INTERVIEW: "School For Extraterrestrial Girls" Creators Jeremy Whitley and Jamie Noguchi!
Finally debuting my Substack with a conversation with two artists I'm thrilled to learn from again
I’m excited to finally debut State of the Arts with an interview with the creators of the School For Extraterrestrial Girls series, which has a second book out through Papercutz/Mad Cave: School For Extraterrestrial Girls Vol. 2: Girls In Flight!
Jeremy Whitley, writer, and Jamie Noguchi, artist, interviewed with me on The Hilltop Show a few years ago about their first Extraterrestrial Girls book, and I am thrilled to get to learn about their process again with new eyes and new outlets to boot.
You can buy your copy of School For Extraterrestrial Girls Vol. 2: Girls In Flight on Amazon here.
What worked about Vol. 1 that you wanted to repeat in this book?
JW: I think maybe more than anything, it was the tone. I loved the feeling of there being these big galactic-level stakes in the background, but the real meat of the story being the personal lives of these girls who are struggling with relationships, romantic problems, and problems that largely boiled down to figuring out who you are, learning to love yourself, and finding a community where you can be yourself. The tone always feels somewhat light and personal while we keep these big alien issues sort of balanced in the background.
What do you think makes a successful sequel? What do you think are examples of successful sequels and why did they succeed? Unsuccessful sequels?
JW: To my mind, what makes sequels work that do is a throughline of character. You can just throw new obstacles and villains in front of a character all day. Comic books do. If the sequel doesn't continue to let your characters live, grow, and change then I think it's largely going to be unsuccessful. If there's nothing left for your characters to learn, then their story's over. I think that's why stories like the second and third Matrix movie had so much trouble. They still want to be about Neo, but he's already completed his journey in the first story. Compare that to Empire Strikes Back, where Luke has really just started to change going into that movie. He's still a long way from the hero they need.
This book shows Extraterrestrial Girls clashing with Extraterrestrial Boys. What did you want to show about gender in this book? Friendships across gender?
JW: I think, obviously, at some level the idea of these schools is silly, right? I mean, the headmistress says in the first book that some races of aliens have as many as five or seven distinct genders. I think we're at a point in our own human history where we can easily recognize that these barriers we've put up around gender are not nearly the walls that we make them out to be. I think the question of gender for our characters just brings in this whole other complicated part of identity and trying to work this stuff out. Just because there are "boys" here, does that change their dynamics with each other? Do they feel the need to have relationships? Do they let these boys change who they are? You know, boys just make everything more complicated.
This book has its main character Tara following a Hero's Journey model as she begins her journey as a bookish student who one day combusts in the middle of class. How did you want to make Tara's story unique, especially from other Hero's Journey narratives?
JW: I think, especially the further we get into Tara's story, that her story inverts the hero's journey a bit. As she learns more about her people and her place in the universe, it starts to feel more and more to Tara like she has an important and significant place in the universe. Tara's people are important and I think a lot of heroes would feel the call to go be part of these very heroic traditions that her people are a part of . For Tara, I think the heroism that she embodies is about ultimately denying the call to be "great" and the drive to be part of an empire. Tara's strength isn't in discovering where she comes from and what she was born to be, but in finding her place among her friends and choosing not to be part of an oppressive system.
What do you think makes School for Extraterrestrial Girls worth reading? Not only for its younger audience, but also adults who like graphic novels?
JW: I think it's worth reading because it's a lot of fun while also being about big important things. I feel like we do a good job of balancing the very real pressures of being a teenager and feeling like everything is life or death with the reality of this larger interplanetary world where things are actually life or death for our characters.
If you are hoping to appeal to adults as well, what do you think are common pitfalls of graphic novels that try to appeal to both young people and older people who are young at heart? How can you do that work well?
JW: I think the biggest pitfall for any sort of media looking to appeal to different age groups is feeling like it needs to talk up or down to one group or another. Kids hate to be talked down to. If they're into a story, they will ask questions and look things up if they don't understand them. Likewise, with adults, for better or for worse we remember what it was like to go through being a teenager. There's no need to get overly clever or sweaty trying to make a joke that a parent will enjoy when I still very much enjoy the rye and painful humor of being a teenager. I think the key is authenticity rather than catering.
JN: I agree. Regardless of age, audiences can definitely tell when you're trying too hard. Tell a good story from a specific point of view and hold that vision in your head. Your audience will find something they relate to.
To what degree do you both collaborate on story development? Do illustrations ever inform writing, or even lead to rewrites?
JW: I think that's the biggest difference between volumes 1 and 2 of this book. I was already working on volume 1 when Jamie came on board, whereas this book is very much Jamie and I working together from page 1. I love to ask any artist I'm working with what they love to draw and steer into that. I think it shines through when you see the final project. This book has a level of exuberance about it that comes from people who are really having fun doing what they love.
JN: It also helps that we chat all the time about random stuff. Jeremy knows what kind of goofy nerdy crap I'm into and references some of that stuff through the writing.
Jeremy, what were the core sources of inspiration for your writing?
JW: I think I wear a lot of influences on my sleeve here. I'm a big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and other stories that make the struggles of high school into a literal science-fiction and fantasy narrative. Obviously, we also took a lot of influence from the long tradition of boarding school adventure/drama. For me, more than anything, the key is to think about stories like Buffy or Guardians of the Galaxy and how allowing your characters to be well-rounded and experience joy can lead to some of the most heartbreaking moments. I don't believe in having a strict line between drama and comedy. I think every story should feature characters you love to spend time with and the plot will matter more because it's happening to them.
Jeremy, what makes a good story about an everyday person who discovers magic around them?
JW: Having an interesting and unique magical world is important, but I think even more important is the character it happens to. There are so many stories like that. It's the characters and how they react that makes the difference between teh ones that last and the ones that drift right by.
Jamie, what did you want to emphasize about flight in your artwork for this book?
Flying always seems too easy and free in comics and movies and such, but I wanted to add a sprinkle of fear. Tara's first experience with flight is pretty awkward and a little scary and I wanted to be sure we captured some of that fear. It also helps that I'm terribly afraid of heights.
Jamie, what did you want to be sure to emphasize about flight in your artwork for this book?
I think I'm like Jeremy a lot in that my influences are instantly recognizable. I'm a big fan of tokusatsu, Japanese live-action special effects shows, and you can see elements of Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, and kaiju throughout volume 2. I wanted this book to feel like it was a summer tokusatsu movie so I put in a lot of dramatic character posing and I made sure to design the Titan and Leviathan as if they were suits that an actor could physically wear. I also have a lot of fun drawing expressions so I try to push the faces almost to the breaking point when our characters are emoting.
These are two artists who love and have thought deeply about their craft. Pick up your copy of School For Extraterrestrial Girls Vol. 2: Girls In Flight on Amazon here.
You can follow Jeremy on Instagram here, on Tumblr here, and on Twitter here.
You can follow Jamie Noguchi on Instagram here and on Twitter here.
