Guest Q&A | Melissa Chan + Badiucao on ‘You Must Take Part in Revolution’

The graphic novel from Street Noise Books is a near-future dystopian story about technology, authoritarian governments and fighting for freedom.

Today we’re pleased to present a guest interview with Melissa Chan and Badiucao, creators of You Must Take Part in Revolution, conducted by Street Noise Books publisher Liz Frances.

If you’re not familiar with the graphic novel, it features a near-future dystopian story about technology, authoritarian government and the lengths that one will go to in the fight for freedom. The graphic novel is available now.

by Liz Frances

Melissa and Badiucao, this is your first graphic novel! What made you two decide that you should go from journalism and political cartoons to making a graphic novel — why this format?

Melissa: I’d been a journalist for almost two decades — writing articles and also as a correspondent for broadcast and video reports. It started to feel as if whatever I reported on didn’t really matter — that so much of it was reaching audiences who kind of agreed with me already about human rights and democracy. I’ve enjoyed graphic novels over the years, and it kind of dawned on me that this was the book I’d always wanted to write.

Badiucao: Yeap, graphic novels take serious topics like human rights and geopolitics and make them more accessible to groups who might not know the subjects well. I’d always want to break through the circles of my usual readers and speak to younger groups who are comics readers, gamers — basically to leverage the power of pop culture. You know that famous “tank man” from the Tiananmen Square student protests? How about making figures like that as cool and as popular as Spider-Man!

Are there graphic novels that you read that inspired you to try this format?

Melissa: I love the classics such as Maus, Persepolis, and V For Vendetta — and they all have authoritarianism and dystopia as themes.

Badiucao: I’m more influenced by Japanese manga like Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama or Fire Punch by Tatsuki Fujimoto. As for my art style for my own graphic novel, I was influenced by traditional Chinese ink painting and the limited color palette of something like Sin City.

How did you get started — did you just dive in, or were the educational resources you read first?

Melissa: I read everything I could grab my hands on about plot, character, world building. And I even watched how-to comics videos. Probably one of the first things I read was Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics. I also am grateful for science fiction writer Jeff VanderMeer’s Wonderbook, a guide to writing fiction.

Badiucao: As a newbie, educational resources were necessary. But as an experienced artist, it’s always about learning the rules to break them. It’s an interesting balance to keep: you want to learn based on references to start but not too much to a point that it ends up blocking original creativity.

How was the process of making a graphic novel different from journalism?

Melissa: Ha! Well, journalism is about being obsessively interested in finding the facts, confirming them, and trying to explain to people exactly what happened. Writing fiction is kinda the opposite: I’m basically lying, page after page, making shit up! It went against all my instincts, and I found that a big mental challenge.

How was the process of making a graphic novel different from creating political cartoons? 

Badiucao: Political cartoons use one frame. It requires efficiency and instant impact, socially. I don’t usually like to use sequential art for my political cartooning, or use dialogue or text. Because that slows down the message of the art and also creates language barriers for readers from different cultures. A graphic novel is a form of art intertwined with words and with time as a third vector. It is about flow, about experience. It’s not about the perfect single frame, but a journey with a rhythm that’s what you need for storytelling. 

What surprised you the most in the creative process — what was the most different from how you thought it would go?

Badiucao: The size, number, and juxtaposition of panels matter more than the perfection of a single frame. It’s like a life drawing study of a human body — it’s not about the accuracy of a hand or a leg but the relationship among different body parts. Readers are experiencing the entire narrative first before they pay attention to details.  And that experience is dependent on how the artist and writers arrange frames on a page. The choice of arrangements, of frames and the length of dialogue, are about manipulating space and time for readers. Busy frames can move the pace faster and a single frame occupying an entire page, or spread across two, demand readers slow down and pay attention — a bit like director Zack Snyder’s signature “slo mo.” That’s a power I hadn’t experienced in creating political cartoons or in my gallery art practice.

Melissa: I’m not a visual thinker like Badiucao, so in many ways I had to learn his language in order for the two of us to work together. I found the creative process exhausting. I’d work in the morning for two or three hours and find myself needing to pass out and grab a nap. I don’t think I expected how much the emotional and mental demands translated into physical exhaustion. It also wasn’t enjoyable for me. Some people love the process. I often found it tortuous. I think that’s okay! Everyone deals with the process differently.

What part of the process did you love the most?

Badiucao: For character building, people might think we as authors create these fictional people in a dystopian fantasy. But I would say instead of creating them, it’s a process of knowing our characters after we’ve initially set up the world and the circumstances they face. We let the characters grow in their world and respect their choice in the story as if they’re real people. One very important thing is to not treat characters as tools for our agenda, but to recognize that our characters have their own agency — to the point that the authors are no longer speaking with our voices though the characters but we become messengers for the characters to tell their story to readers.

Melissa: Yeah, I didn’t love that. That was torture for me, ha! Badiucao can be the philosophical one about this. Although I will add that the good part was working with him — we got on very well, and managed to stay productive even while we lived on two different continents. The part that I love is being able to walk into a bookshop and seeing You Must Take Part in Revolution on the shelf. I was a bookworm as a kid, a nerd, and if you had told me then that I’d have a published book one day, I wouldn’t have believed you!

Did making a graphic novel change your opinion of the medium?

Melissa: Only that I’m even more into it than before, and am excited by how the genre is growing in popularity in the United States.

Badiucao: I think it’s a cool medium. It’s got the potential to have a real impact on societies, and it’s not just about entertaining.

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