Throughout the month of October, the Cartoonist Cooperative will be sharing interviews with members of the Co-op who have a new comic available at the ShortBox Comics Fair 2023!
NOTE: The Cartoonist Cooperative is not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way formally connected with ShortBox.
Cartoonist Cooperative: We’d love it if you could introduce yourself and tell us about your background in comics.
Madeline McGrane: I’m a cartoonist and illustrator and I live in Minneapolis. I graduated from art school in 2016 and since then I’ve done some small comics gigs, self-published a bunch of short comics, and had two graphic novels published, The Accursed Vampire and its sequel.
CC: Tell us more about your new comic!
MM: Synthetic Snow is a science fiction comic about skiing. It’s obliquely about the future of skiing and climate change. It’s also about consuming passion.
CC: Tell us about your creative process; how did you develop this comic and what are the steps you took to bring it to the final stage?
MM: I feel like the process I developed post art school was completely broken by the graphic novels. I’m still remaking it. All of my personal projects have been really chaotic! This was no exception. This project was carried by indulgence and pleasure in drawing.
CC: Do you have any creative rituals or routines to prepare yourself to make comics?
MM: I have to do stretches and drink too much coffee and I like to have time to do warm up drawings.
CC: Does a sense of audience, even if it’s just an audience of one, enter into your creative process? If yes, how so?
MM: I try not to think too much about an audience. I try, I don’t always succeed. Especially after working for clients and working on middle grade books for a major publisher, if I’m making self-published work I have to make it for myself.
CC: Can you tell us about your newest projects/projects you have in development? Feel free to plug anything here as well eg. socials, website, etc.
MM: I’m working on things! Nothing substantial enough to talk about yet. You can find out what I’m up to on my website https://madelinemcgrane.com or @madmcgrane on social media.
