Hope Larson Opens Up About Her New Historical-Fiction Graphic Novel, ‘Four Points’

Fresh off an Eisner win for her 2012 adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time, graphic novelist and filmmaker Hope Larson is already stirring up interest in her next project, Four Points, a graphic-novel adventure set in 1860 and illustrated by artist Rebecca Mock.

Here are some highlights from Larson's conversation with the LA Times' Hero Complex blog about the book:

About the lead characters: 

 I really wanted to do an adventure story with male and female protagonists for kids, because when Wrinkle in Time came out in October, I started getting tons and tons of email and meeting all these people who would tell things to me like, “Oh, my kid is 7 and he or she has never read a book on their own before. This is the first book that they’ve actually sat down and they’ve read the whole thing.” That was huge for me. I don’t usually get that kind of feedback. I don’t usually hear from my readers very much. I would read these emails and basically cry. I thought it would be great if I could do another book along these lines that would be fun and engaging and accessible for kids who are reluctant readers.

On whether she feels a sense of responsibility when writing about young women:

I think it’s probably something that I think about more, now that I have a few stories under my belt, I’m more interested in writing assertive female characters and take-charge female characters. It’s easy to fall into a passive role in general as a writer. Most writers are introverted and sort of shy. It’s really easy to write yourself and from now on I want to be writing characters who are going out and really driving their own story a bit more.

On setting the book in 1860: 

I wanted to write something action-packed and full of adventure. It’s basically about these twins who end up traveling from New York to San Francisco and having a bunch of adventures along the way. It’s going to be two books. Book one, there are pirates, but it’s peripherally for a lot of the book, and then book two is going to delve more into pirate adventure.

On her film aspirations:

The ideal situation would be to have parallel careers going on. I’m moving away from drawing comics into writing comics, and that means that I have a lot more free time. I actually went to film school; it’s something I’m passionate about.

 

There's no release date just yet, but we'll be on the lookout for a clearer timeframe manifests.

[Via The LA Times]