Whitney June Robinson’s comic Alma Mater, about life at a private girls’ school, joins Modern Tales this week. Robinson was kind enough to talk to me about comics, girls’ schools, Shakespeare, and “Pinky and the Brain.”

Shaenon Garrity: What inspired you to start drawing a webcomic?
Whitney June Robinson: I’d guess that, like many creators, I stumbled upon the webcomics community and “wanted to play too” after seeing the possibilities for creating comics on the Internet.

Although I was familiar with a few of the largest comics for a while, I wasn’t immersed in webcomics until early last year. During that period, I was biding my time while waiting to fulfill some professional requirements, and started to get excited about what was available. Because creating a webcomic seemed like something that might be suited to my interests and abilities, and because I wanted to maintain a creative outlet, I went ahead and started “Alma Mater.”

SG: According to your bio, you attended an all-girls’ school similar to Blenheim.  I went to a traditionally female (but now co-ed) college, and I recognize a lot of the attitude and traditions.  How much of the comic is based on your own experiences?
WJR: A great deal of the comics are based on observations, experiences, stories, and rumors from middle and high school. The traditions and the systems described have almost always had real-life analogues. With the exception of Rachel’s participation on athletic teams, the characters also tend to be involved in the same activities as me. More generally, because the school itself is based on my own secondary school, I can use my own memories to construct the layout and background details.

Even though I’ve used my school and past experiences for material, I’ve avoided basing the characters on my fellow students. Nobody really deserves to have her middle school self immortalized, and I find that there are more opportunities for the characters when I develop them independently. However, a few of the adults are very loosely inspired by teachers and authority figures from that time.

To my surprise, I ended up going to a women’s college after graduating from “real Blenheim,” but, with the exception of one story and some iconography, I haven’t made use of my college experiences yet. My college experiences could potentially be a rich source of material, so that may change.

SG: What do you think are the best and worst aspects of an all-girleducation?
WJR: The nice thing about going to an all-girls’ secondary school is that it minimizes social drama during a period that’s weird enough already. There’s a little more freedom to be goofy without worrying about whether a crush is around the corner. Plus, since the vast majority of people aren’t dating fellow students, romance isn’t as “in your face” as I’d imagine it would be in a co-ed school; if you see people with their boyfriends, it’s usually off-campus. There isn’t the sense that everyone else is dating, which, in the long run, makes it less likely that a student would attach her sense of self-worth to the existence of a relationship or stay in an unrewarding relationship from fear of being alone.

The dynamic at women’s colleges is a little different, since there are more opportunities to interact with other local schools and groups, and everyone has a better sense of perspective at that point as well. However, it’s still a lot easier to grow and become comfortable in one’s own skin.

There’s also a bit more room to grow intellectually, at least in fields where men are stereotypically favored, like math and physics. As the stereotype doesn’t apply relative to other students in an all-female environment, it’s less likely that an individual student would subconsciously cede any intellectual ground to other students and focus on fields where she had an impression that she would excel. This gives students a greater incentive to fully explore various subjects and find what their actual strengths are. I know that I enjoyed math and physics a lot during high school. Women’s colleges have also turned out a surprisingly high number of female physicists, especially considering the small size of all-female schools.

The social life and community focus are also a bit quirkier than that of many co-ed schools, and this is something I appreciated while I was a student. Football games and typical parties are eschewed in favor of crazy (but fun) traditions and themed events. Groups and activities which would get very little attention at most schools can become more important at a girls’ school or women’s college, since groups that might monopolize the attention at most schools are either impossible or awkward in an all-female environment. Unsurprisingly, feminist and women’s issues also become more prominent and garner more debate than they would in a co-ed school.

Some of the problems with are all-female education are probably apparent from the discussions of its strengths. The average girls’ school graduate has less relationship experience than her co-ed counterparts, which can be particularly tough for the shiest girls and women. All-female schools can be insular sometimes; however, co-ed schools can also be a bit insular, albeit in a different way.

Lastly, girls’ schools and women’s colleges tend to share characteristics other than their all-female status, so these schools have certain strengths and weaknesses that aren’t related to gender. All of the schools I’m familiar with are small, private institutions, so they tend to have smaller class sizes and devote more personal attention to each students. Because these schools are smaller, everyone knows everyone else, so it’s harder to get lost in the crowd.

On the other hand, when the environment is small and close-knit, it can be hard to find a place for yourself if you’re a social misfit. Plus, like in most communities where everyone knows everyone else, the gossip is sometimes a bit overwhelming. Moreover, since all-female schools are mostly private, there can some elitism and snobbishness; I found this to be a little bit of a problem in secondary school, but didn’t find it to be a problem in college. Finally, smaller schools don’t always have the same resources as larger ones, although small schools can get around this problem by sharing resources with each other.

SG: Which of the characters do you identify with the most?
WJR: Eileen probably is the closest representation of who I was as a middle schooler, so her experiences are probably the most similar to mine. I also share her tendency to daydream and her interest in fantasy worlds.

However, most of the characters have some traits that I identify with. Alex has some of the same frustrations as I did, and the same tendency to hide weaknesses or sources of embarrassment. I can identify with Jess’ insecurity along with her quixotic attempts to become something she isn’t. Laurel represents my shy, serious side, as well as the frustrations that sometimes result from being too introverted or accommodating.

I probably identify the least with Rachel, although I sometimes had the same disregard for jumping through academic hoops; while my personality isn’t exactly dour, I don’t think I could ever be as relentlessly cheerful as she is.

SG: Have any of the plots or characters surprised you?
WJR: Because I work on the comics a week at a time, I don’t always have an exact idea of where I’m going, even if I have a vague idea of the point I’d like to reach, so sometimes a punchline or side reference will give me something to build upon that I didn’t expect.

The “school play” storyline from the first semester is actually a good example. Initially, I only knew that Jess would want to audition and would drag Alex into auditioning, and that Laurel would have a discussion with another character while writing a review. As a whim, I decided to cast Alex in a spear-carrier role and leave Jess out of the play, which created a lot of possibilities and helped flesh out my initial idea of Laurel’s review comic. In addition, the idea to go with a rock music version of “Twelfth Night,” which started as a throwaway joke, ended up working surprisingly well with the context of the play.

The characters occasionally surprise me, but it’s often in smaller ways. Sometimes a character will make an expression or say something that catches me off guard; these moments have helped me to think more deeply about the characters. In addition, the dynamics of their relationships with each other and as a group have grown in unexpected ways. In some cases, I wasn’t fully able to figure out how the characters got along with each other until I had them in a scene together.

SG: “Alma Mater” has a very distinctive art style.  How do you draw the comic?
WJR: I use a combination of methods, drawing some elements by hand and using digital editing for other parts of the comic. When I draw, I usually use a basic Pentel pen on sketch paper, although I have used finer pens when I wanted to achieve a particular stylistic effect. I use Photoshop 7 for my digital editing.

I usually begin by drawing rough pen sketches of the characters, which I trace using a light board. I scan the traced drawings, lay out shrunken-down versions of the scans in a rough version of the comic, and write the dialogue. At this time, I also place a pre-done style over the dialogue layers; this automatically creates a line around the text. Later, I create a separate file for each frame, in which I include a blown-up version of the rough comic as a guide.

I begin working on the individual frames by importing my scanned character images, cleaning up errors, increasing the contrast, and using filters to get rid of white space and change the line color. Then, I create a layer for colors underneath the line art. I mostly use the lasso and fill tools to fill in the colors. I repeat this process for foreground and background elements, although I often draw the backgrounds digitally, once I know exactly where the characters are positioned.

Once I finish a panel, I shrink it, place it over the rough version of the comic, and make any necessary revisions to the dialogue.

SG: What are your main influences as an artist and writer?
WJR: This is actually a difficult question, as I have had countless influences, many of which have not been fully represented yet.

Although this wasn’t intentional, I’ve found that the “Alma Mater” style owes a lot to 19th Century Japanese prints as well as the French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, who were also heavily inspired by Japanese prints. The downward angles, the color schemes, and the use of flat colors are reflected in these sources. Other figures and images from art history have also made an appearance, with the most notable example being Piet Mondrian, whose work served as a template for a comic.

Like many people, I read a decent amount of Shakespeare in school, and there are bits and pieces of Shakespeare in “Alma Mater,” most notably in the “school play” sequences. Gilbert and Sullivan are also an influence; it’s fun to see how W.S. Gilbert could employ humor, wordplay, and social satire within an individual song. Currently, I am reading Trollope, and I am fairly certain that he will worm his way into my comic.

“Citizen Kane” ended up being a major influence for the comic, as the school newspaper offices are inspired by the newspaper offices in that movie. I ended up learning a lot about representing space from trying to copy scenes and sets. I am a casual fan of classic films, particularly Hitchcock’s body of work, and I’d like to make more use of classic films within “Alma Mater,” as filmmaking techniques are a useful resource for comic artists.

On the less pretentious side of things, I was fascinated by animation as a kid, so a lot of animated films and TV shows ended up influencing me. Disney films were certainly an influence for me, and I loved the stories, characters, and songs from the Disney movies which came out as I was growing up. Likewise, “The Simpsons,” “Animaniacs,” “Pinky and the Brain,” and various Nicktoons helped to develop my sense of fun and gave me an interest in goofy patter songs. Additionally, these cartoons ultimately helped to broaden my horizons, as I ended up learning about some of the figures and works that these were parodying and became influenced by them myself.

My primary comic influence would probably be “Calvin and Hobbes,” which remains my favorite comic strip. Everything about the comic seemed to resonate with me on some level, and there are a few small tributes scattered within “Alma Mater.”

SG: Blenheim has its own blog on MySpace.  What kind of reaction have you gotten to the Blenheim blog?
WJR: At this point, I haven’t gotten much of a reaction to the blog, but that’s partially because I haven’t done enough with it. This is something I’d like to change, especially now that the characters have established themselves, and people would be more likely to respond to something that one of the students writes.

SG: What’s coming up in the next few months of Alma Mater?
WJR: In terms of the comic itself, I’m hoping to explore the tensions developing within the group and explain why the characters became friends in the first place. In addition, Jess’s sister Emily will be graduating from college this year, so Jess will have to adjust to her absence.

I will be announcing a contest later this month; it will run until the end of the “second semester” in June. It should be exciting, and I’m hoping that the contest will encourage readers to take a closer look at some of the comics.

Finally, I am planning an alternative schedule for the summer, with tutorials, bonus art, poetry, and guest comics. Because “Alma Mater” is tied up with the school year, and also because I want to give myself enough time to work on the comics, it makes sense to do something a little different during the summers. I am currently seeking guest comics for the summer; the only limitations are that the comics should deal with what the characters might be doing on their summer vacations and that they should be written in the same G-PG range as the comic is.

SG: Any final thoughts?
WJR: I’ve learned a lot during the first six months of “Alma Mater,” and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens and how the comic and my characters grow. I’m hoping that readers have also become invested in the school and its inhabitants, and that more people will start to follow the comic as time progresses.

I’m very grateful for the opportunity to join Modern Tales, and am both excited and honored to have “Alma Mater” stand alongside some wonderful comics.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 2nd, 2007 at 3:11 am and is filed under Modern Tales News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.