“Between the Panels” is a monthly interview series focusing on comic book creators of all experience levels, seeking to examine not just what each individual creates, but how they go about creating it.
It’s some kind of foreshadowing that a child meeting a certain comic character on the page would one day grow up to guide that character’s adventures as both writer and artist. Thus is the saga of Sophie Campbell and Supergirl. But the hero formerly known as “the Maid of Might” is just one stop on a cartoonist’s journey that’s gone from personal graphic novels to superheroes and giant Lepidoptera.
First off, the basics…
Your specialties (artist/writer/letterer/inker/etc.): Artist/writer
Your home base: Rochester, New York
Social Media
Instagram: @mooncalfe23
Bluesky: @mooncalfe1.bsky.social
Tumblr: tumblr.com/mooncalfe-art
Fanbase Press Contributor Kevin Sharp: Why comics? What is it about this medium specifically that pulls you in as a creative person?
Sophie Campbell: I like writing and I like drawing, so comics is the obvious way to combine them. There’s a level of control in being both writer and artist on a comic that I really love. I love being able to play with the pacing of the visuals in particular.
KS: What was your earliest exposure to comics? Did you see actual floppies or find other formats originally?
SC: Raymond Briggs books like The Snowman and Fungus the Bogeyman were my first comics, although I don’t think I realized they were comics at the time. Calvin & Hobbes in the newspaper came next, followed by the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.
KS: Would you have found those early TMNT in a comic shop?
SC: I did, yeah! I remember going through back issue boxes to find them in the comic shop right near where I lived, mostly Mirage TMNT but some Archie TMNT issues, too, and a bit later I got into other monthly comics, too.
KS: Knowing what’s coming later, I should also ask when you and Supergirl first crossed paths.
SC: My first exposure to Supergirl was pretty early. My dad had a big hardcover book from 1971 of various Superman comics ranging from the ’30s up to ’71 [Superman from the ’30s to the ’70s] and Supergirl showed up in some of those. While I didn’t know anything about her beyond that, I at least knew who she was. I think the 1984 live-action movie was my next touchstone for her.
KS: Once you became aware of different artists and art styles, who were some of your earliest favorites?
SC: Before I started really reading comics, I was into different children’s book artists like Trina Schart Hyman, William Steig, Shel Silverstein, and Stephen Gammell.
KS: What was a comic book story that had a real impact on you as a younger reader?
SC: This is a tough one for me but I think it would probably be a toss-up between the TMNT Leonardo micro-series issue, “What Goes Around…Comes Around!” by Eastman, Laird, Jim Lawson, Steve Bissette, Ryan Brown, Michael Dooney, and Steve Lavigne; or TMNT #11 by Eastman, Laird, and Lavigne. Both issues have a solemn down-to-Earth-ness that I’d never seen before in a comic when I was around 10 or 11-years-old. A somber tone that struck something in me that made me realize that comics could be “serious.” Those two issues in particular are still the sort of Rosetta Stone for almost all the work I’ve done in comics.
KS: Looking back, what made that story right for who you were as a reader at the time?
SC: I think it was largely just that I’d never seen anything like it at that time in my life, and it blew my mind simply because those Mirage TMNT issues were so different from anything I’d been reading/watching as a kid. The idea that comics didn’t have to have words, that they could have darker, more raw emotions, and that they could be about slice-of-life type things — for example, the Turtles getting ready for Christmas, Raph and Casey goofing off at the farmhouse, that sort of thing — and juxtapose that with higher-stakes violence.
KS: Since you’re both a writer and artist, which of those disciplines was your first love as a kid? I’d imagine it’s art because that’s easier to start from a young age.
SC: Definitely drawing, but I was coming up with my own characters and storylines pretty early on, too. They’ve always gone hand in hand for me.
KS: When did you first experiment with making your own comics, or any kind of sequential storytelling?
SC: In grade school I would do newspaper-format strips with my own characters but mostly with gags ripped off from Calvin & Hobbes. The longest-form thing I did were two issue-length comics of a superhero team called the Skulduggery Squad at some point in middle school.
KS: Was there a light bulb moment for you of realizing that being an artist was an actual, achievable career goal?
SC: Probably in 2005 when I got a comics job that paid enough to allow me to finally move out of my parents’ house. I had been doing comics professionally prior to that but nothing that I could do full-time, but when I was finally able to quit my day job, it felt like shit got real.
KS: Did you have family support for the dream? I know many parents might prefer their kids choose a “safer” profession. Though then again, your dad did have that Superman book.
SC: Yeah! My parents were always really supportive. I was lucky. On the other hand, though, part of me wishes they had been more strict with me so I would have learned a trade or other skills besides art, so I’d have a backup plan if my career ever dried up.
KS: As far as your first comics gig, what was the balance between getting yourself and your work out there to be discovered along with those right place, right time “happy accidents” that can come along when they’re most needed?
SC: I did a lot of showing my portfolio around at conventions back in the day, showing my stuff to editors, pounding the pavement, and following the Oni Press people around like a puppy. I think there can be a lot of luck right place/right time involved but also networking and being friendly is a big aspect in my experience; simply being fun to be around and hanging out with editors and other creators as friends, seeing them as people rather than stepping stones.
KS: How did you go from following the Oni folks around to them taking a leap of faith on your debut graphic novel, Wet Moon?
SC: My first published comic was fill-ins on Too Much Hopeless Savages, also from Oni. After that I did another Oni book called Spooked with writer Antony Johnston, and then finally after that Oni gave me a shot with Wet Moon. The original pitch was a bit different; it dealt with some heavier subject matter, but Oni felt it was too much right off the bat, so I altered volume 1 to be more easygoing and built up to the more intense stuff in later books.
KS: Now that you’ve been in the business for a while, what’s one word you think sums up an important trait for lasting in comics?
SC: Neurosis.
KS: As much as I’d love to ask a followup, let’s let that stand. Imagine the current version of you as an art teacher and the 2005 Sophie is a student in your comics class. What’s a piece of advice you would offer about the work from back then?
SC: Please do more life drawing! Also find a better way to do inking that won’t cause lasting damage in your drawing hand/arm because I’m paying for your mistakes 20 years from now!
KS: Coming back to Supergirl, how did that assignment come about?
SC: DC simply approached me out of the blue one day about doing a new Supergirl series and I said, “Hell yeah.” That’s all there was to it.
KS: That’s about as smooth as it gets in this business. Was there a potential iteration where you were writer or artist rather than both?
SC: I was always going to be writer and artist on it, with some inevitable fill-in artists here and there since I’m slow.
KS: What’s a hobby of yours totally unrelated to what you do for a living? Something you collect, study, practice, etc.
SC: My biggest hobby is collecting Japanese vinyl kaiju toys; my house is filled with them. I’ve also sculpted a few of my own, but I make so little money on them that I still consider it separate from an actual job. I’m also an amateur electronic musician, and I post my badly-produced songs on Bandcamp for free. I haven’t had time to do any new music for a while, but I think about it every day. It’s super fun.
KS: Finally, please let readers know where to find your current work, along with anything you have upcoming this year.
SC: The final issue of the 5-issue Mothra series I worked on just came out from IDW, and I’ll be writing #3 of the upcoming TMNT: Battle Nexus mini-series. Other than that my work for the foreseeable future will be on Supergirl!
