Broken Frontier

This month, Rachel Nabors went weekly on über girl-site  Gurl.com. She’s been doing the self-publishing thing for a while now, with books such as 18 Revolutions and The Crow Princess, plus an online presence on her website, www.subcultureofone.com. Now you’ll be able to get weekly doses of her sharp wit – and evil cat. We caught up with Rachel to pick her brain a bit about the move.

BROKEN FRONTIER: How long have you been involved with Gurl.com?

RACHEL NABORS: About 4 years. I started very early with a comic called 18 Revolutions, which was actually based on a poem I wrote when I was 15, and then drew it when I was 17.

BF: How did the whole aspect of going weekly occur?

RN: Well, I had been working with them for several years, and gurl.com had seen that comics online are where girls are going in the future. They have become very popular just over the past few years, and the demand has gone through the roof. Every teenage girl online nowadays loves her weekly comics. And they’re picking up on that to service the times.

BF: Is every week going to be self-contained, or is each week going to lead directly into the following week?

RN: A bit of both. I hope to keep many of them self-contained, but I imagine I will want to keep doing longer story arcs that cannot be told in a few pages. But I am hoping not to be one of those: [adapts a dramatic voice] “Tune in next time, for…!” I don’t want to become a soap opera.

BF: Is it going to remain autobiographical?

RN: It’s barely autobiographical as it is! It’s just weird things that I thought of and elaborated on to form a big farce of a story that sort of resembled the original occurrence. But it will remain about the way it is.

BF: Your style is very manga-like. Who are your biggest influences?

RN: Ok, I confess. The first time I was introduced to Japanese animation and comics en masse was when I picked up Sailor Moon. And that’s when I first started drawing this way, because I wanted to start drawing Phantom. That was back in 1995, and since then I’ve been moving, inching my way away from it. I’ve been influenced from everyone from Clamp to the guy who does Gold Diggers. But mainly I’ve been developing it independently; I haven’t been reading as many comics as I did when I was little.

BF: How evil is Tuna?

RN: He’s very evil. I’m beginning to think that he isn’t really a real cat at all, but some kind of poltergeist or repressed sexual thing – Freudian slip – that has taken the form of Rachel’s former living cat and she just doesn’t realize he’s dead yet. I don’t know. We’re going to eventually have to explain why he can talk and do the things he does. And why he seems to be at the same time a pervert, but also a sexual purist. Why he’s always on top of Rachel for buying condoms or selling her underwear online. I’m not sure how he can do that. I’m not sure if his character is not fully developed or just schizophrenic.

BF: Are we going to see new characters now that you’ve been given the chance to go weekly?

RN: Yes, because I think I’ve beaten up on the existing characters as much as I want to, I have to bring in some nicer people. I’m hoping to bring in a new character named Brenda, and I’m hoping she’ll be a good friend for Rachel. Won’t always be giving her a dead look.

Check out Gurl.com for some weekly doses of the Nabors wit every Wednesday!