3 Questions With… Jen Wang
I’ve been reading Jen’s books for years. I don’t recall how I initially came across her work but I read her first graphic novel Koko Be Good about a year after it came out in 2010. I’ve been following her work ever since.
Her art is fantastic and what initially draws you in. But it’s the characters and stories that keep you reading. The way in which the characters handle their personally difficult situations and relationships combined with beautiful artwork and storytelling are what put Jen in a class of her own.
If that weren’t enough, Jen is also the co-founder of Comic Arts L.A. a comics festival for independent creators. I have been able to attend several of them and each time I discover fantastic new works and creators. If you live around Los Angeles and are interested, it takes place in December .
Back in May, the Los Angeles Public Library put on AAPI Joy. It’s a festival that celebrates Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. I saw that Jen was one of the speakers and jumped at the chance to listen to her talk about her experience as an author. As a bonus, attendees were given a copy of Jen’s latest book Ash’s Cabin which she signed and drew in. I already owned a copy, so I want to give the signed copy to one of you.
I’ll list the winner in the Substack comments and reach out to send it to you.
What is something you do now that you wish you had either figured out or implemented sooner in your career?
This is tricky because basically everything I learned in making books I feel like I had to earn through trial and error. These realizations could only happen because they happened the way they did. But from a technical standpoint, it would’ve been useful for my first two books if I abandoned the writing “hacks” and formulas like the 3 Act Structure I was trying to squeeze my stories into because I wasn’t confident about my writing at the time. Once I realized storytelling was a lot more intuitive to your personal experience and could be based on something as simple as basic cause and effect everything really opened up. But again, I have no regrets of struggling through that earlier period because I learned a lot through that process.
What has (pleasantly) surprised you about creating comics that you didn’t anticipate when you first started out?
I actually really enjoy doing author talks now, especially when I get to interact with young readers. It’s something I never would’ve wanted to do if you asked me when I was younger and only focused on the making comics part. I think recognizing myself in these younger comic readers and being able to be there in person and connect with them feels so special. I never met an author of any medium until I was an adult.
If you had a genie to promote your work in any way, what would that look like?
If I could live in a world where I don’t have to do any promotion at all whatsoever I would be so happy. We’re in a time when creators are expected to be influencers and do a ton of self promotion, even with big publisher marketing teams attached. That’s just not my thing. I like my work to speak for itself and not rely on me as a personality. If there was a world where readers could organically discover my work without my doing that would be my dream.
You can find Jen online at:
Jenwang.net
