Amulet author Kazu Kibuishi speaks to Moorhead students about his work
April 12, 2018
Last month, students across Moorhead Area Public Schools heard author and illustrator Kazu Kibuishi describe how he turned making graphic novels into a job.
Kibuishi, the writer and artist of the comic strip “Copper” and the Amulet graphic novels series, grew up drawing. In high school, he wrote an essay based on the style of John Steinbeck and began to write stories and poetry.
“I studied writing more than art,” he said.
Kibuishi earned a degree in film studies from the University of California Santa Barbara. During college he worked as illustrator and then art director of the school newspaper. He told students he was slow at drawing and knew professionals had to draw faster. Doing illustrations for the paper helped him work on speed and allowed him to experiment. He drew five illustrations in pen and ink a night.
Once he ruined a drawing by spilling a bottle of ink over it and had to draw it a second time.
“I learned I actually enjoyed redrawing things more than I like drawing them,” Kibuishi said.
Going back and drawing it again gives him the chance to make it better.
“One part of being a writer is to be critical of your work,” he said.
Kibuishi had thought he wanted to work in animation so he began working on Bolt City, an animated film. After his equipment was stolen, along with all his work on Bolt City, he decided not to finish the film.
“I was more focused on wanting to write a good story then making things move,” Kibuishi said.
He became a graphic designer for an architecture firm, did an animated commercial, and developed a story for a movie. When he saw that the movie might not get made Kibuishi wasn’t disappointed because he wanted to learn what it was like to fail.
He then began producing the comic strip “Copper” on his website. There a publisher found him, which eventually led to “Daisy Kutter,” “Flight” and “Explorer” being published. “Flight” and “Explorer” are both comic anthologies.
Kibuishi told students how the Amulet series was inspired by “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” by Hayao Miyazaki and by the Bone comic book series by Jeff Smith.
According to Kibuishi, his first attempt at Amulet looked like Bone. He did 30 pages and decided writing graphic novels would be one of the hardest things to do. Then in 2006 he pitched the Amulet series to Scholastic and got a nine-book contract.
For each book, he begins by writing a synopsis. Then he starts a binder and draws two pages to a sheet of paper, writing the dialogue and drawing characters. Kibuishi drew the first book three times. The books are usually written out of order with the first scene written last.
“Comics have unique capacity to contain a lot of information,” said Kibuishi, who combines digital painting with storytelling.
The eighth Amulet book required that he read two carts of books for research and travel to Europe to study the buildings. It will be released in September 2018.
“I could write several books about the making of Amulet 8,” he said. He is not sure whether book nine will be the last book of the Amulet series.
Additionally, Kibuishi was asked to illustrate the covers for the Harry Potter novels for Scholastic’s 15th anniversary edition box set. “When I illustrated the new Harry Potter covers I did that digitally,” he said.
Photos: During his presentation to students at Horizon Middle School West Campus, Kazu Kibuishi describes how he grew up to have a career as a graphic novelist and comic artist. Kazu Kibuishi autographs his books for students at Robert Asp Elementary School. Sarah Martin, resource strategist at Ellen Hopkins Elementary School, introduces Kazu Kibuishi, author and illustrator of the Amulet series and “Copper” comic strip, to the grades 3-4 students.
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