Out this week from Dark Horse Comics, Anna Kopp and Gabrielle Kari’s “sapphic political romance” The Marble Queen is a YA graphic novel that deftly blends themes of fantasy, love and intrigue. Agreeing to a marriage of convenience to unite kingdoms the princess Amelia discovers that her new partner isn’t the prince she was expecting but the newly crowned Queen Salira. With the threat of war ever present, Amelia must come to terms with her growing feelings for her new wife while also dealing with the anxiety that threatens to overwhelm here.
We caught up with writer Anna Kopp and artist Gabrielle Kari to chat about the queer romance genre, target audiences and first-time graphic novels…
ANDY OLIVER: Let’s start, as way of introduction, by asking you both about your wider artistic practice and background prior to The Marble Queen?
ANNA KOPP: I’ve been a reader and writer since I can remember. My mother is an art teacher and my father a musician, so I grew up in a creative household where I learned both, but books have always been my passion. My family immigrated to the US from Russia when I was 11, so learning a new language was a barrier I had to overcome to begin writing again. I started my first novel, a dystopian YA fantasy, in 2013 and it was published in 2016 by Blue Moon Publishers. I also have an array of indie published unofficial Minecraft books for kids ages 5-12, from early readers to chapter books. The Marble Queen is my first traditionally published graphic novel.
GABRIELLE KARI: I was mostly self-taught growing up. I didn’t have any formal art classes till middle school. Most of my artistic experience has been learning and sharing ideas with my friends.
AO: How did you come together as a collaborative team for The Marble Queen? How aware of each others’ work were you beforehand?
KOPP: I actually wrote The Marble Queen as a novel first, which is what got me my agent, Claire Draper. It was Claire who came to me with a proposal to turn it into a graphic novel script. They had an artist who was interested, and I was really excited about the opportunity. The illustrator ended up not being able to commit to the project, so I found Gabrielle through #portfolioday on Twitter. I sent her an email asking if she’d want to collaborate and we hit it off immediately. We gushed over the story, and I loved her initial sketches. She ended up signing with Claire and we have stayed in touch throughout the process.
KARI: I met Anna through Twitter! I had just finished the art on No Holds Bard with Eric Gladstone and Anna sent me a message asking if I wanted to be a part of her project. I loved her characters and wanted to be a part of their creation.
AO: The Marble Queen blends fantasy with political intrigue while incorporating socially relevant explorations of anxiety and queer romance. It’s a very multi-layered story. What are some of the prominent themes that you wanted to cover in its pages?
KOPP: For me personally, I wanted to write a story that reflected my experiences of being an immigrant in a place I didn’t know I could ever belong to; a queer girl who didn’t know queerness existed until I was in a place that didn’t ban it; and as someone with severe physical anxiety symptoms who cried the first time I felt the relief that medication brought me. Overcoming all these things made me a little more whole, and I wanted to make the main theme of the book be that you’re never really alone, and that it’s ok to ask for help.
KARI: Growing up I struggled heavily with anxiety. I didn’t want to go outside and would avoid going to places. Sometimes I would take down all my posters because I was paranoid of their eyes watching me. I wanted to depict that in Amelia’s struggle, where even though she might not always be able to escape the thorns of anxiety she can still move forward despite anyone telling her she can’t.
AO: Why do you think the fantasy genre is such an effective one for communicating stories that also have a real world universality like Amelia’s queer coming-of-age tale? And with that in mind did you have a target audience in mind for the book?
KOPP: Fantasy is great because you can take a universal human experience – love and loss, courage and sacrifice, and have all readers relate to it in some way. It allows us to see ourselves in a world we have control over. I wrote The Marble Queen for the 13-year-old me who just realized she was queer and had only a few scraps of media where I could feel seen. We’re incredibly lucky to have so many amazing queer books out in the world nowadays, but this one is for the anxious queer girls who want to be princesses too.
KARI: Fantasy is a good way to depict a world that contains real life problems but still offer a way for escapism. Readers can still experience a fictional world and take away important messages to incorporate in their everyday lives because they see themselves in the characters on the page.
AO: How did your collaborative partnership work in terms of bringing the world of The Marble Queen to the page?
KOPP: Aside from the whole script, I also sent Gabrielle the novel, a doc with character descriptions and sample photos, and a Pinterest board where I pinned images of what I thought the feel and look of each city should be. We would also chat at length over DMs, but honestly, our visions were so similar I was mostly just gushing over how much I loved everything she drew.
KARI: When Anna shared her story with me she had a vision of her characters and the world they lived in. We share a lot of aesthetic preferences so the scripts and images she gave me were easy for me to interpret for comics. Anna was very patient with me during the process and I’ll always appreciate that.
AO: Gabrielle, can you give us some insights into your artistic process and the mediums you work in?
KARI: I illustrated all the pages in ClipStudio Paint. I love how streamlined the program is for comic making. I then converted the files into Photoshop for adding text to the comic.
AO: This was your first full-length graphic novel. What were the particular challenges in adapting to longer-form work?
KARI: I accidentally skipped the thumbnailing page while sketching out the pages and felt like there were areas I could have saved a lot of time on if I had planned a bit more accordingly. I learned a lot from this project and hope that despite that people will still see the love and care I put into the pages.
AO: Colour plays a vital part in The Marble Queen in communicating emotional states and mood. Can you talk a little about the choices you made there, especially the highly evocative ones made to depict Ameila’s struggles with intrusive thoughts and anxiety?
KARI: I made Amelia’s thorns purple to reflect her inner anxieties of being a princess. Amelia wants to do right by her country and she must uphold the ideals that her family and people expect of her. She feels like she has the weight of the world on her shoulders, but she must reflect a perfect princess.
AO: Given the extensive world-building that has gone into The Marble Queen, not to mention all the twists and turns the plot takes, do you have any further plans to revisit the characters and their world in the future?
KOPP: While there were a few chapters from the novel that didn’t make it into the graphic novel I would love to have illustrated one day just for fun, I think I’d rather let this world continue on in people’s imaginations and let the characters rest from all their trials. I already feel bad enough for what I put them through!
KARI: I would love to make more illustrations for Amelia and Salira when I can. There are also so many more characters that I’d love to make personal illustrations for. Iris and Mina were my favorite side characters and I want to give them some more love in the future.
AO: And, finally, what else are you working on right now both within and outside of comics?
KOPP: I’m currently putting all my time and efforts into making sure The Marble Queen reaches as many people as possible, but I have a graphic novel proposal going out on submission soon about a rock band that must perform for their god or be sacrificed. Fingers crossed you’ll get to see it one day!
KARI: I’m working on adapting a story I love into a graphic novel. I hope I can share it with everyone someday! Otherwise I spend a lot of time reading and taking care of my dog.
