This month I'm pleased as a peppermint latte to be chatting it up with the fabulous author-illustrator, Mika Song! Mika and I are studio mates over at Stimola Literary Studio and I just adore her charming characters and comics! She writes and illustrates children's books about sweetly funny outsiders, and lives in Queens, New York. You can enjoy more of Mika's work here!
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| Cut characters + delicious eat = you had me at 'hello"! |
Q: You are a kidlit super star, having written and illustrated numerous picture books, early reader graphic novels and comics for kids! Wowza! Give us the scoop on your creative process—inspirations, development and final art.
I was searching for a tax document and ended up bringing out every piece of paper from my closet, cabinets and under my bed. This turned into two days of reorganizing. It was rough, but I am glad I went through them, because it forced me to pause and look back at everything. All the work and all the drawings and decisions that led me from one opportunity to another since I started making picture books. I am also 100 percent certain that I do not have that tax document.
My inspiration is definitely the world and people around me. It was a donut truck parked outside my window that gave me the whole idea for Donut Feed the Squirrels. I get ideas from the kids that come to the comics club in my neighborhood. I get ideas from the interests of my daughter. I recently got inspired to write a comic about juggling from a video I saw on social media. Of course, my dreams and instincts come from my background and childhood and they guide the decisions I make in writing and drawing. But it has been really helpful to the success of my writing to choose the present as my subject.
I try to pay attention to people's reactions to whatever I put in front of them and take notes. When things I make connect with people I try to understand why. I still have a postcard I made for an SCBWI magazine contest 8 years ago on my wall. It was different from my other drawings at the time and people were reacting to it in a positive way so I put it on the wall facing my drawing table to understand what was interesting about it.
A pointer it taught me was it doesn't have to be perfect, but it should feel like a pleasure to make. Drawing on paper is my favorite thing to do. If I draw something, I try not to be bothered by the way the character's ear is not sticking out as much as it was in the previous page or if her arm is wonky. If I caught the right expression on her face that is the entire point of the drawing. Expression is more important that consistency in children's illustrations. Personally, I found I have greater frequency of capturing those nuanced expressions when I work on paper.
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| A work-in-progress...always! That's the creative pro gig. |
Q: Your most recent early graphic novel series, Norma & Belly, has been a huge hit, anchored by hilarious, endearing characters. Dish with us a bit about how to develop characters that kids will fall in love with.
A: When I designed my Norma and Belly squirrel characters I wanted them to be fun and easy to draw. I knew I'd have to draw them many times for the graphic novels. I also knew I wanted to draw them with kids so I wanted their design to be something I could explain and relate to their personalities. I love seeing kid's drawings of Norma and Belly.
Q: Early in your creative career you worked as an animator. How have those experiences influenced your book and comic work?
A: The biggest thing that I can apply from my time working as an animator before I got into picture books was a respect for the power of time-management and a production schedule. And a script. I outline and sketch and write and create characters all at the same time, but the script has to be done before I start thumbnails. The script will get tweaked but it has to be essentially a complete first draft before I start sketching. I do think any time you come from another career you have some skills from it that can be used to your advantage. Not to say that I am never late, because delays happen from all sides in publishin, but I always know how late and usually I can tell a few months out and I always stay in touch with everyone via emails so we can all make it work to fit our schedules. So the concept of working and communicating with a team is something I was familiar with from animation.
A: When I designed my Norma and Belly squirrel characters I wanted them to be fun and easy to draw. I knew I'd have to draw them many times for the graphic novels. I also knew I wanted to draw them with kids so I wanted their design to be something I could explain and relate to their personalities. I love seeing kid's drawings of Norma and Belly.
Q: Early in your creative career you worked as an animator. How have those experiences influenced your book and comic work?
A: The biggest thing that I can apply from my time working as an animator before I got into picture books was a respect for the power of time-management and a production schedule. And a script. I outline and sketch and write and create characters all at the same time, but the script has to be done before I start thumbnails. The script will get tweaked but it has to be essentially a complete first draft before I start sketching. I do think any time you come from another career you have some skills from it that can be used to your advantage. Not to say that I am never late, because delays happen from all sides in publishin, but I always know how late and usually I can tell a few months out and I always stay in touch with everyone via emails so we can all make it work to fit our schedules. So the concept of working and communicating with a team is something I was familiar with from animation.
Q: You do a lot of virtual and in-person author-illustrator visits to schools, libraries and book festivals! What advice would you give fellow kid lit creators about: A) booking these kinds of events, B) developing engaging presentations, and C) selling your books thru/at these events?
A: I enjoy doing school visits. I haven't gotten any school visits through my publishers so I am happy with the quality of visits that I have gotten as they are usually from librarians that have found me through my books and social media. The opportunities I get are from my books or my videos on social media. I hold a weekly kids comics class in my neighborhood and I share photos from that sometimes. I don't currently work with a booking agency. Most of my energy is still spent doing illustrating, writing and promoting my books.
One of the discoveries I made launching Love, Sophia on the Moon by Anica Rissi and Donut Feed the Squirrels during the start of the pandemic was that I like to draw live. So I design my presentations around that whenever I can. I like to have an open-ended component where we write a comic together because it makes it more interesting for me and the audience and I don't mind improvising on the spot given the framework. Illustrators are often expected to draw for a reading but I think any way you can model your inner voice or your creative decision-making process is inspiring to your audience. And especially if you can connect it with what the audience already knows and loves, so I try to ask and incorporate these elements from the audience. Some people do more of a ted talks power point presentation and it is extremely effective, but I can never memorize these things in a natural way so this is my solution.
I recently watched a very informative panel on school visits moderated by Pat Cummings. (Psst—check it out here!) It covers pricing and I increased my rates after watching it. I also think Floyd Cooper shares an important point which is to make sure everyone leaves with a small gift from you. Not everyone can buy the book, but no one should feel left out. A small token can be very meaningful to a young person.
I also ask in my website's author visit page that the students be familiar with at least one of my books before the visit and I offer a discounted rate if the students all get a copy of the book.
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| Busy, busy, busy Everyone want more comics! (Of course—duh! ;) |
Q: What is a typical workday like for you? Set the scene (workspace, materials, accessories) and describe your responsibilities (art making, promotion, business stuff) and creative juju (rituals, inspiration, process).
A: A typical work day for me is get up at 6 and get my kid on the bus and then start working around 8. I work in my bedroom. I have a really long table in there by the window. I look at my notebook of to-do lists and my calendar on the wall. If I have to do a certain number of drawings that day I start doing that. If it's a writing day then I start writing as soon as possible in the morning. I usually don't listen to music or podcasts while writing or drawing. I don't have a lot of supplies; I usually use about 5 watercolor colors and two jars of water and a papertowel. All my watercolor paper is already trimmed and in a drawer next to my leg. I use one brush for ink and one brush for watercolors usually. I have a corkboard I can put my pages up to look at while I paint the next ones. At noon I stop to eat lunch. Then I post any promotions to social media and return emails. I do more drawing until about 3 and then I do family and house stuff for an hour and then I go back to work for an hour. I try to do email and social media, post office and phone calls later in the day. Then I stop for dinner at 5 and around nine I clean up my desk and write my to-do's in my notebook before calling it a day.
A: A typical work day for me is get up at 6 and get my kid on the bus and then start working around 8. I work in my bedroom. I have a really long table in there by the window. I look at my notebook of to-do lists and my calendar on the wall. If I have to do a certain number of drawings that day I start doing that. If it's a writing day then I start writing as soon as possible in the morning. I usually don't listen to music or podcasts while writing or drawing. I don't have a lot of supplies; I usually use about 5 watercolor colors and two jars of water and a papertowel. All my watercolor paper is already trimmed and in a drawer next to my leg. I use one brush for ink and one brush for watercolors usually. I have a corkboard I can put my pages up to look at while I paint the next ones. At noon I stop to eat lunch. Then I post any promotions to social media and return emails. I do more drawing until about 3 and then I do family and house stuff for an hour and then I go back to work for an hour. I try to do email and social media, post office and phone calls later in the day. Then I stop for dinner at 5 and around nine I clean up my desk and write my to-do's in my notebook before calling it a day.
A few days a month are computer days when I have to digitize files and clean them up to send to the publisher. My computer is on the other side of the room in a bookshelf. I am very cranky on computer days because I'd rather be drawing. I don't have a stylus and my computer is 11 years old but I refuse to invest in it because I am stubborn and would rather buy nice shoes or pens. On computer days I have to listen to music otherwise I could not get through the day.
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| It's good to have good friends! |
Q: Describe your most perfect Sunday.
A: My perfect Sunday is I wake up, check my phone to see that this week's issue of SundayHaha.com has arrived in my mailbox and that all the comics are correct, since it's my job to upload the weekly strips. My apartment is magically clean. My cat is just relaxing after having been fed by the automatic cat feeder. My family and I walk to our usual place for huevos rancheros and then after that I go bike somewhere to run errands or do groceries for the week and then a spontaneous meeting with friends or just relax at home.
Thank you so much, Mika, for catching up with us here at Bird Meets Worm! You are a rock star!