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The Mind Of A Psycho Path – Talking To Stefani Manard About Her Comics

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By Arthur Bellfield

Stefani Manard aka the "Queen of Podcast" may not be a household name in the world of comic books, however to the thousands of listeners who regularly listen to one of the three podcast she's involved in including Drunk Dorks, Shot at History, The Way Station and she's the reigning queen of all things pop culture, history, and comics. Her infamous status may soon change with the release of her first comic book series Psycho Path #1.

AB: Let's start with your secret origin. I want to know about young Stephanie growing up was there any nerd shaming involved?

SM: OMG! My whole life was nerd shaming! Ha-ha I grew up in the 80s and I was into all the cartoons and I watched like Jem and He-Man and She-Ra and Thundercats and a lot of girls didn't watch that kind of stuff and I played with G.I. Joes. And, I kind of followed my passions, even when I was really little and didn't really care much about what other people think until I got older then it really started to bother me. But I didn't change…I just really cried a lot. There was that. Hahaha I didn't let it stop me I just kept living my life.

AB: Do you ever feel like you were born in the wrong decade because right now the nerds and the geeks are the popular kids?

SM: If I was in high school right now I would have been like the coolest ever, I'm pretty sure. because I'm a huge huge nerd. I feel like I would have done really well for myself in high school these days. But, I guess we can't pick when we get to live we just have to take whatever positive and negative thing we get and they kind of make you who we are. But yah I was probably born at the wrong time but I don't think I would be me if I didn't deal with all the things I dealt with growing up.

AB: Growing up in the 80s, that's when imagination was alive because of the influence of pop culture, comic books ,and films and I feel bad about this generation because imagination seems dead and they're recycling all the stuff we grew up with.

SM: I know and they're pretty much making it worse. And, that makes me sad. Very sad. The Jem in the Holograms movie was so bad, it ruined my life. Ha-ha

AB: Hahaha I know. They ruined it first with Transformer movies and then G.I. Joe and I was like this is getting worse and worse.

SM: It's a slippery slop. It's Hollywood they're just trying to make money. Fortunately for comic book creators now is the time to be one because they're pulling a lot of these old comics and cartoons and they're turning them into stuff. Marvel is doing very well for themselves.

AB: What lead you to writing ?

SM: I've always been a huge reader and I have a crazy imagination and I felt like it was the next step from reading. I was like whoa I have all of these ideas in my head and so I used to write like fantasy stories when I was little when I was younger and I would always put in entries for stuff at school and I liked English…I've pretty much have been writing steadily since I was like 6 or 7. Just writing whatever. I enjoy it.

AB: What was the first thing you've published?

SM: My comic (Psycho Path) which just came out in May is my first big thing that got published and I made that happen. I was like so-I want to write a comic. And, I was working with a company before I started my own and that didn't work out. So, I was like I can start my own publishing company (Scapegoat Goat Press) and make it happen and that's what I did.

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AB: I was reading the reviews of your comic Psycho Path and you've received a lot of good reviews, especially for your first comic. How was the learning curve for you learning the production aspects of making a comic, starting with the script?

SM: I had never written a script. I had once wrote a very short screenplay and that was the only scripting that I had every done. I found it very difficult and I actually had help form a friend who is a comic book writer, and I was like give me an example of how I should write this out. I'm really a prose writer and I can write 100 pages and its so much easier than writing a comic script. Which I know sounds ridiculously. But, with this first one it was like pulling teeth. I had the story and I know exactly how I wanted it to go and writing it out was defiantly a chore but it taught me a lot. I just finished the script for Psycho Path #2 last month and I wrote that in less than two weeks it was so much easier. You have to just get on the horse and learn it and from there it's easy.…And I hope it stays that way.

AB: The difference in my mind between writing prose and writing a comic book script is that prose is a very isolated thing and when you're writing a comic you're hoping that the artist can intrepid what you're writing. You hope that you'll meet somewhere in the middle and come out with something awesome or sometimes they artist will come back and make you look good.

SM: Paul Gori (artist) definitely did that for me. I'm kind of of a control freak when it comes to things that I'm working on…to collaborate with someone on a project is really difficult. To kind of put that trust in somebody else because its like I wrote this and this is my baby, but here you go. Lets so what we can do with this! But, he made the process very easy. He was super easy to work with and he had a lot of great ideas and I couldn't have done it without him. So, I'm very thankful for Paul!

AB: You didn't do the traditional thing and write a superhero comic. You wrote a psychological horror comic. What lead you go that route?

SM: First of all I never imagined it would be doing as well as it has, and I'm grateful that its doing well. I'm a psychologist and I'm fascinated by the human mind. So for me my favorite stories are about people. This idea comes really stems from my love for horror and why people do the things they do. I wanted to write about a character to who seemed as real as possible which I found hard to do in comic form, but I think I overcame that challenge which is good! Ha-ha

For me I wasn't trying to write my Hobbit. I wasn't trying to write the End-All-Be-All of what will come in the future. I wanted to write something that I felt comfortable and where I felt solid and I liked the idea so I rolled with it.

image2AB: For people out there who haven't read Psycho Path what is the story about?

SM: This is the story of a teenage boy his name is Zack. He has a difficult relationship with his father. He's the son of the deputy mayor of New York. He's kind of of a loner and he's just trying to live his life. and he gets involved with this girl. Then some things happen that aren't positive. Then he has this altercation with his father, which leads to him being put in the worse mental hospital in New York. It kind of gets worse from there!

I've had a lot of people walk up to me and say "This comic is really fucked up, there's no other way I can say it!" They're like "this is really disturbing, but I couldn't stop reading it!"

It's pretty dark. The story pretty wrote itself. It just seemed like the natural progression of what would happen. Haha I wouldn't recommend it for anybody under the age of 18 unless their parents OK'ed it. At the first con that I did when it came out I had to tell a couple of kids that I couldn't sell it to them without their parents. I kind of felt bad, but I didn't want to be responsible for warping young minds!

AB: Damn it Stefanie that was your job. You had one job! Ha-ha

SM: I know they'll get warped on their own. I don't have to help them along. The world is a crazy place.

AB: I know. I see little girls all the time at five or six years old cosplaying as Harley Quin and I'm like how disturbing is this.

SM: (Sighs) Yah! It's unfortunate, because from Batman the Animated series which is where she comes from and she was such a fantastically written character and there were a lot of nuisances. She's just this extremely intelligent human being who fell in love with the wrong person-and goes crazy. She was my favorite, but now I feel like it's so overdone. It doesn't do anything for me anymore. The way they portrayed her in the cartoon is the way I'll always will remember her. This evolution of her character that's been happening afterwards, it's just not my thing. I can see why people are attracted to the character. She's a little muddy and gets to wear cute stuff and carry around a giant hammer sometimes is fun sometimes-I guess.

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AB: If you have a hammer that makes you cool! Ha-ha

SM: You kind of look badass with that hammer. If I had a seven year old or a younger daughter I would say why don't you dress up as She-Ra or something. Maybe one of the Papergirls. Papergirls is one of my favorite comics right now. It's very pro-female and shows them in the appropriate manner instead of some of the ways they're showing in comics like being overly sexualized.

For more information on Stefani Manard checkout Drunkdorks.com, as well as listen to it on ITunes and Sticher along with A Shot at History, and the Way Station. Or, find her at a local con in the Michigan area where she will have copies of Psycho Path on hand for you to buy!

Arthur Bellfield is a comic book writer, panelist, and supporter of independent creators everywhere. Follow him on Twitter at ALBELLFIELD@Twitter


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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