This month we're really excited to introduce you to Skim, an award-winning graphic novel written in diary form by teen-witch Skim as she struggles with high-school dilemmas, death and first love. We asked cousins Jillian and Mariko Tamaki what inspired them to create the book.
1. Is this the first time you have both worked together on a book?
Jillian: Yes and no. We had worked together on the first version of Skim, which initially existed as a small 24-page comic. It was a small project that we thought would be good practice. I consider it almost a different thing all together since none of that original material made it to the final book.
Mariko: Before Skim was a graphic novel, it was a mini comic created for a literary magazine in Toronto called Kiss Machine. When that comic was created in 2005, it was the first time Jillian and I had collaborated on any project. Although, I will say, it has always been a fairly painless endeavour on my side.
2. What inspired you to write Skim?
Mariko: I had always had this idea in my head to try to do a modern take on the story of Lolita, a kind of new approach to that story of sexuality and coming of age. I thought it would be interesting to look at that kind of personal connection that happens between teachers and students – how it might evolve into something else – a kind of less comfortable connection between an adult and teenager, but take it from the perspective of the teen. I had also wanted to write about high school, a topic I hadn’t spent too much time writing about before Skim.
The great thing about Skim, for me, was that the story evolved as I was writing it. As soon as I got my head into that world, I started thinking about all the other ridiculous things that go with being a teenager, specifically the drama of teenage friendships. I think Skim is much more than the teenage love story I originally envisioned it to be, which I think is a good thing.
3. How did you go about developing Skim as a character? Was she based on someone you knew?
Jillian: Skim’s friends and peers are based on people that I knew in high school. In terms of their looks, behaviour, mannerisms, and quirks. Skim herself is a little more of a 'blank slate' in a lot of ways. There is a lot of my teenage self in Skim, as I would imagine is the same for Mariko.
Mariko: Fortunately for me, I kept a ton of diaries when I was in high school, which was in part the inspiration for the diary format that the comic takes. There’s a lot of crossed out text in the comic because that’s something I did a lot in my diaries. In fact, I would even liquid paper things out of my diaries (I wish I hadn’t because I’m sure that was pretty cool stuff). So Skim, I suppose, is like me in a lot of ways. I was pretty shy and withdrawn when I was that age, although from my diaries I know that I had a lot to say. I was a late bloomer as far as standing up for myself was concerned.
Lisa, Skim’s best friend, is definitely a composite of the various friends that came in and out of my life between grade 5 and grade 13. Some of Lisa’s lines are the really good zingers, which I think are more reflective of me as an adult.
4. What were your experiences of High School like? Were there lots of drama queens?
Jillian: I disliked High School intensely, mostly because of the social aspect. You are really forced to interact with all types of people and move within very rigid social structures. Despite being a somewhat outgoing person, I’m actually quite a hermit at heart.
Mariko: My high school was full of teen drama. Why, I’m not sure. There was never anything as intense as a suicide connected to my school, but we certainly had our share of mini-crisis moments. It was an endless cycle of civil wars from grade 7 to grade 10. There was lots of so and so deciding so and so was a bad person, was in or out. I remember reading Lord of the Flies when I was in Grade 9 and thinking it was a pretty accurate description of what would happen if they stuck my homeroom on an island. In fact, I think that was one of the first short stories I wrote, about how my school was like Lord of the Flies. Pretty dramatic stuff. I teach grade 9s and 10s now, and apparently it’s not exactly a retro phenomenon, these teenage battles.
Grade 11 was definitely better, I think because all of us were focused on growing up and getting out of high school.
5. What are your memories of being sixteen? Was it one of the worst things you ever were?
Jillian: I think fourteen was worse.
Mariko: I think 15 and 16 were pretty crap. I remember feeling pretty stuck, stuck being a chubby geek, stuck being in school with a bunch of people I didn’t like. Today, I think 16 is hard because you are so in between being a little kid and being an adult. You’re between the good of childhood and the good (freedom) of adulthood, as you see it at least.
Plus, you know, physically, I was covered in zits at 16, which is pretty punishing. It’s funny because I remember being 16 and not having zits, then one day my parents took us on a vacation to Mexico and ON THE PLANE, I got the worst bout of pimples that had ever been witnessed by anyone in my family or on that plane. My face just exploded. I spent the whole vacation watching my parents’ facial expressions reflect the horror that was my face.
6. What about Wicca – do you or did you believe in witches and magic?
Jillian: No, but my friends were interested in the occult and Wicca. It never really interested me. Anyway, I based Skim and Lisa’s brand of Gothy-ness on the people I knew in high school… sort of very amateurish and not so over-the-top as it became in the later 1990s. By the way, all of those highschool friends now wear jeans and sneakers like everyone else! Being all cool and alternative is a lot of work.
Mariko: I think Wicca was a cool alternative to Christianity when I was a teenager. It was church on your own terms: no priest, no hymns, no pews. Plus the aesthetic was very pleasing to me. I’m not sure if I ever believed in magic. I like the idea of it, of spirituality and nature. I still do.
7. How did you work together on this book? Did you create the text or the illustrations first?
Jillian: Mariko made the text. Then I did the drawings.
Mariko: It was text first, then illustrations. Coming from theatre, I used a sort of theatrical script format with very very minimal setting descriptions and narration and dialogue. I sent the whole thing off to Jillian and she took it from there. It was very much a collaboration but from a great distance. I think we only really saw each other face to face once or twice during the whole process, and even then we didn’t really give each other any direction. We’re both pretty independent so that worked well for both of us I think.
8. Do you have a favourite passage from the book and why?
Jillian: I don’t have a favourite passage.
Mariko: It changes. I still get a laugh out of the double date scene near the end of the book. I love how sharp Skim is in that scene, facing off against the dweeby boys. I still remember the initial pencils Jillian drew of that scene and getting a giggle out of the way she set up the conversation, the body language and stuff she added. So cool.
9. Do you have any favourite books? Can you recommend any other books for readers who enjoyed Skim?
Jillian: I have heard Skim compared to many other graphic novels. The only one I consider actually influential upon the creation of Skim is Daniel Clowes’ Ghost World. Also look at Chiggers, Life Sucks, Spiral Bound, and the Scott Pilgrim series if you like books about teenagers and their problems.
Mariko: Comic wise, I would recommend Bryan Lee O’Malley’s 'Scott Pilgrim' series, 'Persepolis' by Marjane Satrapi, and Jeff Lemire’s comics. Book wise I’m a huge fan of writers Emily Schultz (try Joyland), Douglas Coupland (Microserfs is my favourite) and Lynn Coady (Mean Boy for those interested in reading about University life), all of whom create fabulous smart and funny characters.
10. What is next for you both?
Jillian: More drawing!
Mariko: Right now I’m working on a new YA book and doing quite a bit of teaching and freelance writing for magazines.