Jeremy was based primarily on my younger brother, Brent, in high-school. Except not as funny. If you read
Brent's brilliant, hilarious
comics about his experience in Drama and the romantic woes mined there, you'll see the parallels. I asked Jesse to keep Brent in mind when drawing Jeremy.
Mr. Ahpo was the name our Drama teacher in my high school -- the same one in Brent's comics -- and he was always like a friend to us as much as a teacher. I tried to incorporate that into Mr. Levon. Physically, I was going for a sort of dirty-blonde version of Paul Pope. I remember a lot of female comic readers having a crush on him, so I thought he'd make a good starting point. Jesse totally ran with the idea in the actual book. Also, when I was in high school we had a really young female teacher who was just starting out that all the boys (and probably some of the girls, too) had crushes on. The boys would flirt with her shameless so I drew on those experie-- er, I mean,
observations too. Also in my high school, we had a pretty young French teacher that a lot of the girls had cooed over so I put some of him into Mr. Levon as well. He's a good guy, Mr. Levon. I like him a lot.Much like Brent, I was pretty active in Drama back in high school which is why there's such a focus on it in "Good As Lily." I can honestly say those were some of the best times I had in high school. Heck, some of the best times of my entire life. It's really exciting and invigorating to be part of a group artistic project like that. There's something indescribably life-affirming about it. Everyone pulling together to create something bigger than each individual. Especially in high-school when it's as pure as it can be. When an art is not your "job," or a "stepping stone" to one, it's free of a lot of the petty politics and bullshit.And unlike other such endeavors like animation where everyone is given their little parts and then are shuffled off to their individual corner to carve their cog for the giant machine, Drama is much more communal and interactive. It's more like you yourself are a cog and you constantly have to push and pull on each other to see how you function best together. (Ew, that's a gross analogy.) And just on a little personal note, I did have a crush on a long-time friend back in my own high-school Drama experience. (Heh, but then who didn't, right?) Ah, high school.... It seems like a life-time ago now.But writing those Drama scenes brought all those memories flooding back and it was great to relive them. The fights, the crying, the endless rehearsals, the performances, the accidents, the crushes, the breathing as quiet as you can behind the set, the trying not to breath at all as you play a dead body, the hugging and calming down your friends as they freak out backstage, the "afterglow" that is the after party. I hope I captured some of that feeling in "Good As Lily."It's probably why I get such a fond feeling whenever I think about "Good As Lily." What started as a commercial job ended up becoming really personal to me. Despite the lackluster response and mixed reviews, it's really darling to me and I'm proud of it. It's great how things like that work out sometimes.
