However, she does say with a chuckle that readers shouldn’t expect to see too much of that influence in Clementine.Īfter Tezuka, the second major influence on bringing Walden to comics was Scott McCloud when, at 16, she attended a workshop with the famed author of Understanding Comics. But I also think I would have loved shoujo if I’d found it sooner.” And as a teacher at the Center for Cartoon Studies - from where she also graduated - Walden teaches a large shoujo assignment, which has impressed its influence and impact on her. “I’m always curious if other lesbians found shoujo, because shōnen really worked for me and I was a tomboy. “Interestingly, I never read a lot of shoujo,” she said. Like many of us, manga became her key to unlocking comics, shōnen stories like Dragon Ball Z and YuYu Hakusho were some of Walden’s faves. “When I saw Buddha - the simple line art, the beautiful story, these beautifully rendered backgrounds, and there were also some cute ladies, kids, and adults, and trauma and religion - it just tapped into something deep inside of me.” Her love affair with the medium began after finding a copy of Buddha by Osamu Tezuka in a New Jersey used-book store while on a visit with her dad. Although, if it wasn’t for two of comics’ most influential figures, we may not have gotten Walden or her comics. Speaking to Walden over Zoom, her passion for the medium is as clear as her talent. She talks about taking on the fan-favorite character from Telltale’s Walking Dead video games, her growth alongside the comics industry, and what’s changed since then. With the upcoming release of Clementine: Book One, Walden steps into a new world: long-form licensed comics. Beyond literary publishers and webcomics, DC Comics has published an abundance of DC original graphic novels which have examined, celebrated, and highlighted queer heroes in a way that we’ve rarely seen in the main universes of big two comics.Īnd it’s not a stretch to say that Walden and her catalog have played a key part in this landscape.
Webcomics have long been a space for queer stories, but the massive Kickstarter success of Ngozi Ukazu’s Check, Please! - the second volume of which went on to become an NYT bestseller - paved the way for even more queer stories, including the massive print success of Webtoons like Lore Olympus (featuring multiple queer characters) and Heartstopper (gay romance), NYT bestsellers both. Over the years, queer graphic novel bestsellers like This One Summer, Gender Queer, The Witch Boy, and They Called Us Enemy have began to appear on the bestseller list with more regularity.
That means more people than ever are buying and reading comics.
In 2021 book shops sold 30,698,081 comics, more than 20 combined. In that same span, comics and graphic novels about queer people - especially YA titles - have become ever more prominent and popular. She’s created some of the most affecting and powerful comics of this century, from her sprawling queer science fiction epic On a Sunbeam to the intimate autobiography of Spinning. Since releasing her debut comic The End of Summer in 2015, Tillie Walden has become one of the most prolific, influential, and awarded cartoonists of our time.
0 kommentar(er)
