From New York Times bestselling author E. Lockhart (Genuine Fraud, We Were Liars) and artist Manuel Preitano (The Oracle Code) comes a new Gotham City superhero in this exciting YA graphic novel.
We had the pleasure of chatting with E. Lockhart about Whistle, along with working with Manuel, writing, book recommendations, and more!
Hello! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I am a novelist. I am a New Yorker. I buy most of my clothing used. I grew up reading Batman and Spider-man comics. I wrote a book that’s been on the New York Times bestseller list for the past year (We Were Liars). My father is Jewish and my mother is in a new age religion. I wrote Whistle about a secular Jewish kid who becomes a superhero partly as a way of exploring my own relationship to my heritage and my city — but also because inventing a superhero is my idea of a good time.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
In seventh grade I wrote a musical play and got all these kids to perform it in someone’s living room. It was like an hour long and involved songs from Broadway musicals. The whole experience was a pretty strong taste of failure, actually, but it didn’t stop me wanting to write things that other people would watch or read.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
I loved Sendak’s surreal In the Night Kitchen as a kid. Drawn in comic book panels, by the way.
When I started writing my first novel, I took apart the opening chapters of Katherine Dunn’s weird and visionary Geek Love, to try to understand what had captured me so intensely.
Writing Whistle, I thought about G. Willow Wilson’s Ms. Marvel all the time. I was inspired by the way Wilson integrated Kamala Kahn’s Muslim identity with her unique character and with existing superhero legend — believable, relatable and heroic.
Your graphic novel, Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Jewish teenager fights Batman villains.
What can readers expect?
A superhero origin story, a talking Great Dane sidekick, new takes on several of Gotham’s most notorious rogues, a bit of romance, and a girl trying to save her neighborhood.
Where did the inspiration for Whistle and its main character, Willow, come from?
Willow is a bit like I was as a teenager — growing up with a single mom, not a lot of money — but she’s even more like young people I know now in New York City, as well as the kids I meet when I travel to book festivals and cons. So many of them are activists — writing zines, going to marches, creating petitions, fighting for change. And yet, sometimes they feel powerless to make difference. I wondered what would happen to a kid like that who was gifted with superpowers, and how a person with Jewish heritage and a deep connection to an historically Jewish neighborhood might think about heroism.
Can you tell us about any challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
Artist Manuel Preitano and I had a huge and fun challenge creating a hero costume for Willow when she becomes Whistle. The dog sidekick could just go naked — but a girl needs an outfit! I wanted her suit to be great for cosplay, practical and yet empowering, good-looking but not sexualized, teenagery, and like seventeen other things. I sent Manuel Pinterest pictures of speed skaters, Simone Biles, Rhianna, Gigi Hadid, Uma Thurman in Kill Bill – the poor man was inundated. But he rose to the challenge and I love what she wears. You can see some of the inspo pictures at pinterest.com/elockhartbooks.
Were there any favourite scenes or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
Poison Ivy. She’s a fascinating villain — so much good in her and so much to admire, and yet she does terrible things.
Can you tell us a bit about the illustrative process and what it was like working with illustrator Manuel Preitano?
Manuel brings so much emotion to his characters . Over and over, he drew out the relationships — Whistle to her dog friend, to her mentor, to her mother, to her boyfriend, to her best friend. He really made Gotham City seem real and relatable.
What’s next for you?
I am sworn to secrecy about my next novel! But I can say that it’s full of sand and crime. People should hang out with me on Instagram @elockhartbooks if they want the earliest news on it.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
Two great graphic reads that address issues of heroism in radically different and thought-provoking ways: Gene Luen Yang’s Boxers & Saints and Noelle Stevenson’s Nimona.
