With everyone talking about women in comics lately, I thought it might be nice to better get to know one of my favorite creator-ladies: Kelly Sue DeConnick. In case you missed my tribute to her here, Kelly Sue is currently co-writing 30 Days of Night: Eben and Stella with Steve Niles, has stories in both of the first two volumes of Image’s 24Seven anthology, and adapts manga for English readers. She’s also having Matt Fraction’s baby. 

Who’s your personal hero?

Off the top of my head, either John Irving or Shaun White. Ask me tomorrow and I’m likely to give you a different answer, though. 

What do you always have at your bedside?

Lip balm.

What’s your retreat?

Late-night forensics shows.

  

Do you play a musical instrument? 

No, not really.  I took guitar lessons from Tony Salvatore for a while and I loved it, but I stopped when I got busy and never picked it up again.  I can still play, like, “Smoke on the Water” and “Satisfaction,” but that’s about it. 

What’s your morning routine? 

Get up, check the cat’s bowls, let the dogs out, put coffee on, load/unload the dishwasher, eat breakfast while reading e-mail and NetNewsWire.

What’s your favorite item of clothing? 

Hm.  Maybe my white canvas A/E trench…?  But I’m six months pregnant and I think it’s a size 2, so I doubt I could even get it on at the moment.  There’s no chance in hell it would close.  It is fabulous, though.  It makes me feel like a very conspicuous super-spy.  

What’s your greatest artistic strength? 

Humility.

What’s your greatest artistic weakness? 

Humility.  (More accurately, “self-doubt.”)

What’s your favorite 30 Days of Night moment that you didn’t write? It can be from any of the previous stories. (Crap. I just realized that that makes you choose between your writing partner and your hubbie, but I’m gonna keep the question in. Ooh! Hard hitting!) 

Not so hard, actually — the final moment between Eben and Stella at the end of the first volume rips my heart out every time.  

(That said, from a technical standpoint, I love each and every one of Fraction’s match cuts in “Juarez.”  Did you catch those?  They killed me.  I was so moved I tried to do the same thing in the prose piece I wrote as a Bloodsucker Tales back up.  It was a really fun exercise, though I’m certain no one caught it but me.)

What’s your favorite one that you did?  

Probably Xen’s manifesto in Eben & Stella #2.  

What’s always in your refrigerator? 

Simply Lemonade and iced tea.  Fraction is addicted to Arnold Palmers.  

What’s your favorite food? 

Tabasco sauce.

Do you collect anything? 

Paint by Number Geishas.  
Tea cups and saucers.
Weird portraits from flea markets.

We want to start collecting amateur Blue Boy paintings, but we don’t really have space.  It’ll have to be for the next house.

What’s your best memento from your work? 

The last page from “Tropical Butterfilies Alive in Winter” (from 24Seven Volume 1). Andy MacDonald gave it to me. 

What are you always asked at parties? 

Lately?  “When are you due?”

What do you always have with you? 

My wedding ring.

What’s your favorite place in your home? 

My bathroom.

What do you obsess over? 

I obsess at the drop of a hat.  Sometimes it’s Battlestar Galactica, sometimes it’s how I’ll explain to my children that we stood by and let Gitmo happen.  

What’s the best recent gift you’ve received? 

Ed Brubaker’s wife Mel just got me a set of pink satin pajamas that make me look and feel like a very pregnant movie star circa 1945.  Oh!  And I’m in love with the Racheal Sudlow peapod necklace that Fraction gave me for Mother’s Day.  That’s two, isn’t it?  Too bad.

What’s your fitness routine? 

Swimming, running and weights — though to be honest, right now it’s more like walking and some prenatal yoga.  I just bought a new maternity swimsuit that’s desperately cute though, so…

What talent do you covet? 

I wish I could sing.  Or rather, I wish I could sing well.

What’s your evening routine? 

Have dinner with Fraction, clean up, spend a little time together, head back to my office as Fraction heads back to his, work for a bit, give up, turn the TV on and fall asleep on the couch.  At some point in the wee hours, Fraction comes down from his office, gives me my prenatal vitamins and a glass of water and we move up to bed.  I’m in charge of good mornings; he’s in charge of goodnights. 

What’s the greatest misconception about your life? 

That I’m a Japanese translator.  

I’ve read “Leap” from the upcoming 24Seven Volume 2 anthology and it’s a wonderful story. Very funny and touching at the same time. Since it’s about a robot who hides himself under a massive collection of experiences and encounters with other people, I’m wondering where that came from. Is there a little of you in Rick? Someone you know? Just a general observation of people? 

Thank you. It’s from something I either saw or dreamed as a child that chilled me to the core of my being: a little boy took an item from everyone he met until he finally collapsed under a massive pile of junk.  When they tried to dig him out, he wasn’t there.  I think that’s maybe my greatest fear — that I’m something less than the sum of my parts. 

It wasn’t a conscious choice, but both of my 24seven contributions essentially tell the same story, or rather, express the same theme.  I didn’t notice it until I was done.  Weird how your subconscious yells at you sometimes, isn’t it? 

What movie have you seen more than any other? 

Probably Footloose, Real Genius or The Golden Child. (I worked at a video store for a few years and those were the movies we played most often on the store’s big screen.)

What book have you read more than any other? 

The Sun Also Rises.

What household chore do you absolutely hate to do? 

I hate checking voicemail.  

What obsolete item can you not part with? 

The moth-eaten STOP APARTHEID t-shirt I made when I was 16.

What’s your travel routine? 

In the past it’s been something like, “Pack too much, realize when I get to my destination that I’ve forgotten something vital like, say, a shirt.  Go shopping.”  (True story: I once forgot to pack any tops.)  But I’ve recently gotten much better about this.  I still pack a full suitcase, mind you, whereas Fraction can travel with just a backpack. But c’mon! I’m a very girlie girl: I require feminine accouterments.  Somewhere in that extra suitcase is an essential part of my charm.  Also?  Two perfumes and three pairs of shoes. 

To his credit, he convincingly feigns amusement.

What’s the worst thing about traveling? 

Constipation.

What superstitions do you have? 

I feel really weird about opening umbrellas indoors.

What do you do to procrastinate? 

Gah.  What’ve you got?  Internet “research”, cleaning, filing, eating, etc. 

What’s your biggest self-indulgence or guilty pleasure? 

AC/DC, ELO, KISS, QUEEN… the rock of my youth.  

What gadget can’t you live without? 

My laptop.  It’s a love-hate thing.

What’s your most prized possession? 

It used to be an old typewriter, but it got stolen.  Now maybe it’s my Mason-Pearson hairbrush.  

What kind of vehicle do you drive? 

Fraction and I share a Honda CRV.

What’s your next big purchase going to be? 

A kitchen remodel.  

Which historical figure would you most like to meet? 

Marcus Aurelius.

If I read the American Gods acknowledgments correctly, you were one of Neil Gaiman’s proofreaders for that book. How’d you get that gig? 

When was that?  The late 1990s, I’m thinking…?  I was juuust starting to get the barest trickle of professional writing work at the time and Neil Gaiman is an incredibly gracious human being who’s extended himself as a mentor to any number of young writers — myself included.  I’d send him stuff to read and he’d send back useful critique; then he’d send chapter drafts and I’d send back comments that I’m willing to bet were entirely useless, save for moral support.  (I believe I responded largely with wonder and awe.  Maybe not, but thank god I didn’t save the e-mails so I can’t check.) It was a pretty lopsided exchange.  Then one day he wrote me with a question about NYC taxi drivers. I didn’t know the answer off the top of my head so I did some research on his behalf. Seriously, it was like a one phone call thing, but I got to be of practical use, which was grand. I asked if there was anything else he needed and he gave me a fun little assignment researching Russian folklore. Again, it was a little thing but it made me feel useful.    

(I would do the same thing later for Maggie Estep, calling the NYC medical examiner with questions about electrocution through the nostrils. The ME was remarkably unfazed by my line of questioning. That still bums me out a little.)  

You already gave a great tease of Normal Jean, the graphic novel you’re doing for Oni, in your recent Broken Frontier interview, so I won’t ask you to do that again. Any timeline for it though? Who’s illustrating it? 

There’s no artist attached yet! We were talking to one guy whose stuff I loooooved but I had to backburner the whole project for a bit and he’s since gone on to big things, so I suspect we’ll be starting the artist selection process over from beginning come fall. 

Oofah.  

What are you going to work on tomorrow? 

We’re in Seattle at the moment, flying back to Kansas City tomorrow.  I plan to work on Black Cat on the plane.  When I get home I’ll answer e-mails, update my deadline calendar and kiss on my dogs. 

Kelly Sue’s photos were taken by Doug Hesse of http://www.kdog.com.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 4th, 2007 at 9:28 pm and is filed under Comic Books, Creators, Fringe Benefits, Graphic Novels, Image, Independent, Interviews, Manga, News & Views, Version 1.0 Blog@. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.