We chat with author and illustrator Miranda Mundt about Muted: Volume 1, which sees a summoning ritual gone awry and kicks off a lush, witchy graphic novel series with joyful streaks of found family and polyamorous sapphic romance. PLUS take a little peek at some illustrations at the end of the interview!
Hi, Miranda! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I currently live in the Seattle area but I was born in Missoula Montana and originally went to school for 2D animation in Vancouver BC (Vancouver Film School) one thing that remained consistent across all of those places was my desire to tell stories and comics ended up being the perfect way to express that!
I have an amazing wife (Chase Keels), one dog, three cats, and a clown (and affectionate title for our roommate)
When did you first discover your love for writing and drawing?
I think the most clear memory of the “first time” was back in 7th grade after discovering shows like Inuyasha and Sailor Moon on Cartoon Network. Then when I moved to Washington in 8th grade I met Chase that really ramped up because we started writing stories together. And we’d pass notebooks to each other between classes all the way through highschool alternating replies of those stories. I think the most we had going at once was like…. 12 or 13, haha.
Your latest graphic novel, Muted, is out July 8th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Dramatic, cathartic, queer, lush and uhhhh…. Coming-of-age can count as one word, right? But in a realizing you are gay in your 20s kind of way.
What can readers expect?
Readers can expect the first volume to be wading into the pool – or swamp in this case- of a much larger story. It’s setting up the pins and establishing the witchy vibes before really ramping up speed in volume 2 (October 14th!)
Where did the inspiration for Muted come from?
As implied earlier, Muted was a story that Chase and I initially conceived together when we were pondering making more lesbian and witchy characters to reflect our own witchy lesbian lives. After brainstorming the wit families and some initial story concepts though I was struck with the inspiration that veered heavily in a different direction from what we had initially discussed and she agreed to let me run with it.
So we collaborated instead on a sci-fi webcomic called LoveBot which we completed in 2024 🙂
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed exploring and illustrating?
I really love the way that Camille and Avaline develop over the course of the series as they work through their journeys. But Nyra was a surprise because she was a late addition, I originally designed her for a different story but I liked the look of her so much I decided she would be great as this fire witch I needed but the second I actually drew her interacting with Camille I realized that she couldn’t just be the fairly minor character that I had intended. Many such cases, I feel, of characters ending up much more involved than intended.
Did you face any challenges? How did you overcome them?
The original version of the story I wrote myself into a corner really quickly. But when trying to remake/restart it as a Webtoon Original I struggled for months to find an effective way to punch up the story and in the end I just had to drive a truck through it to get to the other side of those initial parts. For example- originally they started in the mansion, not the city, and the Tarot card witch didn’t exist. Which is wild to think about given how important she becomes.
The print version, by contrast, was actually much easier. I would say there was difficulty in going from a vertical scrolling webcomic to print but by the time I did this I had already worked as a Layout Designer doing that for 10+ other books so I had my process set, haha.
Can you tell us a bit about your process when it comes to working on a graphic novel?
I prefer to work on a full spread template as opposed to one page at a time because I like to see how the pages work side by side. Also, the “page turn” aspect is very important to me. AKA; trying to end each page on a sort of miniature cliffhanger that will make you want to see the reveal on the next one. That might mean some pages only have 4 panels just because that 5th panel works better as that big moment. Or some might have 8-9 panels just because I need to wrap up the conversation in order to do a “scene change” on the page turn.
What’s next for you?
A few things! One idea I’m working on with Chase and a few ideas I’m plotting out myself. One horror and one fantasy.
A growing part of me has been really wanting to do a graphic memoir along the lines of “It’s Lonely At The Center Of The Earth” by Zoe Thorogood. But maybe I’m just feeling very introspective at the moment.
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?
I have been obsessed with Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama. I know that series has been coming out for a while but I only found it in the last year or so. I’m very much looking forward to when the next one comes out and I highly recommend it to any reader that enjoys Muted, to be honest. Stunning artwork, great characters and masterful storytelling- it really inspires me to improve upon my own work for my next story.
