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What initially drew you to comics?
Jeannette: I find comics to be a relatively more accessible way for creators online to share their stories. We just happened to be extremely lucky to get Blackwater published as a graphic novel. I love the level of control you have when making comics as well.
Ren: I was pretty equally drawn to both art and writing while growing up, so it seemed natural to combine these two interests to tell a story in a graphic novel format. I love that graphic novels let you visualize your story for an audience in such an intuitive way that you control the focal images, the composition, and the mood of a scene through your art.
What was your inspiration behind Blackwater?
Jeannette: We just love the horror genre. Blackwater itself is not necessarily a horror, but it still leans on some elements of past horror media. Blackwater was originally going to be a series of short stories that had an overarching plot in the end, but we ended up settling it into one story.
Ren: We wanted to draw on the legacy of horror media set in the gloomy Northeast, including but not limited to things like Steven King’s novels and silly horror films like Hocus Pocus. We also wanted to tell a werewolf story that we didn’t see currently represented in werewolf media, one that didn’t lean too heavily into a slasher monster story. The emotional core of the werewolf transformation and its parallels with parsing through your identity as a teenager was really interesting to us.
What scene or panel sequence did you most enjoy drawing?
Jeannette: I think the sequence of Tony transforming into a werewolf after the confrontation with his father was really fun. I’m a big fan of drawing snarling monstrous faces and big hulking beasts.
Ren: Pretty much any panel with lots of foliage or forest cover was really fun to draw, just to try and detail the rural, wild mood of this small town in Maine. This page sequence in particular, though, I really enjoyed because it allowed me to show the emotional breakdown that leads to Taylor turning more bestial through the panel progression.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Riverdale meets Stranger Things in this debut queer YA graphic novel, developed from a hit webcomic. Set in the haunted town of Blackwater, Maine, two boys fall for each other as they dig for clues to a paranormal mystery.
Tony Price is a popular high school track star and occasional delinquent aching for his dad’s attention and approval. Eli Hirsch is a quiet boy with a chronic autoimmune disorder that has ravaged his health and social life. What happens when these two become unlikely friends (and a whole lot more . . .) in the spooky town of Blackwater, Maine? Werewolf curses, unsavory interactions with the quarterback of the football team, a ghostly fisherman haunting the harbor, and tons of high school drama.
Co-illustrated by Jeannette Arroyo and Ren Graham, who alternate drawing chapters in their own unique and dynamic styles, Blackwater combines the spookiness of Anya’s Ghost with the irreverent humor of Nimona.
