The creator of ‘The Deep and Dark Blue’ discusses the graphic novel, its main characters, reversing tropes, the color blue and not owning a pencil.
Niki Smith’s second graphic novel, The Deep and Dark Blue, is a departure from her first book Crossplay. Blue, out now from Hachette, is a middle grade story of twin princes who, after a coup, have to hide out as girls in The Communion of Blue, an all-female magical order based around weaving and spinning and the magical properties of the color blue. The book plays with the trope of gender bending that has been popular for centuries, but for one of the twins, living as a girl isn’t an annoying burden, but offers her the chance to live as her true self.
The book is also a great medieval adventure as two sheltered children are given a crash course in the world around them that involves politics, conspiracies and magic. The book itself is designed and colored in a way that practically jumps off the page. Smith and I have talked before, and I was thrilled that we had the chance to discuss Grayce and Hawke, the color blue and not owning a pencil.
Continue reading “Smash Pages Q&A: Niki Smith”
