When given the opportunity to review Hybrid Bastards, I also was offered the chance to interview the artist, Kate Glasheen, via email. It was a wonderful experience and she really gave a lot of insight into how the comic was created. Check it out!
Christina: Were you given a lot of freedom with the artistic style of the comic?
Kate: Absolutely. I come from a fine arts background so my approach to comics is pretty unorthodox. Tom respected that working with me would be a different experience then that with a traditionally trained comic artist and he wrote accordingly. He would give me the information that needed to be portrayed but left me with enough freedom to draw comics how I draw comics, as opposed to having it dictated to me. I’m aware that the end product may be a turn off to people who want information fed to them panel by panel, but anyone ready to read outside of their comfort zone will find a completely unique experience that couldn’t have happened had there been parameters set for the art.
Christina: Was it difficult determining what the hybrids would look like?
Kate: No, it really felt pretty automatic. I think some qualities have a go-to look when trying to represent them visually, so by the time I was done reading Tom’s synopsis of any given character, I already had a pretty strong idea of what they would look like. As far as creating the hybrid part, there were key elements on the “mommy” objects that I felt belonged on the bastards. For example, what good would a car boy be without rear view mirror ears? Or anthropomorphic laundry without some skivvies somewhere in there?
Christina: I was thrilled to see some more hybrids in “The Family Tree.” Which hybrid was your personal favorite?
Kate: Carmine! He was my favorite to draw because he was an almost equal mix of human traits and object traits. He was my favorite personality wise because he was so sweet and timid. My family also had a station wagon for the majority of my childhood which had one of those awesome seats in the back that faced out the rear windshield so my answer may be biased. Runner up is Cee Cee. You just really can’t go wrong with crack cocaine and dirty sweatpants. Or maybe you can only go wrong with crack cocaine and dirty sweatpants? Whatever — I like Cee Cee.
Christina: What was it like drawing well known characters from ancient mythology in a modern setting?
Kate: Awesome, with a chance of hilarity. Mythological gods to me are the epitome of gods — gods that have gods, gods that predate Jesus-y gods. To take these characters and give them beer guts, body issues, and poor fashion sense feels like blasphemy as a knock-knock joke.
Christina: Just out of my own personal curiosity, why is Hera anorexic? (It certainly does make her look devious!)
Kate: In my mind, Hera immediately took on the qualities of some outrageous, full-time housewife — doing everything under the sun to maintain the illusion of sex appeal with the majority of it backfiring. Plastic surgery, too many smokes and martinis, anorexia, more plastic surgery… the list goes on. Hera is a wretched cougar, and maintaining a ridiculously low body weight ties in with that.
Thanks so much for your time, Kate!
