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Svetlana Chmakova's debut graphic novel Dramacon from TokyoPop made a
big impact last year. Her book has got many rave reviews from both
traditional and manga focused media. Svetlana grew up in Russia and
moved to Canada at age 16. She has gone from manga fan to manga creator
and talks to us about Dramacon, her path to published pro and what lies
ahead.
Jamie Coville:
How do you pronounce your name?
Svetlana Chmakova:
Sveh-tlah-nah Shmah-koh-vah. I get all kinds of interesting variations,
though.
Jamie:
You bio says you grew up in Russia, came to Canada at age 16. What
kinds of comics were available in Russia when you were growing up?
Svetlana:
Very few comics that I was actually interested in--some short strips in
the children's magazines, some Disney comics. I managed to get my hands
on a few translated issues of "ElfQuest", though, and _that_ was the
beginning of the end for me . . .
Jamie:
People today are noticing that ElfQuest was manga influenced. Do you
think it opened you up to manga?
Svetlana:
I was surprised to hear about manga influence in ElfQuest, if honestly.
Whenever I look at it, I am reminded of Disney movies, which are also
things of much beauty and excellence.
As for manga, I don't think I needed to be 'opened up' to it--I saw
anime way before I read ElfQuest and it was love at first sight, so my
affection for manga was a direct extension of that. What drew me to
ElfQuest was that it was a great story told in a beautiful art style,
complete with compelling characters and a cool world. I didn't know
comics could do that!
Jamie:
Okay, when you came to Canada at age 16, what comics then ticked your
fancy?
Svetlana:
Early favourites are "ElfQuest" by Richard and Wendy Pini, "Ranma 1/2"
by Rumiko Takahashi, "Strangers in Paradise" by Terry Moore, "Ah! My
Goddess" by Kosuke Fujishima, "Sandman" by Neil Gaiman, "Vampire
Princess Miyu" by Narumi Kakinouchi, "Gold Digger" by Fred Perry, "A
Distant Soil" by Colleen Doran. I also really enjoyed some X-Men comics
that I was able to read at a friend's house, I don't know who the
artists and writers were for those.
Jamie:
Which How to Draw Manga books did you contribute to and what were you
teaching?
Svetlana:
I contributed only to the Christopher Hart's how to draw manga books, a
series called "Manga Mania". I contributed to 6 of those and my
favourite one is the recent "Manga Mania: Chibi and Furry characters".
I wasn't really the one teaching, though--I was commissioned to mostly
draw step-by-step illustrations for Chris's instruction, or examples of
certain manga-style drawing aspects. They are his books, I was just one
of the illustrators :)
Jamie:
Do you have any plans of putting your old work Chasing Rainbows and
Night Silver into print?
Svetlana:
No concrete plans yet, but a lot of hoping! I would love to have all of
my works collected into dead-tree format at some point. Much as I love
webcomics, they don't quite compare with the feeling and look of a book
in your hands and you can't take them on a trip with you.
Of course, for print I would have to re-draw large chunks of both
"Chasing Rainbows" and "Night Silver"--some of the art is so old, rushed
and off-model, it makes me cringe...
Jamie:
I have to wonder about DramaCons main character Christie, is she
based on you?
Svetlana:
Not really, but we do share some character traits--I also am somewhat of
a naive goody-two-shoes with high tolerance levels for the general
stupidity of the world. That being said, I also have some traits in
common with Matt--acidic sense of humour and the initial impulse to
solve disagreements by pushing my opponent off a cliff.
Jamie:
Were the other characters in DramaCon based on real people?
Svetlana:
No, though people keep asking whether Lida is me. She is not :D
Though she is someone I'd aspire to be when I grow up.
Jamie:
How has the reaction from Manga fans been? Are they taking to OEL
books or do you think the praise comes from more traditional comic
readers crossing over?
Svetlana:
I don't know for sure how the fanbase breaks up, but the majority of my
fanmail does come from manga readers of all ages. Many of them say
that the book is on par with some of their favourite Japanese manga and
made them reassess their prejudice towards the home-grown stuff.
Not everyone likes the book, of course, and I've seen my share of
negative reviews but overall the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
Magazines and review sites tend to give it 4 stars out of 5 and higher,
and Publishers Weekly even named "Dramacon" one of 20 best comics of
2005, alongside such gems as Joann Sfar's "The Rabbi's Cat", Kiyohiko
Azuma's "Yotsuba", Kio Shimoku's "Genshiken", Bryan Lee O'Malley's
"Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" and Hope Larson's "Salamander's Dream"
just to name a few.
Jamie:
I know the TokyoPop deal is 3 volumes, with more if successful. How
long would you want Dramacon to go if you can keep doing it?
Svetlana:
Probably another couple of volumes? Maybe 3. I'd need a break first,
though, I get antsy when I work on the same project for a long time.
And I do have plenty of other stories I'd like to move on to.
Jamie:
How much time did it take you to create Volume 1 of DramaCon?
Svetlana:
9-10 months, I think, it's a bit of a blur already. I was doing other
stuff parallel to the book, though, so the actual work time was probably
about 8 months, maybe 7 and a half.
Jamie:
Is Volume 2 going to take the same amount of time?
Svetlana:
Oh yes. Hopefully not longer--I had a lot of trouble with writing the
script for this volume so I am really running behind schedule. And I am
doing other stuff parallel to the book, again--"Adventures of CG!" for
CosmoGirl! magazine
(http://www.cosmogirl.com/archive/0,,8b81vm4r_539,00.html), my online
comics for www.girlamatic.com
and www.wirepop.com (sometimes XD) and
currently illustrations for an art book "Mangaka America" which will
feature work of North-American artists working in manga-style. The book
is being organized by Tania del Rio and Will Staehle, due out sometime
later this year from HarperCollins.
Jamie:
Are you interested in just doing Manga style comic or would you be
open to doing more traditional style comics?
Svetlana:
YES to that second part! I love manga-style drawing for many reasons,
but I am also a huge fan of the more North-American comic style art and
have a few stories that I would like to dress in that.
Jamie:
Do you have an style in particular you are interested? Superheroes?
Indy? Vertigo? Straight genre work?
Svetlana:
I would _love_ to do something for Vertigo and have a couple of projects
that I think would fit very well with their line-up. Indy stuff--I have
a short story anthology planned that I would like to maybe self-publish
or pitch to Image at some point, as it's a strange beast of a project
and probably wouldn't fit with any other publisher. Superheroes--I
wouldn't mind trying that because I am quite fond of the genre. And I
don't know what straight genre work means :D;;; Explain, please?
Jamie:
Straight Genre meaning crime, horror, drama, westerns, sci-fi,
romance, etc. . . typical movie stuff?
Svetlana:
Oh. Hmm. Well, I am a fan of all of these so eventually I'd like to
have tried (and mixed up) as many of them as I possibly can. Right now
I am mostly writing romantic dramedies and am interested in drama and
urban/dark fantasy, but later on I'd like to try a sci-fi project (I
grew up reading Isaak Asimov and Ray Bradbury, so it's only a matter of
time before I get back into that.)
Jamie:
After Dramacon is done, would you want to turn it into an anime movie?
Svetlana:
Yes :D It would be interesting on so many levels--I am actually a
classically trained animator so animation was my first real love affair.
A dream job would be to direct the animated movie made from my own
comic! ...Which will probably stay a dream, heh.
You can find more about Svetlana at her website: http://www.svetlania.com/
Regards,
Jamie Coville
http://www.TheGraphicNovels.com
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