At first glance, Justine Shaw seems like a walking bunch of opposites. An androgynous, demure punk, Shaw is a self-described hermit who reaches thousands from the privacy of her bedroom. Gentle and genuinely self-effacing, the Southern California native might not seem like the author of a powerhouse new comic that's grabbed even Neil Gaiman's attention (in his online journal, he calls her work "delicious"). Addressing universal issues of alienation, abandonment, personal struggle, friendship and love, Nowhere Girl is the story of Jamie, a young lesbian searching for her own place in the world.
Since NG is a coming-of-age story about a half-Asian twenty-something lesbian, most people are surprised when they meet Shaw, whose bleach-blonde hair and blue eyes are nothing like her main character. Like Jamie, Shaw is a lesbian who struggled through her coming out process, and definitely has a dark side. However, NG is not really about her, as many might think, but is rather an observational compilation. Shaw has taken the familiar tale of pain and angst, and turned it into something compelling and deeply personal.
But her storytelling pales in comparison to her artistic prowess. It's the beauty of her work that propels it past ordinary and well into sublime. NG exists entirely on the web, and Shaw uses the digital medium well, drawing thousands by word-of-mouth with each new gorgeous issue. Expertly drawn and compassionately written, Nowhere Girl is a shining example of successful online self-publishing, and her fan base just keeps growing.
I got a chance to sit down with Justine and ask her a few questions, to shed some light on NG, and the woman behind it.
EJ: So when did you get interested in art and comics?
JS: I was interested in art at a really young age-before I could read properly, I know that. I liked comic books early on I think because they were so colorful, I read them at like 4 or 5 years old, barely reading the words, just looking at the pictures. I started drawing by the time I was in kindergarten. As for when I knew I wanted to do comics, it was in high school, I think. By that point I was having ideas for stories I wanted to tell, and drawing the story out seemed the ideal way to work for me.
EJ: What do you see yourself as first, a storyteller, or an artist? Which do you think is more important?
JS: I guess I see myself as a storyteller. I can't separate the writing from the art - both do a particular job in telling a story. Comics are somewhere on the spectrum between prose books and film, I think. In film, you can go for long periods where there is *no* dialogue at all, you just show the audience what's happening.
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| | ABOUT ERIN
Erin Johansen is a freelance writer and Editor-in-Chief of GirlChick.com, an online feminist magazine. She lives in San Francisco, and can be contacted at grrlchick@hotmail.com |
