SCOOTERING ALONG: CHYNNA CLUGSTON-MAJOR TALKS SCOOTER GIRL

[MattBrady]

Fans of Chynna Clugston-Major’s work know that the currently running, six-issue Scooter Girl miniseries from Oni Press has been in the works for a while. For those just finding the creator and the series, it’s a little different take on your typical boy meets girl, boy gets girl tale. Newsarama spoke with Clugston-Major for some info.

Announced to be coming a couple times before it’s actual start in May, Clugston-Major said there was one thing missing with Scooter Girl that really inspired her to complete the project: “A deadline!” the creator said. “It's a story I really care about. I wanted it to be perfect, so Jamie [Rich, Oni Press Editor in Chief] made sure I forced myself do it the right way, which I did. I completely wrote it out, messed with it for ages. When it was advertised, it wasn't even written yet. Jamie had only seen my detailed outline for it, but he knew I would pull it off the way we wanted. I'm really glad it went that way, because I'm really happy with how the story turned out, I think the extra time was very beneficial, nothing was forced.”

The story centers on Ashton Archer, the guy that everyone knows from somewhere in their history – he’s got the looks, the money, the family ties, and gets everything he wants. Well, not exactly. Everything was perfect for Ashton until Margaret Sheldon (the “Scooter Girl” of the title) pulled a drive-by. She drove by on her scooter, causing Ashton to completely lose focus of what he was doing. As a result, his scooter was crushed under a truck.

Meeting her later in school, Aston found that his powers of woo had no effect on Margaret, who was a new transfer student to the high school he attended. Worse yet, every time he was near her, he lost his cool – literally. He fell, couldn’t put two words together, and was otherwise a total doof.

And then it got worse. Realizing what kind of a player Ashton was, Margaret made it her mission to destroy Ashton’s reputation in the school, and pretty much did it. At the same time, Ashton’s family lost their fortune. Destitute and down on his luck, Ashton decided that a fresh start was in order, so he left San Francisco for San Diego.

Problem was, so did Margaret.

Clugston-Major’s fans have picked up on it right away – this ain’t another Blue Monday story. It’s something wholly new, with its own vibe. “A loooong time ago - ancient history, about 1997, or so, before Oni - I showed some Blue Monday pages to Kodansha, when they were still accepting foreign submissions. They didn't like it - they said they wanted something with one main character that people could really attach to. That sort of baffled me, but I was like, ‘Alright -I can do that.’ So I came up with Scooter Girl. It was the same basic storyline at first - a showboat that has everything loses his cool as soon as this very self-confident and cool girl shows up, etc. - but when I was about ready to pitch it, they closed foreign submissions. I figured it was a sign that it wasn't ready, so I'd continue to develop it for a while and see what happened.

”I had originally planned to make Ashton and Margaret rudies, but that didn't suit them at all. They had to be mods... and the more I studied the scenesters, the more I saw my characters in them, and they soon developed into what they are today. So, originally, yeah, it was an alternative to Blue Monday, but I wanted the two to remain separate, because Blue Monday has always been my baby... there was no way I wasn't going to do that book. So even though some of the kids have the same interest in modernism and scooter culture, I made sure they were very different creatures. In the real world, Margaret and Ashton would never hang out with Bleu and Alan, they'd probably want to kick the shit out of each other, or at least ignore each other. The same with the other characters. Clover would probably end up punching Drake, or rag on Kitty until she cried or left town. Not to mention the completely different plotlines and so on...”

In making Ashton and Margaret “mods” (think ‘60s style and look), Clugston-Major was able to tap into a feeling she’s had for a long time: she was born in the wrong decade. “That sort of thought process runs in my family - we're big history lovers, and great fans of music from all eras. The 60's possessed some of the most raw and passionate of any time period, at least it seems so to me, which is why I always enjoyed it above the others. I just couldn't ignore it. I think it's ridiculous that the youth culture of this particular era, as well as the music, films, styles, etc. of the time, should be treated as if it's to be half-forgotten simply because it's in the recent past. In order to truly appreciate what we have today, we have to understand what's happened before, what's caused our modern world to evolve or decline to where it is now. Just because this decade was only forty years ago, doesn't mean it shouldn't be studied, or admired, and so on. It's a very interesting and revolutionary time, a lot changed right then, for the better. Unfortunately the hippy crap is all people seem to know about, and even then they don't know much. Which is a problem! The sixties were not just about that group alone. It's far more interesting than its been portrayed by the mainstream media.

”As far as what influenced me for the feel of the book, it was definitely the scooterist scene here in San Diego. It's small, but solid, and definitely has its personalities. And rifts. It's very interesting to observe on this small a scale... And the music that propels it is fantastic. There's a lot more to this general subculture than what I am able to show in Scooter Girl, but you get an idea of the lifestyle. If you're around it all the time, it's nearly impossible not to let it affect you in other ways, especially if you do anything creative, I think.”

Going back to speaking of families, Clugston-Major plays up Aston’s lineage in the first issue of the series, something that allowed her to play with a character trait that intrigues her. “I love family histories, and common threads in personalities of certain groups and so on,” Clugston-Major said. “I like to know the reasons people end up the way they do - be it genetics, or environment, or what-not. I thought it'd be fun for me to involve that sort of thing in my stories... I figured there were probably other people that felt the same way I do. Maybe they'd enjoy it, as well. Why are the Archers so impossible? I'll show ya!”

Part of that showing was the design of Ashton. Again, you probably know the type – hair in the latest trendy style, an eyebrow constantly raised in bemusement of other people’s foibles, and a cocky grin just to remind you that he’s in a much better place than you.

”If you can't look at a comic without needing to read it to get an idea of what's going on, then you're not really doing your job,” Clugston-Major said. “If I was going to make Ashton a cocky little ass, he had to look like one, too. He and Alan of Blue Monday are rather similar in that way - always leering, smirking, and so on. He walks upright, as opposed to Drake who often hunches, and is almost always bright-eyed and alert, which adds to the idea that he's constantly on the prowl for new challenges. Chicks, challenges, whatever. You know what I mean.”

Likewise, the design for Margaret had to be spot-on: the enigmatic beauty that would cause men to turn and watch her while putting themselves in mortal peril. “I just tried to create the type of girl that seems most prized in this particular scene,” Clugston-Major said. “Dark hair, milky skin, big eyes, very slender body... an endless, finely tuned wardrobe... and she's always looking either perpetually bored, or only slightly amused, in nearly any situation. Unless, of course, she's really pissed off. Which she often is when Ashton's around.”

While some creators will tell you that readers should always divorce the creation from the creator in their mind, Clugston-Major isn’t one of them when it comes to Scooter Girl. Not that the story happened to her, or anything like that, but her voice and opinions come through, clearly.

”I've met some pretty insensitive guys, and Scooter Girl is obviously riddled with my opinion on chauvinists,” Clugston-Major said. “But I also make it clear that women can - and often are - be just as bad about the way they treat the opposite sex, though it's rarely the same kind of abuse. Neither gender is saintly, and I know it. But my point in this story is that there's room for both to improve, some more than others... they just have to see what they're doing in order to get it through their heads. Hopefully people will understand when all is said and done that it's not really a full-on attack on shitty men, but on abusive people... either gender... in general.”

Like Blue Monday, Scooter Girl contains references to ‘80s Brit Pop at just about every turn. As for what the constant captions with song titles and band names in them add to the story? “Nothing. I just like to do it, since I see it in my head like a movie... and a movie without music is just bizarre,” Clugston-Major said. “Also, because I can.

“Seriously, though, you can get all the emotion and point of every chapter in Blue Monday, or in Scooter Girl, without the soundtrack... but if you can use the soundtrack, it enhances the feel I intended while writing it. Or what I was personally feeling, even. I think comics and music go together quite well - which may sound odd, but it makes perfect sense to me. If we use the music while creating the stories, why shouldn't the reader get the full effect too, if they want it? It is optional after all, so if you don't like the idea, just ignore it.”

With a collection of UK rock that’s “bigger than a baby’s arm,” Clugston-Major sees adding in song titles and band names as her own form of activism and advertising. “I've been told over and over how many of my readers had at first not known more that maybe two or three of the bands I was listing, but then they went out and bought some of the music and are now fully into them,” Clugston-Major said. “That's a good thing, isn't it?”

Unlike Blue Monday which has seen several miniseries, Scooter Girl is a completely self-contained miniseries. “I can't create two continuous series side by side without killing myself, and Blue Monday is my priority,” Clugston-Major said. “At least, until I'm ready to rip my own eyeballs out because I'm so sick of I that I can barely see straight! I doubt that will happen anytime soon, though.”

[ComicPooka]

FIRST POST!

WOOT! The Pooka legacy spreads further!

I LOVE CCM! Scooter Girl is one A+ Class book, even with reference to Jaimes glue and panty sniffing habits. I HIGHLY recommend to everybody that is a fan of anything!

Now I wish I could find soundtrack CD's in Japan without extensive searching. Its hard enough finding issues of Scooter Girl.

Oni, Jaime and CCM, three of the most criminally under-rated names in comics.

[slug N lettuce]

Fierst off MODERATOR or whomever this pertains to, why am I unable to click on the last pic to get a bigger and better view? I can with all the rest!


Second I love Blue Monday and anything she touches and so does my wife. For some reason I always like reading her work back to back with some Andy Watson. I dont know why!?! Maybe they would be a good team up for a one-shot or at least a 4 to 12 issue mini (i would prefer a 12 issue mini I guess it would be called a maxi series anyway,that is just because of my love for her work!)

And in the vein of her soundtrack listings for each page or so, this post was done while listing to X's "Los Angeles/Wild Gift" split THE WORLDS A MESS, ITS IN MY KISS.

[Frankie Thirteen]

I have been loving Scooter Girl, and I think Chynna is one of the best creators working in the field today. I have gotten people who wouldn't usually read comics into them thanks to Blue Monday, and now I can use Scooter Girl to even better effect.

That said, I know she's done work for Marvel before in Ultimate Marvel Team-Up. I wonder if she'll do any more non-Oni (such as Marvel or DC) work in the future. Not that I'd particularly mind if she didn't; any CCM work is automatically on my pull list.

[newarrior]

Always got to give props to Chynna...she's is one of the best indy creators out there today. Every week that one of her books comes out is a great week. (Now, only if she's take less than 6 months to reply to e-mails But with as many people as she has e-mailing her, telling her they love her, I guess it would take a while)

[Aaron White]

i cant wait for this! well, i have been waiting a while, but i cant wait much longer...
and, i was listening to smile while i read this. but im bummed, cause they broke up!!

[GMSLegion]

I'm really disappointed in Scooter Girl. I've loved Chynna's work for years, but while the art's nice, she forgot to give us any sympathetic characters at all in this one. I actively dislike Ashton, so why should I care what happens to him?

[Jamie S. Rich]

Originally posted by GMSLegion
I actively dislike Ashton, so why should I care what happens to him?

Because fiction isn't always supposed to be about likeable people, and sometimes to reach a point of change in a character you have to begin at a place that might not be so pretty.

[GMSLegion]

Originally posted by Jamie S. Rich
Because fiction isn't always supposed to be about likeable people, and sometimes to reach a point of change in a character you have to begin at a place that might not be so pretty.

That's a fair reply, and I appreciate you taking the time to make it, and to defend Chynna's otherwise spotless record.

Unfortunately, it still doesn't hold water. Ashton is more than just unlikeable, and deserved everything he got in the end of issue 1, he's dull. More to the point, after a few years passed and he got his life "back in order," he was still too stupid to learn anything from what he got in issue 1, and still too stupid to figure that Margaret was able to better him.

So I agree that fiction should not always be about likeable characters, but it must be about either sympathetic or compelling ones. Ashton is not at all compelling; he's a complete moron who has steadfastly refused to learn anything from his previous errors. I take the implication that Ashton will eventually reach some change in his characterization. Unfortunately, Chynna has had over 40 pages to give me one single reason why I should care. I don't, therefore I will not be continuing with this series, and look forward to Chynna's future projects with Oni.

[Jamie S. Rich]

Originally posted by GMSLegion
\
So I agree that fiction should not always be about likeable characters, but it must be about either sympathetic or compelling ones.

We'll have to agee to disagree. It's too bad you have such a limited view on fiction--or at least makes a compelling character. But that's your personal choice, and frankly, not a blemish against Chynna's "spotless record." Just because she chooses to tell a story in a vein that is not pleasing to you doesn't make it poorly done.

[GMSLegion]

Originally posted by Jamie S. Rich
We'll have to agee to disagree. It's too bad you have such a limited view on fiction--or at least makes a compelling character. But that's your personal choice, and frankly, not a blemish against Chynna's "spotless record." Just because she chooses to tell a story in a vein that is not pleasing to you doesn't make it poorly done.

Actually, I'd regard it as a massive blemish, particularly when her editor, whose work I've supported for some time, decides to respond to reasonable criticism with an insult to my taste and education.

Never mind then, Mr. Rich. As you seem to be the expert, please be so good as to explain exactly what makes Ashton a compelling character, and why I, your paying audience, should be at all concerned with what happens to him next.

I'd also enjoy learning how you can describe this "view" as limited. If you can name a single fictional protagonist who is neither sympathetic nor compelling, but whose story deserves to be read, I'd be pleased to hear it.

[Jamie S. Rich]

Originally posted by GMSLegion
Actually, I'd regard it as a massive blemish, particularly when her editor, whose work I've supported for some time, decides to respond to reasonable criticism with an insult to my taste and education.

Hey, man, settle down. No one insulted your taste and certainly not your education. I didn't call you stupid, and I didn't say you didn't have a right to feel as you feel. I just said--possibly poorly, I'll admit--that just because you don't like it doesn't make it bad. Chynna chose to tell the story about a character who is a big jerk, chronicling his many downfalls as a black comedy, and you don't like a story about that type of character--I'm saying that doesn't invalidate her choice or the execution. At least it doesn't to me; there are plenty of works that rub me the wrong way that I still admire for how they are put together.

I do find it as a fairly limited way to look at fiction and a fictional character when someone makes the suggestion that character's must be a certain way. I am sorry if phrasing it that way rubbed you the wrong way. It's just that I am not really sure saying Ashton can be unlikeable while still having to feel sympathetic is really conceding the point. Some of us enjoy that Ashton is a bumbling arsehole who keeps screwing up and digging himself into a deeper and deeper hole. And I do find him sympathetic for very much that reason. You can say you don't, and you can say you don't want to read books with unsympathetic characters--and that would be valid; and yet, I'd still say I think you should be open to all kinds of characters and not reign in the bounds of literature. (And we could argue sympathetic or non-sympathetic characters in literature, but it would be down to personal choice, just like this.)

I also think it's rather silly to hold it against Chynna because her editor responds to something you said. This is meant to be a discussion board after all--is discussing not what we're doing? Again, I'd concede I probably could have said it better in the previous post, and I am sorry to irk you like that, but you're also putting words in my mouth when you extrapolate the slight to go as far into insult as you did. I do sincerely apologize for my comments landing off the mark.

[GMSLegion]

I appreciate and accept the apology, and am glad that you agree that a discussion about a comic book really should stay focussed on the work.

Regarding which, I still fail to see how this "view" I hold is at all limited. The most basic rule of fiction is that you must care about the protagonist. Even if your main characters are Hannibal Lector, Magneto, the hitmen from Pulp Fiction, JR Ewing and the Eltingville Club, none of whom are particularly likeable or sympathetic, readers would still be fascinated and captivated by them because they are compelling personalities.

Ashton does not seem to have a personality at all. You see him as "bumbling," but I can only see the "arsehole." I also don't believe in the bumbling - it's too cute, an obvious comic angle which does not make much sense given his history. When Ashton swans about or scratches his records at the very sight of Margaret, it does not feel like a natural reaction for the character, it feels like C-grade comedy from a Rob Schneider film, and not the Harold Lloyd who is an obvious inspiration for Chynna.

Speaking of whom, while I can't claim to have been a fan from the very beginning as I overlooked the Action Girl stories, I have enjoyed and supported Chynna since Blue Monday #1, and gave six copies of the first digest collection as presents Christmas 2001. I had quite high hopes for Scooter Girl and take no pleasure in announcing I dislike it.

While I have your ear and have mentioned the digest, something you would be better able to defend is the baffling decision to print the Blue Monday collections in such a small size. I understand Chynna's manga influence, but her artwork looks so much better when it is not printed that small. It's very surprising that so many newspaper strip artists complain, with justification, that their labors are shrunk to postage stamp size by uncaring daily editors, but "going small" remains a hot trend in the book world.

[Jamie S. Rich]

Well, again, we'll have to agree to disagree on Ashton. I do think his struggles, despite him being a total ass, make him interesting. I think there are hints of something more in him, even if he isn't smart enough to see it. But I think this could go round and round and round between us, and likely never sway either of us.

As for the digest size, it was a mutual decision between Oni and Chynna, because we like it a whole lot. In many ways, I think it actually helps artwork sometimes, as it tightens up as it shrinks. Chynna looks good at any size, but I like the collections best, prefer them to the issues.

And now it makes sense for us commercially. I think there is a large mainstream audience for this book who currently reads and enjoys the manga size, and anything we can do to get racked with that type of material and make our book appealing to that audience--barring, of course, altering the story--is something we'll try.

Glad we could smooth this out. Sorry again that it went so far off the rails.

[jasonic]

so, it happened by chance that i am here.

anyway, i could ramble on about Chynna and her comics that have made my comic-reading life much more interesting and worthwhile.

i could. and thank you Chynna and Jamie for supplying me with the sweet science. and before you ask me about boxing, i have a question:

since i read in the back of a Blue Monday issue about t-shirts, i've been curious. from bluemondaycomics.com and graph designs here, its like these shirts dont exist. where are they? i only ask cuz my friend who enjoys these books is actually going to Ireland and i wanted to get her a "fek aff, i'm Irish!" Clover shirt. but time is running out and no one seems to know what i'm talking about. and this place is a complete intersection of all these ideas.

so yah.

sorry.

[Jamie S. Rich]

The Graphitti shirts are out! Call their hotline 1-800-699-0115 to order them, and feel free to complain that the shirts are not on their website!

Thanks for the kind words!

[KyleThoreau]

okay, new guy here

here's the breif. Started in on Blue Monday on my 21st B-Day (which is Feb 14th) and have since been hooked

but finding info. about this and Scooter Girl is driving me bonkers!

so here's some questions:

what happend to the Blue Monday site?
and why is Scooter Girl so late?

I ask this because my sis (another fan) mentioned there was a reason on her site, today I looked and found the site shut down

any and all info would be appreciated

[Jamie S. Rich]

Originally posted by KyleThoreau


what happend to the Blue Monday site?
and why is Scooter Girl so late?

The Blue Monday site was never finished. There is some info at our site:
http://www.onipress.com/titles/titles.php?id=BM3

Scooter Girl is about a month behind because it's simply taken longer for us to get it done than we thought, and various other reasons that aren't worth getting into. We're nearly done with #6. Thanks for being patient.

[KyleThoreau]

cool, thanks for the response.

take care, and all that jazz