

Lauren asked if she could see some sketches to see what my take would be on it.

Shannon Hale’s Real Friends is such an amazing graphic novel. They’ve done so many other things in graphic novels that I’m such a big fan of. Shannon and Dean are some of my favorite middle grade and YA authors. She said they had this project with Shannon and Dean Hale and asked if I’d be interested. So, she asked to see my stuff, and I sent her my portfolio, and she just really responded to it. I told her about my film work and about how I was trying to get into graphic novels and working on my own original stuff, and that I was very interested in working with other writers. It was like, “Oh, you’re in comics? What have you done that I’ve seen?” And I’m like, “Well, I’m actually not published yet…” While there I met my editor, Lauren Bisom. At the time, I was in animation, but I was leaving and trying to make my way in graphic novels. I’d been invited by a friend who’s a science fiction author, and he had all these contacts in LA who wanted to get together. How did you get involved with Diana: Princess of the Amazons?

Recently during a visit to the DC office, we spoke with Ying about what went into creating such a charming and clever tale from Diana’s early life. Diana: Princess of the Amazons offers a heartfelt story that’s instantly relatable to any child who’s ever felt lonely while still boasting plenty of intrigue and excitement brought to life through Ying’s joyful pages. It’s an imaginative, fun and vibrant new comic for kids written by the Eisner-nominated team behind Rapunzel’s Revenge and illustrated by the gifted and surprisingly new-to-comics Ying. After all, if her mother was able to make a girl out of clay, maybe Diana can too…ĭiana: Princess of the Amazons looks at the rather messy side of making friends, as the young Amazon creates a new companion named Mona who turns out to be a lot more trouble than the future superhero anticipated. Loneliness is never easy, so it’s not surprising that Diana would resort to the sort of drastic measures she does in her new middle grade graphic novel by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale and Victoria Ying. The creators of Diana: Princess of the Amazonswant kids to know that even Wonder Woman had trouble making friends.Īs one of the most popular superheroes in the world, that may seem hard to imagine, but let’s not forget that Diana grew up on an island where she was the only child.
