Today on the site Alex Dueben brings us an interview with creative duo Kerascoët.
Your publisher sent me a copy of your new children’s book, Paul and Antoinette. How did this come about?
Sebastian: We started to work with Kirsten Hall of Catbird Agency in New York. She contacted us a few years ago. She was building her own little agency and she looked all over the world for people she wants to represent in the US. So we said, okay, why not.
Marie: She showed our art book to Claudia [Zoe Bedrick] and she fell in love with a character we made a few years ago–this pig with the big glasses. She asked us to make a story about him and that’s how it started. We want to make more and more children’s books. For me it’s the holy grail of fiction. I’m so happy to see it.
So you had Paul and then gave him a sister.
Marie: Yes, she said how about make a couple? We thought a strange couple. He looks very clean and strict and so we gave him a sister. [Sebastian] has a sister and I have a brother and when you are two you are very different roles. As a child my brother had glasses and was strict and everything was perfect in his room. I went to his room when he wasn’t there and just opened the door and closed it and when he came back he knew I had opened the door. I don’t know how because I didn’t touch anything. I liked gross things a lot. I ate the grease, the disgusting part of the meat, just to watch him react. I loved the pleasure of watching him react.
Sébastien: It’s also a way to talk about accepting different people, and accept that people who aren’t like you can bring you something else in your life.
Marie: I’m so happy with what she did with the book. It’s a beautiful book.
I gave the book to a few people to read who commented that they liked how the typical gender dynamic–that the girl would be neat and the boy would be messy–was flipped.
Marie: Thank you.
Sébastien: Most of our characters are female. We like strong female characters. Like Miyazaki.
Elsewhere:
I am an enormous Mark Alan Stamaty fan, and here's an all-too-rare interview with great (Who Needs Donuts?) cartoonist and illustrator.
My pal Anya Davidson gets the Inkstuds treatment.
And here's a solid profile of cartoonist and educator Tom Hart.
Trina Robbins resumes blogging with a post about Wonder Woman and pantsuits.
Finally, I enjoyed this look at the making of a local bookstore in Brooklyn -- another branch of Greenlight, one of the best stores around.
