Interview: Svetlana Chmakova and Dennis Lo

On Sunday, May 8th, while attending the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, I ran around to as many of my favorite kids comics creators as I could and asked them all the exact same questions.  Keep in mind, conventions are crazy loud and crazy busy, so there is a lot of background noise.  Let me know in the comments if you have trouble hearing anything and I’ll translate for you.

The trouble with living on the West Coast is that so many of the creators whose work I enjoy live on the East Coast.  Thank goodness for comic festivals and conventions, eh?  I was so excited to see Svetlana and Dennis at their table that I may possibly have elbowed a few people out of my way in order to get to them.

In addition to working as part of the Bento Comics collective, Dennis and Svet are also involved in other projects.  Dennis Lo is the creator of two webcomics, Magic Restore, a horror/action/detective comic for older teens, and Guernica, an action adventure that’s also for older teens.  Svetlana Chmakova is best known for her books Dramacon and Nightschool.  Coming out this September is Witch and Wizard, Svet’s adaptation of the novel by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet.

Books mentioned in this video:

• Solanin, by Inio Asano
• Black Jack, by Osamu Tezuka
• Elfquest series, by Wendy and Richard Pini
• Bakuman, by Tsugumi Ohba and Takashi Obata
• The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• Finder: Talisman, by Carla Speed McNeil

Filed under: Interviews, Uncategorized