February 17, 2020

Daryl Seitchik ‘ 18 is working on her second graphic novel, Follow the Doll. Her first graphic novel, Exits (Koyama Press) was in the top 20 graphic novels on Amazon for 2016 and was nominated for a 2017 Eisner Award for Best New Graphic Album. She gave the following interview with Angela Boyle ′16.

How much have you planned out the complete story for Follow the Doll?

I often lie to myself about how long a project will be, and how long it will take to complete. This makes writing easier because I don’t get paralyzed at the prospect of never finding my way out of the woods, and can focus on wandering. For a while, I’ve been telling myself that I’ve penciled half the book—six chapters around nine pages each. But really, I know once I resume writing I may learn I’m only a third of the way through. 

Despite my lack of planning, Follow the Doll’s structure is based on a traditional Russian folktale—a comforting constraint. I know certain things will happen at certain points, but I’ve left plenty of room for surprise so that I stay interested. I aim for each chapter to be 9 pages, thumbnailing and penciling one page at a time, which keeps the narrative tight. But I’m not religious about it. 

In the meantime, I’m slowly painting each chapter, and self-publishing the story in issues, so that I’m not a total hermit for the next few years!

Is this your first long story in full color?

Pretty much! I did paint a full-color comic book about the chatbot Smarterchild about 8 years ago, but that was one of my first comics ever. After that, almost everything I made was in black and white because I found color distracting and intimidating. I worked in this very spare, minimalist style, which culminated in my first book, Exits. At that point I was SO spare, I didn’t even draw the main character, who turns invisible.

Follow the Doll is the total opposite of Exits. After all that stylistic austerity, I craved color and texture and a sense of place. Before I drew comics, my favorite medium was painting, and now I wanted to integrate my relationship with paint into storytelling. It no longer feels distracting or intimidating to work in color, because I’m confident in my abilities as a cartoonist. Instead, it feels like an immersive challenge.

Why did you decide to print issues instead of saving the whole thing for a complete graphic novel?

I enjoy breaking up long projects into smaller ones. This makes them more manageable, and meeting deadlines for each issue helps me get more work done than I would if I were working on one long project in an endless expanse of time. It also makes it easier for me to switch between multiple comics projects (I’m currently working on two others in addition to Follow the Doll). 

And breaking the story up into issues means I’m not a hermit working in a void. Some people may enjoy the first bit and want to know what happens next, and this encourages me to keep working.

When will the story be complete?

I imagine it will be finished in the next couple of years. In the meantime, I’ll continue to self-publish issues and find the right publisher down the line.