Marjorie Liu is known for many things in the comic book industry. She has written X-Men stories, played a significant role in the Marvel’s first gay wedding, and has won multiple Eisner awards for Monstress. As a woman of color, Liu has become a rolemodel in an industry that is typically dominated by white men. Now, Liu has set her sights on a new project: Wingbearer, an all ages graphic novel with artist Teny Issakhanian. In Wingbearer, Zuli is a human girl who has been raised by bird spirits and lives in the Great Tree. When the wellbeing of the world around her is threatened, Zuli departs on an adventure with her guardian owl to save her world and learn about herself along the way.
Over the last few years, the spotlight has been on Monstress. The mature series with art by Sana Takeda has seen tremendous success throughout its run so far, with 5 Eisner awards and 10 nominations. With how dark the ongoing series is, readers might feel a little whiplash while reading Wingbearer. Artist Teny Issakhanian brings bright colors and softer to the graphic novel, changing the tone and energy of Liu’s script.
Maika and Zuli
Even with the changes in tone, there are plenty of similarities between to the two books, especially when it comes to worldbuilding. “I could not have written Wingbearer without first writing Monstress,” says Liu. “In fact, I think one of the reasons it took me ten years to finish writing Wingbearer is because of what I was processing through the writing of Monstress and the main character, Maika, who is on a completely different journey than Zuli.”
“Maika is someone who has been damaged by war and her mother — she’s bitter, resentful, furious, murderous — she’s not a pleasant person, by any stretch of the imagination — and her adventure isn’t actually what we think it is. It’s not saving the world, or stopping a war, or saving her friends — it’s the adventure of healing and becoming whole again. It’s the adventure of learning how to love her imperfect self. Which, I’d argue, is far more difficult than any of those external, worldly tasks that have been set before her.”
Liu took some time to talk about Zuli, the protagonist of Wingbearer too. “Zuli, on the other hand, is someone who is utterly free and loving and optimistic. Is there a trace of sadness within her from not knowing her family? Sure. But she was raised with love, completely protected and sheltered. She has never known pain or hunger — she has never been unsafe. And while that could be a recipe for selfishness, Zuli has taken those blessings and only deepened her kindness and compassion — two qualities that fuel her courage, even when she’s frightened,” Liu says. “Zuli’s compassion outweighs her fear — and her drive to do the right thing always matters more than any danger she’s in. Her journey is to learn about the complexities of real life, and integrate those complexities while maintaining her core compassion and goodness. That’s not as easy as it sounds — staying compassionate, being kind, in a world of vast inequalities and selfishness where people are regularly unkind — is a profound challenge that most of us fail at on a daily basis.”
“This is where Zuli and Maika intersect. Because, ultimately, it’s these journeys of growth, healing, and deepening wisdom that will save them, and the people around them. They’re becoming the heroes they need to be, heroes that their respective worlds need — and maybe Zuli and Maika will be imperfect, and won’t always make the right choices — but that’s okay. What matters is that they’re both growing, learning, and becoming ferociously themselves. A lesson that I imagine most of us could sometimes use, including myself.”
Worlds Shaped By Their Heroes
So, what is the most important ingredient to making a world that can pull its readers in? “A story lives and dies by the characters who inhabit it — a world can be sketched in, but the characters can’t be — they have to live — and how much we enjoy a story is directly related to how much we love the characters we encounter along the way, Liu says.”
How do you go about creating a world, and the essential characters that inhabit it? For Liu, it’s pretty simple. She thinks about a character and what the character goes through, then the rest just might write itself. “In Monstress, the question was: ‘What if a girl is friends with a giant monster?’ With Wingbearer I wondered, ‘What if a girl needs to save the spirits of birds?“ Now, questions like that don’t always lead to a plot or a world —I have whole lists of those soundbite questions and they’ve gone nowhere — but that’s how I start,” Liu says.
Creating Wingbearer
When asked about the process of creating an all-ages book, Liu stated that she focuses on the characters first. After the characters are fleshed out, she identifies who the characters and world will resonate with. “In the case of Wingbearer I simply had an idea that I’d been wrestling with for about ten years — a story whose protagonist, Zuli, is young — and a story that felt young, too. The energy felt young — that youthful earnest vibe that anything is possible, the world is good, that all one needs in life are friends and a little courage, Liu says. “I think that’s something everyone needs, and can relate to. When you’re young, adventure and friends are an aspiration, a dream of possibilities – but when you’re older, it’s a reminder of what you might have put aside, and maybe what you need more of in your life.”
Of course, Liu isn’t the only person bringing the world of Wingbearer to life. While Liu is responsible for the world, characters, and script, Issakhanian plays just as much of a role in Wingbearer‘s identity. “She wasn’t involved in the writing, but that’s irrelevant to her massive contributions,” Liu says about Issakhanian. A good comic is one where the writer “disappears” in order for the visuals to shine. Liu mentions that comics are a lot like filmmaking, where the other members of the crew help readers to further appreciate the script.
Liu says that after she finishes a script, she “fades away” and lets the artist handle the rest. “And wow, Teny Issakhanian blew Zuli and her world out of the water with her resonant, beautiful, creative vision. She’s a powerful storyteller — she’s worked on films such as Encanto and Raya and the Last Dragon, for goodness sake! Wingbearer came completely alive in her art.”
When asked about how long Wingbearer is planned to be, Liu stated that there is a roadmap, but it’s longevity will depend on how the first graphic novel fares with readers. The sequel has already been written, so time will tell if we will get to see all of Zuli’s adventure,
Success Finds Those With Motivation…
As mentioned before, with multiple milestones and Eisner awards, Liu is respected as one of the best in comics today. To Liu though, the road hasn’t been easy.
“Most of my career until recently could be defined as being the odd woman out. From the start I always had to navigate either being the only woman of color in the room — or, later in comics, the only woman and woman of color in the room,” Liu says. “I learned a lot from that experience — and in some ways, I was carrying on from my Chinese dad, who worked in very white (and racist) environments for most of his early career, and who worried about me having to do the same. “
Liu took some time reflect on her writing prior to comics when she was writing paranormal romance stories. She says that when she started, there were few Asian American women writing in the genre. She also ran into opposition to diversity in the medium. “I was told ‘readers don’t buy books that take place in international settings’ and ‘readers won’t buy books written by someone with a Chinese last name’ and ‘you should make more of your characters white.’ I had to be resolutely and stubbornly deaf to all these comments; a thick skin is something I developed early on,” she says. Liu mentioned that the romance genre was a breathe of fresh air due to it primarily being written by women for women. She even mentioned how refreshing it is that it is edited by women.
“Then I began writing comics, which was a part of publishing overwhelmingly white and male. What a transition! And even though many women read comics, the general idea at the time was that this was a medium for men. Which, of course, was total bullshit, but it was the perception, and perceptions are very powerful and hard to shake once they’re entrenched.”
“There was also the perception that ‘because women don’t read superhero comics’ (untrue) they couldn’t write them (again, untrue). Only because I had wonderful editors was I able to push ahead, but ultimately I saw that there were clear limits to what was going to be offered to me — there was, shall we say, a glass ceiling — and by the end of my X-Men run I realized that I needed to move on.”
For Marjorie Liu, working with Marvel on Astonishing X-Men was a positive life-changing experience, but getting to work with Image Comics on Monstress has been a monumental experience. “Image gave me the space to finally spread my wings, expand my voice, and tell a story that was authentically me. That creative freedom was, and is, priceless.”
Liu says that the last two decades have been driven by the following mantra: “I can. I do. I will.”
“Tell me I can’t do something because I’m a woman or Chinese — that’s like shooting the gun at the starting line — I immediately take off and make it my mission to do that very thing,” says Liu. “And I always know that I can, and that I will.” Liu loves the saying from Galaxy Quest: “Never give up, never surrender.”
“What’s great about being that stubborn is that I’ve finally lived to see this industry be turned upside down — comics are now the growing playground of BIPOC and the LGBTQ communities, and I’m so grateful that those of us who hacked and hammered our way through those lonely years are no longer alone. The corporate giants are no longer the only and final word on who gets to play, and what kinds of stories are told.”
… And A Little Bit Of Luck
Of course, no writer in the comic book industry finds success alone. It always takes the writer and the rest of the creative team to create a masterpiece and Liu’s work is no different. So, how did Monstress and now Wingbearer get such stellar artists?
“Luck, chance, being in the right place the right time. I’ve been blessed to work with the very best, early on in their careers, from Phil Noto to Gabriel Hernandez Walta — and even Sana Takeda and I were paired by accident at Marvel during my run on X-23. She was supposed to be a fill-in artist, but I resonated so powerfully with her work that I asked for her to be one of our full-time artists on the book when X-23’s regular penciler had to depart. Who could have predicted where that would lead us? Our creative, collaborative partnership and friendship has been life-changing.”
“A few years ago I found Teny Issakhanian online, and suggested her when HarperCollins began looking for someone to draw the book. A few other amazing artists were up for the job, but Teny brought it home with the same verve you see in the finished book. Her Zuli was so alive and effervescent — her kindness shone through — and that’s what mattered most to me. I’m so very grateful and lucky to have gotten the chance to work with her on Wingbearer.”
So What Is Marjorie Liu Reading These Days?
“I’ve more or less spent the last six years reading romance novels, graphic memoirs, poetry, some YA, and nonfiction science and history books,” says Liu. “Just off the top of my head, I highly recommend Robin Ha’s Almost American Girl, Coyote America by Dan Flores, and Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism.”
Wingbearer is now available to read at most major stores and platforms.
