Q. What were your major influences or inspirations for Miss Monster?
A. A while back now, I got obsessed with RuPaul’s Drag Race and I wanted to write a fun story that capture the essence of that but with monsters. The people, the puns, the pageantry, the cattiness – I wanted to write something that incorporated it all!
I never really watched “real pageants” growing up. I think my first experience with them was probably watching Miss Congeniality (that’s how all pageants are, right??) and then in my teen years, being forced into participating in a pageant to be crowned the queen of my local county fair… which I did not win.
Q. What comics do you enjoy most–did any of these find their way into your story for Wayward Sisters?
A. I read a lot of comics—although admittedly lately, I have not been as on the ball with them. That being said, I love a little bit of everything and some of my favourites include Through the Woods, Runaways, 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank, Velvet, Bandette, Lumberjanes, Giant Days, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, and Backstagers.
Light-hearted comics are my favourite, something I can just escape into, but good comics are good comics, and I try to keep up with as much as I can.
I don’t think much seeped into my story for Wayward Sisters but things like Lumberjanes and Giant Days are definitely inspirations that I want to use for projects in the future.
Q. How did you get your start in comics?
A. I started as a podcaster in comics where I would talk about my favourite things with three friends. I did that for several years and started working behind the scenes in comics as an assistant and editor.
I never thought I wanted to be a writer until one day, an artist basically pointed out that if I liked writing and already worked in comics, that I would be a dumb-dumb to not take advantage of that. I sat on it for a while and then realized that I should give it a shot so I started pitching to anthologies and such to practice and hone my craft and build up a proper portfolio.
Q. How has the comics field changed in terms of creator representation since you first got your start?
A. I got started in comics professionally in 2011/2012 or so, and even then, a mere 5-6 years ago, there was a lot of need to be the “cool girl” in the industry. People weren’t calling creators out heavily at that time— but it was pretty close to the start of big changes that really started to pave the way.
I’m incredibly grateful that I didn’t start working as a creator myself until the last couple of years, otherwise I may not have moved forward with my career. Diversity and representation in comics a long way to go, and I think we’re slowly getting there, but it can be discouraging whenever you see an announcement made for some BIG EVENT THAT’LL CHANGE THE UNIVERSE FOREVER and it’s the same old white dudes on the books time and time again. Dudes that can do no wrong despite their politics, their personal opinions, their behaviour and more while women and POCs aren’t being hired solely because they’re not these white dudes.
Honestly, that’s why we need more books like Wayward Sisters. We need to show the world that there are women here. We are working on cool projects. We’re doing things that anyone can read and enjoy and we have cool, fresh angles on things. More stuff like this can only help amplify what we’ve known all along: women make amazing comics.
Q. What is your idea of the perfect monster date? October 31? Because it’s not too hot, not too cold– all you need is a light jacket?
A. Oh man, I think you already stole my answer here, but my perfect monster date… HMMM…
You can’t go wrong with a beautiful dinner on a full moon. The moonlight perfectly lighting up each and every fur as you run through the forest, paw-in-paw (or claw-in-claw!) and howling in unison.
Stephanie Cooke cut her teeth in the comics industry as one of several hosts on one of the original comic book podcasts – Talking Comics. From there, she was able to work behind-the-scenes at many comic conventions, eventually becoming the personal assistant of some of the biggest names in the industry. Now, she has struck out on her own as the founder and editor-in-chief of Rogues Portal a pop culture review and commentary website. A writer in her own right, her work has appeared in the Toronto Comics Anthology, The Secret Loves of Geek Girls and more recently, Mark Millar’s Millarworld Anthology 2017 and the upcoming Blocked and Wayward Sisters Anthologies. In this conversation we discuss how she takes much of her inspiration for her work from her own life and what it was like working with Mark Millar (Kick-Ass, Kingsmen: The Secret Service, Wanted) and his team.
I’m Fred Kennedy, host of Issue Zero, this week we chat with Steph Cooke, she’s a writer. What I love about her is she’s so honest about what she’s doing. The trials and tribulations, we’ve talked to many established people, and creators in the industry so far, and Steph is one of those people that is bubbling under, has worked on a lot of things, done a bunch of smaller press things, and now is starting to break through. She started working at a vintage movie store, did acquisitions, podcasts, blogging, doing reviews, then started writing and working as an assistant to a writer, and now has work a talent search with Millarworld, and is having her first major work published. She also has write prose and has a literary agent, it’s cool and inspiring to have someone at that level talk about what inspires them, and it’s a different perspective than what we’ve had before now.
Read more at http://issuezeropodcast.libsyn.com/podcast#X7Yu9slvim4FAR1R.99
No, this is not a joke. Extreme pillow fighting is a very real thing and this week, I tried it. More accurately, I tried OUT for it at the Anchored Social Club in Toronto, which is kind of like where you’d expect a Canadian Fight Club to take place.
A friend of mine, Brandy Dawley, is the president of The Official Pillow Fight League, which is a worldwide organization that pits woman against woman in a match to the, uh, metaphorical death. Yeah. That. Ok, but really, no one dies, but my best comparison of what goes down in a pillow fight match is UFC meets Roller Derby. Anything goes as long as the pillow is the point of contact. This means that bitches get chokeholed (as long as the pillow is doing the work), punched, perform leg sweeps and MORE. It gets REAL SCURRY and I legit witnessed the world champion (yes, this is a real thing also) chokehold someone with a pillow, take them down and then straddle them victoriously until they tapped out. REALLY.
Brandy needed some women to come out to tryouts for the league since it had been on hiatus since 2011 or so and there is currently no active roster. Her and BJ (another member of Team PFL) have been trying to get things ramped up to make a comeback and they put the call out to get more women involved.
I saw the post on Brandy’s Facebook page and was like “Sure! This sounds like something I could do!” because it did… at face value. The call more or less made it seem pretty innocent and my initial thoughts about the whole thing were that it was going to be a bunch of ladies in a group beating each other up with pillows, but like, in the same manner that you would at a teenage slumber party of some sort.
I WAS SO VERY WRONG.
After I committed myself to the tryouts, I went to The Official Pillow Fight League page and watched some of the videos there. I went from being pretty excited about it to straight up terrified.
HELLO, TERROR.
I had a week to prepare and spent every moment of it training like I was the star of a Rocky training montage (but not actually because ew exercise). I did go to the gym, but it’s really hard to narrow down which exact exercises will help to prepare you for extreme pillow fighting. LOTS OF ARM STUFF (spoilers: it didn’t help me).
Let’s flash forward to the actual event because the rest of this story otherwise is a lot of me panicking and freaking out about stuff and having my friends all watch the video and text me “Wow, you’re gonna die. Can I have your art?” so THANKS A LOT, MORAL SUPPORT TEAM.
THE DAY OF…
I’m one of those people who typically HATES being late for things. Like, I get mass anxiety thinking about being late to a thing that I’m supposed to be at by a certain time. I had originally intended to go straight from work to the event, but I wound up going home and then making my way over to the event. I got there all kinds of stupid early, which was fine because I got to meet the crew, hang out with Brandy and meet BJ.
I was already incredibly nervous about the event but as the night went on, I got more and more nervous. No amount of reassurance from the people around me (EVERYONE BUT YOU, JAMES COOPER) was enough to help talk me down. Carmen Monoxide, a world champion (that I mentioned earlier) came by and taught me a few moves along with one of my opponents, Bailey in an effort to show me that this was in fact something that I could do. This somehow made me even more, MORE nervous.
The scheduled fights kept getting pushed back and finally, 8pm rolled around and we were ready to start. We got a pep talk and settled into our fates. I would fight Monique first and then my second fight would be with Bailey. Each fight is comprised of three rounds that are two minutes each. Let me tell you, THAT SHIT IS EXHAUSTING. Swinging a pillow is SURPRISINGLY hard to do for that length of time.
It was, however, totally baller to have a bunch of dudes fanning you and doting on you in between the rounds. Basically the best doting boyfriends I’ve ever had… you know, minus the boyfriend part.
I had to wear elbow and knee pads, and a mouth guard, which I was TOTALLY FINE with. I didn’t want to knock any of my teeth into the audience as a souvenir. Of course, that didn’t stop me from being the only one to ultimately end up in the hospital because of EXTREME PILLOW FIGHTING.
If you want to have a good laugh, seriously hurt yourself at a pillow fight and explain that to the staff trying to take care of you.
YEAH, so during the second round of my fight with Bailey, I wound up rolling my ankle and heard a crunch. I continued to fight because there was some serious adrenaline pumping through my veins but by the time that faded, my ankle was absolutely pooched. An awesome dude (sorry awesome dude but I don’t think I got your name but thank you!!!!!) found me some ice and made me a makeshift ice pack to put on my leg and made sure I was taken care of.
Anyways though, I thiiiiiink I did pretty freaking good for my matches and was full of sarcasm (my default language) during my post-fight interviews. The PFL says I MADE IT in the league when it’s up and running fully, but I’m up in the air on whether I’ll return or not. I think my current ankle injury is heavily influencing my opinion right now though.
Ok, real talk: I swear that this night was way funnier and more amusing than this blog is leading you to believe. I’m honestly not sure why I’m currently not compelled to make it sound better. IT WAS FUN, but also legit terrifying.
THIS WAS A TERRIBLE BLOG, I AM SORRY. I WILL WRITE A BETTER ONE ABOUT THIS EXPERIENCE SOON, OK? Look at me beating on poor Bailey (she destroyed me, so don’t feel too bad for her here) and the dude looking on here, which is obviously the highlight of this photo.