A Conversation with
Wendi Strang-Frost
by Sagewolf

WHERE AND WHEN WERE YOU BORN?
I was born and raised in Sturgis, Michigan. (Smalltownsville.) I was born in the late sixties, remember having to wear plaid pants to school, and I saw Star Wars in the theaters. I am not amused by the whole 70s revival thing. I blame it on the plaid pants episodes.
I spent two years at Kendall College of Art and Design (Grand Rapids) and then transferrd to the University of Michigan's School of Art, finally graduating magna cum laude in 1992. (Yay me! I was only a fifth year senior...) I stayed in Ann Arbor. It's a fun town, in the summer, not during Art Fair.

ARE YOU A COMIC READER? WERE YOU AN EQ READER BEFORE JOINING THE WARP TEAM?
I wam a comic reader, sporadically. I mostly taught myself to read before kindergarten by reading old Warner Brothers and Disney comics. Then came a few issues of Turok, Son of Stone, and Justice League of America. And then I took a long break, not getting back into comics again until Elfquest. I found the first GN at a Waldenbooks in the early 1980s and fell in love. I've been an EQ reader fairly faithfully since then. I added the X-Men to it in high school. Since then I mostly read Vertigo, Strangers in Paradise, Bone and numerous manga titles.

WHAT OTHER WORK HAVE YOU DONE PROFESSIONALLY BEFORE JOINING WARP?
Other professional work - this is called the short list...
Right after college my SO Sean (now husband) and I decided to send a proposal off to Warp, mostly on a lark. We wanted to cross a group of Wolfriders from Two Spear's line with a concept from the RPG by Chaosium: Plainsrunners. Richard wasn't real keen on the idea, but our timing was very good. They were trying to get the second New Blood Summer Special out in 1993, and had a story with no one to do it. Sean wrote them a script (from, ironically, a story by Vickie Murphy, the current writer of Wavedancers) and I did eight pages of art for it. The story was "Rockshaper." I also had one issue of "Power Plays" (written by Michael Kelly) published by Millennium Publications before it died a horrible death in the distributor wars. There is a second issue, and the beginning of a third, that will never see print. Michael revamped the story a bit and is now pencilling it himself (with my inks) in hopes of self publishing.
Other than that, I've had some illustrations in Amberzine, a fanzine for the Amber diceless Role-Playing game. And that's it save for the current Wavedancer run. As to what made me decide on doing comics: I think it started with Wendy and Richard Pini. I hadn't really thought of "doing" comics until I found Elfquest. After that I was geeked. I started making comics of the early life adventures of my AD&D characters.
Then in my early college years I sort of got dared into it. We'd played "Champions" all summer long and after picking up the latest Marvel tripe and loudly complaining that I could do a better job than that, my friend Kevin dared me to do it. I started laying out a graphic novel of our Champions characters, Joel and Sral (a project I still think would be fun to do).
But I don't think it was until my last year of college that I really decided to give it a go. I think, when faced with trying to get into a Master's program. which is really hard in the art field, I decided to try something else, something I'd really love to do. It helped that Sean was into comics in a big way and is an excellent writer himself. So I started to collect my rejection slips from all of the major publishers. ;)

ARE YOU AT WARP CENTRAL OR DO YOU WORK FROM HOME?
I work out of my home. Our second bedroom is my studio.

DO YOU FIND IT EASIER OR MORE DIFFICULT TO PLAY EMAIL TAG WITH VICKIE EVERY DAY?
I really haven't had a problem with it so far. In a pinch, Vickie and I send faxes and, over the weekend, I check my mail twice a day. Also, Mary Lou calls me at work, and we place our faith in Airborne Express.

WERE YOU ‘ASSIGNED’ WAVEDANCERS, OR WERE YOU GIVEN CHOICES ON WHICH INSTALLMENT TO WORK ON?
Okay, this is another story, slightly ironic, and very similar to the “Rockshaper” story. After the Millennium gig fell through, I pretty much gave up on my dream (bad, I know), and decided to focus more on illustration. I’ve been putting together an electronic portfolio on the WWW to that end and I thought that including “Rockshaper” in it would be a good idea. So I e-mailed Richard to ask Warp’s permission to do so. Luckily, after he had replied and gave it the go-ahead, I closed my thank-you e-mail with, “say, let me know if Sean or I could ever help you guys out again” (like we had with “Rockshaper”). And wouldn’t you know it, but Richard was in a bit of a bind with WaveDancers. ;) Seeing my opening, I stuck my foot firmly in the door and bugged him until I got the job. ;)WERE YOU GIVEN AN OUTLINE OF A PLOT, AND TOLD TO FOLLOW IT, OR WERE YOU TOLD “HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENED SO FAR: FINISH IT”?
Vickie and I work pretty closely together (she’s been calling me “partner” since I got the word that I’d be doing WaveDancers for longer than one issue), and we send e-mail back and forth about every other day on average. I get a script “rough” from her that Richard has okayed. From this rough I do thumbnail layouts (much like Lorraine does, if you’ve ever visited her web pages). I send these thumbnails to Vickie for input and approval, and then transcribe the thumbnails to full-sized pages. It’s from the thumbnails and transcriptions that Vickie then makes the final script, which Richard then approves again. That’s how we’ve done the two issues I’ve finished, and the one I’m currently working on.

DO YOU FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE DRAWING FOR WAVEDANCER, WHICH IS SOMETHING RELATIVELY ‘UNTOUCHED’ COMPARED TO, SAY, ‘WOLFRIDER’? THAT IS, DOES IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO YOU, AS AN ARTIST, HAVING CHARACTERS WHO HAVEN’T BEEN DRAWN BY A DOZEN OTHER ARTISTS, AS CUTTER HAS - LESS PRESSURE, LESS RESTRICTIVE, MORE FREE TO GIVE YOUR OWN INTERPRETATIONS VS. THE “THAT’S NOT HOW WENDY DRAWS X”?
You know, I get into both aspects. One side of me is the artist that says, say, these guys haven’t been drawn a lot, so here’s your chance to set them in stone and really leave your mark. The other artist side of me craves challenge. If I could take the canon characters that people have been loving since 1978, and draw them in a way the fans find acceptable, that would certainly be an accomplishment, wouldn’t it? And I don’t say that lightly. Richard and Wendy, especially, are the reason I’m drawing comics today. I’m in the awkward, (and wonderful!), position of working for, well, hell, my idols, in the most basic explanation. And I’m still getting used to the whole thing. I keep pinching myself lest it all be naught but a dream...So, I’m game to draw anything they care to toss my way. ;)

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE EQ ISSUE, AND WHY?
Yeah. Hidden Years #5 (I think), the story of Skywise’s parents, Shale and Eyes High. It’s just such a grabbing story, and it’s beautiful to look at. Or perhaps I just love tragedies...
The Hidden Years where Strongbow and his wolf get rabies runs a close second. I’m very fond of the way Wendy can tell a story with minimal (or no!) words.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE EQ CHARACTER, AND WHY?
It would be completely impossible for me to choose, I’m afraid. None of the characters has ever jumped to the forefront as “favorite”. They’re all important to the story, and it’s the story I love the most. :)
I will profess a fondness for the villains, however, (especially Rayek), for without them, we wouldn’t have much of a story.

IN ANOTHER E-MAIL, YOU SAID THAT YOU NICKNAMED WINDKIN “PISSY ELF” <GRIN> - DO YOU HAVE ‘PET NAMES’ FOR ANY OF THE OTHERS?
*LAUGH* Oh god. No, not really. Windkin got that name because he spent most of the first issue I drew frowning or speaking loudly. He’s beginning to soften up a bit now. ;) I might have to find a new name for him...

OK, SPILL IT. CALENDAR’S OUT - BRILL AND SUNTOP ?!?!?!? SOMETHING. ANYTHING. NUMBER OF ISSUES ?!?!?!?
*LAUGH* Vickie and I have been giggling for days over the stir the calendar has caused. We’re hoping it will increase the interest in the WaveDancers. ;) As for tidbits, I’ll tell you what I told the last desperate soul: Richard knows where I live... ;)
I only have the next five issues in very rough format. Vickie and Wendy are still working out details. You might be able to squeeze more info from her, but I’m not breaking. ;)

IF YOU HAD TO GIVE ADVICE ON “HOW TO GET STARTED” IN ART, WHAT WOULD IT BE? [DRAWING, MATERIALS, COMICS]
Drawings: Drawings always start with an idea. Ideas pop into my head all the time. And with my fine art background, most of them are actually metaphoric statements about some aspect of life or another.
When it comes to comics, I work from scripts. Either my own (once), Sean’s, or Vickie’s for the WaveDancers. And the scripts generally tell me what I need to draw. When I’m just doodling, like on my current ‘draw each Wave Dancer kick’, I try to think about what the character is like personality-wise for the pose and expression and such. As for recognizable things: Practice, practice, practice and a lot of positive attitude. Mistakes are how you learn, after all. I recommend drawing from life, copying your favorite artists (they have art students copy master works all the time, so there is a large precedent for learning that way), and going to art school if at all possible. Very little will replace the four years of intense study with your peers that art college will give you.
Materials: As for as materials go, Bristol board has always been my favorite (hot pressed so it’s smooth). I also work on cardstock scraps from my reproductions (both are a heavier weight than sketch paper). I start all of my drawings with a 2H lead,with very light strokes. And I start with a gesture drawing, which is getting the whole pose, background etc., roughed out in a couple of minutes. My professors always said that if you don’t get the whole drawing knocked out like that at the beginning, it will never come together. So, once the gesture is done, I pick out the final lines, clean it up and finish or ink it - which is how I work on the actual comic, as well. :)

Sendings Issues #8-9, June 1999-Winter 2000

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