We chat with New York Times bestseller author-illustrator Faith Erin Hicks about Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy, a young adult graphic novel romance about a hotheaded hockey player who asks for temper management lessons from the cool, calm boy in drama club.
Hi, Faith! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Sure thing! I’ve been drawing comics since my teens, starting out in webcomics before somehow managing to make the jump to print. I’ve drawn sixteen graphic novels since 2007, and no one has stopped me yet! I like making realistic fiction comics about messy teens having lots of emotions (Friends with Boys, Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong, One Year at Ellsmere), fantasy comics about cross-cultural friendships (the Nameless City trilogy) and one time I made a comic about a superhero girl that was mostly a metaphor for my early career angst about art (The Adventures of Superhero Girl). I live in Vancouver, BC with my husband and cat, and I love Rupaul’s Drag Race and Star Trek.
When did you first discover your love for writing and illustrating?
Like most authors, I’ve always been drawn to telling stories. I’d make my own self-insert characters for my favourite book or TV series when I was a kid, and somehow that eventually led to me writing and drawing original work. When I was in my teens and early twenties the internet just happened to be there and be accessible (and cheap!) for young creators to access, so I ended up writing and drawing terrible comics and put them online. That led to me falling in love with comics as an art form, and the career that I currently have.
Your latest graphic novel, Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Well, the book title is four words long and it actually does a pretty good job of describing the story, so I’ll go with “Hockey girl loves drama boy = yay!”
What can readers expect?
Hockey! Awkward conversations! Canadian stuff! Drama! Drama meaning “theatre”, not in the emotional sense! Characters having too many emotions!
Where did the inspiration for Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy come from?
I wanted to do a romance about two characters who’d probably be enemies in a more typical high school setting. So you have a jock character who’s been complicit in bullying in the past, and a nerdy theatre kid. But then they get together and find out that they actually really like each other. I also have a female friend who played hockey for many years, and I used to listen to her stories about team dynamics and think “damn, that’s some good drama. I bet it’d make a good comic.” And here we are, years later, with Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy as the result.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I really liked Ezra and Alix’s super dramatic first kiss. It’s not an ideal moment for either of them, but I really enjoyed the raw emotion of it, followed by the humor of how Alix responds.
What’s your process when it comes to illustrating?
I start with thumbnails, which are very basic stick figure sketches that allow me to lay out the composition of each page. It’s kind of like a blueprint for the final page. Then I move to pencils, which I draw digitally on a Wacom Cintiq (a giant computer monitor that you can draw on with a stylus). I then print out my finished pencils and ink the page by hand, with a watercolour brush and ink. I like working in a hybrid digital/traditional method as I find I’m decently fast and it’s not too taxing on my body.
What’s next for you?
I’m now working on a middle grade graphic novel which is inspired by my slightly traumatic art school experiences! If you’ve ever had a teacher be mean to you about your artwork, hopefully you’ll find this book cathartic. 😉
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
Yeah, read The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells! Those books slap so hard, I love them.
