Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda: A Monstress Collaboration

When I reviewed Monstress last month, I talked about how the art and story perfectly mesh, transforming the tale of a young girl with a monster hidden inside into transcendent art that hits like an emotional sledgehammer, even as it introduces a fantastical world based on Asian myths that we don’t often see in Western comics.
Readers agree: the book currently sits at #2 on the New York Times graphic novel bestseller list.
This is what great comics are supposed to be: art and story complementing one another to create a greater whole.
It turns out that perfect blend is no accident. At San Diego Comic-Con last month, I interviewed co-creators Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda, and throughout our discussion, each kept turning the conversation around to give the other credit for what’s on the page.
The pair first worked together on Marvel’s X-23; Liu realized immediately that she wanted to work with Takeda again. Takeda also enjoyed that initial collaboration, especially as she was working on the book in the midst of the aftermath of the massive earthquake that hit Japan in 2011—a rough time for her emotionally. “It gave me joy to work on that book during that time,” she said.
That surprised Liu, who said she’d not known that before the interview, but that it was Takeda’s handling of another young character that particularly struck her.

“Sana brought so much life to Jubilee in that series,” she said. The artist’s deft handling of the young mutant led Liu to approach her with the story idea that eventually became Monstress.
“A comic can exist without the writers, but a comic cannot exist without the artist,” Liu said.
For instance, the final concept of the main character, Maika, as a girl haunted by a monster within, came from Takeda’s designs.
“I wanted to do a story about a monster and a girl who survived the war. That probably sounded insane to Sana,” Liu said. “It was going to be kaiju with literal monsters, and it didn’t work until Sana sent her sketches. There were of ghosts and apparitions, and that was deeply inspiring to me. I knew these designs had to be in the book. They looked spectral; they looked like something that was inside the girl.”
That was not something Liu had considered previously. “The art completely change the way the story was going,” she said.
However, Takeda quickly turned around the compliment.
“The key words to those designs were three words she had given me: yokai, kaiju and a girl.” Yokai, Takeda explained, is a common idea in Japan, referring to supernatural and ghostlike monsters. And that’s where the designs of the girl being haunted came from—because Liu had mentioned the two together.
It was not the last time Takeda drew something that changed the scope of the story. Liu gives Takeda full credit for creating Kippa, the tough yet idealistic young fox-girl who becomes Maika’s companion in her quest to find out what she’s becoming.
Liu was once again blown away by the design for Kippa, who was originally supposed to be a minor character. “She was so cool, so cute, that I had to use her,” she said.
But Takeda turned it around again: “[Liu] had asked for a ‘fox girl’ and she had given her dialogue that gave me some idea of her character. ”
They smiled at each other at the recollection of those early  sketches. This meeting of minds continued throughout their work on Monstress, from character concepts to action sequences. 
Takeda said it takes her six weeks to draw each issue, but the first was triple-sized, and took that much longer. I wondered if the intricate work on the character designs took the longest, but Takeda kept something else in mind on each page as well: “The important thing is not to lose the speed of the readers and keep track of the story flow,” she said.
They also have had to coordinate the depiction of violence. Liu said the violence has to be just right: enough to terrify, but not enough to go over-the-top.
She used the example of a chilling sequence where a unicorn’s horn was ripped out. “Sana’s depiction was perfect. Also, until I saw her sketches, I didn’t realize there were unicorns in the story.”
Takeda said she, “had to think a lot about the unicorn, and how to draw that sequence.” But she deflected the credit about placing unicorns in the story to Liu: “She told me to make it a special kind of horse.”
One rare time that they weren’t on the same page? The big plot twist at the end of the last issue, where a character who seems to be one thing turns out to be another.
“That surprised me too!” Takeda said.
I asked them about their influences, as while the book begins as Maika’s quest to defeat the monster within, it soon opens up to encompass an entire mythology of gods and magic.

Liu said she was drawing on several different myths. “There [are] a lot of distinct influences, but it also has a lot of fluidity. The Silk Road was a crossroads for many cultures, and this reflects that, but the Japanese and Chinese influences are at the heart of the story.”
The first volume ends on a cliffhanger, with Maika’s quest only beginning. I have my fingers crossed for Kippa’s survival and for Maika’s journey to end well, but given how dark the story gets, I wondered if readers should expect a tragic ending or a happy one.
“It’s a tragic story, but I see [it as] a hopeful story at the end,” Liu said.
Regular issues of Monstress return on October 26. The break between issue #7 and #8 is part of Image Comics’ mandate for creators to take time between volumes one and two of a series, allowing time for new readers to find the collected edition of the first. It also gives them a break—and gives Takeda extra time on the art.
Whatever the reason, the wait for the next issue—or the next trade—is going to feel very long for eager readers like me.