There's another moment toward the end of the book, a moment of danger for Zita, that I decided to make into a single image spread across two pages with no dialogue. There's a chase through the back alleys of a domed space city that culminates with the dramatic entrance of a new character. Can you tell us about one of your favorite scenes or moments in this new story? I'm finally putting some 'space' in 'spacegirl.ĥ. I feel like this volume lives up to the title a little better in that there are scenes that take place in SPACE. How does Legends of Zita differ from Zita the Spacegirl? I still think that they did more with those puppets than we do with CGI today.Ĥ. All these years later I wonder if maybe I wasn't just frightened, but overloaded by the the intense creativity. I've seen The Dark Crystal since, but I also remember very clearly seeing those creatures on the screen for the first time. The grownups all said it must have been too scary. We had to leave about halfway through the film because I was crying. When I was a very small child my older cousin took me to see The Dark Crystal at the theater.

Out of all that, what kinds of things influenced you the most? We were even active members of the Society for Creative Anachronisms!ģ. And we spent days spent exploring rivers. I was lucky in that my parents exposed me to a lot of different influences - all kinds of books and movies. Some of my early drawings are vast underground scenes full of creatures that aren't that far removed from some of the species in the Zita books. I've always been drawn to weird creatures. The Zita books feature some pretty strange creatures. I've also lately been interested in projects that separate words and pictures - illustrated novels on the one hand and wordless comics on the other.Ģ. I find things like characters' body language to be a wonderful storytelling tool. I work a lot on the structure of my stories and I get a lot of joy out of that, but my art is not just in the service of the story, it's very much a part of the storytelling.

In my case, I think the two are pretty inseparable.

Do you tend to think of yourself more as a writer or as an artist?

Zita the spacegirl series order