We chat with author Mars Lauderbaugh about Hollow Magic, which is a highly anticipated young adult fantasy graphic novel about found family, magic, and the power of deciding for yourself who you truly are. PLUS you can take a peek at the graphic novel at the end of the interview!
Hi, Mars! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hello! I’m an author-illustrator (who leans more towards the illustrator) living in the PNW. YouTube tutorials have taught me everything I know about my craft, and I believe in the restorative power of drawing fanart of one character you really like over and over (and over) again.
When did you first discover your love for writing and illustrating?
I’ve been drawing and making up stories for as long as I can remember, but it wasn’t until I was around 13 that I really fell in love with art and books. I remember being inspired by works like TITHE by Holly Black and every YA L.J. Smith book I could find at my library. I spent a lot of time writing my own fairy tales and supernatural romances, complete with cover art and character designs and world maps.
As I got older, I started getting more into manga, which completely changed my trajectory from prose books and into the world of comics! I hadn’t realized that comics could look different from western IP comics; manga paneling and dynamic movement has hugely inspired the work I do now.
Your debut graphic novel, Hollow Magic, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Unapologetically Queer, Magical, Frosty, and Mysterious
What can readers expect?
Readers can expect a story about family–both the one you’re born into and the one you find–and about trusting in yourself and your friends! They can expect a little bit of falling in love, some questionable parenting, and a trio finding a safe place to belong.
Where did the inspiration for Hollow Magic come from?
A few different places! My general love for fairy tales and that vein of mythology was a huge inspiration, but I also drew from things like video game dungeon crawls and ye olde fantasy aesthetics.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or illustrating?
All of Rosefinch and Morgan’s interactions were so much fun! I loved making them both just stubborn and sarcastic enough that they butt heads, but they ultimately work really well together. I got to have a laugh while I was scripting their quips and then again when I was drawing their unserious faces in panels.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
Oh, so many! Over the last few years, all of my professional experience has been with illustration. My writing was a little rusty, and I had never written a script for a long-form comic, so I ended up writing and re-writing huge parts of it. In the end, I took out a lot of my initial ideas for this story because I just didn’t know how to fit them into my page count.
It was also hard for me to gauge how written text would translate to visual art. There were so many pages that I had scripted where I ended up putting way too much dialogue or action into one page and had to separate it into two or three. Every time I posted progress on social media, my total page count had gone up.
Can you share some insight into your illustrating process?
I think the phrase is “flying by the seat of your pants”? I have the very unfortunate habit of coming up with ideas, drawing a character or two, and going straight into the story under the impression that I’ll come up with details as I go. I’m not a formally trained artist–everything I know, I’ve learned by the grace of free tutorials online–so I think I’ve gotten comfortable drawing what makes me happy first and then introducing my own critical eye after the fact. It is a super bad habit that I’ve been trying to break!
This is your debut novel! What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?
My journey has been strange! It feels very odd to be a debut author when I’ve technically been working in the industry for 7 years now; it’s like I know so much, but also nothing at all!
This is kind of a long story, so bear with me:
I started drawing and posting my art online around 2014, and I got super into fandom and fanart in the years following (my digital art footprint is…well. Don’t ask me how many times I’ve drawn Oikawa Tooru). The more I posted, the more people asked to commission me, first for fanart, but then later for things like D&D characters, or original characters. (This is relevant, I promise.)
Around 2018, a talented, handsome fellow named Aiden Thomas commissioned me to draw his OCs. If I remember correctly, the book that would go on to become the NYTimes Best-Selling CEMETERY BOYS hadn’t even been written yet. I was very, very lucky that Aiden liked my art, and when it came time for Cemetery Boys to get a cover, my name was on the list of artists they sent to their publisher.
From there, I was a published illustrator! I was contacted by a literary agent and was represented for a while with no luck submitting my original graphic novel work. I had a rocky year or so where I kept getting rejections from editors before I amicably separated from that agent.
I ended up talking about this separation on a private social media account where Aiden mentioned his agent might be interested in reaching out. The next day, I got an email from the wonderful Jennifer March Soloway with an offer for representation, and–powerhouse that she is–she helped me get the bare bones of Hollow Magic up to industry standard. We sent it out to editors about a year later. Hollow Magic was on submission for 2 weeks before Rachel Diebel picked it up at Feiwel & Friends, Macmillan!
tl;dr: I owe Aiden Thomas so much, and I mean it! He has uplifted me in such a way that I would not be anywhere near where I am today without his support and friendship.
What’s next for you?
My next graphic novel, BRIGHTER STARS, will publish Fall 2027 from Feiwel & Friends! Beyond that, I’m hoping to do more YA work with F&F editor Rachel Diebel (if she’ll have me!), and also make a valiant effort to break into Adult comics!
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up? Any you’ve read so far this year that you’ve enjoyed?
SO many good titles are coming out soon! Obviously, I’m hyped for the Cemetery Boys sequel, ESPÍRITU, by Aiden Thomas. I can’t wait for Michelle Jing Chan’s debut graphic novel SOMEWHERE IN THE GRAY. It’ll be out by the time this interview goes live, but I just started FIND MY WAY DOWN TO YOU by Julian Winters and I can already tell it’s going to make me feel Emotions (compliment).
And, of course, Tamsyn Muir’s ALECTO THE NINTH, which currently has no release date, but…I wait patiently for my prince, Gideon Nav, to return from space skeleton war.
This year, I loved YOU WEREN’T MEANT TO BE HUMAN by Andrew Joseph White, THE STARVING SAINTS by Caitlin Starling, and WHEN THE TIDES HELD THE MOON by Venessa Vida Kelley. Adeline Kon’s JUST BETWEEN US made me ugly cry. And I just read N.K. Jemisin’s THE FIFTH SEASON for the first time and it’s taken over my life.
I feel like I could keep going. How much time do we have?
Will you be picking up Hollow Magic? Tell us in the comments below!
