INTERVIEW: ‘Peter Pan’ story reimagined in new graphic novel
J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan is still a memorable story featuring some of the most well-known characters in literary history. Stage and cinematic adaptations have helped make Peter, Wendy and Captain Hook household names and rites of passage for young readers.
Now it’s Melissa Jane Osborne’s turn with these iconic characters. Her new graphic novel, The Wendy Project, compiles the four issues of her comic book from Emet Comics, a company dedicated to telling stories by women and featuring female protagonists. The story involves Wendy Davies and a tragic car accident that takes the life of her youngest brother, Michael. However, Wendy is convinced that Michael is alive and with Peter in Neverland.
Ultimately, The Wendy Project, which is now available from the Super Genius imprint of Papercutz, is a tale of loss and love, growing up and sadness.
Recently, Hollywood Soapbox spoke with Osborne about the new graphic novel, which features artwork by Veronica Fish. Here’s what Osborne had to say:
On how the project started …
“I was introduced to Maytal Gilboa, who is the founder and editor of Emet Comics. … She decided to create her own content and create this comic imprint. The idea being that it was a new way to tell stories that are focused on women and also utilizing screenwriters and directors to do this. … So, for me, we met, and she said, ‘Have you ever thought of writing a comic before?’ And I said, ‘No, never, ever in my life.’ … It seemed like, well, I’ve never done that before. I guess I’ll give it a go, so we got to talking. And I pitched her a bunch of ideas.”
On being inspired by J.M. Barrie’s work …
“I spent more time with it and read the original Barrie works. I think around that time, too, Peter Pan was on NBC, and I remember just watching this girl with him. And she’s the interesting one in the story. … My sister was 16 or 17 at the time, and I thought if a boy flew through a window and into her house, she’d be like, ‘Get the hell out of her. This is insane.’ So Maytal and I talked about it, and the idea of doing it as a comic was a really great way for us to explore the idea.”
On how the story expanded to four issues …
“Well, it was only supposed to initially be 25 pages, and I knew always where I wanted the story to go. And the story had life, but then people liked them. So then we did issue #2 and #3. … We wrapped all the drawing and everything for this probably about a year and a half ago, and the initial meeting with Maytal was maybe three years ago. So it moved pretty quickly, and it was one of those stories, at least the first issue, once I started it and really dug into writing it, it just sort of poured out. … Once Veronica and I had our language, and our aesthetic rules and things of that nature, it moved pretty quickly.”
On making The Wendy Project an artifact …
“I come from an acting perspective. I come from a theatrical perspective. If I was going to do a comic book or a book, I wanted it to be an artifact, and for me my way in was the emotional life of the character. So how do we draw in character? How do we see what she’s seeing? How are certain things drawn because of what she’s feeling? If she’s mad at her parents, are the faces supposed to be a certain way? … I had to ascribe my own rules to that world, and as that happened, the puzzle pieces sort of fell in place. And, yeah, we didn’t set out to write a book about grief. It just happened because it made sense with explaining the world of Peter Pan and this girl’s journey.”
On the reactions from fans …
“I know the reactions that I’ve experienced thus far, and they’ve been really touching and inspiring because I know personally I’ve experienced two big losses of people close to me this year actually, after we stopped writing the book. So this book was sort a primer. I had never experienced a huge loss, and I really didn’t know it. And it taught me a lot, and the big takeaways from people’s responses has been that when you go through something like that, there are no words that you can say to make things better and to explain what you’re feeling. … If that starts a conversation, I’m so proud of what we’ve done. It’s hard to talk about those things.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Wendy Project by Melissa Jane Osborne is now available from Super Genius, an imprint of Papercutz. Click here for more information.
