French illustrator and cartoonist Penelope Bagieu is debuting the English edition of her latest graphic novel, a biography of “Mama Cass” Elliot called California Dreamin’ at Emerald City Comic Con this weekend.
I enjoyed California Dreamin’ quite a bit, for a lot of reasons. I thought it painted a portrait of Mama Cass that showed how she became an unlikely rock star. It was also quite refreshing to read something about the Mamas and the Papas that wasn’t propelled by, well, the emphasis on sex and drugs over rock and/or roll. It’s a well-told story in a nice book, and I’m looking forward to picking up a physical copy this weekend.
Penelope Bagieu took some time to answer some of my questions by e-mail.
I think what I liked about your Cass Elliot biography was that it presented her story when we seem to know a lot about the sordid details of John and Michelle Phillips’ life, but not much about Mama Cass. What was it about her story that appealed to you and made you want to tell it?
Once you start digging in her story, everything is intriguing and against all odds : She was a little insecure overweight kid from a Jewish family running delis in Baltimore, and yet she decided she would be a rock star (and she made it). She was passionate, stubborn, hilarious and extravagant. Everyone would want to tell a story like hers!
What was the writing and research process like for this book?
I wanted Cass’s character to be revealed bit by bit, from different perspectives: people who knew her, loved her, hated herb but never through her own eyes, so that she would remain a mystery that the reader alone would have to solve. So I read interviews of family, band members, artists, to try and figure out the Cass puzzle myself first.
How did you become an artist?
My parents wanted to have some quiet so they gave me crayons and paper when I was probably 3. It was very convenient for them, cause I would never bother them, at the restaurant, in the train, at never-ending grownups dinners. And I was binding (poorly) my own little books, and planned to grow up and sell them in the streets, which is pretty much what I’m actually doing now.
What are you looking forward to at ECCC this weekend?
Everything ! So many artists and writers I admire will be there, like Kelly Sue DeConnick, (I can’t believe I’m in a panel with G. Willow Wilson too). I also have very good (yet very blurry) memories of a few nights in Seattle almost 10 years ago, so I can’t wait to go back and explore.
Where can people find your work and follow you online?
If you can’t read French (I don’t blame you, though it’s a good opportunity to give it a try), two of my comics are published in the US: Exquisite Corpse and California Dreamin’. Otherwise I tweet all day (and very often images of my work in process) at @penelopeb.
https://twitter.com/PenelopeB/status/824794442125234177
