Declaration Of Independents: Kat Cahill

“I Hate Gallant Girl”

Kat Cahill is a relatively new name on the independent comics scene. Her creation I Hate Gallant Girl was released in late 2008 by Shadowline/Image. Image founder Jim Valentino pitched in along with editor Kris Simon and artist Seth Damoose to bring IHGG to life. The three issue series is being collected into a trade, coming out later this year. Cahill was discovered as part of Valentino and Simon's “Who Wants To Create A Superheroine” Contest for writers. Cahill was one of five finalists in the contest designed to create a foil for independent creator Jimmie Robinson's Bomb Queen, also published by Shadowline/Image. Cahill didn't win the contest, but she won over Shadowline/Image with her idea all the same. Cahill is also the writer on the upcoming crossover title from Shadowline/Image, Bomb Queen Presents: All Girl Comics, a 32-page full color comic book in stores May 27th, 2009. CosmicBookNews' Mike Luoma talks with Cahill about her auspicious debut for our Declaration of Independents.

CosmicBookNews: Kat, you were one of the “Shadowline Five”, a runner up in the “Who Wants to Create A Superheroine Contest” but, where the contest winner's comic never came out, your runner up title was picked up by Image and seems to be doing very well. How is it you “lost” the contest but really won out in the end?

“I Hate Gallant Girl” #2

Kat Cahill: Persistence and politeness. A lot of people ruin opportunities in their lives by becoming bitter and nasty when things don't go their way. Of course, I was disappointed to lose, but I was also genuinely happy that Tom Arguello's concept Incredible Journey won. Tom and I had corresponded daily from the moment that we got in the semi-finals and we both agreed that if we lost, we would still be really happy if the other person won. And that's nothing against Kristopher, Dirk or Chuck, but Tom and I really got along from the start. So I was extremely disappointed when it was announced that Journey had been canceled. Not just for Tom, but also for Kris Simon and Jim Valentino who had both put in so much work and taken so much grief for the contest.

To return to the other part of the question, after the contest was over, Jim Valentino and Jimmie Robinson both revealed that they had voted for IHGG. Knowing that, it seemed kind of silly to not pursue things further. Long story short, Shadowline decided to publish my concept as well as Tom's. Originally, IHGG was supposed to be released after Incredible Journey, but the release dates were reversed due to some snags with the original Journey artist. I don't know the details. At any rate, the book came out in November, got a good deal of positive buzz and sold out. The IHGG trade will be released this September so hopefully that does well and we can have a second series. Fingers crossed!

Page of “IHGG” #1

CosmicBookNews: How did it feel to have IHGG sell out?

Kat Cahill: Awesome. I know I should be able to come up with something more that that, but "awesome" is what I've got. I think I'm still in shock from it.

CosmicBookNews: What can we expect in an IHGG trade?

Kat Cahill: We are combing through the concept sketches at the moment to see which of those make it into the book. Obviously, the three issues will be in there. I'd like to toss in a couple of extra goodies as well, but I want to save those sorts of surprises for later.

Seth Damoose Sketch of “Editor Girl”

CosmicBookNews: How did you end up working with Seth Damoose?

Kat Cahill: Kris Simon introduced the two of us. She showed me a picture he had drawn of Editor Girl and I thought that his style of art meshed well with what I was writing. To be 100% honest, I thought the picture was of Gallant Girl and so our first few e-mails to each other were a bit confused. But I love how the lines in his art flow effortlessly and how much personality goes into the characters. I'm really happy to have gotten to work with him twice now.

CosmicBookNews: If I remember correctly, I Hate Gallant Girl had something to do with the Sex Pistols, at least in its inspiration. Care to explain?

Kat Cahill: Johnny Rotten, the lead Pistol, used to wear a Pink Floyd shirt that had "I Hate" scrawled across the top of it. I always thought that was kind of cool even though I'm also a big Floyd fan. My initial idea for Renée was that she would be this snotty kid who did graffiti art and was defacing the Gallant Girl posters with "I Hate" just like her punk rock heroes would have done. I still think that Renée has a fairly bad attitude even if she isn't quite so extreme. I mean she is still defacing a poster on the cover of the first book isn't she?

Renee scrawls graffiti on the cover of “IHGG”#1

CosmicBookNews: Were comics your “calling” as a writer? Did you want to be a writer first, or was it “comic book writer” from the start?

Kat Cahill: Growing up slightly outside of Bangor, Maine, the only famous person I knew of was Stephen King. He wasn't shy about wandering around town because nobody in the North East really cares about celebrities. Sometimes I would bump into him hanging around the Mr. Paperback at the Airport Mall and my little eight-year-old heart would beat like a hummingbird's because it was STEPHEN KING. I guess you could say it left an impression.

As such, when we had creative writing assignments at school, I would turn in these 30 page "epics" with multiple chapters while the other kids struggled with stringing one or two paragraphs together. Looking back on it, I feel sort of bad for my teachers since they had to grade those monstrosities. My childhood dream was to move out to one of the Casco Bay islands and write horror novels full-time. Actually, I still might do that. Give me time.

CosmicBookNews: You're originally from Maine, the home of your character Renee (Tempest) as well. As a Vermonter I have to ask – what are you both doing on the west coast? You crazy?

Kat Cahill: Well we both moved to the West Coast for the same reason: opportunity. The fictitious city of Clement Harbor is a superhero version of Hollywood. If you make it there, you are in the big time. In the end, the dream disappears and you are left with desperation and homesickness. I'm not sure if Renée is there yet, but I know that I am. After nearly eight years, I'm moving back East. Not all the way to Maine, but rather to New York. I have a lot of family there as well.

And yeah... I'm a little crazy. I hear that's supposed to be cute nowadays.

“All Girl Comics” Out at the End of May

CosmicBookNews: Tell me a little about what sounds like a pretty cool Shadowline group effort, the upcoming project Bomb Queen Presents: All Girl Comics?

Kat Cahill: I first heard about the concept at San Diego Comic-Con 2008 when Jimmie Robinson told me that Kris and Jim were working on a crossover concept that would involve all of the Shadowline super-heroines. He said that I should pester them about including Renée as well (at the time it was up in the air). And that was all I knew about it until earlier this year when Kris asked me if I would like to write the script. That was when I found out that Seth was drawing the book. It seemed like a good opportunity so I jumped at it.

Preview of Damoose's Interior Art from the Upcoming “All Girl Comics”

Due to the speed that the script needed to be turned around, the writing ended up being an intensely collaborative process. Kris and Jim had already done the plot work so it was up me to come up with the dialogue, panel breakdowns and fine tune a couple of details. As a side note, I'd like to mention that I am glad to be living in a time when a person living in Los Angeles can communicate so quickly with people in Portland, Chicago and elsewhere. I mean, when you think about it, now is a great time to be alive.

CosmicBookNews: What writers are you into? Who inspires you creatively? Music? Movies? TV?

Early Sketch for “All Girl Comics”

Kat Cahill: I adore Nabokov, Dostoyevsky and Murakami, but that's all heavy lifting stuff so I haven't had the time to delve into them lately. As far as comic books, I'm fond of a lot of writers, but I always loop back to Daniel Clowes and Art Spiegelman. I love the fact that the guy who wrote Maus also created the Garbage Pail Kids. At the end of the day, one has to read a lot to be a writer, so I pretty much read everything including the backs of cereal boxes and the fine print on advertisements. You never know what will be useful.

In regards to other sources of inspiration, music is extremely important to me, especially when I am trying to be creative. Maybe it's because silence bothers me, I'm not sure. Sometimes when I'm writing, I focus on a particular song. When I was working on IHGG, I listened to "To Fix the Gash in Your Head" by A Place to Bury Strangers over and over again. I also made a three hour mix of nothing but angry girl bands. It all seemed to fit Renée's mood really well.

Renee (Tempest) Faces off with Gallant Girl on the cover of “IHGG”#3

CosmicBookNews: You've mentioned online you enjoy playing your firebird red Gretsch hollowbody Guitar... originals or covers? Influences?

Kat Cahill: Currently, I'm in a band called Renfield and we only play originals. We just put out an album which you can purchase by going to renfield.com. How's that for an utterly shameless plug? As a side note, I also created all of the album artwork. For part two of your question, my biggest influences are Marc Ribot, David Byrne, East Bay Ray, David Gilmour, Wes Montgomery and Hendrix. Never trust a guitar player who doesn't like Hendrix.

CosmicBookNews: Looking ahead... What do you foresee in the future for independently created comics?

Kat Cahill: Probably more and more web comics. If you cannot be certain of a property's sales, it really is best to put up a website first because publishing ain't cheap! However, I think there will always be a need for a hard copy. Staring at a back lit screen all day cannot be good for the eyes. What's more, people like having something that they can hold in their hands and relate to on an intimate level. I know that I would personally be distraught if all of the brick and mortar stores vanished completely. Where would I ever be able to bump into Stephen King again?

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