Reviews (And Interviews) Week continues with an interview with Adam Gallardo, writer of 100 Girls.
100 Girls has an interesting and involved publishing history. Would you like to outline it?
AG: I think the term is ‘sordid.’ But here goes: 100 Girls was originally published online at Darkhorse.com. I was the Internet Content Editor and sort of abused my position to make that happen.
Todd (Demong, my cocreator) and I spoke with DH about publishing the comic and we were told that it would have to be a four issue mini-series, and we knew even then that we wanted to tell a bigger story than that.
We shopped it around and got a ‘no thanks’ from a few publishers and then these folks that Todd knew in Canada, Arcana Comics, asked if we’d like to do it with them. We said, ‘Yes, please.’ They published the original seven issue series and two collections.
Then someone at Simon and Schuster saw it (honestly, I’m not sure how or when) and asked if we’d be interested in doing a collection in one volume. Again, we said, ‘yes, please.’
That’s it.
It seems as if the S+S version is getting more attention than the previous collections.
AG: Yes, definitely. Arcana just cannot bring to bear the same marketing power that S&S can.
I realize that might sound like a slight against Arcana, which it is not. They have been great to work with and they’ve done everything in their power to get the book out there. The reality of the direct market, however, is that small publishers have a hard time.
Is 100 Girls in any way a reaction to the way girls and women are often treated in superhero comics?’
AG: It is. In mainstream comics anyway, it seems that women have only two roles to play: that of either vixen or victim. I remember looking around at other forms of pop culture and wondering why other mediums did a better job of portraying women. SF films especially does a good job. You’ve got Sarah Connor, Ripley, Buffy. I wanted that for 100 Girls. A strong, female character who resembled the women that I knew in my real life.
And another thing: I remember that one of my first, and only, dictates to Todd was, ‘do not make her sexy!’ I am so tired of seeing women, and even young girls, drawn as if by thirty-year-old men who hyper-sexualize anyone lacking a penis. I was so lucky to run across Todd because his reaction to all of my ranting was to say, ‘that’s how I feel.’
You’ve mentioned that one of the themes you were hoping to explore in 100 Girls is the idea of people making choices (and they seem to be generally choices made in horrific circumstances). Are you happy with how that plays out in the narrative?
AG: I am generally happy with how it plays out. There are things I would change if I could, which is probably true of any piece written on a more-or-less monthly deadline, but with that one aspect, yes, I’m happy.
And I should add that it’s definitely something we’ll see play out more in future storylines.
There’s a lot of graphic violence in the story, which is unusual for comics with teen superheroes (though less unusual for YA in general). What are you trying to do with that?
AG: That’s interesting since, right after your review went up, I saw another which called me to task for the amount of violence and Sylvia’s reaction to it.
I’m not sure how much I want to talk about this since it’s something I want to explore later in the comics. But I have no interest in writing a violent comic where the violence serves no purpose, or is glamorised, so I hope people wait to see what purpose it serves.
The putative bad guys in 100 Girls get almost equal footing with the protagonists. What’s the reasoning behind that choice?
AG: I think that if I didn’t give them lots of ‘screen time’ then I’d just be creating straw men for Sylvia to mow down, and if I did that, then the violence would have no weight. I wanted to write all of the characters as rounded as possible.
Plus, no one really wakes up in the morning, wringing their hands and cackling about the evil they’re going to perform that day. Everyone thinks they’re the good guy in their own story.
What can we hope to see in Book Two?
AG: Sylvia falling in with a pack of homeless kids and a big, blue monster! It will maybe be ready in time for next year’s Comic Con, but that might be stretching things. I have my son to take care of, Todd has animation work, and we’re trying to get another series off the ground, so it may be a bit later than that.
Will we get to see more of Sylvia’s mother?
AG: Do you mean her cellular donor or her adoptive mother? And either way, the answer is yes. Not in the next story line, but the one after that. I think it’s important to show Sylvia in a normal (or as normal as possible) setting to offset the weirdness of her powers and such.
I also want to explore a little bit what it must be like for the Boys to be what they are.
The possibility of a movie has been raised, as I understand it, more than once?
AG: This is the point where I lower my head and weep. Hollywood types, most of them very nice, well-meaning people, have been expressing interest in 100 Girls for going on five years now. And we’ve come very close a couple of times, but with no results.
Well, we can hope! Thanks for your time.
AG: Thank you!
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