Writing about Talking about Comics about Dancing

I recently had the great pleasure of being interviewed along with m'colleague Kate Brown for Women Writing About Comics Radio. Claire Napier of that august podcast got in touch wanting to discuss the ballet comic Kate and I did for the Phoenix last year, Emilie's Turn, and a very interesting chat we all had too. If you would care to have a listen, you can do so here!




PARENTAL ADVISORY in case any young readers were planning to listen, the discussion features FRUITY LANGUAGE and also brief reference to MATTERS OF A REPRODUCTIVE NATURE (or "grown-up cuddling"), so please proceed under advisement.

It was lots of fun, we talk (quite a lot) about the making of that particular comic but also more generally about ballet, and comics, and comics about ballet in general. Have a listen and you too can learn precisely how ill-informed I am on all of those topics!

Anyway, one other very cool thing is that, for the benefit of any ballet comics aficionados who may have found their way to us, the fine folks at the Phoenix have very kindly put Emilie's Turn up on their website to read in its entirety!

AND the issue in question is currently on sale at 20% off as part of their grand summer sale. So please go check it out! And then who knows, maybe someone will let us make MORE BALLET COMICS. Which I think we can all agree is the main thing here.

BALLET COMICS

This week's issue of The Phoenix features the story 'Emilie's Turn', written by me and drawn by Kate Brown. You can see the cover above. Please consider this me asking you nicely to PLEASE GO BUY A COPY. Look, I'll make it easy for you, I'll even tell you how and where to get a copy, and everything. 

It's a bit of a departure for me - apart from anything else, it's pretty much my first attempt at writing a script for another artist to draw. And I have to say, if you're going to do this, you could do a lot worse than collaborating with Kate Brown, unquestionably one of the most talented comics creators currently working in this country. It has been an amazing and rather wonderful experience for me - I just write down what happens and then, as if by magic, these amazing pages of beautiful artwork appear! Crazy. Seriously, I could get used to this "being a writer" lark.

Anyway, I'm trying to do whatever I can to bang the drum and blow the horns and let people know about the comic, because - well, (a) because I'm really proud of it, but also (b) because I don't want to be having any conversations a month from now where you're all like "oh what, you did a ballet comic? That sounds really cool, I wish I'd heard about it." If you remember a couple of months back I wrote a couple of blog posts on the subject of old Girls' Comics / YA comics, etc - well, anyway, this strip is my best attempt to encapsulate what I was trying to say with all that. Please go and read it. Please go and tell all your friends to read it. Please make it a massive success so that every publisher in the world suddenly starts falling over themselves to make more ballet comics. 

And look, without getting into the whole gendering argument: what it comes down to for me is this. We - the comics industry in general, the Phoenix in particular and me personally - tend to do quite a lot for those girls and boys who like stories about exciting adventure and outlandish fantasy and raucous comedy. It seems to me we could do more for those boys and girls who maybe want to read stories about the real world, and ballet, and having a bit of a cry.

Look, here is a lovely review of it already, and everything. See? Now please go buy it.

And if you already did: a massive, genuine, heartfelt: thank you. I hope you enjoyed it.