So those are the elements I focus on when I’m writing graphic novels. ![]() They don’t develop an interest in reading unless they relate to the characters and the story is engaging. ![]() Kami: I’ve spent most of my life working with children and teens. How has your experience as a teacher and reading specialist helped to shape your graphic novels? Q&A With Kami Garcia, Author of Teen Titans: Beast Boy When Gar realizes the extent of his physical changes, he has to dig deep and face the truth about himself–and the people who truly matter–before his life spirals out of control. The dares keep getting bigger and the stakes keep getting higher. Gar has to work harder to impress his new friends. He’s finally getting everything he wanted, but his newfound popularity comes at a price. His voice drops and, suddenly, he’s stronger and faster. It impresses the Chosen Ones and his social status soars. Then Gar accepts a wild dare out of the blue. They miss their funny, pizza-loving, video game-obsessed best friend. Gar’s best friends, Stella and Tank, don’t understand why he cares what other people think. If Gar doesn’t find a way to impress the Chosen Ones–the social elite at Bull Creek High School–he will never know what it’s like to matter. Even in a small town like Eden, Georgia, the 17-year-old with green streaks in his hair can’t find a way to stand out–and the clock is ticking. It came up in the context of a little anecdote Garcia told about Gabriel Picolo, the artist on Teen Titans: Raven, and it captures the mindset that goes into ensuring we have diverse casts in comics.Garfield Logan has spent his entire life being overlooked. One interesting topic that came up was the concept of default white - the idea that audiences will assume a character is white if given no explicit information otherwise. There should be people of all these different races and ethnicities and sexual orientations." When you read about a school or whatever, you should be able to see someone like you in there. Comics are a medium for a lot of kids who are not giant readers, who are finding their way into falling in love with reading and books. So my editor decided that whenever a main character is introduced, we'd show them in a different color, so you'd know this boy is Persian or this person is Afro-Latina. So a lot of these kids are going to look white if we don't show them in a different color. "It's not like there's certain characteristics that make up a certain race. In the beginning, the skin tones weren't differentiated enough," she said. Very recently, especially in YA fiction, diverse fiction written by diverse writers has become a huge topic of discussion. ![]() And there are numerous people of color writing works for young adults today. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created iconic characters like Black Panther, but only in the last couple decades have people of color written T'challa's stories. RELATED: How George Perez's Changing Art Style Became a Teen Titans Plot PointĬomics, for a very long time, were primarily written by white people. I would be happy to collaborate with someone or have him have a guest appearance, but I want that perspective to be authentic and come from that background." And if there weren't any amazing YA writers of color, I'd consider it, but there are many. "I feel very strongly that he should be written by a person of color. "I'm not allowed to say if there is a group book, but one thing I will tell you is I'm not writing Cyborg," she said. Although Garcia couldn't reveal much about the future of the DC Ink properties, she did say she won't be the one to write a Cyborg graphic novel.
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