EMILY HAMPSHIRE Explores the Complexities of AMELIA AIERWOOD: BASIC WITCH

Emily Hampshire has found time between breaks on-set to sit down with Interviews Editor, Andrew Irvin to discuss her delightful, all-ages graphic novel debut, Amelia Aierwood: Basic Witch, available through Z2 Comics.

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COMIC BOOK YETI: Emily, it’s a distinct pleasure to have you join us in the Yeti Cave today. Are you back in Toronto or still down in Tinseltown? 

EMILY HAMPSHIRE: Thank you! I’m neither in Toronto nor Tinseltown--I’m shooting in the UK! And that’s all I’m allowed to say. That wasn’t meant to rhyme, by the way. I did it again :/

CBY: We never turn up our nose at a good turn of phrase, and it sets a promising tone for the rest of the interview! While it’s Amelia Aierwood: Basic Witch that brings us here today, you’ve had an illustrious career across film and television for well over a decade now, including Schitt’s Creek, which became one of the most lauded comedies in television history over the course of its run. When did you say to yourself, “You know what? All this theatrical success is great, but I should write a comic,” and how did the conversation about this title start with your co-author, Eliot Rahal?

EH: Haha, I wish I could say it was my idea, since creating a comic book has turned out to be the ideal medium for me to have all my dreams come true—from a Jell-O pool to having a Yeti named Spaghetti as a family member. But the truth is, making a comic book had never even crossed my mind until Z2 reached out and asked if I’d be interested. Their pitch to me was basically, “Whatever story you’ve been aching to tell or wish existed, we’ll help you bring it to life.”

I kind of instantly knew what I wanted the story to be, but it all truly came together with Eliot Rahal. I’m so grateful to Z2 for magically finding me the most perfect partner to bring my little black sheep witch to life. I love Eliot’s brain and am dying to work with him again—I honestly can’t say enough about him.

CBY: It's serendipitous, indeed, when chance pairings turn out to seamlessly fit together, and your premeditated decision to bring a yeti into the process really warms every heart in the Yeti Cave. Turning to the broader creative team, you’ve got Kristen Gudsnuk and Ames Liu contributing illustrations, Lauryn Ipsum (who has one of the best pseudonyms in the industry) as Designer, and editorial support from Jasminne Saravia. As a collaborative exercise, when did everyone come on board, and how did you know you’d put together the right team to capture the vision you had for Amelia’s story?

EH: First of all, I 100% agree with you about Lauryn Ipsum’s pseudonym. I truly won the comic book lottery with this whole team. Finding the lead artist was the hardest part. I was shown sooo many incredible artists, but a lot of the art was too perfect and polished for how I envisioned Amelia. I wanted her to feel scrappy, with her personality and sense of humor shining through in the art, rather than the “beautiful work” itself being the focus. It was surprisingly difficult to find someone who could show me Amelia’s distinct sense of humor without a single line of dialogue.

But when I came across Kristen Gudsnuk’s work, that was it.

However, we had a very tight (too tight) deadline to finish the book, which meant I had to have multiple artists work on it.  And this turned out to be one of those ways in which restrictions can force you to be creative and lead to something even better. I didn’t want the book to feel like it was drawn by different people, but I also didn’t want to suppress each artist’s unique style.

So I leaned into it. I had Ames Liu, whose style feels more polished and Disney-like, handle everything within the reality show. That way, when you’re inside the show, it’s like there’s a filter making everything a little glossier, more perfect. Steph Mided, who Kristen recommended, was ideal for Amelia’s childhood flashbacks. Jarrett Williams was a genius when it came to the food stuff—sandwiTches are a huge part of Amelia’s world—and Fred C. Stresing totally nailed the Neila character and the fun antics the whole gang gets up to in the end. 

Everyone involved was wildly creative and collaborative—I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better team. And Jasminne Saravia kept the whole coven from flying off the broomstick.

One of my favorite things, though, was how Kristen hid Easter eggs in every panel—from Schitt’s Creek to 12 Monkeys to my favorite musical soundtracks. I still don’t think I’ve caught them all.

CBY: Turning a limitation to an advantage is at the heart of thinking creatively, and now that I know who contributed which elements, it'll certainly give me even more details to keep in mind on my next read through while I'm hunting for Easter eggs. Now, having joined the rarefied stratum of actors-turned-comic creators, in good company with John Leguizamo and Keanu Reeves, can you share a bit about what translates best from your other creative work to the medium of comics? Particularly regarding comedy, because there’s a lot of really funny material in this comic, how do you find yourself handling timing and pacing of humor differently? 

EH: Comedy’s all about timing, and with comics, you can control that so precisely—the rhythm of panels, the pause between speech bubbles, even the shape and style of the bubbles, font size, and PUNCTUATION!!! You can add comedy in every element of the medium.

In TV, pacing is a dance between the actor and the editor, but ultimately, it’s not in the performer’s control. In comics, you’re the editor, the performer, the lighting guy… it’s ALL in your control so…ironically, the key is restraint.

One of the biggest lessons I learned writing comics is: less is more when it comes to dialogue. I love a good funny run-on sentence or when a character spirals into something weird, but in comics, you really have to let the art do the heavy lifting. Otherwise, it turns into a sea of words—and no one wants to drown in a word bubble.

CBY: Exactly - and on the page, we've got literary prose for that sort of indulgence. I'm glad you've shared how critical it is letting the art do the talking, and the "show, don't tell" maxim applies across visual formats. Regarding visual humor and your delivery, you mentioned the Easter eggs, and I really enjoyed all the small nods to Canadian bands and other parodies you place on the page. How did you make note of all these in-panel in-jokes in your scripting process? Were they intentional from your early drafts or added as icing on the cake in later collaboration as the interior art came together?

EH: That is all Kristen Gudsnuk. Once she started adding the band T-shirts and educated me on the amazing world of parody laws (or lack thereof), she basically unleashed the devil. From that point on, all I wanted was for Amelia’s room to be a Where’s Waldo of in-jokes from my messy life.

Yes, I am tragically THAT messy. Amelia’s room is not an exaggeration.

CBY: It was a source of continual delight as they popped up throughout the comic, and you made the mess work to your favor. On another comedic note, the recurring appearance of Scum - “a highly caffeinated ocean algae alternative to coffee” was hilarious. Did it take any inspiration from “Swill,” the old Bill Murray SNL bit advertising mineral water sourced directly from Lake Erie? If not, where did the idea come from, and what would you consider the most iconic alternative/experimental beverages you had in mind when adding this extra bit into the comic?

EH: That was an Eliot joke, so you’ll have to ask him (which I highly recommend you do 'cause he’s hilarious and would have lots of great insights on Amelia along with his vast experience in graphic novels) I’m pretty sure it had something to do with some weird mushroom coffee he was into. I wasn’t even aware of that SNL sketch, but I will def check it out now 'cause you had me at Bill Murray! 

CBY: Oh, it's a classic, and I'm sure we'll find a way to get Eliot into the Yeti Cave before too long with one of his forthcoming projects. In your broader body of work, you clearly don’t shy away from dark humor, horror, and subversion of normative perceptions. Amelia similarly generates a subversion of expectations, creating situations or reacting to stimuli in ways that confound or frustrate her family at times. Without spoiling things, I wanted to reflect on how she finds her own way and builds confidence in a space of her own, beyond the expectations of her family. This is very much an all-ages title, unlike some of your other work, so can you share a bit around what sort of consideration you put into selecting your audience? When you were writing this story, who did you envision reading it?

EH: I always think about what I’d want as the audience. With Amelia, I was making it for my younger self—but also for every version of me that didn’t feel remotely as grown-up as I was supposed to. For some reason, everything I work on—or even just touch—ends up circling that same Wizard of Oz-y truth: that, “you’ve always had the power, my dear, you just had to learn it for yourself”. It’s never even intentional. But that’s Stevie’s journey in Schitt’s Creek, it’s Jennifer Goines's in 12 Monkeys, and it’s definitely Amelia’s.

CBY: Ah, recurring explorations of personal growth... you can certainly return to draw from that well indefinitely. I also know you’ve done some writing and producing for film and television, so after going through this process of writing for the page in comic form, does it change your inclinations towards future work in cinema? Does storyboarding and plotting out the imagery for Amelia Aierwood inspire any urges to direct or spend time in other art direction and production roles on-set?

EH: Ooooh, that’s a really great question! I can’t say I’ve specifically thought about it but now that I am, it makes a lot of sense for me because I’ve always been so obsessed with the pre-production details of something I’m shooting, like my wardrobe, props, hair, makeup, and just seeing the world and characters written on the page become tangible things. And the thing I’m working on now (that it’s killing me not to be able to talk about) had storyboards up the other day, and I was so enamored by them. I will say that the frustratingly top-secret thing I’m working on now is the epitome of me being IN LOVE with every little detail about my character, who in many ways feels like a live-action Amelia.

CBY: Hopefully our readers will all be keeping an eye out for the announcement of your forthcoming project, because you're definitely building it up for us! I know you’re also quite busy with other productions right now, but having gone through the graphic novel production process, are you planning to return to the form? Do you have other stories that might suit the medium, and are there any specific creators within the comics industry you’d like to collaborate with in the future?

EH: Well, I’d love to do more Amelia books. I think there’s a lot more to explore in subsequent volumes, and I definitely want to work with Eliot and Kristen again.  As for specific creators, I love Bryan Lee O'Malley and also recently worked on an upcoming film with BenDavid Grabinski (who wrote and produced Scott Pilgrim Takes Off), who is really, really talented and genuinely awesome, so I’d love to work with him again on anything. OOOH and Alison Bechdel! Who actually wrote the best blurb for Amelia EVER! I legit cried when I received that from her. 

CBY: Yeah, that's some high praise to receive - she's a luminary for a variety of very good reasons. This is a largely unrelated question, but in my background research for this interview, I saw you’d gotten to participate in Jeopardy! I made it through the audition process during the boredom of the pandemic, but when they learned I was in Fiji, I didn’t get called in. My grandma made it an important part of my childhood, and I’ve always loved the show, so I have to ask, how does the level of excitement, anxiousness, and engagement when filming for Jeopardy! compare to your other on-set experiences? 

EH: AHHHHHHHHH!!!! That was the most anxiety-inducing experience of my life—on or off-screen. I studied so hard because I’m Canadian and didn’t grow up with all the U.S. history stuff, and...hahaha...I really thought I could win! But the second the question was asked and the timer started, I was so nervous I couldn’t even tell you my own name. As you can see, my answers were about that level of genius.

Watching the show is one thing—being on it is a whole other beast. I was a full-on "deer in the headlights." So hats off to anyone who can stay calm and focused in that pressure cooker. And I’m VERY impressed you made it past the audition! Meanwhile, they had to give me money just to keep me in the game—and I was playing for charity. That’s how bad I was: I became the charity.

CBY: It's good to know the generosity of Sony Pictures extends at least as far as floating you until the end of the episode! Now, I always try to end interviews with an opportunity for creators to highlight some of the creative work unrelated to their projects that’s catching their attention lately. What other comics, television, film, art, music, and literature should our audience make sure is on their radar?

EH: I’m pretty much always working or thinking about working, and this summer has been quite busy, so there's not much I’ve been consuming lately. I had a few days off and recently binged The Studio (SO funny), and Adolescence (SO good! Not so funny) and… there are these old Canadian shows that I still love and miss that you can find online that I highly recommend; Angela Anaconda, Nanalan, and Today's Special. Perhaps you can recommend something for me!?  

CBY: Ooh, no one ever turns the question back on me! In light of what you've shared and your body of work; as far as comics, The Pedestrian is funny and poignant, and definitely earned its Eisner nomination for best new series, and Little Moons is commensurately tragic and poignant, and should probably be required reading across Canada. On film and TV, I'd recommend I Saw The TV Glow, which I intend to watch again (but the soundtrack has been tiding me over in the meantime) and Utopia, which I've finally chugged through since moving to Australia. As far as bands, I've been going through the Love of Diagrams back catalogue, and for books, I just finished The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler, which is a brilliant examination of non-human intelligence.

Now that I've offered recommendations upon request, Emily, it’s been an honor having the chance to speak with you about your recent work, and I am overjoyed to see your unique voice contributing to the creative landscape across your various projects! Please feel free to share any other links or details you’d like our audience to check out, and we hope everyone gets a chance to check out Amelia Aierwood: Basic Witch!

EH: Thank you soooo much for your thoughtful questions and most of all your patience with me in getting this back to you. I’m sorry it’s taken me so long, but I promise that when I’m allowed to tell you what I’ve been working on, you’ll understand and forgive me. 

CBY: No forgiveness needed - we look forward to hearing what you've been up to when the news breaks!

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