Next week, the newest ‘Wonder Comics’ title hits comic shops everywhere. “Amethyst,” written and illustrated by Amy Reeder (“Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur,” “Rocket Girl”), spins out of Brian Michael Bendis’s “Young Justice,” but is more or less a brand new jumping on point for readers. Amethyst is a fascinating character, whose Gemworld setting is rife with storytelling opportunities based around the 12 realms, all based on the various birthstones.
I got to chat with Reeder about the series, working with Bendis, and how she sees her career going, output wise.
Amethyst #1Cover by Amy Reeder
Written, illustrated, and colored by Amy Reeder
Lettered by Gabriella DownieFollowing her triumphant reintroduction in the pages of Young Justice, the new Amethyst miniseries follows teenager Amy Winston—a.k.a. Princess Amethyst—as she returns to her magical kingdom to celebrate her 16th birthday in style. The only problem? Her kingdom is missing, her subjects have vanished, and none in the realm of Gemworld—even her best friend, Lady Turquoise—remain loyal to her house!
Alone and dejected, Amy’s forced to find new allies and confront dark secrets on an all-new quest to the farthest reaches of Gemworld.
I want to start by something that Brian Bendis told me about a year ago. I was talking with Brian and he mentioned to me that he thinks that Gemworld is more interesting than Jack Kirby’s Fourth World. And he couldn’t wait to explore that a little bit. And so, when you are brought onto a project like this, knowing that one of the architects behind the books you’re working on is such a huge fan of it, does that change your approach at all? Or do you just have to say, damn the torpedoes, I’m doing what I want to do?
Amy Reeder: Was it intimidating if he was so into it on how I would handle it and stuff? Is that what you’re asking? A bit. One thing I’m learning about Bendis is that he is a highly collaborative person. Even though he’s got all the success and all these ideas, he really, really cares about the people he works with. And about giving them what they want as well. Because actually, I was really excited about Gemworld, and I did have a lot of things in mind. But I was afraid a little bit about cramping on his style with his story, and he said, “Amy tell me what you want to do.” And I explained what I wanted to do and he understood that I had reasons to do it a certain way and he was like, “Well, as long as this is something you’re passionate about, what I’m going to do is I’ll set it up for you. You just tell me where you need your starting point to be and I’ll do it.”
Which is really insane. But I totally appreciate it because honestly, I don’t know that I’m able to coordinate well with a whole continuity. For me, that’s a new thing. I tend to operate a little bit on the fringe of continuities. So it was really good of him to be open to my ideas. And I’m full of them. So there is that. I will say actually what’s interesting is, I didn’t try too hard to stay in with the original general continuity. But I would say that there is actually a lot of that in there, that was completely just a natural thing. Just because it’s such a good idea in the first place and there’s so much to work with. So that it actually lines up both with the ‘Wonder Comics’ “Young Justice,” and fairly well with the original 12 issue maxi series from the 80s.
You’re given this entire realm of multiple houses and worlds to play with. When you’re thinking about building a setting like that, where do you begin? Do you start with the characters or do you want to start with the world, and then inhabit that world with characters?
AR: Oh, this is a good question. I feel like it could work both ways. Originally, I didn’t really start with Gemworld or Amethyst at all. Luckily in this case, I had already had this fantasy story that I wanted to tell, It was inspired by Saturday morning cartoons, the fantasy ones. And so I had a framework already when I started talking to Bendis about the different possibilities and realized that it could work with it. And there’s definitely a lot of plot in this story and a lot of featuring Gemworld. Because the fantasy aspect was something that I had a drive to do because I had just done a bunch of sci-fi with “Rocket Girl,” and I was using all these templates and rulers, and things to make everything look precisely geometric. And I just wanted to draw a fantasy.
Continued belowI wanted to be in a world where there aren’t any rules. So I guess if I had to pick whether it was about the world first or the characters first, I would probably say the world. It’s a quest format. But that said, it’s definitely about these three characters mostly, Princess Amethyst and then she makes a couple of friends, Phoss and Maxixe. And Amy figuring out who she is and what she cares about, now that she’s becoming an older teen and has gotten her feet under… She’s going to rule. And is it going to be the way that she was taught and how she was expected, or is she going to decide that things should be done a different way? So, I don’t know, it’s a mixture, but I feel like they span a lot of the space. There’s a lot of showing this world and the different people within the world.
Let’s talk about that idea of being a leader. For so many people, we learn to lead by the example we’re shown. And because the character has existed in these two different worlds, is part of her journey for you, bridging those two worlds? Or is she going to have to make decisions that will firmly plant her on one side or the other?
AR: Oh, interesting. Well, I don’t even know if this is officially the name, but to me the name of my miniseries is “Amethyst in Gemworld.” I really focused on her being in Gemworld. The original story is very much about her being an outsider, learning to become an insider. In my storyline it’s mostly an adventure about her in Gemworld. And I think that it really is a part of her, because she didn’t know growing up that she was a princess, right? She was just an ordinary girl. And now she’s taken on this idea that she’s this princess in this fantastical land. Almost to the point that she buys it a little too much. Like she doesn’t realize that maybe that’s not the right thing for somebody to have that much power, especially just as a child. Is it really the best life to live? Is it the one thing that she’s supposed to be doing? Yeah, I don’t know.
So I’m really interested in your process for putting this together because on one hand, like you said, there is this classic series that is very beloved and there have been numerous attempts to bring Amethyst back. But you’re also given somewhat of an open field to play on. Is it more important that it fits in with the current stuff? Is it more important that it stands totally on its own? Do you try and bridge those gaps? And if there was one thing that you felt you had to bring in from the old series, what was that?
AR: I guess it would just be the origin story that I wanted to keep the same. I’m doing a few things that kind of change the different roles of some characters I’m including that were from the old story and some that I’m not. But the thing that was really important to me were these key elements. First that she had come from Earth, raised by adoptive parents. That her parents were killed on Gemworld. And that’s what made her go to Earth. That she goes back when she’s 13. There’s a crazy ridiculously evil super villain named the Dark Lord Opal.
And so those were the prime elements. And also the idea of there being 12 realms, all of them very different from each other, and all based on the birthstones. I’m also keeping pretty well to the map of Gemworld [from the original series]. So yeah, all of that general world-building things I’m keeping. One thing that we are diverging from, especially in ‘Wonder Comics,’ and this is something Bendis wanted, which I thought made sense to me, was that we’re not really aging her as she becomes Amethyst. It just felt like something that made sense to us. Most teens don’t really want to be adults.
And so in that sense, I also aged down some other characters because of that. And keep it being more of a teen thing. And the friends she makes are teens as well. So I’m keeping that world for them. Because I just know that when I was a teen, I just did not really care about adults very much. No offense to adults, but it’s not on your radar. You go to school every day and everybody’s in your age group and it’s this really fundamental important thing that you’re all around the people of your same age. So I felt like that was important to have her be around teens. And actually I use some of the original storyline, and I have some of them adults where she thinks that she’s their friend. But there’s such a disconnect where are all the kids? So anyway. Yeah, yeah.
Continued belowI know that you are coloring your own work here in addition to drawing it. And for a series that is built around color, ow does that change your approach?
AR: Color is just a huge element to it. And I would say it separates all the realms especially. And indicates a lot of things. And I’ve spent actually a significant amount of time figuring out how to render crystals. How to show that they have light going through them or adding different kinds of sparkles. I have so many different Photoshop brushes.
There’s one called sparkle magic. It’s just a big shiny thing. And then there’s like these other different ones that I call gemmy or sprinkle. And I’m actually just coloring the first two issues. We’ve got a colorist starting with issue three, but she’s working with me to create very much in that world. And we’re going to be working closely together to make sure that all of that’s communicated because, like you said earlier, the colors are so key to the book. And luckily she’s excited about that because it’s probably a lot of work. And I think we’re going to make something really spectacular for people.
The series is solicited as a miniseries, but are there more Amethyst stories that you would like to tell in the future? And if so, would you want them to be set in Gemworld or would it be fun to do an Amethyst on Earth story?
AR: For now, I’m mostly just focusing on the miniseries, because I found that I think I’m a miniseries girl. I feel like stories in my opinion I liked the most are ones that end sooner than later. Keep people wanting more. So I’m leaving that up in the air. I’m sure DC is as well. But I will say that while I’m drawing this, I keep coming up with new ideas that I can’t fit into this arc. And I keep thinking of things that are even dreamier and trippier. So it’s definitely in the realm of possibility. I’m definitely thinking about that. We’ll see. Whatever it is, I’m hoping that I’ll have a story arc or a mini series a year. And that’s just what people will see from me for hopefully my entire career.
