Part two of Kate Kotler's interview with the fabulous cartoonist, Hope Larson. When we last left Kate and Hope, Hope was discussing what it's like to be a female cartoonist in a male dominated industry... 

Why do you think female cartoonist don't get as much coverage as the male ones? Any theories?

I don't know.  No.  I don't have a theory, no.  Sometimes I worry that feminist stories and strong female characters are more acceptable when they are written by men.  Is that a horrible thing?  I worry about it.  Like Joss Whedon...  

There are women writing feminist stories and doing feminist comics and doing feminist sci fi, why aren't they getting the press like that?  I don't want to point fingers; because, this kind of thing can be so hard to prove, sometimes you just have a hunch. 

 All the discrimination I've encountered has been really low level - like in comic shops - the kind of material that the owners will show me and say "Here you're going to be into this" is generally funny animal type stuff.  And, these are stores where I've been going in and buying 70s horror manga - and, like really indie super indie black and white type stuff - and, they give me like the kids stuff.  

It's just odd.  I feel like they see me more as a woman than they see me as a comic fan, you know?  I think that happens to a lot of people.

No, no that happens to me!  When I go into my comic store if it’s not the main guy working there, they see I’m a girl and assume things. Yes, I am interested in Doctor Who; but, I'm also interested in gritty crime and noir graphic novels and Howard Chaykin and LGBT and Cthulu comics and things drawn or written by my friends.  I totally know what you mean... But, I'm interviewing you, so I'll not wax philisophic about that.

No, it's more of a covernsation.  So I don't get to talk about it very much, it's interesting.

Yeah, conversation.  I like that -- it is interesting to talk about.  So, how in your development as a - person - because, I hate to say "woman" like that is all that defines us, we're all people.  How in your development did you become interested in comics and drawing?

I've been interested in comics since I was about eight.  My family moved to France for a year because my Dad was on sabatical translating this book and that was where I first read comics.  I was reading a lot of Asterix and Tin Tin so I have a huge fondness for that.  So I read all that stuff, this great, fairly gender neutral for comics, adventure type stuff. 

 I really liked that and I came back to the States a year later and I didn't have access to that stuff that I really liked.  It was basically superhero comics which I never really found an "in" to, I guess.  I don't like hate them, I've just never really been into them.  So I didn't read comics then until... uh, I read Mouse in junior high and then in high school I started reading manga, like Ranma 1/2.

Nice, nice!  [Comic book writer] Marc Andreyko went to college with me and he actually worked in a comic store in our college town and he gave me Ranma 1/2 and was like "You'd like this."  I've totally been reading it ever since, I have a huge collection of Ranma 1/2!

Oh, I've read Bendis and Andreyko's stuff.  Ranma 1/2 was like this huge revelation, it's awesome, I love it!  So I read that and a couple of other manga and some Sandman and when I got into college I was living in a bigger city so I had access to comic stores and I started branching out into indie comics.  Did I answer all of that?  Was there more?

How did you get into the industry?

My career in brief is basically I was in college studying print making and I wanted to be an illustrator and I had this online portfolio that Scott McCloud somehow found and he posted on his blog that I should be doing comics.  So I was like, 'okay-what the heck, I'll give it a try.'  From there I started doing a few comics and I hooked up with the Flight crew and did some work with them; and, then I'd just gotten married to Brian and we were living in Toronto. 

I was waiting for my permant residence application to be approved, so I couldn't work, right?  So I was sitting there all day and I just needed to do something with my time, because that was like, you know, depressing?  I drew Salamander Dream and I put it online and right away AdHouse Books picked it up right away, so yeah, I was exceptionally lucky.

That came out a few months later; and, meanwhile I'd been doing a bunch of lettering and stuff for Oni Press and I had a really good experience with AdHouse, but I felt worried about pitching them another book right away because I drew Grey Horses right on top of Salamander and I felt like it might break him with the printing costs, because it was a two color book.  

So I pitched that to Oni and they were like 'Okay, we'll whip it up' - I did that - then before that came out I wrote the script for Chiggers and I gave it to my agent.  And, a couple of months after Grey Horses came out I had a two book deal with Simon & Schuster, Atheneum Books for Young Readers and that pretty much was it.

I was reading on Wiki - because you know that's where bloggers go first to research - but, I was reading that Chiggers is kind of an autobiographical story.  Is that true?

Wiki, the hard facts!  I don't even read my Wikipedia, is that what it says?  Because it's not.  I went to camp; but, I was not like a "camp girl."  I wanted to do a book that was fun, that was more plot driven than Grey Horses or Salamander Dream, which were mostly design.  

So, yeah, I just thought it would be fun.  I mean, there aren't a lot of scenarios you can write for girls or children where they don't have their parents around.  Which is something want, because, you know, the parents are restrictive [to the plot.]  They have to be dead...

Or, somewhere else.  Or, they have to be superheros to facilitate...

So that opens up a lot.  And, it was just fun to write.

As a woman, as a person... what is the impact you're hoping to make with your art?

Surprisingly, there are not a lot of comics for kids being produced right now, period.  Most comics are written for 18-30 something year old men.  So, kids are kind of screwed right now.

I was actually talking about that with some TMNT fans, it's interesting, even the "kid based" comics are getting really dark and becoming really sexualized, trying to skew to that demographic.

Basically it's not a good time to be a kid reading comics right now, if you're a boy or a girl, or what... And, especially if you're a girl.  I like to read about characters that are somewhat like me.  I like to read about female characters who are dealing with a lot of the same stuff I'm dealing with, I'm trying to write the books I would have wanted if I were a teenage girl. 

I mostly write for myself, because, how can you write for anyone else?  I'm trying to hash out my own life experiences, my own hangups.  That's the main thing I'm trying to do.  I want there to be more women in the industry; so, I'm hoping that in ten years that the girls who will have read my books now will have started reading all sorts of comics and maybe they'll grow up and want to draw comics.  And, the industry will be so much richer as a result.

The question I ask everyone that I interview for this column is "If you had one lesson that you've learned - either in your life or your career - that you want to pass on to young women who want to be same place you are, what would it be?"

Well, I feel like they are all sort of truisms, like "You have to believe in yourself," and "Don't give up."  But, it's true, if you have a passion for something and want to do it, you will find a way - you can't blame sexism or anything like that for not being where you want to be - you find a way.  You just have to be better.  Keep getting better and better.  

And, do things that scare you.  I went on TV this morning and I was scared shitless, but I feel like you have to do that.  Because it's benefitting not just you; but, it's going to benefit every other girl out there who wants to be like you.  Really - be passionate and don't give up.

I like that.  I like that, too -- "Be better."  I need a t-shirt that says that.  Like all of those truisms, I want t-shirts that say them so I can just wear them around to remind people.

[Hope laughs.]

Thank you so much for your time, Hope!