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>> from the library ofcongress in washington, d.c. >> michael cavna: came from carolinabut went to school here at mica and while she was still therehad a dream for a web comic and it just flat outtook off, it just -- she creates charactersthat resonate with readers, she defies expectation, she has avision, she knows what she's doing and that led to nimona whichrecently was a finalist -- yes, a finalist for thenational book award, a big hand for that i think.
[ applause ] and you may know her as wellfor her work on lumberjanes, he fantastic work and we'regoing to sit down and we're going to talk about these successes. she's also written formarvel, she has other projects, she is in hollywood, she's -- everything she creates seemsto be option for films. our hope is between live actionand animation people, smart people, talented people will bringher vision to the screen
and she will just continue rising. it is my true pleasure to bringto the stage for the first time on this stage, noelle stevenson. >> noelle stevenson: which chairdo it sit in, where am i going? >> michael cavna: gothere, go there. >> noelle stevenson: thischair is as good as any other. >> michael cavna: well,thank you so much. >> noelle stevenson: hi,guys, thank you for coming, now you can be [inaudible]it says you're here.
>> michael cavna: he's easierto find, we know where he is. but thank you so much, you knowwe were talking the other day, what moves me is people's originstories and i'm always fascinated when -- like i was a kid my parentsthrew so much pop culture at me and so much art and itwas sort of a gluttony of getting to see everything. you had the opposite experienceright, your parents were like no disney films, not much tv, i think what scooby-do wasone of the few exceptions.
>> noelle stevenson: yeah, i meani was raised in south carolina, i have four brothers and sistersand we were all home schooled. so you know we were kind of a --it was the whole movement of people who -- we weren't allowed to readharry potter when i was growing up because it would teachyou to be a witch obviously. i think i was not allowedto watch pocahontas after my little sister saw itat a sleep over and came home and said mommy did youknow you could pray to trees, so no more pocahontas.
i got a baby sitter fired forletting me watch power puff girls. >> michael cavna: wow. >> noelle stevenson:yeah so it wasn't like -- i don't know if it was an acrossthe board ban on, you know, all kid's movies, like kid's media, but it certainly wasn'ta really wide open world that i was partaking in. the first movie i saw intheaters was the prince of egypt. >> michael cavna: yeah.
>> noelle stevenson:because it was about god. >> michael cavna: yes. >> noelle stevenson: and it wasgreat, i mean i was obsessed with it and there's a lot of like instantmurder and naked man butts in it so, you know but it was about god. >> michael cavna: you can havethat but you can't pray to trees but you can have man butt. >> noelle stevenson: yes,because it was about god. >> michael cavna: okay.
>> noelle stevenson: yeah, itwas all good, but they mellowed out as i got older, yeah now they'reso mellow, they are like too mellow. i come home and my mom puts a drink in my hand [inaudible]where's my real mom? >> michael cavna: didthey change or did you? >> noelle stevenson: ithink that the kids -- i think that they werehippies before they had kids and then they wanted to belike the good christian parents and raise their kids rightand they did that for a while
and then they got tired of it. and then they were just likelet's just be hippies again, our kids are already, you know -- >> michael cavna: yeahand your parents are -- >> noelle stevenson:they're just going to do whatever they're going to do. >> michael cavna: well, yourparents were next to you at the national book awardceremony right last year? >> noelle stevenson: right.
>> michael cavna: andthey looked happy. they looked like they were chilling. maybe drinking with you. >> noelle stevenson: oh,oh, yes, my little sister, i could only get tickets -- i meani wanted they said i could only have one ticket, i will bring mymom because i promised her that she could come but thenmy dad is like i want to come. so i was like i'll pull strings and get you a ticket,i got my dad a ticket.
and they're like oh yoursisters are coming with us, i'm like i can't get, ican't get two more tickets, this is a really expensive event. so my sisters like snuck in. and my little sistershe works as a waitress, so she worked as awaitress at the time, so she had a white tuxedojacket which happened to be exactly what thewaiters were wearing. so my little sister infiltratesthe rings of the waiters
and at some point i justhear somebody go shots. and like three shots are set downin front of me and my parents and i look up and she's likedisappearing again into the crowd. >> michael cavna: so when a goodfamily goes bad they go really bad. that is amazing, so i mean youwere drawing, what i love again with origins stories islike if you don't get to see anything except theoccasional disney man butt, where do you go, well you weredrawing like stick figures. we talked about i think wildrollercoaster rides, maybe ants
or decapitations or something. >> noelle stevenson: i had anongoing series that i wrote, filled several notebookswith it was a story of an ant who was traumatizedby rollercoasters. >> noelle stevenson: but hewanted to overcome his fear for rollercoasters so he wouldlike ride more rollercoasters and they would always crash interrible ways and this ant would get like mangled and he was just likethree little black dots with arms and legs and antenna coming out.
so i would just -- all of hisbody parts would go everywhere, like in different traincars and then he'd be like no more rollercoasters, he'shave like this little ant cast on. and then like rollercoasters comesin the middle of the grocery store and like scoop him up and he'dhave to ride the next one. it was very gruesome. >> michael cavna: now youwere like 5 or 6 though right. >> noelle stevenson: yeah ididn't know how to write yet, all i could write was like idrew my things was like broom,
i think was the only soundeffect, it was like broom and you hear it comingand it was like oh, no and then a rollercoasterwould come. >> michael cavna: did you letyour parents see your comics? >> noelle stevenson: i don'tthink anyone else ever saw the ant rollercoaster comics, i havelike a bunch of sketch books that i kept all the time and mysiblings snooped through everything so they might have seen it but -- >> michael cavna: if they caninfiltrate the national book awards
they can -- >> noelle stevenson: yeah, oh ihave the snoopiest family ever, everyone goes througheach other's stuff. i was like my little sister came outto visit me last year and she was like -- i was like talking aboutsomething that had happened when we were kids and i waslike this is secretly how i felt about it, i didn't wantto tell anyone that. she says oh i knowi read your journal. >> michael cavna: they'rejust open too.
>> noelle stevenson: i think she haslike a bright future ahead of her as like a spy or like a privateinvestigator or something. >> michael cavna: or yourlawyer or agent i think -- >> noelle stevenson: shedid do my hair and makeup for the national book awards. >> michael cavna: nice. >> noelle stevenson: it wasthis whole like bouffant thing, it was great, it was cool. >> michael cavna: wouldyou let her do that again?
>> noelle stevenson:oh, totally, yeah. >> michael cavna: sothere are family skills, so you're there you're beinghome schooled, did you -- like were you sneaking out comic,i think you said you were about 11 when you went to yourfirst comic book store? >> noelle stevenson: i don't knowhow old i was, i would have been -- i was into star wars at the time, i was going for star wars actionfigures, i wasn't going for comics. and i went to the one comicshop that was in my town,
it was called like --i don't know it looks like a big castle witha dragon on top. it was really cool and they had likea huge jaba which i really wanted. and i remember the first thingi saw when i walked in was like a cardboard cutout of princessleia in her like metal bikini. >> noelle stevenson: and she hada sign taped over her belly button with the like deals for the dayand i was like 11 and i was just like oh, this is the kindof place this is, i get it. and like i didn't ever go back,
you know i wasn't evenlike oh no not a bikini. like i've seen star was of course but like you know i just got areally clear message from that was that this store wasn't for me. i could go with like my friend'solder brothers but it was going to be weird if i went bymyself, so i just didn't go back. >> michael cavna: not for youin a male, female way, did it -- >> noelle stevenson: it waslike this is what girls look like here you know,and you get the --
>> noelle stevenson:you just get messages. >> michael cavna: is that shopstill there, have you been back? >> noelle stevenson: yeah,actually i went back, i was looking for some random littlecomic that i was reading at the time and i go in and itwas kind of like -- it's got a lot of cardboardboxes, like long boxes full of like back issues, very,very like hard core nerdy now. and i went in and i was like sonervous, i was like are they going to be -- because it's a thingyou always do whenever you go
into comic shops, like are theygoing to be nice to me this time. >> yeah. >> noelle stevenson: and theguy behind the like counter, he kind of looked like you know likea little i don't know like unshaven and i was like oh ishe going to be nice. and he's like hi, how are you,like what are you looking for, and he's like oh you likethat comic try this one. he was like so nice. >> michael cavna: so itwas like totally different.
>> noelle stevenson:he was introducing me to like other comic book shoppersin there and they were all like -- i was like this is great, i waslike so sorry that i judged you because it's like aweird dark basement. but it was so great and i'vebeen in like the most trendy, like brightly lit comic shops andpeople have been terrible to me. it's like you really can'ttell, sometimes it's just like a little hidden gem ofpeople who really do want to share their passion with you.
they really like want to like -- they want to like introduceyou to more comics, like recommend more comics, sothat was an amazing feeling, just feeling like oh you never know. >> michael cavna: it's changed, isaw a photo of the shop recently and there was a dude ina metal bikini out front so i think it means thingshave totally changed. no, it is -- i remember going tocomic-con and talking to stan sakai who had been going to[inaudible] comic-con for decades
and he'd bring his familyand he said we were -- you know my wife was oftenthe only female there and we've just seen you know thisrevolution, do you feel a part of a revolution, do you feelyou know, what do you feel, what do you see as change occurs? >> noelle stevenson: i mean iwould say more part of a wave, so and like i managed to jump on, on the wave as it was alreadyhappening, so you know the part that i jumped onto was web comics.
web comics had been, it waspretty new but you know 10, 15 years old by the time i starteddabbling in it and just so much of the work had already been done. you know people had figured out how to have a web comic what theformat would typically be, how to monetize it using adsand kick start and patrion and so it was already this reallyrich community and i managed to just kind of likestanding on the shoulders of giants you know,that's what it is.
it is like a lot of peoplehad laid the ground work. >> michael cavna: is there anyoneyou look to artists, creators, writers, anyone you look to? >> noelle stevenson:oh, yeah absolutely, i mean kate beaten isanother guest here, she's one of the firstweb comic artists. >> michael cavna: hark,a vagrant, among others. >> noelle stevenson: yeah,tony cliff's book, delilah dirk and the turkish lieutenantwas the first like serialized,
fantasy-ish comic that iread that made me think that i could do somethinglike that, you know. and then you know there's yuko& anath from johnny wander. jess fink, ryan northall of the old greats who were working tenyears before me, back in the olden daysof web comics. and they were, you know it wasjust such a welcoming world when i came into it and yeah. >> michael cavna: so you're insought carolina, you're in columbia
until you're about roughly 18 right. >> noelle stevenson: 17. >> michael cavna: and then you gooff to mica and you're majoring in illustration and didit feel like any sort of cultural shift or you know -- >> noelle stevenson: yeah. >> michael cavna: yeah, you feellike okay and now i'm in art camp. >> noelle stevenson: i mean i showedup and like the first college party that i went to there wereclippers and they were just dolling
out undercuts -- i woke upthe next day and my wrong bed, with half my head shaved, i was likethis is the best part of last night, it's the one thing noticed. but yeah no it was completelydifferent it was like -- i mean i came from southcarolina, i came from a little bit of like country club area andlike where everything was very -- it was just really controlled,what i would respond to and a lot of my friends would go to christianschools with the assumption that you know if youare exposed to sins you.
>> noelle stevenson:you will become sinful so you'd better not expose yourselfto that at all, which is just, i don't know just strikes me aslike terribly backwards thinking. like i don't know howyou can have so much -- have like real faith ifyou don't trust yourself to be out in the real world. but the place that i did go it wasa place of undercuts and a place of tattoos that you administeredyourself and it was a place of you know really, reallyqueer students as well.
and everything changed, itwas like you know i have to reexamine every singlething that i've grown up with because i know these peoplenow, they're my friends. so you know i have to reconsiderevery single thing i've ever learned, i was wrong abouteverything and it just tore me down to the base andlike built me up again. and i'm still you know tryingto reevaluate as often as i can because i don't want to -- >> michael cavna: so did youstart going out every night
and testing your faith with -- >> noelle stevenson: well, myfaith got pretty well tested, it was no longer muchof a thing, but yeah. yeah, i guess i should havegone to christian school. >> michael cavna: so when did you --you know, nimona just what's amazing to me is how you cantake something -- some things emerge and they just seefully formed and nimona just comes across as one of thosethings that you just, from wherever it sprang you just hadsuch vision for it and such vision
for nimona as a character. i think you've talked about goingthrough certain times of interviews where you said you hated certainfemale characters and you didn't like what you were seeing, canyou just talk about the creation of nimona and what maybeyou were reacting to. >> noelle stevenson: yeah, i mean itall came out of just like, i guess, a fateful collision of differentinfluences that i had at the time. i mean one of them was thathalloween was coming up and i wanted to dress, i wanted to dress up forhalloween of course, it's a big deal
at our school, everyonegoes crazy on their costumes and makes somethingreally elaborate. and i was like i dressed upas a male character every year for halloween, i've never dressedup as a female character before because i don't feel comfortablein the clothes that a lot of female characters' wear. and even if i do it's likemost of them have long hair, i have short hair, likewhere are the characters who look a little bit more like me?
and i think i probablydressed up as hawkeye or something that year anyway. but it was like on my mind thati wanted to design somebody who was iconic and justlooked a little bit different from the other heroinesthat i had to pick from. and so that was kind of on mymind and then also i was -- drawing like this joan of arctype character a lot of the time. it was just like a medievalinterest that i was just exploring and so i went to a class and theywere like all right you're going
to make a character in 30minutes, i was like all right. you know, and it just came out, like she just appeared actuallythe character had existed before, i had a character in highschool, whose name was night shade and she was a shapeshifter,she wore an eye patch and she was really cool,she was just like so cool. >> michael cavna: did youcast her as night shade? >> noelle stevenson: no i mean shehad never really been anything, i had never even really drawnher, it was just like an idea
and so i was like iwant to do something with this character who's kindof been floating around for a bit but i've never had a story, she'snot been with other characters. and so she emerged for this projectand it kind of combined those ideas, i think she'd be like a super hero because the originalone had been more of a standard super herouniverse and then it -- i was like oh i'll make it medieval and that added this interestingflavor i think that took it a step
above the typical you know,deconstructing the super hero. like generic buildings, andwear a t-shirt and like yeah. so yeah and it just -- you knowafter the assignment was done i was like oh i like this character, i'mgoing to see where this takes me. >> michael cavna: well, can you talkabout like we're saying this image if we can go to thatyou know and her look. i don't know if she ever hadan undercut but you know -- >> noelle stevenson: the wholeback of her head is an undercut. >> michael cavna: exactly, sothe whole look can you talk
about you know as your -- you havejust a beautiful sense of design and your characters, you have thegift, you feel your characters, you feel ballister,you know you feel sort of this easy arrogance privilegeof goldenloin right you know so could you talk aboutlike you know when you -- her look and what you'retrying to do there and what you've succeeded at? >> noelle stevenson: yeah, herlooks stayed pretty much the same, it was really important tome that she was like chunky,
just because that wasone of the things that i like can't see as often. and it's really fun to draw frankly. but she stayed prettymuch unchanged, i think her first iterationshe had a different, if anyone remembers read theweb comics she had a little bit of a different look on the firstfew pages and then i changed it to give her -- she's the mostanachronistic character in the comic but i did want to give her a littlebit of almost like a pageboy.
>> noelle stevenson:effect to her hair cut, so that's where thathaircut came from, still with the punk element though. yeah and it's funny becausei was like talking about how like i wanted her to becosplayable and then i was like yeah she's notgoing to wear pants. and this was like reallyfunny to me, the first two pages i had notslept in like three weeks so i like it was really funny to methat she wasn't wearing pants,
i don't remember what the joke wasbut there was some kind of joke. and then i also like gave her theshaved which no cosplayer ever wants to like commit thathard to, you know. so kind of shot myselfin the foot there, making like the ultimatecosplay character. not that that you know shouldreally form your decisions when you are designing somebody. but yeah i mean she stayedpretty much the same, it was just like how can i combinemedieval elements with the some more
like punk elements, you know. >> michael cavna: andi like the sense that you know ballister youthink he's going to be this free for all super villainand that he has rules and he has standards and -- >> noelle stevenson: noone was more disappointed than nimona to find that out. >> michael cavna: exactly yeah,and he has pants on thankfully. >> noelle stevenson: he does, mostof the other characters don't.
>> michael cavna: yeah,i found that out, yeah. >> michael cavna: so could you -- >> noelle stevenson: i put likea fanny shot on the second page of [inaudible] i don't know howanyone let me get away with this. >> michael cavna: you couldcosplay like that a mica but anywhere else i think. >> noelle stevenson: i'm reallytrying to remember i had like -- i told my friend i was like weneed to draw knights without pants, this was really funny,i don't remember why
and it must just be funnywhen you haven't slept. which also explains the shark. >> michael cavna: it all makessense now, so before you guys -- >> noelle stevenson: i'mjust destroying the magic for everybody, no thoughtwent into it. >> michael cavna: at some point tryreading this after just not sleeping for a week and you may -- >> noelle stevenson:it becomes way funnier. >> michael cavna: so could you talkabout their relationship and that
because that's again veryimmediately their dynamic was very natural, can you talk about that? >> noelle stevenson: yeah, ithink i was always very interested in as the middle child of five,i was very interested in the idea of having like an olderparental figure who would give youtheir sole attention. >> michael cavna: another way yourparents didn't measure up or -- >> noelle stevenson: i meani was one of five, you can't, you just cannot, i was the middle soi batman and robin influence there.
batman and carrie kelly specificallywhich i kind of expected to like -- i thought i was being so obviousabout the carrie kelly thing and thought i'd get called outabout it but it's actually not that obvious now thati look back at it. at one point she wears like greengoggles and like yellow gloves, i'm like this is such ashout out and no one got it. no one knows who carrie kellyis i guess, i don't know. >> michael cavna: another thing that in the moment wasjust yeah [inaudible].
>> noelle stevenson: yeah, so itwas kind of a batman and robin, it was kind of a there's a littlebit of mystic [inaudible] in there and there's a little bit of a[inaudible] from impossible. >> michael cavna: sure. >> noelle stevenson: sothose are all just kind of the boss side kick relationshipsthat i was inspired by. >> michael cavna: nice, nice,now in you know being 17, 18, 19 that can be a time ofenormous change and you were going through change, it's just incrediblycool that she's a shapeshifter
and what that speaks to, identityand feelings toward identity. could even be identity politics,can you talk a little bit about why a shapeshifter? >> noelle stevenson:yeah, i mean that's -- it's the point of the wholebook i think is identity and what was interesting to meabout nimona was a spoiler like -- she doesn't have a default form,which most shapeshifters do. so you kind of assume because youmeet her as this girl that this is who she really is but it isn't,and i think that really --
because i did make night shade upyou know when i was in high school. i had been homeschooled untilmy junior year and then i want to public high school for two years and i just had no idea what iwas doing there, like who i was. >> michael cavna: i just haveto -- how was that, was that -- >> noelle stevenson: i just skatedthrough, you know, i like didn't -- i was in the drama cluband the drama club is kind of in a separate building awayfrom the rest of the school and i would just cut classall the time and like --
i was friends with thelibrarian and the art teachers and the drama teacher so i wouldjust cut class an go and read or i'd cut class and go and like-- i mean i always had a note or something, i'd be like i'mpainting sets at drama club, i'm working on a children'sbook in art class. so they would just let me walk out,i was not used to sitting at a desk and chair and having people be like here's your worksheet,do this in 30 minutes. i'm like i'm done, can i go,like no you have to stay.
i've been home schooled for thislong, my mom gives me a list of things to do, i do themand then i can go play. like i mean i was in high schoolso i guess i wasn't like playing but i want to go eata bagel or whatever. >> michael cavna: by the wayhave any of those teachers, librarians have they seennimona or have they seen -- have you heard from any of them? >> noelle stevenson: i'ma little bit in touch with my high school art teacher,really she was one who told me
like art school was a thing andbrought in art like [inaudible]. so she's like basicallythe reason, she was the one who showed me whatillustration was at all, i didn't know it was a thing. >> michael cavna: that's amazing,you want to give her a shout out? >> noelle stevenson: yeah, yeah,she's changed her last name by now, mary connor, mary hendricks isher name is now mary hendricks, yeah and she you know i waswell taken care of there and i was the only person -- i wasone of two i think in the school
who wanted to do like ib art. so they wanted to cut it, my schooltried to cut all the art programs, all of the kind of higher artprograms and she fought for it for me, even thoughshe had to double it with the freshman art class. so it was like me and one otherperson a little table in the corner and then the rest she's teachingfreshman how to like make snowflakes and not throw paint at each other. so it was like it was, youknow it was life changing.
yeah i'd never really had art classbefore being a home schooler you know because your parentsteach you everything you know. i'd had like a few artclasses here and there but -- >> michael cavna: so good job mary. >> noelle stevenson: yeah and so imean being a shapeshifter was almost like the best thing that i couldthink of because it was just like -- i was pretty invisible there but i didn't really know howi was perceived and i like -- i was fine, like i just skatedthrough, i had my friends and we
like went to see communitytheater and like old movies because we were huge nerds but likei definitely wanted to be the kind of person who went to homecoming,i mean kind of, like not enough to actually try but like you know. >> noelle stevenson: like in myheart i was like what would it be like to be prom queen,i have no idea, literally it's the farthest thingfrom my head, i don't even know most of the kids i go to school with. they've been going to school witheach other since they were kids
and like now i'm here, likethe hell am i, you know. >> michael cavna: it'sthe ultimate costume. >> noelle stevenson: it is,what if i could just try this on and just try this on and be someonedifferent for just a little bit. but like and i think teen girlsare kind of always thinking that you know, you're like, i justwant to like be this person just for a second and i don'tknow how to be that. and so -- and thenyou know when i got to college i had my sophomoreyear was a very, very hard year,
i mean it was the year istopped going to church. it was the year like -- a lot ofthings happened and i just sort of, i sort of -- it wasjust hard i guess. >> michael cavna: did it feellike a year of discovery? >> noelle stevenson: it was ayear of kind of self-harm a lot, that came out in various ways, youknow i lost a huge amount of weight that year, in a really short periodof time and it was just like a lot of my friends at school that yearkilled themselves and it was like -- it was just like i don'tknow what's going on,
i don't know which way is up, i needsome kind of hero who was as fluid as i wished that i could be. who can roll with these punches andbe a literal chameleon and just fit into every situation that she's in. and like drawing her as chubbywas like a huge part of that, with being like sometimesi just want to disappear, like i want my body to justdisappear and just having someone who was so physically there, whowas just so loud and boisterous and you know she had real weight.
and took up real space and thatwas just, it was my way of kind of working through all thosefeelings inside myself and -- >> michael cavna: imean is brave act of almost self-declarationit sounds like. >> michael cavna: i love, you drawtransformation just beautifully, the first time i saw that i stillremember it's just, it's so gorgeous in one panel the way you do that soeffortlessly, is it hard to get that or did that just flowfrom your hand? >> noelle stevenson: i meannothing ever just flows
from your hand, let'sget that straight. >> michael cavna: i know. >> noelle stevenson: it's neverlike [inaudible] it's never like [inaudible] purple crayon. >> michael cavna: yeah, exactly. i didn't know just how honestwe were going to be here. >> noelle stevenson: nothingever just flows from your hand, get used to that right now. it doesn't mean that itcan't be a lot of fun but no,
yeah i mean i was very, very alarmedby i think willow traumatized me, the part where valkilmer turns into a pig. >> noelle stevenson: and ittakes him like a really long time and it seems like it's reallypainful and i was just like oooh, same like pinocchio wheresome children were like crying because they're turning into donkeysand they can't even talk anymore, they're just brayingand it's like, ahhh. so i wanted her transformationinto animals to not be horrifying. >> michael cavna: yes, yes.
>> noelle stevenson: so i came upwith this idea that she's kind of, especially since she's not really -- i came up with the idea that shewould completely deconstruct herself before she could turn into anotherform, so she would kind of turn into this black dust andflow into the next form. so there wouldn't be that awkwardin between like animal stage, where it's like i'ma dolphin and a girl. it's funny that i love [inaudible]so much and i was so horrified by the actual act and that's themedia that i was growing up with.
but yeah having the idea forthat middle period it almost was like the death of her previous body. >> noelle stevenson: and she hadto kind of remember if she wanted to go back to a body that shehad used before she'd have to remember exactlywhat it looked like and build it, rebuildit from memory. and so she'd start gettingthings wrong along the way. and so yeah that was my, i don'tknow how much of that i figured out at the time because againthis was for a school assignment
so it was like the nightbefore and i was like ohhh. >> michael cavna: youput in a lot of thought for a night before,it's just amazing. >> noelle stevenson:you'd be surprised. >> michael cavna: yeah, yeah and so again you've got thebeautiful shapes and the fact that she is capable of this quickviolence that we don't get from -- we don't expect it from ballister,i mean it just seizes us. >> noelle stevenson: yeah, imean that was my idea for her,
that was my idea for her and theoriginal idea for [inaudible] when she was nightshade was likehow does someone who just comes in and they're not following the rules of a typical hero villainrelationship. so you come in with yoursidekick and they just kind of shout peppy one liners from thesidelines and get like attacked by bees or something, i don't know. and then she -- he has thisvery chivalrous relationship with his nemesis and they justfight and then he gets arrested,
he goes to -- it'sthe same every time. she comes in and it's just likemurder, like murder immediately, but no we did not agree onthis, what are you doing. we don't murder people,well i thought we did. >> michael cavna: we're villains,right, that's what we do, yeah. >> noelle stevenson: soyeah i mean having someone who just breaks all the rulesimmediately and just looks so different from what thekind of set esthetic is, it's like no we were supposedto wear this today and it's
like well i didn'tfeel like it, you know. >> michael cavna: so nimonais being that one is going to be an animated film right? >> michael cavna: how muchcreative -- yes big hand. >> noelle stevenson: itis you know it is a movie so things happen all the time -- >> michael cavna: yeahanything can happen. >> noelle stevenson: youknow it can go away tomorrow, it can become a live action moviestarring vin diesel in a year.
which i would maybe kill to see. i'd kind of like to livein that dark universe. >> michael cavna: as longas vin's pants are on. >> noelle stevenson: no i wasgoing to say the opposite. >> michael cavna: oh, i know. i was kind of like i'll say it andif you want to take it [inaudible]. >> noelle stevenson: i'mreally bad at like sand casting or like saying here'sthe actor i would like -- i was like [inaudible] foreverything but when someone asks me
who i would cast for nimona, itwas like i want vin diesel to play and ballister and [inaudible]will both be played by lucy lu wearing different wigs. >> michael cavna: nice, nice,does lucy know this yet? >> noelle stevenson:i haven't talked to her recently, we got to catch up. >> michael cavna: i know right. >> noelle stevenson:i'll call her for brunch. i could tell lucy --
>> michael cavna: have yourpeople call her people and -- >> noelle stevenson: all the time. >> michael cavna: yeah, the a -- >> noelle stevenson:i'll text her right now. >> michael cavna: waithold on, the [inaudible] so how much creative control willyou have over this other than vin and lucy, you know in termsof the vision because this like it was a movie just heard,i mean this is coming from, this is art as an act of not justself-expression but affirmation
from a deep, deep place, asleepless place sometimes but you know this is your baby so. >> noelle stevenson: yeah, i meani'm really lucky when it comes to -- so far -- when it comes tothe nimona side of things. like lumberjanes i don't haveany control over but nimona -- i'm the co-producer so i don't -- they don't really need to askme permission to do anything but they kind of have to tellme that they're doing it, so that's really nice, so it waslike i was at the kickoff meeting.
i just have like abigger connection to it and yeah i will be pretty activelyinvolved through the whole process. >> noelle stevenson: [inaudible]good but we'll see like trying to trust these people todo their jobs and i'll be like oh you're doingit wrong but go ahead. >> michael cavna: and thenlumberjanes it's again a rating up there in hollywood but on trackfor to be a live action film, right? >> noelle stevenson:yeah, so i've heard. >> michael cavna: so can youjust talk about any hopes
or any fan casting for that? >> noelle stevenson:gwendolyn christie. >> noelle stevenson: ilegitimately did tell them that i wanted gwendolyn christie,i don't know, it means nothing to them, i don't think thatthey actually passed that on. >> michael cavna: okay, well we willtext gwendolyn and go from there. and you do amazing sharks. >> noelle stevenson: i try. >> michael cavna: anddo you hear from --
because i've talked to youknow friends of young relatives about what nimona means to the,you must hear from young fans, young readers especially girls, you know what do youhear, what do they say? >> noelle stevenson: yeah, imean it's really powerful to hear from girls who are writing fromthe experience that i was kind of writing from, you knowand the dedication is to all the monster girls which islike when you're a teen girl you're like i mean you havea lot of power in you,
you're a monster kind of, you know. most of them that i know it isyou're like trying to look normal or what you think normal should looklike but then you also have like -- in my experience a lot of angerand a lot of fear and a lot of just like the desire to be heardand listened to and respected and loved even if maybe youknow you have too many feelings and maybe you hurt people sometimes. so that to hear fromgirls especially you know, girls with mental illness orwho have you know something
that they feel has comeapart and this is just one of the most -- that'swho this is for. >> michael cavna: yeah,that's amazing. and anyone inspire goldenloin,any one person or family member or is that just you know,he's -- can't remember. >> noelle stevenson:i mean he's a guy. >> michael cavna: a guy. >> noelle stevenson: aguy with pretty hair. >> michael cavna: okay, okay.
>> noelle stevenson: i'm surehe's like legless at some point in the past, leglesswas my favorite. >> michael cavna: couldlucy lu play him? >> noelle stevenson:yes, i would love to. >> noelle stevenson:yeah [inaudible]. >> michael cavna: okaywe'll make that happen. we have just a few minutes here andi really want you guys to be able to ask her some questions, wehave a microphone right here and i can't tell if wehave one over there.
>> noelle stevenson: it lookslike there's one over there. >> michael cavna: questions,i think i see a hand. >> noelle stevenson:there's a hand over here. >> michael cavna: yeah,it's right here, go ahead. >> what's your favorite book? >> noelle stevenson: my favoritebook in the world, oh, wow. >> michael cavna: iwas going to ask that. >> noelle stevenson: i really likedthe phantom toll booths growing up. i read that one like everyyear at around the same time,
so it's like a journey of a veryordinary boy through a world of math and letters and i don't rememberexactly what happened in that book. i liked it. >> michael cavna: wasthat one allowed in the home or was that one -- >> noelle stevenson: yeah, yeahbecause it was educational. >> noelle stevenson: also red wall, red wall was very gruesome,do you remember that? >> michael cavna: of course, yeah.
>> noelle stevenson: mice justlike [inaudible] each other and that was fine, that was okay. no problem in my house. >> michael cavna: they're mice,they're mice that harm, [inaudible]. >> what was your favoritescooby-do character? >> noelle stevenson:velma, obviously. >> noelle stevenson: i was one offive, i was one of five so everyone in my family if we ever saw like -- this is what kids do i think maybestill, you see some character on tv
and you're like that's you. like there's the uglykid and like that's you. so there were five of us, fivescooby characters and they're like you're velma becauseyou're the nerd, ha. it's like no i'm not, yes i am. i love her and i'll still get likepersonally offended if someone like talks trash about velma. >> michael cavna: yeah,so if they were to remake scooby-do would yoube aboard, would you want to --
>> noelle stevenson: they'realways remaking scooby-do. >> michael cavna: no i mean; noi mean the full feature film. >> noelle stevenson:would you make scooby-do? >> noelle stevenson: in a heartbeat. >> michael cavna: allright, so take note, yes? >> when did you firstget influenced to draw? >> noelle stevenson: i starteddrawing before i could write, so i think i just -- i don't reallyremember because i was pretty young, i know my dad used to bring homepapers from his work that had
like numbers printed on one side andthen they were blank on the other and i would just color on the otherside and my mom would put them in frames and -- yeah imust have been probably, i don't know 4, 5,pretty young yeah. the almost couldn't keepup with the amount of paper that i wanted to draw on, yeah. >> michael cavna: we'llprobably have time to work in two more quick questions,so right here. >> how did you come up with theidea for like the plot of nimona?
>> noelle stevenson: i actually knewthe plot almost as soon as i knew who nimona was, i think theidea that she didn't have -- that she wasn't really a girl, orshe wasn't really like a human girl, that was like really theseed that set it off. and i kind of saw what theending was where it's like who's to say she's not the dragon and whatdo knights do, they slay dragons. so how can i like setup this relationship between these three people whereyou know you have the knight or you have the hero, the villainand the sidekick and then all
of a sudden twist those tables andreveal that it's actually the hero, the villain and the monster. >> noelle stevenson: and they'renot who you think they are, so i kind of knew exactlywhat was going to happen and it evolved along the way buti knew that she was going to have to sort of betray ballister at somepoint and reveal that she was more than who she seemed to be. yeah, spoiler, sorry ifno one has read it but, it's really good you should read it.
>> did you ever plan out ballister and aroseous [phonetic] relationshiplike from the beginning? >> noelle stevenson: yeah,i think that was like part of the original idea was thatlike you know it's like lex are in superman and they're alwayslike you know their faces are like this close together and they'relike grrrr, but they like really, really care about each other,they follow each other everywhere and it's like if superman didn'tshow up lex would be really sad. and so it's just like i wanted tojust like break down every wall
and this has this guy kindof in love with his nemesis. like not, almost not ambiguouslyit's just like obsessed with him, they can't think of anything elseand they use their fight as a way to just like hang outwith each other. >> also i really [inaudible]. >> noelle stevenson: that's abetter one that some i've heard. >> michael cavna: yourlast question right here. >> if you ever get artists orwriter's block what do you do to make things through that.
>> noelle stevenson: sometimesi just lie on the floor, it really down help, like lying downjust helps but now i have like a dog and a cat so they bothcome and lie on me and so it helps lessthan it used to. my dog will literallylie on my face so. but i also find takinga bath really helps, i will just like you knowrun a nice bath and hang out and i'll be like oh i got it. or i'll take a walk or drive mycar anything that you're doing
where you don't have to thinktoo much and you can get away from your screen or away from yourair pen and paper and just walk around and it always helps to talkthings through, so i always have, you know i have my friendsand they get so tired but i'm like all right can you justhelp me with this story point and i just like talk their ear off. and they don't almostsay anything and then i'm like oh you're a geniusyou helped me so much. they're like i didn't say anything.
>> michael cavna: allyour friends are geniuses. >> noelle stevenson:they are geniuses. >> michael cavna: yeah,i think this will need to be the last question, so yes. >> who inspires you the most? >> noelle stevenson: oh, wow, oooh. >> michael cavna: you want tolie down on the floor and think? >> noelle stevenson: taylor swift. >> michael cavna: whoa, idid not see that coming, why?
>> noelle stevenson: ithink taylor swift is going to take over the world one day. >> michael cavna: oh yeah. >> noelle stevenson:she's a super villain. >> michael cavna: yeah, sheis, people think it's trump, it's taylor swift, she will. >> noelle stevenson: it's going tobe totalitarian, she'll rule us all. >> michael cavna: she'll saysquad goals but she is -- >> noelle stevenson: wewill all be in her squad.
>> michael cavna: theworld is her squad, yeah. >> noelle stevenson: my friendgot me tickets to her concert and we got these little wrist bandsthat light up in time to the music and as we were leaving it's likethey were still like kind flash from time to time and i'm likeone day these are going to go off and you know that tayloris summoning [inaudible]. >> michael cavna: and withthat we will all be there for your squad goals, abig hand noelle stevenson. >> this has been apresentation of the library
of congress, visit us at loc.gov.
