Somewhere between the cartoon histrionics of Japanese manga and the stark surrealism of Edward Gorey, 16-year-old Talulah Skilling has claimed for herself a precious creative space she hopes will one day help redefine an industry.
Long on inventiveness and enablingly short on creative inhibition, the La Pietra rising senior (who recently shaved her head in response to a friend’s playing speculation that her hair disguised a flat pate) hopes to pursue a career writing and illustrating comic books. In the meantime she’s serving an apprenticeship of her own design and taking every opportunity to hone her developing skills.
As part of her Independent Project, a school requirement in which juniors are tasked with exploring an extracurricular passion, Skilling wrote and illustrated her own comic book, “Jackie Cooper Is Missing,” a murder-mystery that draws inspiration from highly publicized missing-children cases that generated headlines in the 1980s.
Skilling had originally intended the comic to run 25 pages. By the time she completed the painstakingly hand-drawn, panel-by-panel work, the comic had expanded to 56 full-color pages.
Skilling is also the creator of “Truckstop Demons,” an online comic that tracks the adventures of Snips, Gigi and Laurie, a trio of “Maintainers” who roam the country solving supernatural problems while navigating the prickly politics of the towns they visit.
The comic reflects Skilling’s penchant for balancing creepy, supernatural elements with humor and sass. It also demonstrates her personal commitment to diversifying the range of characters depicted in comics with the inclusion of two lesbian characters.
“The idea of what comics are and who they are for can be limiting,” Skilling says. “When people think of comics, they think of superheroes. But there is room to examine things that aren’t being examined now. For example, LGTB issues tend to get shoehorned in, not fleshed out or a lot of times not even portrayed.
“Comics aren’t just for straight, white, male nerds,” she says. “More people are reading and making comics these days, especially in the indies.”
The daughter of English and law professors, Skilling said she grew up with ample reading material all around and favored Steinbeck novels, history books and books within the horror and supernatural genres.
“I absolutely scared myself,” she said, laughing. “Still, I’d keep myself up all night reading as much as I could.”
An eighth-grade art class opened Skilling’s eyes to the ways in which illustrations could contribute to storytelling, and she soon immersed herself in comic books and graphic novels, favoring groundbreaking work like Alan Moore’s “Watchmen” series.
Her own early attempts at comic-book illustration were heavily influenced by manga but soon came to integrate the dark, staid tonality she admired in Gorey’s pen-and-ink drawings. She works quickly — it takes her about three hours to complete a full-color page — and boldly, continuously looking for opportunities to stretch the limits of what comics can be.
“I don’t do many extracurriculars, and I don’t have that much of a social life,” she said. “I spend most of my time working on my comics. If you love what you do, it’s not drudgery.”
Skilling’s progress is swift but ongoing. She continues to work on technical matters of lighting and shading, and narrative concerns like giving her illustrations enough space to speak for themselves.
Skilling plans on attending art school after she graduates from La Pietra next year. In the meantime her work will be on solo exhibition at Madre Chocolate Shop’s downtown location during next month’s First Friday event.
To see Skilling’s school presentation on “Jackie Cooper Is Missing,” visit goo.gl/S9wLpX.
Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.
