Reviews and Fan Mail
Sunday, February 10, 2002
By ANNE RUETER
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
The world of comic book writers is predominantly male. "But that's changing as the medium opens
up. Jane is a good example of
that," says Richard Rubenfeld, an art professor at Eastern Michigan
University. He's talking about Jane Irwin, a determined newcomer to the
serious comics scene.
These days Irwin's spirits are flying, like the star of her comic
"
Vögelein," a wind-up fairy made by a German watchmaker in 1671.
The biggest comics distributor in the country, Diamond Distribution, has
picked up "
Vögelein." The first issue will be distributed nationally in
March.
That's a big break for Irwin, 27, who grew up west of Chelsea and lives and
works in Ann Arbor. She's been fascinated with fairies since she was a kid:
"the old English scary 'run off with your kids' kind." In her teens she
discovered her real-life heroes, graphic novel writers like "Maus" author
Art Spiegelman. After reading Spiegelberg, she says, "I was changed
completely forever... I knew that's exactly what I wanted to be doing."
To better create "literature with pictures," she majored in art and
literature at EMU, graduating in 1996.
In the first issue of "
Vögelein," which she conceived with friend Jeff
Berndt,
Vögelein (German for "little bird") has made it to the 21st century
through the aid of generations of guardians.
Vögelein has come to feel
cursed that as guardian after guardian dies, she must live on.
When fans read the last page, Irwin leaves them eager for the next issue:
Her heroine, a winsome fairy from a bygone era, confronts a scary-looking
real fairy, one who has gone through the ravages of 20th-century world wars.
Irwin already sells the first issue of "
Vögelein" at local comic book stores
and online.
To keep the forthcoming issues flowing, Irwin has to scramble. She figures
it takes her six months to do an issue on evenings and weekends after her
day job. Laid off from a local Web design firm last fall, she's paying the
bills by working temp jobs for now. Someday, she'd like to devote all her
time to writing graphic novels.
Irwin paints rather than draws her pages - a longer process, she says. But
she's fast. One page, from pencil sketches to a finished painting with word
balloons, takes her 16 to 20 hours. Irwin works in black and white like many
independent comic book artists because of the higher cost of color
reproduction.
She's gotten encouragement from Ann Arbor comic-book writer Jim Ottaviani.
"Jane is very talented and dedicated," he says. He's given her printing
advice on how to make her painted grays and blacks come off well in print.
But Ottaviani says Irwin is far past the stage of learning the ropes. "She's
self-aware, she knows she's good. I want to see the next issue," he says.
The independent comic book world, he says, "is a pretty small pond but it's
a friendly pond."
Irwin found that out by jumping in. After a couple of publishers turned her
down, she published the first issue of "
Vögelein" herself, thanks to two
friends who financed her.
Getting known, she says, is "almost all word of mouth."
She hangs out at comic book conventions. She's got an inviting Web site,
www.Vögelein.com. She frequents message boards. She makes the rounds of
comic stores, giving out promotional items.
Diamond will keep distributing her comic if she meets their requirement in
sales: 1,700 issues each month for three months.
She'd like to be publishing her tales bound in graphic novel form, rather
than in issues. First, though, "I have to get readership."
Spinning in her head, waiting for paintbrush and a script, are many more
stories about
Vögelein.