BOOM! Box is launching a new miniseries next month from Sam Humphries and Caitlin Rose Boyle called “Jonesy.” The story is perfectly timed to Valentine’s Day, as it involves a young lady who can make folks fall in love. The book seems absolutely charming, and we were lucky enough to chat with Caitlin about the book, as well as get some incredible process work that shows four pages from the earliest stages to the complete product, after colorist Mickey Quinn worked her magic.
Jonesy #1 (of 4)
Publisher: BOOM! Box, an imprint of BOOM! Studios
Writer: Sam Humphries
Artist: Caitlin Rose Boyle
Cover Artists:
Main Cover: Caitlin Rose Boyle
Incentive Cover: Lissa Treiman
Price: $3.99
What’s to Love: Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Jonesy is a comic about love that makes us swoon! Sam Humphries (Legendary Star Lord, Citizen Jack) and fresh talent Caitlin Rose Boyle (Buck n’ Lou & the Night Crew) bring something special to BOOM! Box with this series about mad-cap shenanigans, friendship, pals, being a teenager, and figuring out who you are…with a teen cupid twist! If you like Giant Days, dig adorkable romance stories, or just want to smile from ear to ear after reading a comic, you’ll fall in love with Jonesy!
What It Is: Jonesy is a self-described “cool dork” who spends her time making zines nobody reads, watching anime, and listening to riot grrrl bands and 1D simultaneously. But she has a secret nobody knows. She has the power to make people fall in love! Anyone. With anything. She’s a cupid in plaid. With a Tumblr. There’s only one catch—it doesn’t work on herself. She’s gonna have to find love the old-fashioned way, and in the meantime, figure out how to distract herself from the real emotions she inevitably has to face when her powers go wrong…
What can you tell readers about the series “Jonesy” that you have enjoyed that might not be covered in the solicitations? Why did you want to work on this project?
Caitlin Rose Boyle: When Sam came to me with the idea of a teen girl who can make people fall in love, I was immediately hooked on the idea—it’s so fun to work with a character who starts off being fairly selfish in her motivations. If you had this huge power, but you couldn’t use it on yourself, and you were in high school (which is just an AWKWARD time all around)…wouldn’t you make awful decisions too? The main character is extremely flawed from the get-go, and I find that so charming; she has a lot of growing to do, and she’s going to make a lot of mistakes in the process. Nobody’s perfect, least of all Jonesy. She’s kind of terrible, and I love that about her.
In a series like “Jonesy”, I feel like a lot of the charm and humor is going to be sold on your end with the art. How do you try to achieve that tone in a comic where it can be difficult but often excels in things like animation?
CRB: We’re only just beginning to see the world that Jonesy lives in during the events of issue 1, but her world is a pretty cartoony one. Jonesy’s acting is big and goofy for most of the issue—she’s essentially performing for the reader, and she’s a giant ham! I have an unofficial sliding scale of character acting—it gets really silly when the situation is really silly, and then I try to dial it way back for more serious or subtle situations. For jokey moments, everyone’s reactions are over the top—and then there are pages where both the characters and the readers get to catch their breath for a beat. Jonesy is a goofball, but she’s human too! She can’t be running at full speed all the time.
The main character of Jonesy will obviously be so important to the series in how readers relate and become invested in the comic. For you what do you try to bring to the character in her design and acting that gives the reader a good understanding of who she is?
Continued below
CRB: Jonesy is someone who feels things in a BIG way, and I tried to convey that in her body language and the way she presents herself. She emotes strongly—in issue one she gets to experience disgust, joy, pure rage, horror, disappointment, embarrassment…she goes on a bit of a roller coaster, but I wanted all of her feelings to ring true and be valid, because they ARE valid feelings for a kid to experience. She’s a loud character who’s fairly content with herself, but isn’t certain about how she fits into the world—she’s got her own personal style, but her shirts are two sizes too big. She was confident enough to put studs on her shoulders, but she isn’t quite confident enough to wear a shirt that fits correctly. She doesn’t have a problem with taking up a lot of space—her hair was specifically designed to take up as much of a panel as possible every time she’s visible. I wanted her to be a very obvious presence on the page—you can’t really lose her in a crowd.
What’s a normal session look like when you are working on pages? Is there a routine or influences in your work environment that help capture what you want for an issue?
CRB: I usually work at home; I have a drafting table that’s covered in papers, pens, & toys, and surrounded by posters & prints. A normal session sees me settled into my tablet, at my table, with a mug of coffee, blanket on my shoulders, music on my headphones…I like being in a little bubble of comfort when I’m working, so I can really focus on the page. But issue one wasn’t inked under normal circumstances! I finished it over Thanksgiving, which meant it traveled with me to my hometown and was mostly done at my parents’ kitchen table, with our dog Chewie drooling on my feet. Everyone I know regresses a little when they go home, and I’m no exception, so I think it helped get into that high school mindset a little bit.
Jonesy sounds like a pretty awesome kid. As the artist does a lot of your influences and your own loves make it into her world as she is someone who likes anime, making zines, and loving music?
CRB: Oh I totally love all of those things too! Although I can never really get it together to make a zine—I usually just contribute a page or two to other people’s fanzines. Jonesy’s more driven than I am, in that respect. None of the actual artists or properties I love will be in the comic—we can’t do an entire issue where Jonesy listens to Hamilton on every page just because I’m obsessed with it!! But when I fall in love with something I really fall for it, and that enthusiasm is certainly something that will make it into the world. Jonesy hates things with her entire being, and she brings that dedication to the things she loves as well.
