Just what do you get when you combine two awesome ladies to create comics and do up some mighty fine representation in the LGBTQ+ Community? You get the likes of Iolanda Zanfardino and Elisa Ramboli, that’s what! So join us as we talk about You Never Heard Of Me, Midnight Radio, and more!
1. Hello there! And welcome to the Mind Meld here at IndieComiX! For those who may not be aware of what it is you both do, could you tell us a bit about yourselves?
Iolanda!
Iolanda: Hello! And thank you SO MUCH IndieComiX for this interview! I’m Iolanda, a comic book writer and artist from Italy. I’ve created comic series like You Never Heard Of Me (Dark Horse Comics), A Thing Called Truth and The Least We Can Do (Image Comics), Alice in Leatherland (Black Mask Studios) together with my partner-in-crime Elisa Romboli! I’m usually the writer and she’s the super-talented artist, but I also created the books Hecate’s Will (Black Mask Studios) and Midnight Radio (Oni Press) as both writer and artist.
I partnered as an artist with Titan Comics (Doctor Who, Sea of Thieves, Life is Strange), X-Box Rare and several independent publishers. I love rock musicals, street art, dystopian literature and brave heartwarming comedies!
Its Iolanda (top) and Elisa (bottom)!
Elisa: Hello everyone! It’s a pleasure to be here! I’m Elisa, illustrator, comic and cover artist from Italy. I’m the co-creator of the series my partner-in-crime mentioned above! I partnered with Titan Comics (Life is Strange), Marvel and Square Enix. Furthermore, I’ve had the honor to be the artist on a few Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures issues! I enjoy videogaming a lot, I love pop-musics and cats. Lot of cats.
2. Iolanda, you and Elisa are respectively a tag team Writer/Artist combo that’s worked on several projects (Dark Horse’s You Never Heard Of Me being the most recent back in November) together, what led to the two of you working together?
Elisa!
Iolanda: I write stories all the time, my head is always full of them, and Elisa believed in me and allowed me to be supported by her dynamic and full-of-life art. I hope we will continue to be a tag-team for other future projects as well!
Elisa: I actually always thought that in the comics environment there was a need for stories that expressed the values of Iolanda’s ones, and I thought it would be nice and important to give a graphic part to her vision of things and her message!
3. For that matter, what is YNHOM about?
YNHOM is about Will, an introverted teenager with a complicated family situation, who finds himself inheriting a great seer power that he does not want: the ability to, by touching someone, see both the best and the worst moments of his life, whether they are past or future. It is a power that could save so many people, and the story is about how Will chooses to use it, and how his principles and his life change in the process. It is a story about delicate themes, about family, the importance of bonds with people around us, and about choosing your own future.
4. Iolanda, you had a brand new Graphic Novel released back in December from Oni Press known as Midnight Radio with one of its themes being centered on the LGBT+ Community, were you inspired by your own experiences to write MR?
Iolanda: Midnight Radio was my first project as both writer and artist and the first comic book I wrote in 2018, finding the courage to take one more step toward my big dream. I am so happy about this new edition of the book, I am honored that new people can have a chance to read it! I wrote it during the year I was living in San Francisco, a city I dearly love, and there is obviously a lot of my life and experiences in the four interwoven stories that compose the book. I was in the Castro District the day after the Pulse Tragedy in Orlando, I marched down Market Street together with the whole Community and so many other people, and it is certainly a day I will never forget.
5. As the both of you are artists, what is y’alls stance on AI?
All that has been said by true artists from all parts of the world. The only thing we hope is that it is a tragic and ridiculous temporary phenomenon and a bubble that will burst quickly.
6. What led to the two of you deciding to get into comics creating?
Iolanda: Telling stories has always been my dream since I was a child. I didn’t know whether I wanted to direct this energy toward film, literature, video games etc. (I would still like to try all these things, I also recently started working on video game projects as a narrative designer). But comics is the media that allows me to have direct control and total freedom of personal expression, so I love it infinitely. I am very grateful to have comics editors and publishers who believe in me and allow me to write stories.
Elisa: For as long as I can remember I have always drawn comics as a vocation. There was a period when I got a little lost and took a break, dedicating myself only to illustrations, but then I inevitably went back to sequential art! During my journey with Iolanda I feel that I have improved a lot, partly because of her patience in working together with me on layouts and direction. These last few years of work have sped me up a lot and I feel more and more comfortable among the comic panels.
7. Elisa, outside of your joint work with Iolanda, where else can we find you in the pages of comics?
Elisa: Like I said earlier, in this recent period you can find me on Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures issues #4-5 and for a couple of pages of The Wedding Spectacular One Shot. Soon also on the Star Wars One Shot Battle of Eriadu, written by Alyssa Wong with colors by Michael Atiyeh! I worked as a cover artist for several Star Wars issues, on Stranger Things, Life is Strange and Sea of Thieves (all three by Titan Comics), and I did some promo illustrations for Life is Strange game (Square Enix).
8. As the both of you are based in Italy, what’s the comic book scene like there?
We don’t know much about it, as we have never worked in the Italian comic book scene. We started in the US comics scene years ago and so far we have always been happy to continue doing that!
9. When it comes to Print vs. Digital, where do you both stand on it?
We both prefer the printed version. We know that over time it will probably become more and more old-fashioned, but we trust that nothing can compare to holding a physical comic in your hands, leafing through it, and finding a special place for it in your library.
10. Do the two of you have a process you typically follow when it comes to art and writing?
Iolanda: I try to keep my writing process very instinctive and truthful. I usually let the ideas and scenes that appear in my mind flow for a couple of months, constantly making very confusing and unorganized notes, before I start really composing the plot. In this first phase I try not to put limitations on the things I feel and visualize, the most important thing for me is to be clear about the heart of the story and what I really want to communicate. Then in the second phase I try to give it a working order and structure, filling in the remaining holes and also usually filling a wall with a thousand post-it notes with the various scenes to check that everything has its coherence.
It’s a long process but one that allows me to get to writing the scripts with a lot of clarity, maintaining the initial energy and spontaneity.
Elisa: I usually try, as a first thing, to have an overall picture of the scene to be drawn on a page. I try to make the various shots present look harmonious and coherent and at the same time to make the key panel stand out by giving it the right importance. For me the dynamism of the figures is very important, I always try to work on it as much as possible but not losing the naturalness of the gestures. My most frequent mistake is to focus too much on unimportant details of the page, perhaps spending too much time on them than necessary.
But I am working on focusing on the most central and fundamental points. The important thing for me is to always maintain the instinctive, childlike fun that drawing can provide!
11. A main theme in the work you both do in comics is primarily centered on LGBT+ Community, do the two of you feel its helped the Community in any way?
Helping the Community would be a great honor, and it is also one of the biggest ambitions of our career. Creating stories that have LGBTQIA+ protagonists, but that are not focused exclusively on their sexuality and identity, makes them harder to categorize and sell, we are fully aware of that. But this is exactly what we would like to continue to do, because LGBTQIA+ characters deserve more than just being in the background, or being protagonists in stories made specifically for a “target audience.” Those kinds of stories are perfectly fine, it’s absolutely right that they exist, but we would like to tell many more different stories and different genres that have no reason not to have characters other than the standard cishet ones.
12. As for my final question, what advice would you give to those looking to get into the Industry?
The advice to never stop dreaming and trying. We firmly believe that the instinct to write, draw and create art of any kind is something very precious. A fire that must be fed and never suppressed. Surely there is someone in the world who would so much need to read or admire the thing you dream of writing or creating, someone’s life could be better because you never stopped believing. Please keep believing in your dreams.
Huge thanks to Iolanda and Elisa for taking part in this interview!
Interview by: Rob Wrecks
