By: Joey Davidson
One email and we were off! G. Willow Wilson agreed to spend some time corresponding with me over Cairo and, her most recent, Air. What came out was a solid explanation for inspiration behind the series and even some of the developmental processes that have brought us the first three issues.
For those of you that aren’t familiar with Wilson’s work, here’s a little synopsis. The writing is snappy, heartfelt and intelligent. Cairo was a story about mythology, intersecting paths and even growing up. I read through the entire graphic novel in one sitting, something I don’t normally do. Air is about a flight attendant mixed up in a battle for the domination of the sky-ways. It’s been hinted that our main character has some sort of ability that will change flying forever. It’s these sort of ambiguities that make the series that much more attractive.
Wilson’s presence on the page is large and powerful. With Air, because it’s a serialized comic, Wilson has been given much more wiggle room. She can flesh out characters, create more dynamic motivations and build up to an epic climax. Her playground has become larger and, thus, so have her ideas.
Add Wilson’s partner in crime, M.K. Perker, into the mix and you’ve got something beautiful. Perker’s art works wonders in the two stories. The team was together in Cairo and stuck together in Air, the only change being the addition of color. The art is toony, yet realistic, and it’s simple enough to fall easily on the page while being complex enough to render multiple stares as entirely probable. This is good stuff, for any fan of alternative comics. I recommend Air for it’s large feel, and for the fact that it draws upon so many cultural myths and practices. Wilson’s work is like that, it pulls from a much larger body of knowledge in order to deliver a fantastically real story.
Sit tight and read our conversation. Wilson draws inspiration from writers you know and love, and aside from being an intellect she still loves Aquaman… weird. Thanks to Wilson for speaking with me.
HeavyInk: You’ve written intellectual essays published by major magazines, have even managed to be the first Westerner to interview the Grand Mufti of Egypt, what drew you to engaging in the comic medium?
G. Willow Wilson: It’s funny that people think of me as a journalist first and a comic book writer second. I’ve been working in comics in some capacity since I was nineteen. (I started out as an intern for Komikwerks, an online comics publisher founded by Shannon Denton, who is now an editor at Wildstorm.) I started writing CAIRO before I got my first real journalism gig. Comics are in my blood—I’m just better at faking literary respectability than most geeks. Joan Hilty calls me ‘fangirl’. There, that’s my dark secret.
HI: Okay then! Who’s your favorite man or woman in tights? Alternative comics like stuff under the Vertigo umbrella; what do you like? Who are some of the writers that you lean on for inspiration and influence?
GWW: Where tights are concerned, I’ve got love for Aquaman. He cries out for a comic that is actually funny. I don’t understand why he’s always portrayed so ultra-seriously, it just undermines his genius. My husband once asked me what his powers are—this was when I was working on that Aquaman-Metamorpho one-shot. I told him Aquaman can breathe underwater, and also on land for ten minutes or so at a time. My husband paused and said “Aren’t there catfish that can do that?” I died. Aquaman is great.
Where alternative comics are concerned, my all-time favorite series is Peter Milligan’s Shade: The Changing Man. It might even outrank Sandman in my book. I draw a lot of inspiration from Gaiman, Milligan and Morrison, in that order. I like Steve Ditko too, metaphysically. I’m not sure what their direct influence is on my work, if any, but I admire theirs.
HI: AIR’s serialized. How do you like writing for that type of release schedule as opposed to the straight-up graphic novel approach?
GWW: It’s a really different skill to write for serialization. Monthlies have their own unique challenges. What I like best is being able to spend such a long time with the same characters. With CAIRO both MK and I went through a little separation anxiety. Which is why we started working on AIR, like, forty five minutes after CAIRO wrapped.
HI: What are some of the things that you and MK are taking away from your experiences with CAIRO in order to make a better AIR?
GWW: I think we have a much better appreciation for all the stages a book goes through before it’s ready to print. We’re both more savvy about the technical aspects of making a comic. He and I were used to work-for-hire at magazines and newspapers, and this is a much different ballgame.
HI: Here comes a fan question… I’m loving AIR, it’s listed as an ongoing, how many years do you plan on spending with the series?
GWW: Let’s put it this way: as long as you keep buyin em’, I’ll keep writing ‘em. I don’t want to jinx anything by making any predictions.
HI: Let’s talk about Blythe… you’ve managed to present a strong character in a woman that plays the ‘damsel in distress’ role just fine during the first issue, but one that also shows moments of strong resolve and independence (more so towards the second and third issues); as the series continues, will Blythe’s strength and independence grow? Do you draw inspiration from yourself or those around you to develop Blythe?
GWW: I didn’t want Blythe to be the classic comic heroine—ie, a porn star with gravity-defying kung fu skills. She really starts out as a girl’s girl. In that sense, I do draw on my own experiences. I tried to think of what I would do if I was confronted by some maniac in an airport terminal, and what I would do is kick him in the nuts and run. So that’s what she does. Blythe has to draw on resources she doesn’t know she has. She doesn’t start out a hero. She becomes a hero.
HI: According to solicits and previews, Blythe possesses some sort of gift that will revolutionize the technology of flight. Will this gift be rooted in historical myth like most things from Cairo? Or is it a mystical surfboard gifted to her by a devourer of worlds?
GWW: Man, now I wish it was a mystical surfboard gifted to her by a devourer of worlds. No, this is something internal. It’s an inborn ability.
HI: It was obvious that you put a lot of time into studying and learning myths and cultural facets of Egypt for CAIRO; some would say that the mythical themes are what they liked most about the novel. Did you do any of that for AIR? If so, what types of things did you look in to?
GWW: Well with CAIRO I cheated a little bit—I was living in Egypt and soaking up its mythology on a daily basis. I didn’t actually have to do much independent research. For AIR, though, I had to do tons of research in very different fields. I knew nothing about the lives of flight attendants. Who does, really, except flight attendants? I learned about scheduling and protocol and how many hours per week it’s safe to fly. And air marshalls. Security. That kind of stuff. I wanted AIR to be a more global comic than CAIRO, so I also studied the mythology of a very different part of the world than the Middle East. I won’t talk too much about that because not much of it’s been revealed yet in the series.
HI: A lot of AIR so far has been about who draws the maps and the concept of containing people to an assigned square on a piece of paper. The loss of the Narimari is a tragedy that comes out of these ideas. Where did this come from for you? Why include it in the plot of this comic?
GWW: For me, talking about this topic is very cathartic. I feel placeless and identityless a lot of the time. I’m a little too Muslim to be totally American and a little too American to be totally Muslim. I write nonfiction and commentary so I’m not a ‘legit’ comics writer, but because I write comics I’m not a ‘legit’ literary writer. Both creatively and actually, I deal a lot with the ups and downs of the permanent outsider. AIR reflects that.
HI: What the hell is a ‘hyperpract’? Any way to summarize your essay, ‘Eco Next: The Mechanics of Hyperpraxis’? For those that don’t remember, one of the characters in AIR labels Blythe with the term. I may, of course, be jumping to far ahead in the plot for you.
GWW: You read it! Hyperpraxis is going to become important in upcoming issues. It’s essentially about symbol-manipulation. It’s rooted in the idea that symbols exist independently of their meanings—that they have their own lives. So yes, for anyone who’s interested, reading that essay might give you a philosophical jump on things. If you can stand to wade through it. It’s a little abstract.
HI: So far, each issue has opened up with a dream that has come to deliver meaning throughout that issue’s plot. Blythe has also come to realize that most things bring with them much more meaning than they would normally appear to have. Is the eventual goal of AIR to have a series teeming with building and weaving plot threads? Will readers be able to look back at the first issue one year from now and realize that you’ve been working on a punch line since the beginning?
GWW: In a word, yes.
HI: I’ve been to StandardAttrition.com. Can you tell the HeavyInk.com readers about the collaborative site? Where’d it come from? How do you like it?
GWW: Brian Wood, who in a bizarre way is indirectly responsible for my entire career, came to me on Jason Aaron’s behalf and asked if I was interested in joining a Vertigo group-site. It was Jason’s brainchild—he’s given up his own personal website to create it. Anyway, they didn’t have to ask me twice. It’s been amazing to share digital real estate with Wood and Azz and Jason and David Lapham and all the rest of the guys. I feel like I learn something from them every time I’m on the site. And it’s nice to be able to connect directly with fans.
HI: Let’s end this with your concept of AIRlifting… tell me about it. How’s it done and where’d you get the idea?
GWW: Operation AIRlift is a guerilla marketing campaign I came up with. I’m convinced that the only reason people don’t read comics is because they’re never exposed to them. For most people, Iron Man is a movie. So I figure, put the comics where they can’t be avoided – cafes, office waiting rooms, subways – and see what happens. The way you AIRlift is this: buy an issue of AIR. Any issue. On the first page or the inside of the cover, write something clever (like, I don’t know, “Curious? This series available from your local comics shop.” Only more clever than that). Then, write the name and address of your local comics retailer. Leave the issue somewhere other people will find it. Take a picture of your handiwork and send it to me at info at gwillowilson dot com. I’ll send you a signed issue to replace the one you AIRlifted.
I’m not sure how I came up with the idea. It must have been an epiphany. Anyway, I’ve been posting the pictures sent to me by AIRlifters at Standard Attrition, so you can see all the different places people have left copies of AIR. I’d be very interested to hear from people who’ve seen these AIRlifted issues, and find out whether they were actually inspired to walk into a comics shop. That would be a really good sign.
