The following is an interview with author/illustrator Julie Fiveash regarding the recent release of the graphic novel, The Froggy Library, with Levine Querido. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Fiveash about their creative process in bringing the story and characters to life on the page, the themes that they hope may resonate with readers, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the release of The Froggy Library! What can you tell us about the story’s premise and the genesis behind its creation?
Julie Fiveash: The story takes place in an amphibious world, much like our own, where Anura, our young protagonist, gets a summer job at the local library and is given a project to start a community archive. Anura learns about archiving, the importance of talking to community members, and how keeping memories might be more than just having papers safe in a box. This story was inspired by my time as a librarian and thinking about how people capture the spirit of a community through the archive and the things we miss due to the way knowledge is transmitted through action. It can be difficult to convey all of this in paper and recordings, so I wanted to write a story about someone discovering that. I also just really like frogs and thought it would be fun to write a story where they’re all frogs, haha.
BD: In balancing the writing and illustrative duties of the project, how would you describe your creative process in bringing this story and its characters to life on the page?
JF: It’s a lot! I had done comics before this but it was usually shorter than 20 pages at a time, so I really had to sit down and write this comic out to hit over 200 pages, which was very intimidating. Luckily, I had a lot of story that I ended up wanting to tell. Writing involved constantly sketching out thumbnails and ideas of stuff I wanted to include in the overall story. I had a lot of fun making up this frog world and frog characters who do mostly human stuff but also froggy things like chilling in ponds when their skin gets too dry, haha. Overall, I think I ended up with close to six drafts of the story before actually doing the real drawing because I didn’t want to go back and have to edit my drawings just because I forgot something, editing drawings is way harder than just text!
BD: At Fanbase Press, our #StoriesMatter initiative endeavors to highlight the impact that stories can have on audiences of various mediums and genres. How do you feel that this story might connect with and impact readers, and what, if any, conversations do you hope that it might inspire?
JF: I hope it connects with anyone with interest in archiving, in supporting local libraries, and anyone dealing with the grief of losing a loved one or community member. Indigenous communities lose more and more of our traditional knowledge as elders pass away and I wanted this story to touch on that and remind people that even afterwards, we still have each other to learn from.
BD: What makes Levine Querido the perfect publishing partner for The Froggy Library?
JF: Levine Querido has been such a great publishing partner during the process of making this book. From initially reaching out to me about publishing, to giving such a wonderful editor and book designer to work with, and to finally helping me put out such a gorgeous book to hold in my hands – they’ve been super instrumental in getting this story where it needs to be. I’ve also had such a great time connecting with other authors from their catalog, they have such great taste in authors and illustrators that it’s been very cool to read and connect with other authors’ works.
BD: Are there any other projects – past or current – that you would like to highlight for our readers?
JF: Yes! I have illustrations in a new book, written by Joey Clift, coming out this October entitled We Were Here the Whole Time!: A Not So Sacred Guide to All Things Native America. It’s extremely silly and is filled with all sorts of fun facts about Native history in the US. And a past book project I gotta plug is The Out Side: Trans & Nonbinary Comics, published by Andrews McMeel. It features a ton of short comics by trans and nonbinary comic artists (like me!) and it’s a great collection that I was so happy to be a part of.
BD: Lastly, what would you like to tell fans who want to learn more about The Froggy Library and your other work?
JF: Follow me wherever you do social media at @jooliefiveash! I self-publish zines and make stickers and stationery when I’m not making books, so find links to all those things there. Thanks!
