thing. I find that hugely fucking tedious. Give me instead some Madeline L'Engle, where the heroines (and heros) are real people, and they might have some amazing talent, but they're also not without flaws and fallibility--it's the flaws AND the gifts that drive them. As opposed to the story being propelled by only by someone else's jealousy of our wonderful heroine.

Now, of course, RG is also about pop culture and manufacturing celebrities and consumer culture, and taking down females if they appear to be too powerful.

Q: How has working on Rumble Girls been different from working on Cathedral Child or Clockwork Angels?

It's a shitload more production work, for one thing. With CC and CA, I do the backmatter, design endpapers and a cover, and boom, I'm done. I have to do this every time I do an issue of RG. It's like an Ironman challenge or something.

While the serial format's allowed me to have something in shops about every two months or so, it's been a bitch getting some shops to carry it, or carry enough to last more than a few days. Very frustrating. It's also been a struggle to break past people's resistance to pre-ordering.

The other thing that's different is that I'm putting more work into RG in terms of making my commentary on the illness in certain parts of pop culture. I mean, I'm putting in lots of things I've said before, but I have to think of where to put them. I also find myself refining and refining scenes so the pacing is just so. I did that on CC and CA, but I'm doing it more and more on purpose and less by accident.

Q: I know that Warren Ellis is credited as Consulting Editor for Rumble Girls: Can you tell us what that means in terms of his involvement with the project?

He mainly gives things a once-over and says "carry on", and is a sounding board. He writes when issues have come out and makes suggestions. He helped me clear up how I was pacing and drawing fight scenes--got me into using the perfectly good grid for them. He also takes it upon himself to pester people to read RG, for which I worship him. And, of course, write back-ups for it.

Q: You mentioned pre-ordering. Assuming readers have already pre-ordered their copies of Rumble Girls and would like to do more to support the book, is there anything in particular you'd like them to do?

For this, they have my heartfelt appreciation--pre-ordering is far and away the best way to support and show support for a title in the current market. As for more support: turn a friend on to RG (many readers have done this already), print out one of the Poppy flyers (links on my main page at www.DivaLea.com), and show it to their retailer and encourage more shelf copy ordering, emphasizing that Poppy is written by Warren Ellis.

Q: What's the creative process like for you as a writer/artist? Do you work from an outline and develop the page layouts and the script at the same time, or does one get nailed down first and the other follow?

I write what I call a "fat" outline, which is a detailed breakdown of the major scenes of a given issue, with the pages each will need, and usually includes dialogue that comes to me as I'm writing or that I knew months ago would be used.

After that, I break it down page by page, writing each panel's action and dialogue. I am developing the layouts in my head at this point, I'll have notes in the script about the size of panels, or what element of the page is most important, or should draw a parallel between that page and another.

I did try "Marvel style" with RG 4: working from a page by page breakdown of the issue's plot, and I nearly went nuts. I just didn't feel comfortable not knowing everything that was going to go into the issue. (Which is not to say I can't work from a plot--I can--just not on my own stuff.)

Q: In addition to being a comics creator, you're a working parent. What influence does this have on your comics work?

Well, I can write and draw children convincingly, something that is not too many artists' long pair of pants. They're a source of inspiration: the scenes of baby Glory and Sumner in Cathedral Child are based on my daughter. "Don't be a sad", "Give you pat-pat, make it better", "You eyes is breaking" and "Get your face away from me!" are all things my daughter has said.

I also see from my kids how being utterly fearless and supremely confident in one's drawing makes not just works of great charm and expressiveness, but something that brings the artist a lot of joy and pleasure.

Q: What do you like most about working in comics today?

It's a very exciting time to be doing comics. There hasn't been such a variety of titles I enjoy or that I'm least happy someone's doing, since the 80's. It's also far, FAR easier to reach an audience, thanks to the Internet and World Wide Web--the web has massively expanded creator's ability to get news to their/an audience in a timely fashion, and it can cut out print media that's either erratic or extremely specialized.

Q: What pisses you off the most about comics today?

'Artists' who swipe and get kudos and money. Mainly money, their audience doesn't exactly have critical acuity beyond, "D0od Ur m@nga roooolz!!!!!". But still, that their stolen goods make far far more than the works they've swiped from galls me.

Creators who put out their "on time" series a couple-three times a year (or less) and still sell 30K plus (or more).

People who buy this shit and say, "Well, the art's cool, and I know it's a total rip-off, but maybe it'll bring more people to anime and manga." That's like saying if I go steal a PT Cruiser, I'll make Chrysler more money because people see me driving around in it and see how cool it is and buy one for themselves.

Manga "purists" who rip on my work because it's not "real" manga. I challenge anyone to find where -I've- called it that. I have no pretensions about WHAT my work is. I'm not copping a style because it's hot. The pretension lies entirely in the eyes of the beholder, and I urge them to take off their shit-colored glasses and stop being fucking culture snobs.

Retail stores who sell out of my book in four days and say they ordered low because my book doesn't sell well. Sold out in four days isn't selling well? Someone please explain that to me.

The way the business rewards creators who do company spandex books. It seems to be nearly the only way to get attention, numbers and readers to creator-owned books. It's maddening.

People who've refused to buy/order my books because they're from Image. Glad to hear you don't care for the titty books. Good for you. I have no fucking control over those, only mine, and my book isn't one of those. Sorry you're of the opinion all Image Central books blow. Too bad you don't crack any of them open to make sure you're right.

I was going to go on about conventions, too, but since I'm not going to any of the ones that pissed me off, I don't care.

But fuck all the above wankers, THANK YOU to all the people that DID give my work a try, readers and retailers alike. 99% of them found it to be well worth their time and money. Those of you who are smart but still neutral--give it a try. Really!

Q: What has working with Image been like?

It's been better than self-publishing. What I liked about the first two and a half years is that once I found my legs, I just had to tell them what I'd be doing, set a date/schedule, turn in my solicitation materials, and get the art to Quebecor. Functionally self-publishing, but with a decent spot in Previews, and someone to deal with the printer, and no creative interference.

Q: Have things changed since the first two and a half years? Can you comment on how?

Quite honestly, I'm not ready to answer this question until February, if ever.

This is tricky to answer without sounding bitter, which I'm not, or repellently angry, which I might be.

As with my shit list, I'd rather focus on what's ahead of me, which is very good indeed. No one who's supporting my work or who's yet to discover it will go without.

Q: What are your plans for your future work in comics after you finish up RG: Silky Warrior Tansie?

I want to do at least one issue of a Spandex book for one of the Big Two. I'd love to do Batgirl; in fact, that's about the only Spandex company character I care enough about to want to do, aside from the original Excalibur team from Marvel.

I'm in the middle of a great accidental experiment: can one gain wide recognition AND a decent check without some o' dat Spandex magic? So far, the answer is, "You CAN have the recognition, but the check, er, well..."

That said, here's what's on the plate for the coming year or so: Painted graphic novel with Warren Ellis writing, subject TBA, a RG OGN entitled Rumble Girls: The Miss Akiyama Project, an RG: SWT collection, a series with a well-known writer who is NOT Warren Ellis, and the third Cathedral ChilD book late 2001 or early 2002.

Q: What do you see as the future of comics? How much resemblance does it bear to what you'd like the future of comics to be?

I frequently have what some people call "moments of knowing", and I'm also quite handy with the gut feelings, but I have no clue what the future of comics will be.

Most comics retail stores are stinking holes, and it's fucking hard, TOO FUCKING hard, to find a good store. I hope resources like the-master-list.com will help change this.

Another bright spot is Publisher's Weekly now devoting a section every quarter, to graphic novels. This means getting that idea of a comic with a spine under the noses of people who sell books for a living.

The creative, publishing and retailing end of the business has to change, too, to take advantages of a possible market-to-be. From the top down, publishers to retailers to professionals, it is poisoned by people who are in moods ranging from bafflement to snit about women daring to make comics. (I don't include fans, because I'm finding out more and more that the fans who won't buy a book because of the gender of a creator are far outnumbered by the readers who just want a good story.)

There are LOTS of people in the business who are NOT in a freakout about women (like Warren Ellis, who goes above and beyond), but for every one of them, there's one that's not, and he's got at least two bimbos in his booth and a banner of a woman's crotch or boobs above his head.

May all these gill-breathing dinosaurs soon mutate into mammals with forebrains and opposable thumbs that don't drag the ground, or perish and leave the comics ecosystem for people who give a shit about the world's most amazing and emotionally direct artform.

To make a long answer short, I see comics can evolve, and see they ARE evolving, and it's very exciting to begin to percieve a slow turn towards an industry where all genres are embraced. I want to see the people making and selling them evolve too. Now, let's see if they do.

Q: Before we go, are there any books or comics that have impressed or influenced you that you'd like to recommend to Savant's readers?

Finder and Mystery Date by Carla McNeill. I really love her use of texture, and made good use of what I saw in Clockwork Angels. (She, in turn, put a very freckled girl in Finder: King of the Cats as an homage to Amy in Clockwork Angels.)

Castle Waiting, by Linda Medley. Not for her drawing or storytelling (which are top notch), but for her sense of vision.

Ty Templeton. I love the way he puts together a story. There is no one better at making 24 pages rich.

Scott McCloud. Okay, he ties with Ty for richness in 24 pages. Scott is the master of the cliffhanger. And he's funny. And he gets the little things about life right.

Almost anything by Carl Hiassen, especially Striptease, Stormy Weather and Native Tongue. He is the master of the gruesome comeuppance.

Anything by Diana Wynne Jones, who was writing about witches and warlocks amongst normal folk LONG before J.K.Rowling.

Speaking of J.K., her books are much-maligned by lit snobs, and unjustly. They're good fun reads.

Madeline L'Engle. Anything, but especially her Austin Family books, her Time trilogy, The Arm of the Starfish and Ring of Endless Light. She writes real and complicated people, not perfect ones.

Joyce Vedral, Phd. She writes books about weight training. More comics people should be doing something to offset hours in a chair. The 12-Minute Workout is perfect for people perpetually oon deadlines.

I also love the works of the writing and art team CLAMP, but mainly because they're pretty; Tomoko Taniguchi, for her romantic slice-of-life shojo.

The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and Mark Bryan. This book has changed the lives of so many people who want to be creative but have misplaced their courage or lost their way. It is a self-directed 12-week program to teach a person how to reconnect with their "lost" dreams. I did and finished TAW the year before I made what I swore would be my final pitch of Cathedral Child for comics. I sold CC to Image. I still own the knowledge that I was focused and strong enough to do something for twelve weeks without promise of compensation or penalty. That's a powerful feeling. It's worth having.

How to Write a Book Proposal, by Michael Larsen. A must for people who want to pitch a comic, period. This book tells how to write a pitch that will SELL. I used it to write the pitch for CC and everything after.

Lastly, the How to Draw Manga series that is being offered through Diamond is pretty darn good for the deconstruction of characters, technique and storytelling. (Yes, the cover of "How to Draw Battles" does have a girl doing a kick to display her crotch. I didn't say it was flawless.)

Q: Thank you very much, Lea. Ladies and Gentlemen: Lea Hernandez.