In conversation with the book’s illustrator, Mara Wild
Mara Wild lives and works in Hamburg, Germany, as a freelance illustrator and animator, mostly doing multimedia artwork. She met Luke while studying abroad in Melbourne, taking his class in Visual Narratives at Deakin University.
Q: What first made you want to work on Two-Week Wait?
Mara: When Luke approached me, two things had me instantly interested: For one, the topic seemed interesting and a bit out-of-the-box for a graphic novel. While I didn‘t know a lot about IVF, I was aware more people are affected by it than is widely assumed and that it’s more or less not talked about. A graphic novel seemed like a low-threshold way to normalise something that might feel like a stigma to someone being personally affected – to not feel as alone, and also help others emphasize with their plight. It seemed a worthwhile endeavor.
Artistically, the idea of a character-driven story combined with more educational aspects spoke to my interest in conveying emotion as well as more scientific concepts through illustration. I’ve wanted to test my hand on a longer comic project for quite some time now, and Luke and Kelly’s trust to let me run wild with their suggestions for the illustration was what sold it to me.
Q: How would you describe the visual style of the book?
Mara: As the topic is emotionally challenging, I tried to find a light, dynamic approach that gives the funnier and the more tender moments air to breathe, while at the same time not glossing over the underlying hardships. The focus is on the the characters and the line-work, the colours and backgrounds blend in like the stage they are, sometimes, like the nature in chapter 6, mirroring the characters feelings. Here and there, there are overlapping elements and gaps in the background, to underline the shifting perspectives of Joanne and Conrad’s view on the world, their relationship and how they see themselves.
Q: Which aspects were most challenging to represent visually?
Mara: I was a bit anxious about long conversations – those can lead to ‘talking heads’ scenes, where the balance between text and picture can be off. I hope I managed to enrich the text with my drawings so that they add another layer and are not merely filler.
Q: Who are some of your artistic influences?
Mara: When it comes to influences, it is not so much a question about individual artists for me (although the list of artists I admire is endless) but more of what kind of concepts interest me, what books and media I consume generally, and what I could and can get my hands on. For example, I remember finding Maus I and Maus II by Art Spiegelman as a kid in our local library as a significant moment, opening up a world of comic as ‘serious literature’ and having me searching for similar books ever since. I’m drawn to bold strokes, unique artistic points-of-view, and an inherent trust in images as an equal partner to the text. To me, pictures are a language of their own that is at least as powerful as the written word. As such, films, especially animation, are also an important source of inspiration for me.
When it comes to style, a big influence are artistic printing methods and artists who use(d) those, whether it be medieval European woodcuts, Ukiyo-e or the work of Käthe Kollwitz, as well as the art forms of collage and assemblage.
Q: You have a background in animation and theatre. Do you think that these influenced your work on the book?
Mara: Definitely! As an animator, I’m used to thinking in camera angles as well as concentrating on non-verbal communication through body language and poses or through creating atmospheres. That’s also what I can study while working in theatre: how actors use their expressions to convey emotion. In drawing comic books, all of these things come together: the illustrator is actor, camera operator, editor, lightning and background artist in one.
Q: The entire book was created without the team ever sitting down in the same room; files were exchanged digitally and discussions conducted entirely via email, making it a very 21st Century example of collaboration. What opportunities and challenges did this present?
Mara: Actually, the most challenging thing about working that way was probably the time difference. Due to that, we worked via e-mail, and sometimes it was difficult for me to rely on words where visual expression would have come more naturally to me. In those instances it would probably have been easier to sit together and live-sketch through those problems. At the same time, sometimes the time difference worked in our favor: I’m one of those chliché artists who love working late into the night, so when I encountered a question before going to bed, sometimes the answer was already there when I sat down for breakfast the next day.
To see the progress of a single comic book page from script to final product, view Anatomy of a Page.
