rainbowrowell:
faitherinhicks:
firstsecondbooks:
To say we...
To say we have some exciting news would be a complete understatement….
Ahahah! I wasn’t going to write about this until later today, but what the hey, I’m too distracted to work right now.
Anyway! Hey everybody, AMAZING NEWS! I will be collaborating with one of my absolute favourite writers, Rainbow Rowell!!!!!!!! We’ll be making a graphic novel together, to be published by the amazing First Second Books, publisher of my previous GN Friends with Boys and my upcoming Nameless City trilogy. Click the link for information about our project together, as well as some really lovely quotes from Rainbow, who is just too kind when talking about my comics.
Sometime last year after San Diego Comic Con I was talking on twitter about how much I loved Eleanor & Park, which I’d read on the plane up to the convention. Rainbow saw my tweets and we got to know each other a little on twitter, which was exciting for me because, y’know, I really loved her books and it’s so awesome when people whose work you love talk to you! I sent her a copy of Friends with Boys and was completely over the moon when she liked it.
Rainbow & I emailed a couple times, and she mentioned that my editor at First Second, Calista, had approached her about writing a graphic novel. Calista and I had nerdily gabbed about Rainbow’s books at SDCC; we were both big fans. I was really excited at the possibility of a Rainbow Rowell graphic novel, so began throwing all sorts of pushy comic-making advice at her (sorry, sorry! XD) and telling her First Second was the best and yes, she should absolutely work with them.
I felt kinda jealous as I was emailing with Rainbow about comics. Some lucky artist out there would get to draw a Rainbow Rowell comic. Curse that artist! I wanted that job! But I already had a job. The Nameless City trilogy had sold to First Second a month ago, so I was booked solid for the next few years.
Then I got a call from my agent. Rainbow would be doing a graphic novel with First Second, and was I interested in being her collaborator?
Me: OMG YESSSSSSSS.
… wait, what. How will that work?
As it turned out, Rainbow wouldn’t be able to start writing the comic for a while, as she had another book to write first (awesome, more Rainbow Rowell books! She just sent me a Landline ARC in the mail!). So that gave me the opportunity to finish book 1 and possibly book 2 of The Nameless City, take a break from that to work with Rainbow, then return to book 3. This graphic novel Rainbow & I are doing is a ways down the road due to us being busy, but it’s coming! It’ll probably be here sooner than you think. :)
So! I will be drawing not three graphic novels for First Second in the coming years, but FOUR! My goodness. *_*
But oh my gosh, I am so, so thrilled that everyone involved with this project, Rainbow and First Second, my editor and agent, all of them jumped at the opportunity to make this happen. Rainbow is an amazing writer (she has TWICE made me cry in airports using only her words!) and I’m so honoured she wanted to work with me. Just completely over the moon.
I am the luckiest cartoonist.
OH, and I’ve been seeing tweets from readers who are fans of Rainbow, saying that they’ve never read a comic before, but they’ll read this one because she’s writing it. I hope I can do my best for those readers, and I hope some of them like this comic so much that they find other comics to read! Because comics are amazing.
Loved “Friends with Boys”!! Sooooo excited to see what these brilliant ladies cook up.
