If you’ve been reading our articles here at Comics Beat, you already know that Anne M. Martin’s novel The Baby-Sitters Club has been adapted into a graphic novel by top cartoonists. . And the 16th book to be adapted, The Baby-Sitters Club: Christy and the Walking Disaster by Ellen T. Crenshaw, is now available at local bookstores and public libraries.
The Beat spoke to Crenshaw via email to learn more about Christie and Walking Disaster. We learn about her personal history on The Baby-Sitters Club, the impressive panel layouts she uses to depict softball games, and how her parents influenced her chosen career path as an artist. We asked them all about their support.
Avery Kaplan: Do you have any personal history with The Baby-Sitters Club?
Ellen T. Crenshaw: Yes, that’s right! Growing up in the early ’90s, I read Martin’s original series that my older sister Erin handed down. We were also fans of the PBS TV show (long before the Netflix show, which was also pretty good!).
Kaplan: How did you first become involved with the graphics for The Baby-Sitters Club?
Crenshaw: About a year after my first graphic novel was published, Kiss No. 8 with Colleen AF Venable, I was working on my next book, a WHO HQ graphic novel about the artists at the Battle of Gettysburg. Sometimes I was invited to try it out. appeared in the series.
I created character designs and provided several pages showing how the original text of Stacey’s Mistake could be adapted to the comics medium. After a few revisions, my work made its way up the editorial board to Martin. I must have done something right because I am currently writing my third BSC book and plan to publish a fourth in the future.
Kaplan: In Christie and the Walking Disaster, Christie starts a softball team, Christie’s Crushers!Do you have experience with softball or other sports? How has it influenced your work? (I’m like Claudia checking her nails on the stand).
Crenshaw: Ha! I’m in a similar boat, except I’m imagining myself on the playground behind the softball field, balancing on the base of a big tree and having an epic adventure. I know this from experience because my younger sister Erin, who I mentioned earlier, plays softball and I went to the game with my mom.
Erin was a godsend for this particular adaptation. Not only did she know the game and the original book, but she also had deaf teammates at the time, like Matt Braddock. The scene where Christie responds to a million calls from the Crushers is based on reality, because whenever I had a question about the rules about softball, I called her.
Fun fact: In the original story, two-year-old Gabby Perkins was playing Wiffle ball, but it was Erin’s idea to have a pinch runner for important games.
Crenshaw. Headshot credit: Scott Murray.
Kaplan: One thing readers might notice about Christie and the Walking Disaster is how different the panel layouts are during the sports action scenes. Can you tell us how you approached this dynamic, story-heavy layout? What does it take to depict movement in a static medium like a continuous graphic narrative?
Crenshaw: You could spend an entire interview just answering this question! There’s a great video essay by Patrick H. Willems explaining why baseball is the best movie sport, both narratively and visually. I am. I think this also applies to comics!
Baseball, and by extension softball, is made both visually dynamic by the placement of players on the diamond and narratively dynamic by the players’ individual roles on the team. For example, there’s great dramatic interaction between pitchers and batters, but neither can function without the rest of the players.
When I was given the task of adapting a softball story, I didn’t have much experience in the sports manga genre, so I knew I needed some help. Luckily, I’ve always been a big fan of baseball movies like The Sandlot and A League of Their Own, so I turned to these old favorites to understand story structure and scene composition. i’m back. While searching for the best example of a baseball/softball manga, I found Mitsuru Adachi’s Cross Game at my local library. This series in particular was a huge inspiration not only for the depiction of the games, but also for the characters, slow burn of the story, and emotional payoff. I had a copy of the book by my side throughout the entire process, from thumbnail to ink.
When it came to these page layouts, it was important to me to emphasize the burst of activity that usually occurs after a moment of calm during a softball game. Showing action in a static medium is a contrast between stillness and movement. So most of the panels are laid out on the xy axes, until the character starts moving, and suddenly the page is designed diagonally, and the character breaks the constraints of the panel borders. Also, try to move the action in the direction of the reader (right to left in the case of American comics) to build momentum and maintain the energy that keeps the page turning. (Of course, there are exceptions to this, especially since runners on a baseball field essentially walk in a circle, so they can backtrack or cross each other.) I think about the relationship between comics and readers. I’m always thinking. ;It’s a very participatory medium!
My work is generally known for its dramatic gestures and facial expressions. As an animation enthusiast, I try to imbue my characters with as much movement as possible, even if I’m just drawing a dialogue scene. I imagine everyone is on stage, playing in cheap seats. I relied on these intuitions to translate the physicality of softball onto the page.
Kaplan: This is your second BSC adaptation, following the previously released Stacey’s Mistake. How different were the Christie and Walking Disaster adaptations, or did you find a groove in the BSC adaptation?
Crenshaw: For Stacey’s Mistakes, we focused on familiarizing ourselves with the existing graphic novel series and adapting the original as closely as possible (with the exception of a subplot about the uninhabited community in Stacey’s neighborhood that theater). This book is an outlier in the series because it is the first to take place entirely outside of Stony Brook. We had to do a huge amount of research to depict real-life locations in New York City.
In contrast, Christie and the Walking Disaster is returning to Stony Brook with a new location: an elementary school baseball field that I was able to design myself. There was still a lot of research to do, especially in the use of ASL, but we now have more freedom in our storytelling. With one BSC book in hand, I feel more comfortable adapting and structuring stories that are better suited to a visual medium. I wanted to further emphasize the growing relationship between Christy and her stepfather Watson. I wanted Bart to kiss Christy too! I think I was able to keep the original story intact and make it my own.
Kaplan: Are there any BSC characters you particularly identify with?
Crenshaw: I like this question because it’s not asking me who my favorite character is. That’s completely different. I think the character I relate to the most is Mary Ann, for better or for worse. I can’t help but identify with some of Mary Ann’s less positive traits. For example, I am very sensitive to criticism and cry easily. But she’s also organized, smart, and caring, and I’d like to think I have some of that too.
Kaplan: You dedicated this adaptation to your parents for several reasons, including their support of your career as an artist. Especially for the parents of children who are aspiring artists who may be reading this, can you tell us a little bit about how your parents supported you in this career path?
Crenshaw: I’m really grateful to my parents. They saw my tendency to draw and did everything they could to nurture it. I never wanted paper and pencil. They enrolled me in watercolor classes when I was 7 years old. They encouraged me to audition for an arts magnet high school. They took out loans to pay for my college tuition, but I never thought it would be years after I graduated.
I know these are financial privileges that not many people have, and I am acutely aware of where they place me in this career. But in addition to this support, my parents always showed an interest in what I cared about. When my father came home from work every night, he read newspaper comics with me. My mother taught me grammar and watched my favorite anime with me. They read some of the books I read and encouraged me to watch and read some of the things they liked.
They didn’t let me skate without effort and they didn’t give me anything I wanted. But they taught me that what I like is important to them and that what I wanted to do was possible.
Kaplan: Your creator bio says that when you’re not drawing comics, you enjoy playing video games. Are there any games you’re currently playing? Do you have an all-time favorite?
Crenshaw: My favorite games change all the time, but the game that has had the biggest impact on me is Journey. This was the first video game I ever played that felt like an artistic masterpiece, and I haven’t played anything quite as extraordinary since. Some of my other favorites are Outer Wilds, the Dishonored series, Stardew Valley, and Return of the Obra Dinn. I just finished Lorelai and Laser Eyes and am currently playing Life is Strange: Double Exposure.
Kaplan: You are one of a growing roster of talented creators who have worked on adapting Graphix BSC. I’m curious if you’ve ever gotten together (including virtually) to discuss your projects?
Crenshaw: I’ve only met a few of the other adopters in person, but I do chat with them virtually. They are a very kind and supportive group of people! I love seeing everyone’s unique manga style. It’s really great how graphics encourage our individual voices in adaptations.
The Baby-Sitters Club: Christy and the Walking Disaster is available at local bookstores and public libraries.
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