Cowgirls and Dinosaurs by Lucie Ebrey
Graphic novels are becoming increasingly popular and today’s blog is a celebration of comics and graphic novels from the perspective of Lucie Ebrey, a fantastic creator.
When I was 7 years old, something would happen that changed the course of my life forever: I was in our local newsagents and asked my mum if I could please have a copy of The Beano. I don’t know why I happened to ask that day or what strings of fate led me to that decision. Maybe, deep down, I knew that this simple comic would be the start of my first real love affair. Maybe destiny works in ways so mysterious that we can never understand. Maybe it’s because it came with a free Swizzel’s Double Lolly. Who’s to say? (Okay, it was probably that last one…)
But once I’d dipped my toe into comics, I couldn’t get enough. I awaited each Wednesday (Beano day!) with bated breath. My dad’s coworkers learned of my obsession and donated their kid’s old comics annuals, and soon I had a veritable library. I joined the Beano Club, doodled the characters constantly and most importantly started drawing my own comics. I wasn’t even out of primary school yet but I knew what I wanted to do when I was older. I was going to be a comic artist.
Even once I progressed to secondary school and my own comic drawing slowed to a crawl with the onset of more homework and teenage responsibilities, it still went without much question that comics were where my life was leading. If anything, my getting older and being exposed to the broader pantheon of the medium only made me more resolute. I was discovering how unique and exciting comics were when it came to storytelling. The nuances of page layout, the power it had to contort time by having your eye move through panels at a certain pace, the way having the cartoonist often be the sole voice of each book felt so intimate. If I was certain before, I was locked in now.
Jump forward a little under a decade and I was first approached to pitch a graphic novel. It was a dream come true! It was also a little like being a deer caught in the headlights. Creatively, I mean. There were so many ideas that I had, so many potential directions I could go down. Each one of these concepts began to feel intimidating – it was hard not to see them as potential successes or failures in alternate timelines. I needed an anchor point – something to help ground me and where I wanted to take this book. The solution was simple: what would a younger Lucie have been excited to read? What would have made her so full of beans that it might inspire her to draw comics? So I began stuffing the story with childhood loves such as dinosaurs, cowboys, magic and with an enemies to buddies road trip plot. There were still the usual hurdles and stumbling blocks of story writing and the exhausting process of comic making, but past me served as a compass for which to keep going. I’m really grateful to her for that.
A lot has been said in recent years about the validity of comics as a reading tool for children. Without coming across as biased, I’m of the opinion that anything that gets them excited to read or crack open a spine should be encouraged. With comics you not only foster an appreciation for the written word, but you also widen the scope of artistic interest and engage in a medium that challenges how you approach stories themselves. Visual language and artistic appreciation are aspects of media development that I think get often ignored when it comes to children. There’s very much the idea that they can’t discern quality or a “ehn, good enough since it’s just for kids” mentality. But children’s artistic taste needs to be nourished as much as their love for books. It will dictate their tastes as they grow and their relationship to art as a whole. Should comics be the only thing a child reads? Absolutely not. But it’s undeniably important.
Sitting here now with a now published graphic novel ready to release in the UK, I get a little emotional thinking of future readers. Will Cowgirls & Dinosaurs be a jumping off point for them like The Beano was for me? Will it inspire a lifelong love of comics? I really hope so. Go forth, my little comics deputies, and draw!
