The Terrible Anvil Season 3: Mentor Dialogues. Episode 1: Emil Wilson and Emily Waters. Today on the call we got to hear from Emil Wilson, who recently published his first graphic novel, The Nightingales (worth noting Emil is in his fifties and studied at The Center for Cartoon Studies later in life, so it’s never too late, whether you are younger or older than that age—your time is now!) Emil was in conversation with current GNI’er Emily Waters about making memoir. Tom Hart rebooted our podcast, The Terrible Anvil, to have these two creators discuss their work. One cartoonist is in the thick of it, and one is on the other side of a published book. (That said, Emil is in the throes of figuring out the next one—!) Tom started with some questions for both of them, each of them, and then, pretty soon, Emil and Emily were in conversation and troubleshooting the creative process from the inside. It’s hard to paraphrase how thrilling this was! But here are some highlights: Tom’s major question for both creators: When are you exploring and when are you deciding? How do you move from fishing in the dark to moving forward? Emil wanted to use the entire page and find an easier editing process - and embody spontaneity - so he chose a sketchbook style and format for his graphic novel Emily is painting on brown paper bags to get the ideas out Please buy Emil’s book! Or request it for your library! DOGS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN - MAKING SPONTANEOUS CHARACTERS AND ART Emily wondered, How to find a visual language to tell a story? And then Tom mentioned the role of animals, dogs more specifically, and other visual overlaps in both stories. Tom asked Emil: When telling your own story, what parts to include, amplified, where to start and end? Emil: I didn’t change that much of the parents’ personalities. The character Lou is a hybrid of my sister and myself. I include myself in the book and I wasn’t that easy to deal with. So, mostly accurate. Emily: I’ve always been attracted to people who lived super large. Where am I in this book? I am trying to figure out how to put myself in the book. Emil asked Emily: Why did you want to tell this story? Making comics takes years to do. When I think about stories I want to do, they have to tick certain boxes. Emily: some of it is, I love new York. I love running into weird people and weird situations…..New York was really fun. Part of it was, being a witness to something that was really amazing. You could be poor and all these things and be in the middle of it. But I also saw all these people getting sick and dying. EMIL’S ADVICE FROM HIS LITERARY AGENT AFTER HIS FIRST PITCH FAILED When I pitched my first chapter unsuccessfully. My agent said to go back and work on it and think about one thing: a lot of people read books to see a transformative experience. The girl has to be a different woman at the end of the book - there’s a wordless spread where she’s bobbed her hair--she’s gone to NY and the haircut means that. Emily shared how her own character self evolved in her story: I thought I would be the person to take care of this person I love. (My goal was to) Stay healthy. We were together for a long time and I realized at 36 I wanted to have a baby. All of a sudden there was a shift, from caretaking to wanting something from him…..I didn’t know whether I would be trampled by this situation. Emil to Emily: Embrace the complicated parts - what would the reader ask about it? What do you know to be true about your experience? you are the unique piece to the narrative. That point of view is what I love about your work. What’s interesting about writing memoir from an older place, you might think about all the things you didn’t think then - those ideas could be interesting to the reader. One of these benefits of making the book was getting to understand my mom more than I did as a younger person. WHAT TO INCLUDE AND LEAVE OUT OF A MEMOIR GNI’er Sol A.G. asked: I’m also in the process of creating a graphic memoir and struggling with what all would make sense to include. Do you have any advice for how to focus your memoir story? Emily: Make a list of story beats (via Pixar story spine exercise she got from Tom via the graphic novel course materials) Emil: Think of a character transforming. There is an impulse to include EVERYTHING. But everything’s not important to everyone. Curate what is important, editing out the scenes that don’t support the main thrust of the story, avoid being tangential. Or, use the Mari Kondo method of memoir - throw it out! Emily: Lean into what’s difficult. Emil: Write about the things you’re afraid of. ON STARTING A NEW PROJECT Emil shared the difficulty of his latest, in-progress project, his desire to try to find a visual language that’s different and unique to this new book is helping redefine book themes. There are scenes of dialogue interspersed with prose and he’s trying to make it work - no exposition language. Emil - I’ve done this before, I just don’t know what I’m doing. Experimentation leads you to someplace. Prioritize what’s important to you. Maybe not fight own style, but try something new. FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR MATERIAL Emil on his new book: I am so in love with this book! Emil: I share a presentation of a book (via Belletrist, an online book club) where the drawings slowly populate the page over several slides as I read - the problem is the audience is so quiet so that I feel I am bombing, no laughs. Then people erupt. Can I have a signal before the end? That’s challenging! -------------------------------- Recorded at SAW on Zoom The Terrible Anvil How do you make comics without all the frustration? Without feeling lousy and inadequate all the time? With the Terrible Anvil of daily deadlines! And a community, and mindset shift about what it means to make comics and art. Jess Ruliffson and Tom Hart are working through the whole process, one piece at a time, turning frustration into fun and glee. Thanks for being here! -------------------------------- Recorded at SAW on Zoom Subscribe now Join Us in the Graphic Novel Intensive Share Leave a comment Get full access to How to Make a Graphic Novel at sawcomics.substack.com/subscribe
