true
Self Made Hero logo


Authors' Spotlight: Ruins Q&A with Peter Kuper

29 February 2024

Samantha and George are a couple heading towards a sabbatical year in the quaint Mexican town of Oaxaca. For Samantha, it is the opportunity to revisit her past. For George, it is an unsettling step into the unknown. For both of them, it will be a collision course with political and personal events that will alter their paths and the town of Oaxaca forever. In tandem, the remarkable and arduous journey that a Monarch butterfly endures on its annual migration from Canada to Mexico is woven into Ruins. This creates a parallel picture of the challenges of survival in our ever-changing world.
Ruins explores the shadows and light of Mexico through its past and present as encountered by an array of characters. The real and surreal intermingle to paint an unforgettable portrait of life south of the Rio Grande.

After its Eisner win in 2016, Ruins returns TODAY in paperback! Click here for a preview!

We sat down with author/illustrator Peter Kuper for a chat about his history with entomology, conservation, and the past, present, and future of Ruins.



SelfMadeHero:
You recently described in Fictionable how moving to Oaxaca and visiting the Monarch sanctuary fulfilled a “lifelong dream” – Ruins came out years later, but how far back do its migratory themes go for you?

Peter Kuper: I was probably five years old when I'd heard about the existence of a place where Monarch butterflies would migrate, but in the western world exactly where millions of them flew remained a mystery. The image of a gathering of butterflies was lodged in my brain from then until 1976 when National Geographic magazine had a cover story on the discovery of the mountain location. I pored over those images of trees filled with Monarchs and it still took me another 30 years before I could see it for myself. It ended up more spectacular than anything I had imagined.

SMH: Entomology is also a lifelong passion for you, obviously. Did living in Oaxaca bring out your inner conservationist, or does that specific passion go back further as well?

Peter: Thanks to my parents, I had the good fortune to travel starting at a young age. My father had been a boy scout and my family camped with a tent and explored nature as long as I can remember. My father, a college professor, was always finding mushrooms to cook and foraging. We spent his sabbatical year traveling summers in a VW minivan through Europe and then lived for a year in Israel. I continued to travel as an adult – I met my wife while traveling in Spain and she and I spent years traveling around the world (Africa, Middle East, South East Asia, Central America) before moving to Oaxaca with our daughter. These travels opened my eyes to the planet and made me very aware of our limited resources and the value of basic things, like clean water.



SMH:
That move to Oaxaca in 2006–2008 was with your wife and daughter, and you raised Monarchs there. In Ruins, Samantha and George take a lot of familial baggage on their Oaxacan sabbatical. Why turn a place you and your family know so well into a proving ground for characters with those anxieties?

Peter:  I had done a good amount of autobiography in my career and wanted to explore beyond that. Creating fictional characters allowed me to put them in the center of things we had experienced from the sidelines. Many aspects were based on people I knew from our time there and I used that as a jumping off point. I had some idea about what would happen when I started, but as I wrote and drew it, the characters seemed to come alive and behave in ways I hadn't anticipated. I felt like I set certain things in motion, but the characters seemed to dictate some unexpected directions. I didn’t begin knowing exactly how the story would turn out, it was a process of discovery that expanded my work.

SMH: Colour is a powerful tool in Ruins. For years people have been poking fun at depictions of Mexico in film and television, where colours are often yellowed and muted. Conversely, you show colours brightening and diversifying as the characters travel south. Was this choice made with any motive beyond capturing the country’s vibrancy?

Peter: During the two years we lived here, I drew in my sketchbook constantly – that became an entire book published before Ruins called Diario de Oaxaca. I had time to take in the environment and all the colours and that poured into Ruins.
I really like the idea of playing with style and used that as a way to separate both chapters and locations. So in the beginning when my characters are in NYC the more rigid and linear environment of the city is in pen and ink with digital colouring. When they reach Oaxaca it changes and becomes more like my sketchbook drawings with coloured pencils and watercolour. I wanted to give the readers the same feeling I had arriving in Mexico – the wonderful foreignness, so much more organic than New York. Every other chapter is taken by the Monarch's migration from Canada and I did that in monochrome blues for the background so the butterfly would pop and your eye would land on the Monarch. Those chapters are also wordless which is another switch in tone to put readers in a different state of mind.



SMH:
The cast of Ruins all have very specific perspectives. There are also great differences in terms of what means of seeing they use and what aspects of the world they tend to notice. Even the eponymous ruins play into the characters’ ways of seeing. Where did that particular throughline come from?

Peter: I tried to make the characters as real as the people I knew and so they naturally saw the world from different perspectives. The environment is an important character as well – there's so much history here on every street, the ghosts of the past abound. Living here gave me a strong sense of that – the visual contrast of someone on a cell phone walking past crumbling remnants of vanished empires inspired many visions. The journey the Monarch takes was a natural way to show contrasts and the struggle nature faces confronted by our modern world.

SMH:  Has anything changed since Ruins’ original release in terms of what you hope readers learn from it, or even what it means to you as part of your body of work? Have things like your INterSECTS exhibition changed how you look back on Ruins?

Peter: I am deeply pleased to have Ruins come out at this moment, it's still fresh for me and I hope readers will find that too.
The plight of the Monarch has increased and their numbers are dwindling, so that's a horrifying direction that has only increased since Ruins was first published. The exhibition I had in 2022 at the New York Public Library reminded me how much Ruins informed where my work was heading. I had a fellowship at the Library in 2020-21 working on a graphic novel I proposed about the history of insects and the people who study them. Showing work from Ruins was one of the reasons they gave me the fellowship. I'm now finishing the final chapter of that book, INSECTOPOLIS, that takes what I started in Ruins following one Monarch and expands it into the story of dozens of insects. Ruins was a project that reminded me how interested I am in entomology and it links up as a bridge to my very current project. The fact that I'm writing these answers sitting in Oaxaca, where I've returned once again, closes the circle.



SMH: Ending on a lighter note, please tell us one of your favourite facts about the Monarch butterfly.


Peter: We still don't know exactly how Monarchs know how to find the very same forest in Mexico – one they have to fly thousands of miles to reach. Earth's electromagnetic field? The smell of fallen ancestors? A butterfly God whispers in their ear? We live in a world that is full of beautiful, unsolved mysteries.



Ruins returns in paperback TODAY in the UK, and migrates stateside on March 5th!

Amazon UK - Amazon US - Bookshop.org - Hive - Waterstones - Barnes & Noble

The SelfMadeHero team

SelfMadeHero New Season Spring 2024

19 January 2024

Dear SelfMadeHero readers, 

We hope you had a great holiday season! To take the edge off January, how about some info on our upcoming Spring titles? Coming soon we have:

Ruins by Peter Kuper, returning in paperback.
The Last Queen by Snowpiercer creator Jean-Marc Rochette.*
The Anxiety Club, written by Dr Frédéric Fanget and Catherine Meyer, illustrated by Pauline Aubry.*
George Sand by Séverine Vidal and Kim Consigny.*
                                                             *Translated by Edward Gauvin.



Peter Kuper’s Ruins won the 2016 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album, and this year we’re thrilled to say that it’s returning in paperback!

In Ruins, Samantha and George are about to launch into a sabbatical year in the quaint Mexican town of Oaxaca. For Samantha, their journey to this historic town is about fulfilling a life-long dream; for George, it is an unsettling step into the unknown.

Publishers Weekly called Ruins “magnificent… a beautiful, epic roman à clef about the importance of seeking the new and questioning the old.” 

OUT IN UK: THURSDAY 29TH FEBRUARY! 🇬🇧



Jean-Marc Rochette, co-creator of Snowpiercer and the Eisner-nominated Altitude, returns with The Last Queen, a multi-award-winning celebration of the subjects most dear to him: the mountains, and the balance between man and nature.

Édouard Roux, once an outcast youth feared as a child of bears and witches, is left disfigured and alone in the aftermath of the Great War. But when the animal sculptor Jeanne Sauvage grants Édouard the face of Hercules, life begins anew.

The Guardian wrote of Altitude: “Propelled by bravado and undercut by the very real risk of death, Jean-Marc’s story carries serious emotional clout, while its colourful panels capture the stark geometry of cliff faces and dangling ropes.”

OUT IN UK: THURSDAY 28TH MARCH! 🇬🇧



The Anxiety Club introduces three characters, each with a different form of anxiety. We follow their stories, and follow them into the therapy room where they discover the behavioural, cognitive and emotional tools to help free themselves from anxious thinking.

Created by psychiatrist and leading anxiety expert Dr. Frédéric Fanget, veteran psychology writer/editor Catherine Meyer, and seasoned artist Pauline Aubry, this accessible, YA-friendly graphic self-help handbook helps the reader to identify, understand and manage anxiety. 

OUT IN UK: THURSDAY 25TH APRIL! 🇬🇧



The latest in SelfMadeHero’s acclaimed series of graphic biographies, George Sand dutifully explores the life of one of the great pioneering figures of 19th-century French literature. 
Born in 1804 – at a time when women were deprived of their civil rights (along with minors, criminals, and the insane) – Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin (later known as George Sand) grew up to defy those norms, both in her life and her forty-year career as a novelist and playwright. 

OUT IN UK: THURSDAY 9TH MAY! 🇬🇧


We have big plans for this season, these exciting titles, and the year as a whole! So, thank you for reading, and watch this space…

The SelfMadeHero Team

2023 Christmas Wrap-Up

23 December 2023

Monarchs, painters, runners, starmen! And not to mention some stars newly rising as we speak…Thank you all for joining us for this holiday wrap-up of 2023! And without further ado:
Created by Francisco de la Mora and endorsed by the Frida Kahlo Museum, this year’s first new title was Frida Kahlo: Her Life, Her Work, Her Home.



2023 also saw another Kleist crack at a musical icon with STARMAN: Bowie’s Stardust Years. Gosh! Comics even hosted this amazing launch event!



April was a regal month, with Teresa Tobertson and Leo Schulz bringing us The Comical Eye’s British Monarchy. (This would later make it to the US in time for the finale of The Crown…)



We went into the next month Armed with Madness thanks to Bryan and Mary Talbot’s surreal portrait of Leonora Carrington. Special thanks to the Cartoon Museum and Gosh! (again) for helping us share that madness with the world.



The Cartoon Museum had us back soon after, with a flood of curious souls coming to see Jurga Vilé discuss Siberian Haiku with LDComics’ Rachael Ball.



Who better to tell an oft-forgotten artist’s story than an award-winning legend like Oscar Zarate? Thomas Girtin: The Forgotten Painter was launched  in June with a colourful splash at Camden Image Gallery.



Ironically, things really heated up in September, starting with SPX! We got to show off Zarate and Kleist, and also debut Mylo Choy’s Middle Distance!



Soon after, we started on one of the highlights of the year. The First Graphic Novel Award brought in 170 entrants, twice more than the last competition… And then on to LICAF (after wrangling Oscar, the Talbots, and the Rickards into coming)!



There, on International Translation Day, Michele Hutchison scored her own accolade: the inaugural Sophie Castille Awards for Comics in Translation, earned through her work on The Philosopher, the Dog and the Wedding.



As November rolled in, we celebrated Middle Distance arriving in the US with a talk and a signing at P&T Knitwear!



Meanwhile, back in October the FGN judges had managed to whittle 170 entries down to a healthy longlist of 30. When Thought Bubblerolled around the FGN wheels kept turning with the 7-strong shortlistbeing announced live and in person!




Then we returned to Sophie’s World with the second volume of Vincent Zabus and Nicoby’s graphic adaptation of Jostein Gaarder’s groundbreaking classic!



The capstone on our 2023 was the First Graphic Novel award ceremony at Waterstones Piccadilly! Seven shortlisters, seven judges, a sold-out crowd, and one winner: Alexander Taylor’s Bone Broth!



Everyone involved in FGN is still reeling from all the enthusiasm and support we’ve found at every step – not to mention the amazing coverage, like the live on-air announcement from Radio 4!



So this wraps up 2023 for us here at SelfMadeHero. For now, thank you for an amazing year, we wish you all the happiest holidays, and watch this space to see what 2024 might bring!

- The SelfMadeHero Team


FIRST GRAPHIC NOVEL: Meet the Winner! (And a Q&A)

12 December 2023

A coming-of-age queer thriller, following Ash, a young transmasculine queer person, starting his first job in a ramen shop. As he begins to learn the process of making bone broth ramen, he suddenly finds himself caught up in how to cover up the death of his boss after a staff party.

Yesterday in Waterstones Piccadilly, from 170 total entries, a longlist of 30, and a final shortlist of 7 creators, the winner of the 2023 First Graphic Novel Award was announced: Alexander Taylor with Bone Broth!
As the winner, Taylor has secured a publication contract from SelfMadeHero and a £500 cash prize (sponsored by The bks Agency).

Over the last month, we presented the shortlisted creators with a few questions. Here are Alexander's answers.

SelfMadeHero: What's a key experience with the comics medium that led you to where you are now?

Alexander Taylor: When I was around eleven years old, for my mum’s birthday I wrote her a comic called Bill. I remember working really hard on it, staying up late, wracking my brain for good ideas with no real experience or understanding of how to write a comic. I remember just the tidal wave of pride I felt wash over me when I finished it and could hold this thing I’d made in my hands, it wasn’t something I was used to experiencing much. I remember how happy my mum was to receive and read it, and how happy that made me, and it solidified in my mind a theory that had been building for a while up to that point – comics are the coolest things ever.


SMH: How did you learn about the First Graphic Novel Award? Were you aware of it before submissions opened this year?

Alexander:
I learned about the First Graphic Novel Award while tabling at South London Comic and Zine Fair earlier this year. I got to meet so many talented and creative artists, who all had a profound impact on how I view the breadth and diversity of the comic scene in the UK, and discovered the work of Ed Firth a Myriad competition 2020 finalist, and in looking for more of his work online I stumbled upon the First Graphic Novel Award.

SMH: Has entering this competition helped you learn anything about the comics world that you didn’t know before? Could be something about the scene, the behind-the-scenes, or even your own creative process.

Alexander: I grew up in France for the first half of my childhood, where the accessibility of Franco-Belgian comics was truly a blessing. Bandes dessinées are completely mainstream, and being a cartoonist seemed like a legit career. When we moved back to England, I completely lost sight of the possibility of creating comics for a long time. But through this competition, seeing the skill in the shortlisted and longlisted entries, the overwhelming energy at Thought Bubble Festival, seeing the generously positive response people have shown my work, I feel like my eyes have been properly opened to the comics scene we have here and it is dazzling. The calibre and range of the work that exists is enough to feed the ever-hungry fire in the belly of any storyteller.


SMH: In a nutshell, what aspect of your work are you most excited for people to experience? This could be anything – visual, narrative, thematic?

Alexander: I hope people can just have fun reading Bone Broth. Of course, I want people to enjoy the ingredients like the whimsical storytelling and style, or all of my characters with their ridiculous names, or the spookier moments in the story and the framing around them. But more than anything the story was born from many tedious hours spent daydreaming at the restaurant I chef in, counting down the minutes till I could run home and weave some fun and friendship into it all. I hope people can feel the same way reading Bone Broth as they would enjoying a delicious balmy bowl of it, and put it down feeling warmer and full, at least for a little while.
SMH: The comics scene is always evolving, but are there any current changes or developments that you find interesting or encouraging? If so, what are they, and what do they mean to you?

Alexander: Transgender Comics!


SMH: Winner or not, where would you like your experience with the First Graphic Novel Award to take you in the future?

Alexander: I think the First Graphic Novel Award has just built up so much momentum in me. Before, I felt very unsure about whether there was any room for my comics out there, and about my own abilities. I didn’t know how to even begin navigating the world of comics. Plus, comics are a real labour of love. I wasn't sure I could invest all the time I knew this story needed to be great with no promise of return. And all of these arguments are still to a smaller extent true.
But here’s the thing, I learned to draw in the first place because my two older sisters were awesome at it. That injustice filled me with a glorious rage, propelling me into drawing in every second of free time I had for years. In my experience with the First Graphic Novel Award, seeing the quality of the work of both longlisted and the other shortlisted applicants, I am once again filled with a rage that will push me to create comics for the rest of my life. This is a gift greater than any award, and I am incredibly grateful to everyone involved, artists and organisers alike, for this whole experience.




SelfMadeHero New Season Autumn 2023

1 September 2023

Dear SelfMadeHero readers,

We are thrilled to announce two new titles that will make you run (literally) to your local bookshop this autumn: Middle Distance by Mylo Choy and Sophie’s World: A Graphic Novel About the History of Philosophy, Vol. II: From Descartes to the Present Day by Vincent Zabus and Nicoby, based on the acclaimed book by Jostein Gaarder. 📚

cover_image.jpg 1.3 MB


A charming, heartwarming, and poignant story of running and self-acceptance, Mylo Choy’s Middle Distance combines exertion and introspection in an exploration of the physical body’s connection to the human experience. An exciting graphic addition to a growing field, this sports memoir recounts Mylo’s history with running, and how their love for that famously solitary sport pushed them to grow over time. As Middle Distance grapples with themes of resilience, identity, and self-care, Mylo leads us along the middle way between motion and rest, hurt and healing, fear and joy. The result is an honest, nuanced work of subtle power that will appeal to all runners, especially those who are transgender or nonbinary. OUT THURSDAY 14th SEPTEMBER! 

cover_image-2.jpg 2.62 MB


Sophie’s come a long way since the day she received that cryptic letter with its intriguing question: “Who are you?”. The mysterious correspondence sweeps our curious young heroine off on a tour of Western philosophy from its ancient foundations through the Renaissance. But it also prompts more personal reflection: What is my place in the world, my purpose in life? And just who is that girl, a stranger and yet so familiar, I glimpse in the mirror? In this second volume, Sophie’s quest for answers will see her explore major schools of modern thought from Descartes and Locke to Freud and Marx. She and her quizzical philosophy teacher Alberto, now unmasked, struggles with the possibility that they are characters in a book. As ever, our intrepid heroine remains as forthright and open-hearted. In this witty comics adaptation, ZABUS and NICOBY reinvent JOSTEIN GAARDER’s novel of ideas – a beloved bestseller that has already won the hearts of over 50 million readers around the world – to bring Sophie’s charming quest for meaning to a whole new medium and a new generation. OUT THIS NOVEMBER! 

352408798_950173906071335_5471187387097700280_n.jpg 182.35 KB



We also want to remind you that we are only 15 days away from the application deadline of our First Graphic Novel Award. This is a unique opportunity for aspiring graphic novelists to get their work published by us! The award is open to UK residents aged 18 or over who have not previously published a full-length graphic work. The deadline for submissions is September 14th, 2023.


Don’t miss this chance to showcase your talent and creativity. We are looking forward to reading your stories and discovering new voices in the graphic novel medium! READ HOW TO APPLY HERE! 🎨

The SelfMadeHero team