Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, idw, katie cook, my little pony, wondercon

'I Like Taking Characters Down A Notch' – Katie Cook at Wondercon

Thom Zahler hosted Katie Cook at Wondercon this year in a Spotlight panel on Sunday.

Katie welcomed people by saying that she was grateful to see people who loved her since plenty of people do not, though that's hard to believe at this point. The only thing her daughter wants is a Frozen Elsie dress, she said and it's the only thing you can't get in the park.

Her "quick intro" to her life was that she's a writer on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, but has also worked for DC and Marvel, and is also doing a webcomic. In general, she said, she's a likeable person because she's Canadian, a people who do not like "scuffles".

The format was largely Q&A, which a full room of fans were happy with. A child fan asked Cook if she's going to do any more Queen Chrysalis comics, and Cook said she'd love to and found the scariness and humor of the character interesting.

Cook said that her biggest fandom is for Jim Henson, the work of which inspires her to make things that kids can enjoy but also adults. Like the Muppets, that worked on both levels for audiences with subtle context. That's her "gold standard" of making both parties happy. When you're doing kids stuff, she wants stuff that's for her and for her kid, and she doesn't have to watch a show and think, "Oh God when is it over".

She thinks that four issue arcs is probably the most you can do with a kids comic to keep attention, "This is not Crisis on Infinite Earths" she said.

She likes "taking characters down a notch", she said, in response to "goddesses" in her comics and whether they are divine or not. Superman is her least favorite character because "I don't like anyone all-powerful" she said. If you have a god-like character, that's "annoying" she said.

Regarding her background, Cook said she has a BFA in illustration and minor in Art History which means she should be a "barista". She has never wanted to be anything but a cartoonist, she said. "I want to have a newspaper strip" was her mantra as a kid.

When asked about her work at Marvel, she mentioned variant covers and doing "back up gags", people hire her "to make the funny", she said. She did one page of Hulk being kicked out of the Avengers and going through the five stages of grief, which involves smashing things.

When asked how she got into writing, she said it was a "broad and elaborate tale" of getting the writing gig on My Little Pony based on a single Tweet she made. It was like "People think you're funny on Twitter", she said. She'd never been "just the writer" before. Then the issue was that she didn't know how to "hand off the reigns" to another artist, but it was liberating because "there are a lot of characters in My Little Pony" and it doesn't have to be her job to draw 6 characters in a panel. Including all the little identifying features of the different ponies.

But it does create issues when fans come up to her at cons and say "Oh you're an artist too?" and a little part of her shrivels and dies, she laughed. She creates little paintings at cons, and creates water colors, her way of "doodling" and throwing them on the table gives her the chance to actually talk to people, especially when people make strange requests. She gets to hear peoples' backstories that she can "steal for material" later on.

A fan asked if she's ever encountered issues with censorship and having stories rejected. She said at one point, Apple Jack says "buck this" and feels she shouldn't have put it in. It's not a boundary she feels she needs to push. If she writes Fraggle Rock and My Little Pony, you certainly stay away from "sex, drugs, and the holocaust" in kids comics. As long as she follows that rule, she feels she's ok.

Zahler pointed out what Cook has done a lot of work on Star Wars and asked how that's come about. Cook confirmed doing webcomics on Star Wars, and writing articles for Star Wars dot com. It comes from being a "giant nerd" she said, and came about through cons meeting people who were fans who asked her if she'd like to work on the property. Just showing off her artwork, people gave her a chance. "You can't put yourself out there if you don't put yourself out there in the first place" she said.

Her book about Cats is not a commentary on feminism, she said, responding to a tweet, but a book about how her cat "is a jerk".

Growing up, her family were big Trekkies and kept her away from Star Wars, including a Star Trek themed Christmas tree. Her brother once wore a STNG uniform to school and it wasn't Halloween, but she "defected" in college. Regarding films, she said "I am all for more Star Wars. What are people talking about?". If you have a delicious pie, do you say, "I don't want anymore"? No, she said. Comparing the situation to the possible reboot of Indiana Jones with Bradley Cooper, she said "anyone who doesn't want to see more Bradly Cooper is…male", to laughter.

She wants to make a new generation of kids obsessed with what she does, and then Star Wars will live forever, so new Star Wars films are "good times". "Yeah, Star Wars!" she concluded.

She has her own pony, but is useless coming up with pony names. Hers is named "Katie" and can't come up with another name. Maybe "Bitter Soul", she said.

What's it like writing the My Little Pony comics, a young fan asked. It's "nervewracking" she said because the fandom for the ponies is so huge. The current arc that just started is giving her "nightmares", and she predicts she'll get a lot of tweets about how she is "like Satan". Every issue that comes out creates a small backlash of hate. For the most part, she gets a lot of support. But she gets long, long e-mails from a certain corner of fandom. She said the worst two fans she's ever met were Doctor Who fans.

The audience prompted her to tell her fan stories. One person asked her to draw a David Tennant Doctor Who fan, who showed her a white wedding album that was carefully scrapbooked of photos where she'd photoshopped happy couples to look like herself and David Tennant, including a wedding. "I know how David Tennant dies", she said to the audience, with this stalker. It's her cap on craziness now, and not even the person who introduced a puppet as his son was weirder than that.

On pitches that were "too weird", she once pitched a Pinkie Pie story that editors said, "that's bizarre" but she's hoping to push it through at some point.

Her dream project that's never going to happen is to do "the Mauraders" with Skottie Young and the adventures of the Mauraders in Harry Potter at Hogwarts. She wants to do that, because that's the part of the universe that she wants more of, but it's never going to happen because of JK Rowling's "tight lid" on things.

Cook is very particular about drawing right on paper with it's "feel" and "smell" and her Cintiq is a "glorifies cat bed". When she's "blocked" as a creator, she reads and watches bad TV or a movie. She keeps a sketchbook and doodles, lays out storylines, takes breaks.

A fan asked what her reaction was to the very first episode of Adventure Time and she "loved it" and thought "I want all of this". Her favorite character is Rootbeer Guy.

It's hard to convey Cook's dry humor in print, but the panel was actually one of the most entertaining of Wondercon for fans, as she was happy to field even the strangest question and incredibly frank with her thoughts, feelings, and own fandom.

She is @katiecandraw on Twitter

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