Lift Off: Amy Reeder and Brandon Montclare talk about Rocket Girl

“My family’s extremely musical, so in that sense yes, but I’m the only visual artist in the family.  Although my grandmother did some art as well,” states Amy Reeder who was drawn to a particular comic book title from Japan.  “I didn’t really pay much attention to them until I got into Sailor Moon in 1997.  Then I started going to comic shops to find Sailor Mooncollectables!  Four years later I started reading manga, which was what made me want to learn how to do this stuff!  I’m still catching up on the American comics scene, but I’m not quite as bad as I used to be.”  Brandon Montclare had a different experience growing up.  “My younger sister is still in school; she’s a musician and studies music production.  Other than that, the Montclares aren’t known for making a living with art.”  Comic books were part of family life.  “They were always around as far back as I can remember.  They were as ubiquitous as G.I. Joe or Atari and Nintendo.  My grandfather would buy me a lot.  There were newsstands and stationary store and even comics shops.”  The printed page has entered into the digital realm.  “As far as how I personally read or write it hasn’t changed anything.  But in a basic and obvious way it has expanded the audience tremendously.  It’s getting harder to find physical comics.  I guess you can mail-order anything, however, aside from it being a hassle you also need to know what you want to buy before you buy it.  With digital you can just click and get it instantly.  You can also browse and sample much more easily.”

When it comes to the box office success of big screen adaptations influencing what pitches comic book publishers will accept, Amy Reeder believes, “Sometimes you feel like certain comics these days are being written almost as a screenplay, for the purpose of making a movie.  But I think in general, the two have stayed surprisingly separate.”  Brandon Montclare observes, “No, I don’t think that plays too much into publisher thinking [in general].  I’ve worked on the publishing side, and still keep an eye on it.  At both big and small publishers, it’s mostly very separate from movies and even licensing.  However, I do think many creators envision a future film version as they create their own comics.”  In regards to her favourite comic book and cinematic counterpart, Reeder answers, “I have a tough time picking favourites, so I’ll give you *A* favourite of each.  Comic—Wet Moon by Ross Campbell has probably made the biggest impact on me.  It has six graphic novels out with more to come, published by Oni.  Avengers [2012] is my favourite comic book movie so far.”  Montclare states, “Dark Knight Returns, although if you’d asked me again I’d say something else; it’s too hard to pick one.  If I’m feeling contrary I’ll answer Dark Knight Strikes Again.  Favourite movie? I often have trouble with this because while I almost always like seeing these characters on the big screen, I seldom find any of the movies overwhelmingly great.  However, just now it pops into my mind that you can bring manga and anime into that conversation, so I will go with the classic Akira [1988].”

“Brandon’s always had my back; he’s been a mentor and was my editor on Madame Xanadu,” explains Amy Reeder whose latest project is illustrating the Image Comics series Rocket Girl while Brandon Montclare handles the writing.  “We decided to work writer-artist with Halloween Eve; it worked out so we’re at it again!  We’ve talked about the storylines and bounced ideas back and forth but it’s mostly Brandon who’s figured out the concept and plotline; he knows what I like, and basically comes up with things I wish I had thought of.  It’s not fair.”  A teenage cop from an alternate reality version of 2013 named DaYoung Johansson is transported to 1986 New York City to investigate a megacorporation suspected of illegally using time travel for fiscal gain.   “Well, this was my and Brandon’s inception.  It plays specifically to what we like and excel at.  It’s such a cool concept and I happen to be a big fan of eras and time travel.  Seriously, I am so glad to be working on this project; it’s the coolest thing I’ve ever done.  I only hope I can top it afterwards!”  Montclare remarks, “An early desire was to do a period piece; I thought it would be interesting to do that with a relatively recent time period.  The time travel stuff was developed around that—and it stuck because we have a slightly different take on it.” 

“Every project I’ve done is pretty different from the other,’ notes Amy Reeder.  “I think of Rocket Girl as my platform to really show what I’m capable of.  My experience on Batwoman fell short and Halloween Eve was a testing ground to see if I could do all the art chores and create my own work and succeed.  Now that I’ve got all this figured out, I can finally show people what I’m all about and what they’ve been missing.  It’s a pretty exciting time for me!”  Brandon Montclare remarks, “The biggest difference is that it’s an ongoing series.  Everything else has been one-shots and limited, finite series.  And of course, it’s a new launch with all new characters and concepts.”  The Internet had a major role in raising the necessary funds for the time travel adventure tale.  “We had already done a Kickstarter for Halloween Eve and were really happy with how it went,” recalls Reeder.  “A lot of our backers wanted to see us at it again and we felt we couldn’t pass up the opportunity.  It’s a great platform to get the word out and get people literally invested in the book.  I really do have a different aesthetic that makes it a little harder to succeed solely through the Direct Market.  I’ll add that we’re happy to say we have delivered the rewards on both Kickstarters, on time.”  Montclare observes, “One of the biggest challenges was the actual publishing.  That is, to have the financing and support to make the book.  We did a somewhat famous Kickstarter, but that’s only one aspect.  Partnering with Image Comics was another.  Outreach to comic shops yet another.  Creating some merchandise—t-shirts, prints, sketchbooks—were a small part.  But all these parts [and more] were necessary to achieve escape velocity.  And now we have lift off.  The trick is to keep flying for as long as we need to tell this story.”

“As an artist I just try to make the reader ‘feel’ what they’re seeing, whatever that is,” explains Amy Reeder.  “It’s one reason I’m colouring myself.  That way, her jetpack can have different exhaust-like qualities, she can travel through time lightning-fast…stuff like that, so that it feels fleshed out, even if we know it’s not real.”  Brandon Montclare notes, “Rocket Girl isn’t hard sci-fi—and maybe I’m naïve but I think it’s liberating.  I don’t try to undo my own ‘science’, and it seems to hold up.”  All types of references were sought out.  “I’m no stranger to era research because I did it constantly on Madame Xanadu,” states Reeder.  “In some ways the 80’s are easier because I can sort of remember it, but it becomes more difficult when you combine it with New York in the eighties.  I’m always researching which buildings were still around, or what people wore that you won’t find in a Sears catalogue.  I watch a ton of movies and take screencaps.  And my friends link me to scanned photos of 80’s NYC, which is becoming an online trend these days.  The futuristic 2013 was tough at first to visualize, but now it’s the easier of the two.  I had to get myself into the 80’s mindset of how they visualized the future.  And I watched movies like Back to the Future II [1989], Blade Runner [1982], Akira, The Fifth Element [1997], and Metropolis[1927].”

Writing from a female perspective is not an easy task.  “Of course, we all know teenage girls—and other people unlike ourselves—but it can cause some anxiety,” states Brandon Montclare.  “I feel Amy is a tremendous asset beyond her art, in keeping DaYoung ‘real.’”  Sex appeal is not an issue when depicting the heroine of the story.  “People are naturally sexy and you don’t even have to try to make them that way,” notes Amy Reeder.  “Rocket Girl is 15.  I’m not too worried about making her sexy; she’s the main character so I’m more concerned about having readers see things from her point of view, rather than look ather.  Still, she’s pretty adorable!”  A prevailing theme involves the teenager maturing into an adult.  “Growing up is hard to do,” remarks Brandon Montclare.  “Specifically coming to realize that the world and choices create grey areas and that a black-and-white worldview is impossible to sustain into adulthood.”  The repercussions of moving from the future to the past will be also be explored.  “Cause and effect, the consequences of choice, are the biggest part of the time travelling.  You’ll have to keep reading for the answer.”  Having to write an origin tale was not a creative problem.  “I wouldn’t characterize it as ‘creatively restrictive.’  All art has parameters.  I think it’s safe to say any piece is defined by those parameters.  It is more difficult to write than, say, the 715th issue of Spiderman because people already know Spiderman, and as a storyteller you can rely on that pre-knowledge.  Rocket Girl has to both be introduced and evolve through the story.  It can be a squeeze.  But despite it being a more difficult task, being able to introduce new characters does have unique advantages as well.”

“While this is the first ongoing series that I’m writing, I was an editor for a number of years,” states Brandon Montclare.  “Long-term planning is something I understand.  This is counterintuitive, but it’s usually the integrity of the shorter arcs that suffer for the larger story.  For Rocket Girl we really are keeping the shorter arcs exceptionally discrete.”  Often exposition slows down the storytelling.  “You have to be judicious.  Rocket Girl is convenient in having a protagonist that likes talking to herself.  It’s part of her ‘[voice].’  Batman and Howard the Duck have that same convenience.  Plus, DaYoung is a bit of Sam Spade or other noir-ish heroes.  Her voiceover should feel natural to her character, reviewing facts and piecing together clues.  All of that is very fertile ground for burying exposition.”  Narration and dialogue can be counterproductive if comes across as being cute.  “The trick is learning how to cut out the ‘tricks.’  For me, writing dialogue [including narration—basically the stuff that gets lettered!] is the hardest part.  A writer hones his or her craft.  You need to learn economy and scaling back. Less is more; that kind of thing.”

“I am lucky in that every moment is a pleasant surprise because Amy has to bring everything to life,” states Brandon Montclare.  “There are few in the business better than her.  Particular moments to watch for are double-page spreads: these are done old Marvel-style, or plot-first.  My script just gives a general idea for the two pages, and Amy choreographs all the action.  I’ll plaster some inner monologue at the end.  We do it [at least] once in every issue.”  Amy Reeder is responsible for everything from the illustrating, colouring and text placement.  “It’s incredibly time consuming but if I didn’t want to do it, I wouldn’t!  I love having this sort of control over my art and it means I can tell a story with whatever medium is most effective, be it pencils, inks, colours or letters.  I’m more driven when I do things this way so I’m happy to work more.  It’s also easier to improve when you create a final product and improvement is incredibly important to me.”  Needless to say that time management has become a major issue.  “I’m learning how to be judicial with my time and pick what matters most, and not just do something because it was the most difficult to pull off.  At first I was way too perfectionist, but the faster I go, the more ‘in the story’ I am, so the art is actually getting better.”  Reeder admits, “I’m still working on a pallet and I feel like my colour choices are all over the place.  Picking colours is probably the thing I waste the most unnecessary time on because I’m still coming up with my own general schemes.  But generally, 1986 has warm hues, and 2013 has a bluish glow thing going on.”

“Akira did, and the ‘idea’ of anime definitely does influence me,” reveals Amy Reeder.  “I want this series to feel like an anime, more so than my previous work.  I just think it works so well with the content.  It helps make you think the pages are moving, because anime is so full of action.  I actually colour in such a way the looks sort of like cell shading, and the reason for that, is that it’ll make people imagine it’s being animated.”  The effort has resulted in some pleasant surprises.  “I go into these pages not knowing how to render something with colour and I learn as I go.  My two favourites so far have been the first panel of issue 1 [where she’s flying through time], and the issue 2 cover ‘desert sunrise’ logo.”  Orchestrating the design of the various comic book panels is not a simple matter.  “Layouts are the hardest process for me, bar none.  And it’s hard not to slack off at this stage, too, so these days I have to do it in a coffee shop or a library so I’ll stay responsible.  I use my layouts as underdrawings for the final page, so they’re incredibly important.  They’re about a quarter of print size, and I scribble until it looks fleshed out enough for me to be able to draw over it.  I go through and edit them constantly because it’s so hard to visualize this stuff.”  Key to the marketing of a comic book is the adorning cover page.  “It’s got to have an original concept to it, look great even when small, and have outstanding colours.  You’re often summarizing a story with one image, which is a lot of pressure!  I also really try to stretch myself with each cover, so that the composition and size of the character is always changing.”

“We’re concentrating on the first arc,” states Brandon Montclare.  “A second arc is planned, but that won’t get nailed down until we have a better feel of audience reaction and support.  What shape the sequel [and future arcs] will take is still in the future.  That at least has the benefit of forcing us to put our all into the current issues.”   Rocket Girl will continue to evolve as a series. “That’s somewhat up to Brandon and what he cooks up!” remarks Amy Reeder.  “Right now I’m just concentrating on the current arc and making it the best it can possibly be.  But I am looking forward to the audience reaction and hoping it becomes a really fun experience.  Because we’re playing with time, the game can change completely.”  As to how the original vision compares to the final one, Reeder says, “It’s close and it’s not.  Brandon has the original vision and I control most of the final version.  It’s different in that it’s coming from two minds.  But I play fairly close to Brandon’s scripts, and just try to embellish it here and there.”  Montclare adds, “Sometimes comics change on the drawing board, for better or worse, but Rocket Girl has kept to the original vision quite closely [so far].”

Rocket Girl pages and sketches courtesy of Image Comics.