abbycomix

PULSE INTERVIEW FOR COMICON.COM JUNE 2003 BY JEN CONTINO

When Abby Denson noticed a lack in the type of comics she wanted to read, the creator began making her own stories. Now, besides her independent work, she’s working on Powerpuff Girls, Nickelodeon, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Abby Denson never really thought she’d work in comics when she was a youngster reading them, but all that changed when she got into manga and noticed how diverse those types of comics are. When she’s not making comics, she likes to make music, but spent some of her downtime talking to THE PULSE about her inspirations, influences, and ideas. THE PULSE: Why comics? Most women don’t think, “Oh someday I want to work in comics.” How’d you get to this point? ABBY DENSON: Ever since I was a kid I loved reading comics. My mom used to drop my younger brother and I off at the comic shop with a little money and we’d go wild! I liked to draw but never thought I’d work in comics because I felt drawing the same characters over and over would be boring. I read superhero comics (X-Men, Alpha Flight, Daredevil, Spider-Man) as a pre-teen/early-teen. In high school and college I got into manga and indie comics like Ranma 1/2, Tank Girl, and Love and Rockets. When I was majoring in Illustration at Parsons and got more into manga and anime. At an anime convention I found Shoujo (girls’ comics) manga and Shounen-ai (romance comics for girls about gay boys) at a panel run by fellow Powerpuff writer Jenn Moore. I decided to do my own Shounen-ai comic TOUGH LOVE since I never saw any American ones like that. Basically, I started doing comics because there were comics I wanted to read that nobody else made yet. I self-published it as a mini-comic (inspired by punk-rock zines which I’d dabbled in earlier and also my class-mate/now band-mate Jenny Gonzalez’s Kronikle Komix) and sent it to cartoonists I liked and a few magazines. XY Magazine picked it up as a serial and I had my first published comic! I joined Friends of Lulu and met cool industry folks like Heidi McDonald John Green, and Dave Roman (and many others) through that organization. TOUGH LOVE ran for two years and I learned a lot about keeping up pace in stories. When I graduated college I visited the DC offices to look for work and Heidi asked me to pitch for the upcoming POWERPUFF GIRLS comics series. Luckily my pitches went through and since then I’ve been doing all kinds of licensed work. Most recently for SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH from ARCHIE comics. I also have a SCOOBY DOO #73 coming out soon. Joan Hilty is my editor now and she is great too. Soon after, John Green offered me some work in DISNEY ADVENTURES comics. I scripted the first Christina Aguilera comic ever! Then Dave Roman started offering me licensed NICKELODEON MAGAZINE comics work here and there. Mostly ROCKET POWER but I’ve got some WILD THORNBERRIES in there and an upcoming AS TOLD BY GINGER coming out. I got into doing some SIMPSONS COMICS work through Jesse McCann. I met him on a kid’s panel at San Diego Con a few years ago and he is so cool and sweet! He had extra approved pitches and asked me to help fill them out since he has such a huge workload. This was in response to a mass e-mailing I did asking people to help me find work when I was broke. It really worked! Most recently I was contacted by Holly Golightly, who I’d known through comics over the years, she’s very cool! She had been working on Sabrina The Teenage Witch and helped me get into contact with Victor at Archie Comics, so I’m working on Sabrina too now. She does the pencils and scripts some of the stories, and Al Nickerson is the inker. I knew Al too from years ago, so it’s cool being on a team of friends who also happen to be fantastic artists! Small world! In the meantime (while doing all the licensed work) I’d been doing my own comics too; S.P.O.L., NIGHT CLUB, KOI FISH, JAMIE STARR TEEN DRAG QUEEN, DOLLTOPIA, DEADSY CAT, etc. THE PULSE: What do you like the best about working in comics? DENSON: The great people I’ve met! Being able to tell any story I want with barely any budget. Using my imagination to create what I want to happen. THE PULSE: What, if anything, do you dislike about the medium? DENSON: Too time consuming; it does cost money to self-publish. When I have to draw crowd scenes or other ultra-detailed/crowded panels that feels like a drag. So I usually avoid it. The technicalities of printing and distribution. THE PULSE: You’ve worked on a variety of projects over the past few years. What inspired Dolltopia? DENSON: Just thinking about how I liked dolls and a lot of my friends do too. I made a short film a while back with my band mate Lisssa called GASTRO GLAMOUR. It had stop-motion animated sex scenes with dolls. She is a big doll fan and a stop-motion animator. I always liked movies, books, and comics with dolls. I had a lot of Barbies as a kid (and plenty of Barbie knock-offs too). When I see a doll I want to pick it up and make it talk and move. If I see two dolls I want to make them kiss. It’s a compulsion I guess. Ha! Ha! Anyway I was just thinking; what if the dolls rebelled and didn’t want to do what we made them do anymore. What if there was a place they could go to be independent. I decided to make a comic about it and that’s DOLLTOPIA. I like to describe it as; “Like ANIMAL FARM, but with dolls!” THE PULSE: How do the dolls discover that there even is a Dolltopia? DENSON: It’s a word of mouth, almost legendary, underground kind of thing. Like the underground doll railroad! In the story, Kitty Ballerina finds out because when she escapes the Fantasy Home she runs into Army Jim who is on his way there. He probably found out from some other ‘pilgrims’ to Dolltopia earlier. THE PULSE: How are the struggles the dolls face an allegory to those humankind is faced with? DENSON: It’s mainly about identity. The dolls are born into their societal roles, just like humans. They are expected to take up the role of the happy home-maker, glamorous dancer, sporty macho man, tough soldier, etc. When the dolls find they don’t like these roles and don’t fit into societies expectations, where can they go? Dolltopia. When humans aren’t satisfied with the conventional societal roles where do they go? The city usually. It’s the classic story of going to the city to find yourself. I am a New York City girl and am endlessly inspired by the city. This is my favorite place in the world! Fellow cartoonist, Lauren Weinstein told me it reminded her of the John Waters movie Desperate Living. I love his films, so that was a major compliment, though Dolltopia is definitely a better place to live than Mortville in that movie! THE PULSE: What are your goals with this series? DENSON: Just to keep drawing it and see what happens! For readers to identify with the characters and enjoy it. It would be great to get a publisher, but I need to finish more pages to really pitch it. THE PULSE: Who is your target audience for this? Is it for all-ages or more mature readers? DENSON: It’s for anyone who wants to read it! THE PULSE: Where is Dolltopia available from? What’s coming up next in the series? DENSON: It’s on my website: www.audiokio.com/abbycomix also at: Comic World News You can order the mini-comic by sending $1 here: Abby Denson P.O. Box 22477 Brooklyn, NY 11202-2477 What’ll happen next? A few ideas…There will be a surgeon who modifies the dolls however they want but hard-line doll militants will be averse to dolls becoming more and more human in function. An attack on the doll factory might be in the works! THE PULSE: From dolls to felines, how did you come up with the idea for Deadsy Cat and Kissy Kitty? DENSON: I just drew it one day in my sketchbook out of nowhere! On a deeper level, it’s about personality interplay between upbeat, energetic types (Kissy Kitty) and more mellow, depressed types (Deadsy Cat). I identify more with Kiss Kitty while I have my Deadsy Cat moments. I also think it’s my most kid-friendly comic, even if it is about a dead cat. Kind of like Casper the friendly ghost, Deadsy Cat is a ghost Kissy Kitty befriends. THE PULSE: Do you have cats of your own? How much of their characteristics are present in Deadsy Cat and Kissy Kitty? DENSON: I’ve had cats most of my life, but not recently because my apartment was too small. But happy day! I am moving to a bigger place next month and plans for a cat are definitely in the works! I think the cats I’ve had displayed aspects of both Deadsy Cat and Kissy Kitty. They can be affectionate and also aloof depending on their mood. That’s how cats are. I miss you Hoover and Nikki! THE PULSE: How did Kissy Kitty come to be friends with Deadsy Cat? DENSON: She was just wandering in the graveyard near her house, playing by herself. He tried to scare her by dropping spiders on her, but she ate them! Being a friendly sort, she immediately tried to befriend him. THE PULSE: What are your goals for this series? DENSON: Well the good news is, this strip will be published by Prophecy Magazine! So my goal is to draw more Deadsy Cat stories and hopefully have them published. They’re so cute I’d love to make dolls of them! It would be great to work on them with a toy or model company. Who knows, maybe animation? THE PULSE: What do you like best about working with animals or toys? What kind of freedom does that give you as a creator? DENSON: It gives me lots of freedom! Especially with dolls. They never really die do they? Just go to pieces or at worst they’re lost or forgotten. I love cute things, so animals and toys lend themselves to that beautifully. I have them relate similarly to how humans do so they aren’t too different in that way. I like drawing simplified, iconic things. Everyone in the world can understand what a cat or a doll is instantaneously. They usually represent cuteness, innocence, fun, playfulness. I think those are some of the best and most inspirational aspects of the world! THE PULSE: What influenced your creation of this series? DENSON: Of course, I love cats and I was also experimenting drawing cute skulls. I made a scarf with skulls and hearts on it for myself which I loved. It turned out so cute! Making cute skulls is an accomplishment! So, I was trying to draw a kitty skull and that became Deadsy Cat! THE PULSE: How many issues are out so far and how can interested peeps get a copy of them? DENSON: Since I signed a contract with Prophecy Magazine I can’t sell the DEADSY CAT mini anymore, but I plan to come up with more. Meanwhile you can see it on my website. THE PULSE: Besides working the indy side of comics you also do work with DC Comics on the Powerpuff Girls. What interested you about telling the adventures of Bubbles, Blossom, and Buttercup? DENSON: Well, first of all it was my big ‘break-through’ into licensed/mainstream comics, so that makes it special. A shout out to Heidi McDonald is in order here! Thanks for giving me a chance, Heidi! Also, I was a fan of the show before I got to work on the comic, so it’s been a thrill all the way! As for inspiration, Craig McCracken gave the writers some good advice at a meeting way back. He said we should write from our own childhood experience. So I try to think of my own child-hood adventures. For instance I used to think there was a closet monster. Sure enough, I got to do a closet monster issue! THE PULSE: Why do you think so many people of all ages are hooked on this series? DENSON: The designs are so cute and the characters are universally appealing. Kids like it and there are also plenty of jokes for adults in there. It’s especially great for little girls who need as many strong female characters as they can get! THE PULSE: How tough is it to work on licensed characters? What’s the story approval process like for it? DENSON: Basically I have to submit a one paragraph pitch, then if that is approved by the editor I submit a page breakdown. Once that is approved by the editor I go to final script. With Powerpuff Girls there is a three step process for pitches. It has to be approved by the DC editor, the Cartoon Network execs, and finally Craig McCracken (series creator). Most other places I’ve worked for have one or two levels of editor approval. It can be frustrating if you submit a lot of pitches that don’t get approved but you just have to keep trying. For the most part I haven’t had editors make loads of changes, but I don’t take it personally if there are changes. These are not my own characters, so it’s not a big deal. Also, I’ve been lucky to have great editors! THE PULSE: What’s coming up for the Powerpuff Girls this summer? DENSON: Well you have to keep an eye out for #37 the all-Abby all rock n’ roll issue! THE PULSE: How cool is it to work on icons and instantly recognizable characters like the Powerpuff Girls or other Cartoon Network characters? DENSON: It’s great! People always want me to sign things for their kids! THE PULSE: How did you come to work with Nickelodeon Magazine? DENSON: Dave Roman (who also does his own great comics with John Green, Quicken Forbidden and Teen Boat) is my editor and he calls me if he thinks a story may need ‘the Abby touch’. THE PULSE: What are some of the toughest challenges to translating their characters from the cartoon to comic pages? DENSON: Censorship. There are things they get away with in animation that we can’t do in comics. Since comics are still images any ‘adult’ humor can be analyzed ad-nauseaum by a concerned or conservative parent. In animation it goes by in a second they may not notice. The Powerpuff Girls show is notoriously ultra-violent, but we can’t be quite so hard-core in the comic. I use gross-out humor in Nickelodeon comics but there are lines they won’t cross. THE PULSE: Which do you prefer: working on your own characters or established ones? Why? DENSON: I enjoy both, but I prefer my own since there are no boundaries and they are my creations. THE PULSE: When you’re not writing what do you do for your “free time?” DENSON: What’s that? Ha! Ha! I like to go dancing at rock clubs, eat Japanese candy, play video games, read books and comics, watch funny movies and silly horror movies. Fantasize about getting a cat ^_^ THE PULSE: What do your friends and family think about your writing comics for a living? DENSON: They are proud and supportive. My mom has always been behind me in my art and everything I do. She is awesome! My dad runs out and buys all the licensed issues, he has fun running around in the suburban comic stores trying to find my comics. THE PULSE: What other projects - in or out of comics - are you working on? DENSON: I’m doing some regular work on Sabrina, and Archie comics tend to be very seasonal, so this summer look for Sabrina’s adventures with a magical bikini! Also a big Hawaiian adventure with the Goddess Pele! More Dolltopia and Deadsy Cat too. Otherwise I’ll be working on a roof garden, I’ve never gardened before so I’m really hoping I’ll have a green thumb! I am also involved with two bands; MZ. PAKMAN and LET’S AUDIO. MZ. PAKMAN is an all-girl punk band and I’m joined by fellow-cartoonist, Jenny Gonzalez, zinester/cupcake magnate, P5!, and guitar genius/humorist/animator Lisssa. MZ PAKMAN LET’S AUDIO is a fusion of early 80’s new wave cartoon punk and twenty first century homemade technological rock and roll damage. My band mate is one of my art heroes, the big genius, Rodney Greenblat. He is the bomb! LET’S AUDIO