Interview with Drew Weing of “The Creepy Case Files of Margo Maloo”

With “The Creepy Case Files of Margo Maloo” being one of my top favorite free webcomics (check out the article by clicking HERE), we have a special treat for you. Drew Weing, the creator of this web comic and book series, has agreed to give us an interview!

Drew Weing lives in Athens, GA with his wife, fellow cartoonist Eleanor Davis, and too many cats. He makes comics for print and online, among which are the nautical graphic novel “Set to Sea,” and the kid-friendly webcomic “The Creepy Casefiles of Margo Maloo.” His most recent book is the early reader comic, “Flop to the Top,” which he co-authored with his wife.

 

Lindsay Garber: Hello Drew, we are so excited to have you for Nerd News Social. We are really big fans of “The Creepy Casefiles of Margo Maloo.” Your three projects mentioned in your bio are all quite different. Can you tell us how “The Creepy Casefiles of Margo Maloo” was inspired? Were you ever really afraid of monsters when you were a kid?

Drew Weing: Thanks! I’ve done a lot of experimenting in my comics career, but Margo Maloo is definitely the biggest project I’ve ever tackled. I grew up reading a lot of fantasy novels – everything from CS Lewis to Ursula LeGuin, but they were mostly set in the distant past, with a lot of trekking through dark forests and misty mountains. I grew up in the middle of the woods just outside of a small town in rural Virginia, so big cities were the mysteries to me. Every time I went to one, it seemed like there must be hidden secrets down every set of steps. I always suspected there must be hidden buttons and secret panels in every building I went into. So I wrote a series where that’s true! And all the creatures and monsters from the fantasy novels are there, they’ve just adjusted to urban living. Charles, like me, is from a small town environment, so he gets to explore the city in a way I never could.

I was also a huge scaredy-cat kid. I was too afraid to even walk down the horror aisle at the local video store. And the woods at dark was terrifying, even when you’ve grown up there. We’d hear something crunching in the leaves, and run screaming, (probably only a deer or a groundhog or something, but you never know). I would have loved to know a Margo Maloo, who could have handled any scary circumstance you throw at her.

Lindsay: Margo is such a cool character and the monsters have some great personalities and quarks. Can you tell us which character or monster you relate to the most, why, and who some of the other characters could be loosely based on?

Drew: There’s a little bit of me in almost every character. Like Margo, I’m naturally suspicious and have a hard time working with other people. Like Marcus the troll, I hate throwing out any bit of junk that comes into my possession. And of course there’s a lot of kid-me in Charles, especially in how he’s tried out so many different occupations and identities – one week into wilderness survival, the next into being a detective. He’s a little full of himself, which I suspect I was too (and maybe still am?)

Lindsay: Your wife is also an illustrator, how much is able to help with “The Creepy Casefiles of Margo Maloo” or is this solely your project?

Drew: Actually Margo Maloo (the character) started as a shared creation by us both! We were trying to come up with an idea for short, 1 or 2 page comic that we could pitch to a magazine, and we thought it would be really fun to have a “monster mediator” character that could step in whenever kids had monster problems. We never quite got it together, so Margo sat unused for years and years. But I never forgot about her, and started to get ideas for an entire graphic novel series about her adventures. And I started to think more and more about how one young girl could get to be such an expert on monsters. Eleanor is still my “first reader,” so she knows more about the plot than anyone else, and is the first person I turn to when I get into a story jam.

Lindsay: “The Creepy Casefiles of Margo Maloo” is a web comic and also packaged into two books so far. Congratulations on your latest volume 2 now available! Can you tell us why you picked the web comic format to initially house your comic as opposed to only books, comics, or even an animated series?

Drew: Thanks! I’ve been putting my comics online since I first started in comics back in the early 2000s, so it’s just naturally where I first turn to. Webcomics have such a low entry barrier – all you need is a website and a computer, as opposed to an entire animation studio. I also really like getting feedback from readers in “real time,” rather than waiting months or years – books often take that much turnaround to get onto shelves. I’ve really loved a lot of webcomics over the years that have built an entire quirky universe – Achewood, for instance, or Homestuck (neither one of those is safe for young kids, if you’re Googling).

But from the start I hoped someone would be willing to collect the series in book format, and First Second was always my first choice! They do a terrific job not just on the quality of the books, but getting them into bookstores, libraries and schools.

Lindsay: There is a lot of wonderful stuff going on in the frames and obviously story takes time as well. Can you tell us a bit about your creation/execution process and what tools you use?

Drew: It’s a process that jumps from writing to drawing and back again over and over. Usually I start with a lot of notes for ideas I want to do in a story that might not be connected at all – things like “underground monster grocery store” and “kidnapped ogre baby, angry mama.” Then I start shoving things together to see what works. When I have a loose script, I draw a bunch of rough pictures – trying to get a feel for what the scenes will look like. I go through a lot of mechanical pencil lead and blank copy paper. When I have a huge pile of sketches, I scan them into the computer, and start assembling pages, and fill in the bits I need. Then I print all those pages out and start turning them into finished art. I trace onto Strathmore bristol board with a lightbox, and do all my inking with a Platinum carbon pen. The color all gets applied in Photoshop with a graphics tablet.

Lindsay: Is there anything in this series that you really want people to notice that could be hidden in the story or pages or that you especially love or spend a lot of time on?

Drew: Ha ha, there are so many things I sneak into the comic that I’m not sure if anyone’s noticed or not. I’ve spent a decent amount of time on the secret language and symbols that that the monsters use. Often the monsters have tagged their territory in such a way that it just blends in with the regular city graffiti, and I know some people have spotted that. But I’ll bet nobody has deciphered their language yet!

Lindsay: Do you see “The Creepy Casefiles of Margo Maloo” in other formats in the future such as maybe a motion comic like what you amazingly did with your book two trailer on your site?

Drew: You never know what the future holds! I had a lot of fun doing that little animation, and if it didn’t take so long I would do a lot more.

Lindsay: How far do you see this series going? Do you already have an ending planned or do you see this as an ongoing series where the characters don’t age. Because as we know, adults cannot see these monsters.

Drew: There’s definitely an ending to the story, and you’re already starting to see some of the threads of the larger plot weave together as the kids work on seemingly unrelated kid/monster cases. How fast we actually get to that ending is still a little undetermined – as much as I try to plan things, the kids often do stuff that surprises me! Book 3 is already in the works, but how many more volumes I haven’t quite figured out yet.

Lindsay: Is there anything else you would like new or future readers of the series to know or maybe to hint about?

Drew: There’s some really exciting stuff coming in the next few chapters – including one very big secret I’ve been hinting about since the beginning. And we learn just a big more about Margo’s mysterious past. I can’t wait to share it with you!

 

The second volume of The Creepy Case Files of Margo Maloo: The Monster Mall, published by First Second, has hit shelves everywhere. In it will give you a peek into the monster files and a little bit more! You can find it wherever books are sold, or you can click here: http://www.margomaloo.com/books

Drew also will be appearing at the following events below. Pick up a book, get it signed, and ask him your own questions. More upcoming events and social network links: https://www.drewweing.com

Oct 20: Greenville, SC
Readup Greenville 2018

Oct 30: Athens, GA
Spooktacular Storytime at Avid Books

November: Miami, FL
Miami Book Fair 2018

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