Wonder of Comics: May 2009 Zuda Contestant Spotlight – Lilly of the Valley
Lilly of the Valley, a comic by Adam Atherton from Toronto Canada, has gotten off to a great start in Zuda’s May 2009 competition by capturing first place in the first week of the competition. Adam’s story about a mentally unstable girl who copes with her problems by killing people has cuaght the attention of the Zuda community with it’s unique visual style and premise. The following is a brief interview with Adam where he explains his inspiration for his story and the origins of the Pink Flamigos.
1) Tell us a little bit about yourself and your comic Lily of the Valley. How did the project come about?
I grew up in Eastern Canada in a small farm town in New Brunswick called Woodstock. The setting of Lily of the Valley is largely inspired by my hometown.
I studied animation and graphic design there before moving to Toronto, the largest city in Canada, where I went to York University and gained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film Studies.
Moving from a small farm town to a large city and then attending the most populated campus in Canada wasn’t easy for me to adjust to and resulted in some personal struggles. I found a release from negative feelings and pain through art and writing. Lily, the main character in this story, is similar but finds her outlet somewhere far more sinister.
With this project I wanted to explore the feelings I have dealt with in the past (of social anxiety, sadness, isolation, alientation, wanting to belong, longing) and I wanted it to be an accurate analysis of life as an outsider. I wanted to do a very personal story.
The premise of Lily of the Valley itself came to me while I was listening to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ Murder Ballads album which is entirely comprised of love ballads that end in death and murder but are still with beauty none the less creating a very appealing contrast to me. This is the same aesthetic I wanted to have for the comic. Alot of music influenced the writing process and aside from all of Nick Cave’s albums, some other’s I listened to were The Cure’s Disintegration and Marilyn Manson’s Mechanical Animals as well as music by Johnny Cash.
2) Give us your pitch, can you briefly summarize the concept behind the story for people not familiar with your comic?
Lily of the Valley is a horror/romance comic. I describe it as a love story for the over and under medicated, the disenchanted, the excessively violent, and the soft spoken.
In the small Eastern Canadian town of Elmwood, a teenage girl named Lily who commits murders to cope with her mental instability, falls in love with an elusive, near mythical, forest dwelling albino boy who has been taking all of the blame.
The story will follow their romance and quest for some mystical redemption (through mysteries they discover in the ancient unknown catacombs below the town) as they outrace the disgraced town sheriff with a personal maddening need for revenge.
3) The main character Lily is a little “mentally unstable” to say the least and is an unlikely main character. As a writer, what kind of challenges does her character present you with?
I’ve always related more with outsider characters and have always cared more to hear stories from their perspectives than any others.
The struggles with this character will be making readers relate to her and making them care about her achieving her goals. While it will be a challenge to make readers fall in love with a girl who has done
such unforgivable crimes, I don’t think it is impossible and I have some creative methods planned for tackling it. It is a story about redemption after all and she is very capable of love. Love changes everything. Deep inside she is not a monster and the story will reveal that early on.
4) You are another returning competitor to Zuda, what made you come back? What did you learn from the last competition that you are applying to your run this time around?
I came back to Zuda because the experience encouraged me to. Getting accepted into the competition in December was confirmation to me that I was heading in the right direction. This is how Zuda will single handedly harvest and nurture new untapped talent on the internet. Talent is going to arise on Zuda that would never otherwise exist because it encourages growth and gives confidence to creators to keep working until they succeed with a story.
I came back because I knew I could do a stronger entry after taking note of all the feedback I received. I learned to use every one of the 8 pages to it’s fullest advantage. I learned that I should be designing the page layouts to work hand in hand with the page format. I learned that the 8 pages and the final page should leave the audience begging for their to be a 9th page. I set up the universe for Lily of the Valley through 8 pages, enough to let a reader know what they are in for, but I also aimed not to give too much away. Most importantly I learned that there will be those who like it and those who don’t with virtually any concept you come up with. You can’t please everyone, so if you manage to please yourself then it won’t affect you when others dislike your work. I created the story that I wanted to create.
Another reason being that Zudacomics.com is an amazing collection of talent and comics and I would be honoured to have my story and artwork displayed there amongst the work of so many talented people.
5) I have to ask, where did the pink flamingos come from?
I want this comic to be as unique as possible and I want every single page to stand out with an original idea, be it with props, page design, colours, angles, or anything. When I was thinking about how to do this scene I didn’t originally intend to use flamingos. I was thinking of what to put in the setting and decided a pink lawn flamingo. I always try to think about how I can take things to the next level with my work, and here I thought it would be interesting to use that lawn flamingo as a weapon. Then I guess I sort of thought why stop at just one flamingo? haha There’s a tradition with some people, where on a woman’s 50th birthday they will put 50 pink flamingos on the front lawn, and this was something I thought about too. I figured if anyone knew of this tradition it would only serve to further flesh out the character of Mrs. Bellows and there is no harm in that. I try to include alot of details in the artwork to further express the characters themselves.
Also I wanted this comic to be very close to nature. Alot of mystery takes place in the woods surrounding the town so I wanted to show nature creeping into every aspect of the town itself. It’s used to symbolically represent chaos moving into the town. The woods being the outsider territory, it represents the outsiders moving in. I did this with leaves, and animals, and have many more interesting ideas planned for this on future pages shall it win the Zuda competition. The name Lily of the Valley was chosen for this reason too. Lily of the Valley is a flower, and also refers to the character and her town. Symbolically the name has alot of meaning and history too. One being that the Lily of the Valley flower came to be from Eve’s tears after her and Adam were cast out of the garden of eden. My grandmother’s name is Lily as well so I felt it had so many reasons to be used I couldn’t ignore it.
6) In the last panel of your entry you say “death is surely not the end.” Do you believe in life after death?
I’ve never really thought about it. I’ve always been of the strong belief that I’ll be dead so I probably won’t care too much about what’s going on after that. haha But seriously, I have no idea.
To get more information about Lilly of the Valley, go read it on Zuda.com and or visit Adam’s blog at www.lilyofthevalleycomic.blogspot.com
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you have conducted a fine interview with my son (of whom i am very proud) i thin adam answered your questions very well and honestly. i am sure that this will not be the last time that you will interview adam – i think he is on his way to greatness. thanks for doing the interview with him. nice job.
It was my pleasure Doug!
Very good interview, good job Adam and good job Gus.
Thanks RKB!
good luck adam!
Lily of the Valley Rocks!!!!! WOOOOO!!
Lilly of the Valley still in first place, keep it up.