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Cursed Pirate Girl, the interview

posted by Matt Knicl at 11:59 pm.

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Archaia Studios Press, the publisher that brought you Hybrid Bastards!, Misericordia and The Sisterhood continues to give us unique, creative titles as it continues to grow. One of the latest comics is Cursed Pirate Girl, a fairy tale about pirates and imagination, beautifully drawn by the writer, Jeremy Bastian.

Archaia was kind enough to arrange an interview with Mr. Bastian.

Matt: Does Cursed Pirate Girl take place in our history or an alternate history?

Jeremy Bastian: It begins in our history, albeit a slightly inaccurate one. This is only seen in issue one and the first parts of issue two. The rest of the series is steeped in the fathoms of the imagination.

Matt: What time period does it occur?

Jeremy: 1728 is the year our story takes place. Some of the highlights of our history this year: Cotton Mathers infamous for his part in the Salem witch trials passes away, Vitus Bering puts his name on a passage way through the Arctic into the Pacific, orthodontic braces are invented, astronomer James Bradley discovers a stellar aberration. None of these had anything to do with why I started my story here. It is a year just like so many insignificant years that float through the history books. This 1728 in the Port of Elisabeth Jamaica (where issue one starts) would not be moved by the disappearance of one sandy little beach vagrant. It would just keep moving along. It would however, be an extremely different case on the black waters of the Omerta Seas.

Matt: What was your inspiration behind the series?

Jeremy: I’m inspired by so many things. I am a 29-year-old, 6-foot-4-inch, approximately 180lb kid. I live a large percentage of my life in my head. The right kind of tree root, grappling a stubborn rock, can inspire, oh lets say a gladiatorial combat between a stone golem and an articulated wooden mechanized knight in a subterranean coliseum populated by fairies.

In my younger days I would go to the library and check out as many books as I could carry (in a garbage bag) and then take them home to devour. I don’t like a lot of the real world, it’s not as much fun and really complicated. I have lots of little ideas for stories, all of which are of that good ol’ fantasy/sci-fi/horror kinda vein, and I came up with a neat place to mash them all together.



I like to say this is my fairytale, a nautical fairytale.

The main thing that inspired me to create Cursed Pirate Girl would be that I haven’t seen it yet. I’m sure there are going to be plenty of people who say this looks like that, and that’s just from this, but I’m doing this a bit for myself too. This is what I’ve always wanted to see in a story, and in part I’m trying with every page to outdo myself. I look at a shell or a bird skull and just keep scheming until I come up with something I really like, put it down on the paper and then say “Ooh that’s kinda cool, I’ll have to make the next thing even cooler”.

Matt: What message(s) are you trying to convey?

Jeremy: The main theme that runs through the series is the want or need to feel like you belong. Cursed Pirate Girl is searching for her father, she has been orphaned and needs to know that someone out there loves her and misses her. I am lucky to have a very understanding and supportive family structure, but like a lot of the artistically inclined I am kinda socially inept. My elementary school experience sorta hurt. Thus I turned inward to a happy place—the imagination—and then just drew pictures. Sometimes that can be good, sometimes not so much. People like to feel like they belong somewhere, this is one of those kind of journeys.

Matt: The art is phenomenal, as is the way text and pictures are portrayed - how did you decide to present the images/text?

Jeremy: After high school I went to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and majored in graphic design. I have an affinity for graphic design and I thought that was something that always seemed to be missing from comic books. I like to illustrate words, include word balloons into the layout of a page, just try to bring the two together in a way that’s a little different. The art end of it comes from giving the book a different feel. When I first started thinking about Cursed Pirate Girl I wanted it to be more than just a story. I wanted it to be almost a style in itself, having characteristic textures, amounts of detail in everything, an ornate embellishment throughout, and a very whimsical atmosphere. I fantasized that in the future people would say “Oh so and so book has a cursed pirate girl feel to it”.

And a little about my process… I use a brush for everything but the gutters and the word balloons. I also work at 100%, that is to say that what you see when you open the book is how big I drew it. This was an idea I had to help make things quicker, but I’m not sure it worked out that way.

Matt: Were there any particular influences you had for the illustrations?

Jeremy: One of the greatest books I have and have had since I was a lot shorter is “The Ship’s Cat”, written by Richard Adams (of Watership Down fame) and gloriously illustrated by Alan Aldridge. This book is beautiful! Alan also did a version of the Butterfly Ball with the sequels Peacock Party and the Lion’s Cavalcade, also really beautiful! That’s where I started drawing things with a bit more detail and ornamentation. It wasn’t until later that I became fascinated by John Tenniel’s work on Alice in Wonderland. After that I became obsessed with Arthur Rackham, whom I believe is the greatest fantasy illustrator of them all. Gustave Dore, Joseph Clement Coll, and Franklin Booth added to my fascination with line work.

In the world of comics my heroes are Guy Davis, Mike Mignola, Arthur Adams, Yoshitaka Amano, Chris Bachelo, Travis Charest, and Gary Gianni. All of whom have inspired my growth as an artist, not personally but with the high standards of their craft and influence on the medium.

Matt: Who is the Cursed Pirate Girl?

Jeremy: She’s a playful, imaginative, stubborn, short, braver version of myself that happens to be a girl. Like Terry Gilliam, who found that side of himself in his creation of Tideland, this is my presentation of the wild imaginative little girl that lives in my head. A fusion of all the hapless maidens, daring knights, brave adventurers, explorers, and sprites. She longs for family and a place she belongs in, she’s tired of being underestimated and will do what is necessary to prove herself. She is a version of me and battles every mean thing I can conjure, a weird parallel to the self defeatist tendencies I sometimes have.

Matt: What was your favorite part about this series?

Jeremy: Oh just coming up with the world of the Omerta Seas. Digging deeper and deeper to create the strange. I have the most fun drawing creatures and things that make my friends go “huh?”

Matt: If there is one thing you could say to a prospective reader, what would it be?

Jeremy: This is more than a pirate story, it is the harvest of my childhood. Just open it up and take a look before you pass over it and relegate it to the aftereffects of Disney’s pirate fad.

Images used with permission from Archaia

Matt Knicl: My name is Matt Knicl. I'm a U of I alumn and one of those unemployed English majors Garrison Keillor likes to make fun of. I've been reading comics since high school and one day I would like to write them. My goal is to expose readers to what is out there in the world of comics and using my English powers, show what is worth reading or not. I can be reached at buzz.comics@gmail.com.