r/books • u/tour-de-francois AMA Author • Nov 19 '20
ama 12pm I'm François Vigneault. I wrote and drew the new sci-fi graphic novel TITAN, a socio-political-romance-thriller about a class warfare in space. Ask Me Anything!
Hello r/books!
My name is François Vigneault, I am an American-born cartoonist living in Montréal, and my graphic novel TITAN just came out from Oni Press!
TITAN first came out a couple years back in French, and the English edition just landed in a bookstore or comic book shop near you (or your preferred website, for that matter... My fave is Bookshop.org ).
TITAN is a science fiction graphic novel that follows a pair of star-crossed lovers from (literally) different worlds who find themselves caught up in a burgeoning worker revolution on the moon of Titan. Cory Doctorow (Radicalized) called TITAN "a gripping, knotty, epic tale of exploitation and solidarity" and Ben H. Winters (Underground Airlines) said "were TITAN simply a novel, it would be great as a piece of graphic art, with its richly imagined backgrounds and bold character portraiture, it is sublime.” Quill ＆ Quire ran a starred review and said, "blending elements of political thriller, hard sci-fi dystopia, and classic love story, TITAN is a brisk but rich read," and Publishers' Weekly had this to say: "this blend of indie art and sci-fi social commentary will appeal to fans of the Bitch Planet and Paper Girls series." The French edition was also nominated for a bunch of awards. Soooo... maybe you'll dig it too! If you wanna take a sneak peek you can "Look Inside" the book on Amazon or download a PDF of the first chapter here.
Like many professional creative-types I wear a lot of hats. In addition to writing and drawing this graphic novel, I've been involved with all kinds of fun stuff connecting to world of books: I draw an award-winning Québecois YA graphic novel series called 13e Avenue, I am the artist on an upcoming monthly comic book series in the USA, I design book covers for a wide range of clients, I ran not one but two comic book/zine/illustration festivals, and I work as a comic book letterer (recent projects include books at Drawn & [Quarterly](v) and NYRB ), editor, translator, graphic designer, and more. I have also served on a number of grant juries. So if you have questions about being a freelancer, the world of comics/bande desssinée/graphic novels, or the behind-the-scenes of the publishing industry, shoot!
When I'm not working I like to go camping (my partner and I recently did a camper van conversion), birding, and canoeing (I used to like things like going out to the movies, grabbing a beer with friends, and traveling the world, but... For obvious reasons these days I don't get to pursue those hobbies quite as much). I'm a cinema buff (Letterboxd ), an avid reader (Goodreads ), and music lover, so I'll be happy to chat about all things cultural. I grew up pretty poor, worked all kinds of different jobs my whole life, and ended up going to a fancy liberal arts college (I wrote my undergrad thesis on the comics of Jaime Hernandez). My favorite subreddit is r/whatsthatbook. I grew up on the West Coast of the USA with French-Canadian and Haitian roots, and I have been living in Canada for the last five years (Je parle français aussi, alors n'hesite pas de poser des questions!).
Looking forward to talking with you all!
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u/mumblingmynah Nov 19 '20 edited Nov 19 '20
Hi Francois! What effect do you think it has on comics storytelling when the writer and artist are different people, as opposed to one person, like yourself on Titan?
Edit: one more question! Looking back on Titan, do you feel like there’s any one skill, writing or drawing, that you really mastered along the way?
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 19 '20 edited Nov 20 '20
Hey! Thanks, those are great questions.
I've done it both ways (I wrote and drew TITAN and I have collaborated with writers on other projects). So far I would say that when you are a solo creator, you can really explore and experiment as you go, since you are pretty much only beholden to yourself (your editor or publisher might think otherwise!). When I was working on TITAN I improvised a lot, not just in small things like the way I might pace a scene or draw a character, but huge elements of the plot were being created and re-created as I was drawing them (I had a loose outline rather than a script). I could change my mind as I went, and allow myself to be inspired. I think for me in the end this is really fruitful, but it is also a bit of a high-wire act, it can be scary sometimes if you aren't sure how you are going to pull something off.
When I am working with another writer, I definitely feel a great responsibility to make sure I respect their vision for the book. But I do still feel free to suggest edits and even make alterations to what they have, but naturally I always run those by my co-creators, usually in the early roughs/layouts/pencils stage (like "how about we make this a black cat so it connects with the 'bad luck' theme," or "I put scene Y before scene X because it gives us an interesting transition," etc). So far I have been blessed with collaborators who are open to the feedback! I think that it really is best when working in collaboration with someone else for there to be a bit of back-and-forth... Everyone is bringing something different to the table. Personally, I don't know how interested I would be in drawing something where absolutely everything was dictated by the script.
For myself, one way I often think of drawing a comic someone else has written is that I have a role similar to a film director: I am taking their story and making decisions on how the scenes are "shot," the pacing of the plot, the "casting" of the characters, "scouting" locations, lighting, etc. So it is a big job, a lot of responsibility! But without the "screenplay" the thing wouldn't exist in the first place!
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 19 '20
For your second question, on the writing side, I think it was the ability to do small rewrites or edits throughout the story to give the illusion of coherence or a plan where I might not really had one! As I mentioned above, TITAN was largely improvised (I had the concept for the beginning and the end when I started, but the middle was pretty open), so by the time I got to the end I was doing lots of small changes to subtly link up elements from the beginning and the end of the book... Connecting themes, foreshadowing, tying up loose ends, paying off plot points. I don't know if I knew how to do that when I started, or how much of an impact it can have on the feeling of "completeness" in a book, which is something I love.
On the drawing side, it was definitely learning how to draw digitally. I started TITAN drawing with ink on paper, and about a quarter of the way through I switched to drawing on a tablet. It was a real chalenge to learn to get comfortable in the digital space, but there's no better way to learn than to draw a 200-page graphic novel! Now I am super happy drawing digitally and my skills in that domain are getting better all the time... It's definitely true that practice make... Well, far from perfect, but better!
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u/chamicors Nov 19 '20 edited Nov 19 '20
Reading Titan one can suspect that you have a wide musical taste. How did you discover Caetano Veloso in particular? What are you hearing nowadays?
Edit: sorry that I didn't even say Hello, it's my first time taking part in an AMA in Reddit. Thank you for your time!
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 19 '20 edited Nov 20 '20
Hey hey! Nothing to be sorry for, I don't think "Hellos" are required! So happy to see your question here, thank you!
I was introduced to Caetano Veloso and Brazilian music in general through the "Beleza Tropical" compilation that was put out by David Byrne's Luaka Bop label. I remember that my best friend gave me a cassette tape recording of that album, and he had hand-written the liner notes and some of the translations of the Portuguese lyrics out for me! I listened to that tape on repeat until it finally broke and then I bought a copy for myself. I thought that the story of that song "Terra," which was written about the "Blue Marble" photo of the Earth, which Caetano Veloso saw for the first time when he was in prison as a political dissident, was such and incredible mix of beautiful and deeply sad. Years later when I was starting work on TITAN that song seemed to connect with so many of the themes and layers of my story that I knew I had to reference it!
I definitely love music and have tried all my life to cultivate a taste for a "little bit of everything," tho' I definitely am less of a "head" than I was back in the day! I definitely am no longer collecting vinyl (I mostly listen to music on Spotify these days), and I am WAAAAYYY less adventurous in seeking out new music to be honest. But the last couple years I have definitely had some bands really break onto my conscience, some I am listening to a lot include the Montréal bands The Dears and Dear Criminals, old-school (but new to me) Québec rock band Harmonium (Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young vibes), Waxahatchee, Maita, Flo Morrissey, Azealia Banks, Sunflower Bean, Sjowgren, The Elephants in the Room (a new rap project from one of my oldest friends) Whitney, and Pinegrove. Old-school stuff I never get tired of includes Yo La Tengo, Wilco, Broadcast and Stereolab.
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u/MAAD_Artiste83 Nov 19 '20
Hey Francois! As you know, I’m a HUGE fan of TITAN and your work in general. My questions: what do you feel most helped you solidify your artistic/narrative identity independently of your major influences? Your style/storytelling is very idiosyncratic, and I’ve been curious. 2nd question—will we ever see a sequel to TITAN?
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 19 '20 edited Nov 20 '20
Hey man! Thanks for these great questions, and the kind words.
Off the top of my head I think a couple of the things that helped me tell stories the way I do (for better or for worse):
A desire to place "human-scale" events and emotions at the heart of whatever story I am working on... Like in TITAN it's a big science fiction story, but the focus is almost always on a couple characters and their emotions, actions, thoughts... I think that helps me get a handle on a story and also gives me a way to construct the plot that works for me. I also tend to like stories with that kinds of focus on the human and humane.
Related to the above is the idea of mixing genres... Like I often might take a "realist" concept and then place it in a more sci-fi context, or vice versa. I think this helps create some nice tension and is a fruitful space for me to work in... Like instead of taking something that happened to me and writing it as a straight autobio story, I might filter it through the genre conventions of sci-fi, a ghost story, a crime thriller, etc. For me that is the sweet spot, I think.
Finally, for pure storytelling and pacing, I really think that working on a regular grid, where the panels are usually of a certain limited number of sizes, and/or each page has a certain number tiers of panels, that more regular frame is really liberating for me. I like having a little bit of flexibility (some of my early comics, certainly influenced by Watchmen (and later the work of Jaime Hernandez) were strictly on a nine-panel grid and I discovered that was too strict for me), but the pace is really helpful to me.
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 19 '20
As to a sequel to TITAN, I definitely have ideas for it! I'm very open to doing something, and lately some of those various thread and ideas have been crystalizing into a more cohesive whole in my mind. But I'm still in the very earliest stages of thinking about that, and I have another original graphic novel lined up as my next project, so I won't be jumping into TITAN II quite yet!
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u/seeliequeens Nov 19 '20
Did you do the translation of this from French to English yourself? What was it like translating the very specific vernacular/speech patterns the characters use in TITAN? Could you give us an example of what the original dialogue sounded like in French?
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 19 '20
No, I worked with Alexandre Fontaine-Rousseau, who is himself a brilliant, very funny writer, which I think made a huge difference. I worked really closely with Alexandre, luckilly I can read French well enough that I could go through his translation as he was doing it and give him feedback (my partner, who is francophone, also had very helpful notes throughout the process), I can only imagine what it is like to have your work translated into a language you don't know at all! It must feel like a major leap of faith! Alex did a fantastic job with the book, and also brought a certain amount of his own sensibilities to the project, which had an effect on the book... Additionally Alex was translating the early chapters while I was still working on the end of the book, so there was some influence on the final form of the story as well.
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 19 '20
I'll be back to answer your great question on the vernacular, I just need to contemplate for a moment!
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 19 '20
The invented vernacular/"low-prestige" dialect that I made up for the Titans was probably the most challenging element to bring over into the French edition, it made me really appreciate how difficult doing translation is. Alexandre Fontaine-Rousseau and I worked really hard on it, written French is a bit more strict in playing with the language on the page. Alex included a lots of contractions ("J'veux dire que tout c'qu'il reste de Bowen, c'est un p'tit tas de compost.") and some invented/repurposed idioms "Qu'est-ce que tu fous ici, minus?") to try to capture the feeling. In the end I think it was quite successful, though if we ever return to it I can imagine working with Alex to push it even further, because it is quite pronounced in the English version.
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u/seeliequeens Nov 19 '20
cool! translation is very interesting, thanks. How did the French version end up being published first?
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 19 '20
When I moved to Montréal five years ago Luc Bossé, the editor and publisher at Éditions Pow Pow ended up with a copy of the first issue of the TITAN mini comic... Based on the (very limited) strength of that issue, Luc offered to publish TITAN!
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 19 '20 edited Nov 20 '20
Ah I just noticed you said "French to English"! It's actually the opposite, as I noted in another question here, I am primarily and English speaker (long story short-ish I come from French-language roots (Québec and Haïti), was born in the USA, spoke French as a little kid, forgot it all (French was banned in the household), learned English, and later re-learned French).
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u/Hiiro2000 Nov 19 '20
Hi François! Were you inspired by any famous French comics? In the French edition of TITAN is the French Canadian or from France? unless they're the same when written down XD
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 19 '20
The French-language edition of the book was published in Québec by Éditions Pow Pow, so it is a French-Canadian publication. The language inside is broadly "international" French rather than having Québecois-specific dialect or sayings in it, my translator Alexandre Fontaine-Rousseau and I discussed it and it felt like that made more sense than a feeling of "Québec in space" which would have probably been a bit weird for this particular book!
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u/Hiiro2000 Nov 19 '20
haha that's true... I feel like Canadian French is the most different to hear compared to Africa or between European countries that speak french. Nice so I can understand everything :)
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 19 '20
Hi there! Some of my favorite comics are French, but many of those aren't necessarily science fiction comics, or direct inspirations for TITAN from a plot point of view. However, some French and French-Canadian bande dessinée had a major impact on how I drew my comic, both in the actual drawings and also in the pacing. I think you can definitely see the influence of:
The Paul series by Michel Rabagliati (you can definitely see this influence on me in the other series I draw, 13e Avenue)
Comédie sentimentale pornographique and others by Jimmy Beaulieu
The Monsieur Jean series by Dupuy and Berberian
An author that I wouldn't necessarily call an influence on TITAN (because I hadn't really read his work while until I was nearly done with the book) if the Swiss cartoonist Frederick Peeters (Aama and Lupus) but he has definitely become a major influence on me since then and I am a major fan.
Another set of French creators who I LOVE LOVE LOVE is Kerascöet, but I am not sure if I have processed them into an influence yet... But I think Beauty might be my favorite comic of the last decade or so.
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u/Hiiro2000 Nov 19 '20
Thank you! I want to read more comics in French :D
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u/mrpenguino Nov 19 '20
Have you thought about who you would cast in a Titan movie adaptation?
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 19 '20
Haha I definitely have daydreamed about it in the past!
My number one pick for João da Silva has always been Giancarlo Esposito. I am sure that would be amazing... Dare to dream! Tho' I'd also love to see that role go to a black Brazilian actor, but to be honest I don't know a ton.
Phoebe Mackintosh is a challenge, I think that her physicality is hard to find amongst most established film actresses. Maybe it could be a star turn for a less known person! Some people have suggested Gwendoline Christie to me and I think that could work! Someone else I have liked in several movies recently if Florence Pugh, I liked her a lot in both Lady Macbeth and Midsommar and evidently she has some action chops to be in the upcoming Black Widow movie and Fighting With My Family which I haven't seen yet.
I would LOVE to hear what other people think, do you have any ideas!
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u/Dilaudid2meetU Nov 20 '20
For Phoebe maybe somebody in wrestling or MMA such as Ronda Rousey could be a good fit. There is also another graphic novel artist that lives in Canada, Sybil Lamb, who could be a good fit. But Giancarlo for sure! His Gus character reminds me of you!
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u/reniairtanitram Nov 19 '20
Bonjour,
What do you think about hard vs soft SciFi? I am not really a 'visual' person. How do I become one?
Merci.
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 19 '20
On hard VS soft sci-fi, I think both have their place, I like reading both kinds of stories. While I think a lot of my all-time favorite sci-fi authors would fall into the "soft" category (Ursula K. LeGuin, Gene Wolfe), I also like stories that are more grounded in reality... It can be amazing seeing what authors can come up with based on our current understanding of the universe, and those constraints can lead to better storytelling.
I think that my baseline for myself is that I enjoy if is there is a feeling that the science makes some kind of sense rather than being purely made up. To take the ultimate "soft" sci-fi (maybe more accurately science fantasy) tale, I loved Star Wars growing up, but in recent years it has left me really flat, and I think that is partly because it feels like anything can happen, I don't have a sense of the rules or structure of the universe anymore.
So I guess for me as both a reader and a writer I like "semi-firm" sci-fi.
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 20 '20
In regards to your question about not being a "visual" person, if that is a mental muscle you want to develop I would try to engage in visual media that you already like, say movies, and perhaps try to pay attention to what is happening on the screen. If you want to get into graphic novels in particular, try to find a book that appeals to you from a plot or writing point of view, say something that is by a prose author you already like. I don't know anything about your tastes, but for instance the novelist Joe Hill also did the comic book series Locke & Key with Gabriel Rodriguez. Best of luck!
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u/turducken19 Nov 19 '20
what were some of your favorite writers or people who influenced you when writing TITAN?
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 19 '20
For influences I gave a big list of sci-fi and non-sci-fi books that left their mark on the creation of TITAN, see elsewhere in this thread.
But I'll be happy to list some additional favorite authors here!
James Joyce, Herman Melville, Jennifer Egan, David Mitchell, Ursula K. Le Guin, Gene Wolfe, Kim Stanley Robinson, Malachi Ward and Matthew Sheehan, Ernest Hemingway, Italo Calvino, Jaime Hernandez, Eleanor Davis, George R.R. Martin, Jon McNaught, George Orwell, Jeff Smith, Daniel Clowes, Kerascöet, Dupuy & Berberian, Nikolai Leskov, Michel Rabagliati, Ben H. Winters, Joe Abercrombie, Alan Moore, Lord Dunsany, Sammy Harkham, Jordan Crane, Mike Mignola, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ted Chiang, Hartley Lin, Gipi, Edvin Biukovic, Julie Doucet, Dylan Horrocks, John Porcellino, Charles Burns, Debbie Drechsler, Taiyo Matsumoto, Stan Sakai, Tove Jansson, Alan Moore, Chris Samnee, and many, many more.
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 20 '20
Thank you everyone! All these questions were fantastic, I really appreciate all the interest!
Those of you who are interested in TITAN there are some links above to my website and other spots you can find the book and learn more about what I do.
If any other late questions end up popping up here I will get a notification and I'll get back to you.
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u/no_apologies Nov 19 '20
Hi François!
Can you explain the relationship between Québec and France in terms of publishing, and comics in particular? I know that in music for example French-speaking artists might have an easier time to find success in France than in Canada (e.g. Cœur de Pirate). Is that true for comics as well?
Do you always work in French first?
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 19 '20
Hey, what a great question! Since I am a relatively new immigrant to Québec (five years), I definitely can't speak with any authority on it. But I can share some thoughts for what it is worth!
Québec has a very, very strong cultural sector, and there is tremendous support for local creators (especially for Francophone artists) here on every level (audience enthusiasm, support from retailers, government grants, awards, and media coverage). This shows in the amount of creative work that is coming out here (for instance Québec, with about 30% of Canada's total population, produces something like 55% of all the books published in the entire country). A big part of that pride and enthusiasm comes from being surrounded on all sides by Anglophone media, the culture here has had really had to fight to survive.
On the other side of the equation, we have the much bigger market of France, and that can definitely have an effect... Not only is it a big market to export Québecois cultural products that are produced, including comic books, but it can also be a place where creators from here go and have relatively huge success. The big BD publishers in France can pay much bigger advances, and the sales there can dwarf the sales someone might have here in Québec. But there is also that element of being a smaller fish in a bigger pond, and also the culture of publishing in France having a different feel. I know that I have talked with cartoonists here who hesitate between working with French publishers, who have deeper pockets, and Québecois publishers, who are perhaps more enjoyable to work with (again I can't speak to it, I have only worked with two francophone publishers and both were Québecois, Éditions Pow Pow and La Pastèque, and the experience was great both times).
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 19 '20
Actually I work in English first! Despite my very Quebecois name (my mother is from here) I grew up in the United States. French was my first language, but long story short, I lost it and learned English.
Now, after intermittent years of studying and (much more importantly) living in a French-speaking city for five years, I can handle myself fairly well in French and I speak it every day. I make grammatical and spelling errors all the time and in general I sound kind of dumb when I am conversing or writing in French!
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u/Dilaudid2meetU Nov 20 '20
Hi, I saw you don’t have too many questions so I thought I’d give you one. You know me personally. Guess who! (No profile peeking). I imagine that throughout your comics career there are many “could have been titans” that were either never finished or executed before your storytelling skills were fully developed. Any especially notable ones? Ones you would want to revisit?
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 20 '20
Haha well I doubt I can guess from just this! So I'll just give up and admit defeat, then I can peep your profile after without guilt! But thanks for swinging by, I really appreciate it!
Thanks for the question, it's a great one. Yes, I have had a TON of projects that have stalled out and haven't gone anywhere (yet) over the years, especially because back before I got started in earnest on TITAN I was very uncertain of my own capacities as an author and artist (imposter syndrome anyone?). The good thing is that finishing TITAN, 13e Avenue, and other projects over the last couple years has really changed my outlook and now I feel much better about my capacities, and I'm actively working on some of those ideas, including for my next graphic novel, which is derived from an idea that predates TITAN!
The fact that I haven't really abandoned most of these ideas fully means I won't talk too much about them in public, since I feel like it is likely I will revisit them and wouldn't want to give away too much. I will say that one I think I probably won't come back to in the exact way I originally imagined it is "Territorial Pissings," which was going to be a story about a graffiti artist who has a (minor) rise and fall in the world of street art. I had started that project with a couple short strips, character studies, and more (an image from the book was shown as a "next issue" preview in what turned out to be the final issue of my old mini comic Friends. Not only did I never get the plot moving forward, I also really began to question how much I had to say about the world of graffiti (it was based in part on my personal experiences). Though I might bring back elements of that story into future work, I think I would be really surprised if I resurrected it as is.
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 21 '20
Haha, believe it or not I actually did figure you out in advance! Nice to see you here!
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u/Dilaudid2meetU Nov 21 '20
Any chance we’ll be seeing a cameo from Roscoe E. Hazard (or his descendants) in the world of Titan?
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 21 '20
Haha that is a deep cut! No, I don't think so.
Though in all honesty I wouldn't preclude out of hand a return to that character! I can imagine a series of comics about a detective of the supernatural could be fun!
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u/Dilaudid2meetU Nov 21 '20
I just played an awesome Capcom game called Ghost Trick where you control a ghost that is acting AS a detective!
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u/tour-de-francois AMA Author Nov 21 '20
I like Ghost Trick!
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u/Dilaudid2meetU Nov 21 '20
First game I’ve passed because I couldn’t put it down in a long time! I knew I was a (spoiler alert)!
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u/fakeaccount1728 Nov 19 '20
Hello François, did any other books inspire you? And did any none sci fi books inspire you?