Hey, so you like my books! I’m so happy, thank you!! "I've read this a couple of times...what else you got?"

If you enjoyed Smile, Drama, or my Baby-sitters Club graphic novels, here are some suggestions for graphic novels and comics to read next.

The best way to get a hold of most of these titles is to ask your favorite local bookstore or comic shop to order them for you. You can also buy them via online retailers like Amazon and Indiebound.org. And you can always request them at your local library!

For Ages 8 and Up:

My webcomics!

Hey, maybe you haven't read them yet! I've got a whole pile of short-story comics right here on my website. Some of these are over a decade old; some of them are newer. Many of them were originally published in my minicomic series, Take-Out, and some were created for other web or print venues.

Astronaut Academy

By Dave Roman

Character-driven stories about kids who go to school on a space station. Really fun if you like anime, manga, video games, word play, and space ninjas!

Babymouse

By Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm

She may be a mouse, but she has many of the problems kids face in their regular lives: homework, a messy locker, bullies at school. Babymouse also has a massive imagination, which helps her overcome!

Lunch Lady

by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

A school cafeteria lunch lady who is also a superhero! All of her tools and gadgets are made from kitchen tools and common household objects.

Zita the Spacegirl

By Ben Hatke

An adventure comic with a big heart, beautifully illustrated.

Yotsuba&!

By Kiyohiko Azuma

My favorite manga of all time. Hilarious, simple, and some of the best comic timing I’ve ever seen.

Giants Beware

By Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado

A girl who wants to fight monsters, surrounded by a town of medieval characters. Claudette and her friends make a winning team.

Ameila Rules!

By Jimmy Gownley

Amelia and her mom move to a new town, and this series follows the adventures of Amerlia and her new friends. A fourth-grade lens on real life.

Bone

By Jeff Smith

An absolute classic. Epic story, funny characters, surprising depth, jaw-dropping artwork.

Amulet

By Kazu Kibuishi

Kazu is bringing an animated, Miyazaki-like sensibility to the comics page, and creates an exciting adventure along the way. One of the most gorgeously-drawn comics available today.

The Secret Science Alliance

By Eleanor Davis

If you like jam-packed artwork full of tiny, interesting details, this one’s for you.

Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword

By Barry Deutsch

An 11-year-old orthodox Jewish girl who wants to fight monsters? Sweet!

Chiggers

By Hope Larson

Summer camp! Secrets! Cute boys! Lightning!

Guinea P.I.G.: Pet Shop Private Eye

By Colleen AF Venable and Stephanie Yue

Super sweet and super funny. Kids who love animals will love this series.

To Dance

By Mark Siegel and Siena Cherson Siegel

An autobiographical graphic novella about a girl who aspires to be a ballerina.

Mal and Chad

By Stephen McCranie

A kid scientist and his talking dog. Love it!

Bird & Squirrel on the Run

By James Burks

A buddy road trip comedy, made even more fun by animal protagonists and solid cartooning.

Sidekicks

By Dan Santat

A houseful of pets all aspire to be their superhero owner’s new sidekick. Delightfully drawn.

Calvin and Hobbes, any volume

By Bill Watterson

Probably the best comic strip of all time. Brilliantly drawn and written, with a lot to say about the world we live in. A must.

For Better or For Worse, especially the volumes published between 1983 and 1990

By Lynn Johnston

My very favorite comic strip, which also taught me how engrossing realistic fiction could be. I credit FBorFW with paving the way for the kinds of comics and stories I like to create today, as well as being the biggest influence on my art style.

For Ages 12 and Up:

Friends with Boys

By Faith Erin Hicks

Faith is quickly becoming the premier YA graphic novelist of our day and age, and Friends With Boys is her strongest work to date. It's about homeschooling, public high school, a missing mother, a bunch of crazy brothers...and a ghost.

Anya's Ghost

By Vera Brosgol

Setting the YA comics bar extremely high, this is an expertly written and drawn graphic novel with a spooky edge. Vera is a storyboard artist for Laika Studios (Coraline, ParaNorman), and it shows in every panel.

American Born Chinese

By Gene Luen Yang

A powerful story about the Chinese-American experience, an ancient Chinese fable, and a look at racism in society...all converging into one narrative, and accessible to any reader. ABC was the first (and so far, only!) comic to win the prestigious Printz Award, as well as a National Book Award finalist.

Will & Whit

By Laura Lee Gulledge

Artsy kids, heartbreak, and a hurricane! If you're a fan of Drama in particular, this book would serve as a wonderful companion.

The! Greatest! Of! Marlys!

by Lynda Barry

Lynda Barry's comics were my YA, before YA really even existed. She's been writing teen stories with an incredibly clear voice since the early 80s. This book collects many of the stories about Maryls and her sister Maybonne, and is probably better categorized as being at the young end of YA comics lit. Raw, ugly, hilarious, and poignant.

Please note: I’ve focused on books that I think are appropriate for my target readers, who mostly range between ages 8 and 13. You may be older or younger, but in general my books are considered “middle grade,” and this list focuses on graphic novels within that range. This means I’m leaving out some truly quality suggestions, especially for older readers, but there are plenty of resources out there to help you find good comics for the upper end of young adult, and adult readers.

*****

This essay was originally posted on Inside A Dog. Copyright Raina Telgemeier.

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Where does style come from? How do you develop one? A few years ago, I got the chance to turn one of my favorite prose book series, The Baby-sitters Club, into a series of graphic novels.

Here's the original cover of The Baby-sitters Club: Claudia and Mean Janine, then the cover of my adaptation, and an interior spread.

When my graphic novels debuted, some readers were taken aback because my style is so different from the original portrayal of the characters. It's true: My artwork has a pretty distinct style. How would you describe it? Some people have used words like cartoony, rounded, smooth, appealing, friendly, retro, warm, young, and loopy to describe my work. This stands in contrast to the original series' covers, which you might describe as realistic, painterly, or very 1980s. (Were the 1980s a style?! Some people argue that they were...)

I certainly wasn’t born drawing the way I do. I’ve spent the past three or so decades practicing and refining my work. With that in mind, let's think about this question: Where does style come from?

1. Influences

From very early on, I loved watching cartoons and anything animated. Some of my favorites were Scooby Doo, the Smurfs, the Care Bears, and anything Disney. I also loved the Muppets on Sesame Street, Berenstain Bears books, and Mickey Mouse.

Early influences.

My earliest drawings are just scribbles and shapes, but they’re all sort of rounded, featuring a lot of bubble-headed figures. Some of my early masterpieces.

When I was nine, I discovered comic strips in the newspaper. I fell instantly in love with Calvin and Hobbes, For Better or For Worse, FoxTrot, and Luann. And these characters didn’t need huge animation studios to make them live and breathe…they just needed some word balloons and a few panels to play around in!

I made my first comics around the age of 10. I wish I had some to show you--but I don't! They're either lost to the sands of time, or buried in a box somewhere in my mom's storage space.

2. Copying

It's fun to draw other peoples' characters sometimes! Here's Tree Trunks, from Adventure Time, and Tintin and Snowy from Tintin, by me.

For a while, I just copied my favorite characters in my sketchbooks. In some cases, I even traced them. There’s nothing wrong with this—I think learning how other artists fit shapes together is a really helpful way to learn to draw. Then, I began to invent my own characters, which usually bore a striking resemblance to my favorite cartoons and comics…like a detective named Inspector Lock-It, who had a nephew and a cat (pretty much ripping off Inspector Gadget, with a little bit of genderswap and species-swap going on). I also drew myself, my friends, my teachers, my family…anybody I came in contact with was likely a subject of my comics!

An illustration from my middle school yearbook. Age 12 or so. For a while, a key part of my drawing style was to give characters a circle for a nose!

I continued to draw all of my favorite cartoons, and became somewhat famous in my middle school for being the "girl who could draw anything." The Simpsons, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Little Mermaid…people ‘commissioned’ me all the time, and lots of people stuck my drawings in the fronts of their binders, proudly on display. I guess this was my fanart stage, and if Tumblr had existed in those days, I would have gotten a lot of notes!

By the time I got to high school, my style was starting to "gel." People could tell when something was a "Raina drawing." I had a great time in high school, painting dance posters, drawing comics for the school paper, illustrating as many of my class assignments as possible, and drawing caricatures of my friends and teachers.

Creating a giant dance poster for school! (Fun facts: In Smile, you see my character creating posters much like this one! And the person painting with me in this photo is my amazing friend Jake, who inspired the character of Jesse in my book Drama!)

3. Art Class, Art School

Eventually I went to art college--The School of Visual Arts, in New York City. Here is where they “teach” you to draw the “right” way. I really enjoyed my illustration classes, painting, comics-making classes, and especially figure drawing classes, learning about human anatomy and trying to capture difficult poses…but, my faces were always cartoony. My teachers hated this! But I was beginning to realize that cartoony faces are a huge, ingrained part of my “style” of drawing. (You could also call it a crutch.) Once I finished college, I was happy to just embrace my own style, and started making comics nonstop.

4. Tools

The tools you use will certainly have an impact on your style. Do you draw with a brush? A pen? A computer? Do you use paints, or charcoal? Crayons or markers?

Here are two unrelated comics pages I drew during college. The first is from when I was still inking with pens and markers...the second is after I switched over to inking with a brush.

5. Day in and day out. Another huge factor in an artist's style is time. Try drawing the same character every day, over the period of a month, a year, five years. The first will probably look different than the last. Styles can change a lot over time, due to many things: your hand memorizes certain lines and shapes, and starts to simplify them. You start to take certain shortcuts. You find yourself always drawing things in a certain order. Eventually, you can practically draw your characters with your eyes closed!

I’m sure my style will continue to evolve over the years, but an amazing thing has happened:

The characters from Drama, as drawn by Alyssa!

Some of the young readers of my work are starting to try to draw like me. Some of them might even list me as an influence on their own style, someday.

And I can think of no greater compliment.

*****

This essay was originally posted on Inside A Dog. Copyright Raina Telgemeier.

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First, I’d like to say that there’s no wrong way to make comics, and cartoonists use lots of different methods and mediums to create stories. These just happen to be mine. (For more on why and how I create each stage of a graphic novel, read my previous post, How A Graphic Novel is Born (and Raised)!)

Thumbnailing stage:

My ‘writing’ process looks like this. I create a thumbnail version of each page in a story, quickly roughing out the panel layouts, which characters are where, and what they say. At this stage, I’m using cheap copy paper and a cheap mechanical Papermate pencil. I know I should really be using a reusable lead pencil, because these disposable ones are terrible for the environment...but I've never found one I liked!

The manuscript:

Once my editor and I are happy with my story, I type out the dialog, panel by panel, page by page, right from what I wrote in my thumbnails. I use Microsoft Word on my laptop.

Layouts:

Now, I transfer my rough layouts onto a fresh piece of Bristol board (my favorite brand is Strathmore, series 300), using a Prismacolor Col-erase light blue colored pencil. Some artists simply scan their thumbnails into a computer and then print the layouts onto their Bristol, but I’m old-fashioned in wanting to do everything by hand.

Why a blue pencil, you ask? Well, for a long time, graphic artists used something called a non-photo blue pencil. It’s called that because when you scan or photograph this color, it’s invisible! That means all you can see is the graphite or ink on top of it. Cartoonists often use blue pencils for this reason. Of course, technology has improved by leaps and bounds in recent years, and scanners and photos can pick up the blue…but it’s pretty easy to adjust the file in Photoshop and just drop out the blue lines digitally. My favorite pencil is this Col-erase light blue, because the lead is a little softer and less waxy than a non-photo blue.

My paper size varies. Most of the time, I use 11 x 14-inch paper, but I drew Smile slightly smaller than my other books, at 9 x 12. Since the graphic novel I’m currently working on, Sisters, is a companion book to Smile, I’m working small once again.

Pencils:

Next, I pencil over my blue layout panels. I use a simple graphite pencil at this stage. For a while, I used a Staedtler Lumograph F pencil, but these days I use the same cheap-o mechanical pencil I use for my thumbnails, the Papermate. I also need my big Staedtler Mars Plastic eraser handy, because sometimes, you’ve got to draw something multiple times before it looks right!

Inks:

This is my favorite part of the comics-making process. I ink over my pencils with a Windsor & Newton Series 7 sable watercolor brush. My favorite brush size is #2, although I sometimes use a #1 or a #3. My ink of choice is Dr. P.H. Martin’s Black Star, but my husband has a giant bottle of Speedball Superblack waterproof India ink right now, so I’ve been using that. Ink brands vary in viscosity and light-fastness, so it’s good to try a few in order to find your favorite. My faves tend to be super-black and very thin.

For very small details, like eyeballs and shirt buttons, I use a Faber-Castell Pitt Artist pen. My favorite widths are F and M. I also use Microns, because they make them in really fine widths—I often have a 005 and a 01 lying around. The Micron ink isn’t as lightfast as the Faber Castell unfortunately, and after a few years, it starts to fade.

The liner pen is also used to ink word balloons.

Here's a video of me, inking a page from Smile. Notice how I'm constantly rotating rotating my paper as I work!

Erasing!

Staedtler eraser strikes again. This thing gets a workout, cleaning up all my messy pencil lines! I also have a big brush called a Draftman’s Duster, specifically for sweeping the eraser crumbles off of my pages.

Scanning:

I’m lucky to have an oversized scanner in my studio. Aside from my computer, this is the most expensive tool I own—and it’s invaluable. I scan my art as black and white, or lineart, files at 600 dpi.

Digital Cleanup:

Now, I have digital art files of every single page! But because I haven’t cleaned up all my stray lines with white-out, there’s usually some cleaning up to do. All my fixes are made digitally, using Adobe Photoshop. I also add my panel borders digitally!

At this point, the book enters the production stage, which I oversee.

Coloring:

I work with professional colorists on my books. I’m capable of coloring my own comics, and usually color my own work when it’s a short story, but in order to speed up my process, I hire someone else to color full-length books. We all use Photoshop, the industry standard for coloring comics digitally. (Drama was colored by the Japanese creative team Gurihiru, an incredible two-woman powerhouse comics studio. They've illustrated Marvel's PowerPack, and most recently have illustrated the Avatar: The Last Airbender comics from Dark Horse.)

Once the color files come back to me, I make any last-minute changes, and then prep the files for print (a process involving Photoshop that I’m not great at explaining—but basically you need to make sure the printing press knows to print all the colors on one layer, and then overlay that with a very solid black ink for all the linework). I send these color files over to the book designer, Phil, at my publisher.

Lettering:

I also work with a letterer! (He happens to be my friend John.) He takes all the dialog from my manuscript, and pastes it into an Adobe Illustrator template to fit into my hand-drawn word balloons. Sounds simple, but there’s an art and a skill to this. He sends all the lettered files to my designer, Phil.

Final design and book mock-up:

This all happens magically at the publisher, but I get to see drafts of the book's design as it is being prepared by ace designer Phil: the front and back covers, any jacket copy (these are all called mechanicals when they’re still computer files), page number placements, title pages.

The publisher gets a set of color proofs, which is the last chance to catch any mistakes or adjust the colors (are they too light? Too dark? Too saturated? Etc.), and because I live in the same city as my publisher (one good reason to pay the high rent in NYC, I guess?…), I get to look at these in person. It’s fun—Scholastic has a special room with special lighting, and a production manager whose job it is to hang out with me while I go over every little detail. There’s even a little magnifying glass for looking super closely at the individual ink spots on the paper!

(The above image is not mine--photo credit to Greenwillow Books' blog!)

After all of this, the book gets shipped off to print, and I go back to the beginning of the process, working on a new project with my simplest tools: pencil, paper, and ideas.

This essay was originally posted on Inside A Dog. Copyright Raina Telgemeier.

RESOURCES

***I buy most of my art supplies (paper, pencils, and brushes) online from Dick Blick. ***My Canadian friends recommend Curry's for online ordering. ***In NYC, I routinely visit Sam Flax, New York Central, and A.I. Friedman for specialty items. ***If you've got a great art supply store in your town, please visit them for materials!

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Graphic novels are an amazing medium. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and an average graphic novel has somewhere in the ballpark of a thousand pictures in it…so, that’s worth a lot of words!

But how do they come to be? Most authors get ideas for stories, type up an outline, and then flesh that outline into paragraphs, chapters, and finished a manuscript. Cartoonists also do that, but there are pictures involved, too. They’re not an afterthought, but a part of the process from start to finish.

Here’s what goes into making one of my graphic novels.

1. Idea!

All good stories have to start somewhere. My ideas come from many places (see my previous post for more on this), and the origins of my stories can either be pictures or simple sentences. With Drama, the glimmers of the idea came from just thinking about my own theater days in high school, and the friends I made during that time.

I looked at lots of old photographs, and considered writing a story about drama kids. I wanted them to be on stage crew, which is something I always wanted to try but never did. Callie’s name came to me when I was driving around northern California a couple of years ago, and the song “Goin’ Back to Cali” was playing on the radio. That’s embarrassing, but there you have it.

2. Pitch!

Eventually, an idea needs to be turned into a pitch. Can the story idea be summarized in a couple of paragraphs? It needs to be, if it’s going to be published. Drama’s pitch was simple:

The kids of Eucalyptus Middle School are putting on a school play. Callie is a set designer who keeps falling for the wrong boys. She makes friends with two twin brothers, Justin and Jesse, and their friendship becomes as dramatic as the play itself! But the show must go on, and everyone must work together in the end.

...Or something like that.

I also created drawings of all the main characters in the story. Callie’s hair was going to be a dark blonde color, and then one evening my husband was helping me put together my pitch for Drama (which didn't have an official title until I was more than halfway done with it!), and decided to change her hair color to purple for some reason. I took one look at the drawing, and it was just perfect. That was Callie!

3. Detailed Outline!

The next step was to create a full outline. I typed up several pages, explaining what would happen in every scene in the story. I worked and re-worked this until it felt right. Scenes that were clear in my mind didn’t always fit the overall story, and were cut or re-arranged. Others were added.

4. Thumbnails!

So, my editors at my publisher liked my pitch! Hooray! They asked to see a full draft of the story, and I set to work. For me, this is the most challenging part of creating a graphic novel, because until I start the thumbnails, I don’t know where the story might go. Oh, sure, I had my outline to work off of…but for me, thumbnailing IS writing. I don’t script out the characters’ dialog in advance on a computer. They speak to me through word balloons and stick figures in panels. Writing comics means writing out the pacing, panel by panel, spread by spread, which sometimes includes panels (and pages) where there is no dialog at all, but the pictures take the place of exposition or description, so they’re important to include in the thumbnails. This is also the most challenging part of my process to explain to people. Thumbnailing is just like writing with a pencil on paper. You’re just doodling too, and putting everything into boxes.

But the lovely thing is, when you’ve thumbnailed your book, you know exactly how long it’s going to be, and have a pretty good idea of what it’s going to look like! The drawings aren't finished, but this draft can now be “read” by an editor. This is where my publisher steps in and decides whether the story is good or not. Does it need to be revised? Edited? Expanded? Shortened? It’s much more economical to edit thumbnails than finished artwork, so I’m happy to work out all the kinks here.

I thumbnailed Drama twice. My editors felt the story as I wrote it wasn’t quite working. The main problem was I originally wrote the characters as high-school aged, but my editors felt they should be in middle school. I grappled with whether this would be possible, but the only way to figure it out was to just sit down and write another draft. That meant re-drawing about 75% of my thumbnails, adding another 6 months to the writing process!

5. Layouts!

Once the thumbnailed script was approved, I had a perfect template for drawing the finished book. I switched over to large, sturdy paper, and started laying out the final pages.

DISCLAIMER: I didn't scan my layouts for Drama, so you'll just have to make do with this photo of a layout from one of my Baby-sitters Club graphic novel pages instead. Bad Raina!

Layouts are kind of nebulous to explain. I use a blue pencil, rule out all of my panels by hand, and then draw in loose underdrawings, using the thumbnails as a guide but always trying to improve and clarify as I go. I loved gesture drawing when I was in university—the fast, flowy, gestural drawing we did to capture the energy of the model. It’s not unlike looking at an animator’s work. Check out Glen Keane’s loose sketches of his characters: he’s trying to capture their essence on paper.

The looseness and sketchiness will be cleaned up later. That’s what layouts are like: trying to convey energy, flow, body language, and spirit…while still leaving enough space for all the dialog!

Composition also plays a huge role in layouts. I’m working out things like perspective and scale, and trying to make everything fit harmoniously into the panel boxes. Is the composition pleasing, overall? Do the shapes look nice together? They should! If something needs fixing, it’s best to fix it now, because later I tend to go into autopilot mode. If layouts are well done, the page will look good, even at this stripped-down, sketchy stage.

6. Pencils!

I pencil right over my layouts. This is refinement. The energetic underdrawing is there, and now I’m working out all the details. Facial features, hands, clothes, backgrounds, everything you’ll see in the finished artwork. Again, I’m constantly refining. This stage takes a lot of concentration, but it’s very rewarding.

7. Inks!

Ah, how I love to ink! For one thing, I love using a brush. It’s just so…flowy! At this point I’m going over my pencils, varying the pressure on my brush to create thick and thin ink lines. This is when everything starts to really come to life for me. I do all my brush inking first (I can ink up to eight pages in a full workday!), and then go back in with a technical pen and fill in tiny details like eyeballs, shirt buttons, and anything else the brush would be too large for.

8. Scanning!

I sit in front of my computer for a couple hours and scan all my pages in. I scan at 600dpi, black and white / lineart.

9. Cleanup!

Also kind of boring, but because my inking style is fast and loose, I tend to have a lot of messy crossed lines and screw-ups that need a quick correction. Instead of using white-out on my physical pages, I make my corrections digitally. I also drop in my panel borders, and make sure all my stray lines are closed off before sending the finished, cleaned up pages off to my colorist.

10. Color!

I don’t do this stage myself. I could, but it would add 6-9 months to my production schedule. Instead, I work with a colorist (Drama's colorists were the amazing Japanese art duo Gurihiru), often giving them samples of the colors I want or sending them reference photos if they’re coloring a real place or thing. The pages come back to me (we use Photoshop) for final approval before getting sent back to my publisher, so if anything is the wrong color or I just had something different in mind, I make corrections to the files. Then I flatten the colors, prep the lineart for print (a technical process I can’t even begin to explain), and stick them all on a server for Scholastic’s art director. (A note: the image above was approved and sent off, but my editors decided at the last minute that the yellow color scheme of this scene wasn't working to their satisfaction! So we did a few tests, and the final version of this page can be seen in the final version of Drama.)

11. Lettering!

Oh yeah, I typed up the manuscript once the thumbnails were approved. It’s pretty basic: “Page 1. Panel 1. Callie: Hey, Matt. Matt: Hey. Panel 2…” And so on. This gets copyedited, and sent to my letterer! This is another stage of the process I could probably do myself, but it saves me some time to let someone else help out. The letters are pulled right from the manuscript, and put into word balloons using Adobe Illustrator. The letterer sends these files directly to my art director, and he puts everything together on his end!

12. Cover Design!

My editors and I come up with some cover concepts, I do a bunch of sketches, and we pick our favorite. I create the final cover art, and the art director puts in the type and any other features (foil details, spot gloss, and so on).

13. Etc!

Everything else that happens, I know less about. Files are sent to an offset printing company somewhere in Asia. They send back a set of color proofs, which we go through and approve. (Is it too light? Too dark? Too blue?) Then a bunch of copies are printed, bound, and stuck on a giant boat, headed for the U.S. or wherever they’re being sold. My editor mails me a copy a few months before the book is actually published, and I get to bask in the glory of being a published author. This never gets old!

This essay was originally posted on Inside A Dog. Copyright Raina Telgemeier.

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I’ve been writing about my life since age 10, when I started keeping a diary.

I’ve been making comics about my life since age 11…when I started keeping a diary in words and pictures. I put entries into that almost every day, for about fifteen years.

So when it came time to create my first full-length graphic novel, choosing to write about my own life was a natural decision.

Smile is about knocking out my two front teeth just as I was hitting puberty, as well as entering middle school. I had to go through years of orthodontic treatment: braces, headgear, false teeth, and lots of surgeries in order to have a normal-looking smile again. The experience had an enormous impact on me, and years later, I was still thinking about it. So I decided to put the whole thing down on paper.

Readers are introduced to me, my family members, and my dentists. I show my house, my family’s car, my dentist’s waiting room as best as I remember. As the story unfolds, more people and elements from my life are introduced: teachers, friends, boys, enemies.

And of course, these are all based on real people! I changed a few of their names, and in the case of a couple of my friends, changed or combined some of their appearances. (By which I mean, the physical appearance of one friend merged with the personality of another.) It was a difficult time in my life: my new dental deformities made me terribly shy and self-conscious, and my so-called friends loved to pick on me. In the end, their teasing got bad enough that I had to ditch them altogether, and find new friends to hang out with. It makes for a nice reading experience, seeing my character grow in confidence enough to finally stand up for herself…but the people in the story are still real. The girls who bullied me are real. They are still around, and in some cases, we are even still internet friends!

My readers always want to know if I’ve been contacted by any former “frienemies.” For a while, if these people realized they were the ones cast as mean girls in the story, they didn’t say anything. Recently I have been in touch with some of the people who mistreated me all those years ago, and in one case, I received an apology. Even though I’ve ‘gotten over’ most of the events in my past, it was a really amazing moment of closure. I forgave her right away. I got the sense she had been hanging on to her old baggage as well, and I hope that now the air is clear.

Another person who tracked me down is my old orthodontist, “Dr. Dragoni” (not too far off from his real name). I drew him the way he looks, and I drew his office the way it still looks to this day. He’s still in practice, and I guess his patients (who are all the perfect age to be reading my books!) discovered Smile on their own, and brought it to his attention.

He was thrilled to see himself in my story, to say the least! He remembered me well: my orthodontic case was so extreme, he actually once presented my treatment at a dental conference. I remember him as being sort of a horrible guy (part of my motivation for the name change), but when I met up with him again after Smile was published, he couldn’t have been nicer. Turns out my perception was based on the fact that he was always sticking painful metal objects in my mouth and making me look funny! He was probably very nice and caring at the time. I just don’t remember it that way.

So, always take memoirs and real-life stories with a grain of salt. The author’s memories are their own, and don’t always match up with the memories of everyone else who was there. Still, I’d argue that emotions are as true as fact. I remember exactly how I felt when I knocked out my two front teeth, and if I can relay those emotions as honestly as possible in my stories, then they are true stories. Even in fiction, stories can feel completely true!

This essay was originally posted on Inside A Dog. Copyright Raina Telgemeier.

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"Where do you get your inspiration?"

If there’s one question authors get asked over and over, it’s this one. I wish the answer were simple: “I’m inspired by sunsets!” or “I get all my inspiration from my best friend, Theresa!” or “I pull up a bucket of inspiration from my backyard well each morning!” But answer is usually more complicated. Simply put, my life inspires my work. But I write different kinds of books, and because I write and draw, I pull from different sources on a regular basis. Smile is a true story about my childhood dental experiences, inspired by real events—the main character is me, so I’m working with my memories. Drama was also inspired by real people in my life, as well as my love of theatre, but the story itself was made-up. The book I’m working on now, Sisters, is going back to my true life stories for inspiration.

Beyond that…I’m waiting for the next idea to hit me!

This is why writers have to constantly open their minds and their hearts. I read all kinds of books, the news, blogs, cookbooks. I watch movies. I walk around my city. I look at old photographs. I travel. I meet new people. I listen to music.

Sounds like procrastination, right? Not so! I never know when something is going to strike a chord, but I need to be ready when it does. I watch. I wait. I hope. I get glimmers of ideas, usually something visual.

Here’s an example: I see a picture of my friend’s kid on Facebook, wearing a Halloween costume, and think to myself, “Maybe I’ll work on a book about a kid wearing a skeleton costume someday.”

I might draw a few pictures, look up some reference, jot some notes down in my phone, but nothing comes together. That’s okay: I’ll file skeletons away for another day.

Another example: recently, I saw a cool news story on TV about kids from Afghanistan, who were forbidden from playing or listening to music while growing up under the Taliban regime, and are now living in America and learning to play music along with a high school orchestra. Awesome! I’d love to do a story about one of those kids, and their journey. Hmm, but I make graphic novels, and it’s really hard to convey the power and joy of music through visual art alone…I’ll shelve that idea. Maybe something will come out of it someday; maybe not. One final example, where inspiration did lead to something real: I was struggling with re-writing a camping scene in Sisters. I knew I had to convey certain information, and wanted the scene to be visual, funny, and a little bit epic. But what I had was a bunch of talking heads.

I’m reading a book about astronomy right now (Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything), so I’ve had stars on the brain…and inspiration struck! I decided to send my characters on a star-gazing excursion, watching shooting stars and gazing at the cosmos while they had their conversation. So much better than my original talking heads!

The truth is…sometimes, I’m not inspired at all. Sometimes, I can sit and stare out my studio window for a week, waiting for inspiration to strike, and nothing happens. I don’t know what to draw, and I don’t feel like writing. But writers and artists need to learn to trust themselves.

If I’m patient, I know inspiration will come eventually.

This essay was originally posted on Inside A Dog. Copyright Raina Telgemeier. Post a comment on my Facebook page!

SDCC already?! Here's where to find me in all the madness... Friday, July 19

12-1pm Raising a Reader Room 30CDE An all-star panel of kids comics creators and educators discuss ways to get children excited about reading, encourage creativity, and cultivate a love of literature using great graphic novels and comics. Panelists include Jennifer Holm and Matthew Holm (Babymouse), Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet), Raina Telgemeier (Smile), Dave Roman (AstronautAcademy), Alex Fajardo (Peanuts), Charles Brownstein (CBLDF), and Meryl Jaffe (Johns Hopkins University). Q&A to follow.

2-3pm Signing @ CBLDF booth #1920

Saturday, July 20

11-12 Signing at Cartoon Art Museum booth #1930

Sunday, July 21

10-11am Kids: Comics in Action! Room 7AB Comics battle! Before your very eyes, some of your favorite comics creators — Jeffrey Brown (Star Wars Jedi Academy), Michael Fry (The Odd Squad), Matthew Holm (Babymouse), Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet), Dave Roman (Astronaut Academy), and Raina Telgemeier (Drama) will compete in an action-packed, high-stakes, no-holds-barred drawing championship for your approval! Who will win? It’s up to you to pick the best comics! Moderated by Jennifer L. Holm (Babymouse).

11:30-12:30 SIGNING in Autograph Area AA09

1-2pm All-Ages Comics Have Arrived Room 24ABC Quality all-ages comics are back and better than ever! We’re not just talking about “kids” comics, we’re talking about amazing comics that can be enjoyed by young, old, and everyone in between. KaBOOM! editor Shannon Watters conducts a lively conversation with all-ages creators Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani (Aw Yeah! Comics, Tiny Titans), Mike Kunkel (Herobear and the Kid), Raina Telgemeier (Smile, Drama), Dave Roman (Astronaut Academy) and Nate Cosby (Cow Boy) about this phenomenal resurgence!

2-3pm Today’s Kids’ Heroes…and Why They Don’t Wear Capes Room 32AB An all-star panel of kids comics authors, game designers, illustrators, and educators discuss why today’s heroes are often nerdy, quirky, flawed figures battling everyday challenges of social pressure and belonging, and have dropped the capes. Implications for developing the next superhero for aspiring writers, students, and educators will also be discussed. Panelists include Jennifer Holm (Babymouse), Jonathan Hamel (Tomb Raider), Scott Peterson (Batman: Gotham Adventures), Raina Telgemeier (Smile), Tim Travaglini (Open Road Media), Joe Kelly (I Kill Giants), Jimmy Gownley (Amelia Rules!), and Talia Hurwich (Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth). Moderated by Meryl Jaffe (Using Content-Area Graphic Novels for Learning, Johns Hopkins University).

Please note that I will NOT have a table or home base this year. From what I understand, the CBLDF booth (#1920) will have a few copies of my books available for purchase throughout the weekend, and they will be selling copies of my new Little Liberty poster, too! So pick up a book (or bring your own copy) for me to sign during one of my events listed above. See you at the con!

I recently got home from the trip of a lifetime: ten days visiting three cities in Australia!! The kind and wonderful folks from the State Library of Victoria brought me down under as a guest of their bi-annual Reading Matters festival, a YA literature conference in Melbourne, with a satellite event in Brisbane! After that, Dave and I headed to Sydney for a few days, just as tourists.

Now. On to the photos.

BRISBANE!

We landed in Brisbane after 20 hours of travel, early in the morning on my 36th birthday. We intended to crash, but were too giddy to explore a new part of the world, and ended up having the most glorious, sunny, treat-filled day, complete with new friends and new experiences! For the next couple of days, Tim Sinclair and I were the authors on the roster at a mini-conference, a library workshop, and several schools. It was great.

MELBOURNE!

Melbourne is kind of Australia's Seattle. Everyone drinks coffee while walking around in the rain, there are bookstores and indoor/outdoor markets and alleyways with cute little cafes and museums and sweeping water views. The main Reading Matters conference happened in Melbourne, and I met SO MANY amazing people in our 4 days there. I also spent a lot of time on stage, introducing a whole new community to the joys of graphic novels. Graphic novels haven't quite "hit" in Australia the way they have in the states, but I think that's going to change soon, based on the reception me and my work received. I left Melbourne absolutely buzzing with enthusiasm and book love.

SYDNEY!

How could we go all the way to Australia and not see Sydney? Dave and I took ourselves there for a few days before heading back to the states. We saw a bit of rain and a lot of sun, the amazing VIVID installation happening all over town; went to the zoo and met a baby koala; took a cruise around the harbour, walked from Bondi Beach to Bronte Beach (where Garth Nix and his wonderful family hosted us for dinner), and wished we'd had more time to explore such an amazing, beautiful city. We ate a LOT of good food and got lost a few times and enjoyed the winter sunshine reflecting on Sydney's landmarks. Goodness. If you get a chance to go, GO!!!

My utmost thanks to the Centre for Youth Literature and State Library of Victoria's amazing staff: Adele Walsh, Anna Burkey, Jordi Kerr, Nicole Armstrong, Heath Graham, and the rest of your terrific colleagues. The awesome employees from Readings bookstore, event sponsor, who sold out of my books almost immediately! The librarians, teachers, school admins, and students of Brisbane, for welcoming me into their classrooms with open arms. The librarians and students from Melbourne and beyond who attended the conference, coming from as far away as New Zealand, Indonesia, and every Australian state!

I also LOVED meeting all of the authors at the festival. A small group allows everyone the chance to bond, and these folks are all top notch. Thanks, and "hope to see you again soon," to Garth Nix, Libba Bray, Gayle Forman, Tim Sinclair, Myke Bartlett, Paul Callaghan, John Flanagan, Morris Gleizman, Fiona Wood, Vikki Wakefield, Alison Croggan, Ambelin Kwaymullina, Keith Gray, Andrew McGahan, and Gabrielle Williams. You guys made the long trip feel like I was very close to home.

More photos:

BRISBANE MELBOURNE SYDNEY

I'm going on a tour of the Midwest! Hopefully you can make it to some of my events. These include Kids Read Comics (including a pre-conference for librarians and educators); signings at Green Brain Comics in Dearborn, MI and Challengers Comics + Conversation in Chicago, IL; and the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, IL. Here are the details: June 21 COMICS, COLLECTIONS AND THE COMMON CORE Hatcher Graduate Library Ann Arbor, MI A special KRC Pre-Conference for Librarians, Educators, and Cartoonists! Attendance is FREE, but you must register to attend.

June 22-23 KIDS READ COMICS CELEBRATION Ann Arbor District Library I'll have a table with fun stuff for sale in the Artist Alley, and will be participating in programs throughout the weekend! The full schedule of events is here.

Monday, June 24 2-5pm GREEN BRAIN COMICS 13210 Michigan Avenue East Downtown Dearborn, MI, 48126 (313) 582-9444 Event & signing with Dave Roman & John Green!

Thursday, June 27 6-8pm Challengers Comics + Conversation 1845 N Western Ave #2R Chicago, IL 60647 (773) 278-0155 An all-ages comics party! Also featuring Dave Roman, John Green, & Jerzy Drozd! Live drawing games! Book signing!

June 28-July 1 ALA ANNUAL Conference McCormick Place Convention Center Chicago, IL I'll have a table in the Cartoonist Artist Alley, and will be on several panels and programs!

Friday, June 28

6:00-6:45pm COMICS QUICKFIRE! Location: Graphic Novel Stage

Saturday, June 29

11:00-12:00pm Scholastic Booth Signing Booth#2505-2605

3:00-4:00pm Krosoczka! TenNapel! Telgemeier! Graphic Novels Your Kids Love By Names You Can’t Pronounce Room: S402b

Sunday, June 30

1:00-2:30pm Busting the Comics Code: Comics, Censorship, & Librarians Room N231

What a crazy month it has been! TCAF was amazing, MeCAF was amazing, and now I'm packing my bags for Australia! I'm heading down under for the Reading Matters YA conference, and some of my events are still open to attend, although you must register.

Monday, May 27: State Library of Queensland, Brisbane: Register here!

May 30-June 1: State Library of Victoria, Melbourne: Register here for READING MATTERS student day, unconference, and conference events!

I'm not doing any public signings or events beyond this, so if you want to say hello or hear my speak, you've got to sign up.

That's all for now! Gotta go catch my plane!

And then I blinked, and it was almost time for MECAF!

The Maine Comics Arts Festival Sunday, May 19 10am - 5pm Ocean Gateway Portland, ME $5 for adults; free for kids under 12

I'll have a table at the show on Sunday--come say hi and get a signed copy of my books! I will be tabling with John Green and Dave Roman, who is debuting his newest volume of Astronaut Academy at MeCAF!

I will also be giving a program on Saturday, May 18 at 3pm at the Portland Public Library in the Rines Auditorium. Hope to see you at one or both events!

Look out, Toronto: The Toronto Comic Arts Festival week is almost here!

I'll be doing a few events leading up to the festival during the weekend. Here's where you can find me in Toronto. Wednesday, May 8 Chapters Brampton 52 Quarry Edge Dr Bovaird/Hwy 10 Brampton, ON, Canada I'll be giving a short presentation, drawing, and signing books! 7pm

Friday, May 10 TCAF Librarian & Educator Day Librarians and Educators need to register for this one-day symposium, but it will be well worth it. I'm giving the morning keynote speech, speaking on a panel about LGBTQ comics, AND interviewing one of my cartooning idols, FoxTrot's Bill Amend, live on stage...and there are a host of other wonderful panels to choose from. The event is free to attend, with the option to purchase a Patron Pack (which includes a creator lunch, and a bunch of age-specific graphic novels! [REGISTER HERE]

May 11-12 Toronto Comic Arts Festival! The big event! TCAF is free to attend and draws huge crowds of comics fans, young and old to the Toronto Reference Library for the two-day celebration. I'm one of this year's featured guests! Come say hi and get signed books, t-shirts, original art, and more! (I am still waiting on my table number and location, so please check back here for that info before heading to TCAF!)

Here are my TCAF panels! Please note that some of them take place off-site--addresses and walking times are noted. At all other times, you can find me at my table!

SATURDAY MAY 11

11am-12pm Comics Adaptations In the past decade, graphic novels have become the hot new medium, the form that everyone seems to want video games, movies, and books adapted into. Four cartoonists who have done adaptation work along with their own personal creative projects discuss the challenges and rewards of both kinds of comics works. Featuring Svetlana Chmakova (Witch & Wizard), Hope Larson (A Wrinkle In Time), Raina Telgemeier (The Babysitter’s Club). Moderated by Scott Robins (A Parent’s Guide to The Best Kids Comics). Location: The Marriott, 90 Bloor Street East Forest Hill Ballroom, 6th Floor (10 mins walk from Library)

2:45 – 3:45pm Writing Life These four cartoonists tell the most personal kind of stories – stories from their own lives. This program explores what’s involved in memoir. How accurately can memory and representative artwork depict real life? And are there kinds of stories that cannot be told? Featuring Raina Telgemeier (Smile, Drama), Derf (My Friend Dahmer), Ulli Lust (Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life), and Lucy Knisley (Relish). Moderated by Robin Brenner. Location: The Pilot, 22 Cumberland Street, Second Floor (5 mins walk from Library)

SUNDAY MAY 12

1:30-2:15pm DRAMA Reader’s Theatre Can you bring the drama to DRAMA? Raina Telegemeier will lead a group of audience volunteers in a dramatic and interactive reading of her latest graphic novel. Get ready for some acting fun & laughs and afterwards Raina will show off her skills with some interactive drawing. Location: Novella Room (2nd floor, Toronto Reference Library)

3:30-4:15pm Kids Comics Quickfire, the sequel! A fun, interactive drawing game show! Location: Novella Room (2nd floor, Toronto Reference Library)

This month, I'm the Blogger-In-Residence at Inside A Dog, an Australian website dedicated to books for young people! I'm posting every Tuesday and Saturday through the month of April.

So far I've written about some of the things that come up over and over again during Q&A sessions: where I get my inspiration; writing about my own life; and how graphic novels are made. Every post is illustrated with photos and drawings.

I hope you enjoy them!

COMICS FEST is happening Saturday, April 20 in Durham, NC! I'm one of several awesome artists leading workshops, talks, and presentations throughout the day. I hope you'll join us--it's free! Durham County 2013 COMICS FEST Southwest Regional Library 3605 Shannon Road Durham, North Carolina 27707 Saturday, April 20 10-5:30pm

WORKSHOP 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. In this workshop Raina will talk about making comics and writing stories, followed by everyone in the group writing and drawing their own short comic. She'll discuss thumbnails, layouts, balloon placement, panel variation, and the mechanics of sequential art. For ages 8-14. REGISTRATION REQUIRED.

PRESENTATION & SLIDESHOW 2:30 - 3:30 p.m. Audio-visual presentation by Raina Telgemeier, all about her process, inspiration, and love of comics! No registration required. Open to all ages! (Meeting Room)

SIGNING 3:30 - 4 p.m. Raina book signing and sale (Café Area)

View the full schedule of events here!

Just back from an amazing weekend in Montreal! Here are some of the highlights:

Librairie D+Q's storefront signage...

Book club superstar Arwen, giving me an amazing intro.

Sunday afternoon event at Chapters Pointe-Claire.

A great turn-out!

Dave and I also walked all over the place and ate a bunch of food and took a bunch of pictures; you can see all of those here.

Super thanks to Scholastic Canada, Librairie D+Q, and Chapters Pointe-Claire for making this trip possible! I had a wonderful time!

Montreal! I'll be in town in March for some events. Join me! The first event takes place on Saturday, March 23 at Librairie D + Q in Montreal.

(English-language D+Q poster)

(French-language D+Q poster)

DRAMA event & signing! Librairie D + Q Montreal, Quebec Saturday, March 23 3-5pm Full audio-visual presentation about my influences, early works, and Scholastic graphic novels! I'll be presenting in English, but both English and French-Canadian editions of my books will be available.

The second event takes place Sunday, March 24 at the Pointe-Claire Chapters store.

DRAMA event & signing! Chapters Pointe-Claire Pointe-Claire, Quebec Sunday, March 24 12-2pm I'll be speaking, drawing, and signing books! English-language presentation.

BIG news! Today, Publishers Weekly broke the story:

My next book will be called SISTERS!

From the press release:

Raina Telgemeier has signed a two-book deal with Scholastic’s Graphix imprint....The first book, Sisters, will be a companion to the author’s 2010 Eisner Award winner, Smile (also published by Graphix). Sisters, which is set for 2014, will look at “the inner workings of [Telgemeier’s] family,” focusing on her relationship with her younger sister. The second book in the deal, which is currently untitled, will also be a graphic work.

SISTERS will be in stores on September 1, 2014. I'm working on the art as we speak! Enjoy a sneak peak, above, at a couple of my penciled panels.

I'm pretty excited about this book, and even more excited now that I'm able to share the title with all of you! Of course I'll share more information here on my site when I've got it. Till then...hope you're all staying warm!

~raina

Hey, Seattle! I'm coming your way soon!

March 1-3, I'll be exhibiting at Emerald City Comicon!

I have a table in Artist Alley! That table number is...

ARTIST ALLEY TABLE # B-10

I'll be selling books, t-shirts, and original art! If you want to meet me and get something signed, this is the place to find me most of the weekend.

I'm also participating in some programming! Both of these happen on Saturday, March 2.

RAISING A READER Saturday, March 2 Start: 12:00PM Room: ECCC KIDS! - ROOM 201 CBLDF Presents: Newbery Award winning Children's book author and graphic novelist Jenni Holm (Babymouse series) discusses ways to get children excited about reading, encouraging creativity, and cultivating a love of literature and art, with a focus on great graphic novels and comics for younger readers. Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman will join Jenni on the panel!

COMICS QUICKFIRE! Saturday, March 2 Start: 3:00PM Room: ECCC KIDS! - ROOM 201 Comics Quickfire! A fast-paced game show where volunteers are paired off with (or against) professional cartoonists in a series of fun-filled drawing challenges! Audience members will provide suggestions and add to the creation of totally improvised epic drawings! Featuring host Dave Roman (Astronaut Academy), Raina Telgemeier (Smile), Skottie Young (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz), Katie Cook (My Little Pony), John Green (Teen Boat), & more! Great for all ages!

Emerald City Comicon will be my ONLY Seattle appearance in 2013, so if you want to say hi, buy your show tickets soon! See you there!

Wow, I have a lot to catch up on! This has been a good winter for me so far. I've gotten a TON of work done (35 pages into drawing my new book!), and I have a bunch of neat things to share with you. Without further ado: Photo by Lizette Serrano...look at my shiny sticker, and all my stars!

• At this year's ALA Youth Media Awards, DRAMA received a Stonewall Book Award Honor! This is for a book with "exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender experience." I'm so pleased and proud. Very many thanks to the Stonewall committee for this honor!

• ALA also released their yearly best-of and notables lists, and DRAMA was featured on a few of these, including YALSA's Great Graphic Novels for Teens (Top Ten!), Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, and the Rainbow Project List. It was also selected as an ALSC Notable Children's Book!

• A couple of weeks ago, Drama quietly slipped up to the #1 spot on the New York Times Graphic Books Bestseller list. Yow!! I have a feeling that had something to do with...

• This super-sweet audio piece on NPR, which not only recommends DRAMA, but even recorded voice actors performing some of the scenes in the book!! This is maybe the coolest thing ever.

• Oh, wait, no--THIS is the coolest thing. I got invited to be a guest at Reading Matters, a festival in Melbourne, Australia!!! That happens May 31-June 1 [ticket info is here], and I'll be doing some events there and in Brisbane, too. I'll post my full schedule here when I have it, but I look forward to meeting some Aussie readers in a few months!

• Finally, my first event of 2013 is coming right up. I'll be at Emerald City Comicon in Seattle, March 1-3, in the Artist Alley. Seattle fans, I hope to see you! I'll have books, t-shirts, and artwork on hand!

Whew! That's all for me tonight! Hope you are all doing well!

My friend Marion Vitus took some wonderful photos at Bergen Street Comics last month during my Drama book event.

You can see the rest of them here!

Happy new year, everyone.