Reversal by Alex de Campi (writing and letters), Skylar Patridge (inks) and Kelly Fitzpatrick (colors) launched on Webtoon in March 2022. The urban-fantasy webcomic, following a middle schooler with chronic pain and her family’s struggles to deal with the violent aftereffects of magic suddenly returning to the ordinary world. Writer Alex de Campi answered WWAC’s questions about the story, the lettering, and the format.
How did the idea for Reversal come about? What inspired you?
It was around 2017 and I’d just finished BAD GIRLS, which was quite serious and literary, and I wanted to do a big, stupid fantasy epic with lots of monster-punching. I wanted to have fun. I was also thinking about the books of Romanian fairy tales I’d grown up on, and also about tumblr/stan culture of female fans shipping male characters in a show because there was no female character with equal agency due to patriarchy. Raise your hand if you’re a girl and have found more meaning in a male fictional character than a female one.
But this is how it starts for me, always: I’m tired of the last “heavy” book I wrote and I want to do something different, something easy. I say I’m going to just cut loose and do something dumb, and then I write it and it’s all complexity and feelings and meaning, and suddenly we’re “heavy” again. It’s the curse of being a character writer, truly.
Why did you choose to use the vertical scroll format for Reversal?
Reversal was actually drawn as a traditional comic! Although somewhat fittingly for a comic whose lead character has chronic pain, both members of my art team ended up having serious chronic pain issues, and we simply made the book very slowly so they could continue to work on it at paces that made sense for their bodies. I decided to put it on Webtoon as we were finishing it so they could at least see the process and get some recognition for it — and then Dark Horse picked the book up, so we’ll end up being printed as well.
Were there any challenges in the formatting process?
The biggest challenge was me teaching myself what worked on the vertical scroll format, although honestly that wasn’t a hard challenge because it translated as “I go and read a bunch of cool webcomics and analyze what makes their storytelling successful.” The actual cutting up of pages into panels for vertical scroll isn’t hard, especially as I have a good Webtoons template I made, but I did have to re-letter EVERYTHING, and that’s what takes me the longest. I really want to have an episode out every two weeks from now on, especially since all the art is done, but it’s the lettering that takes me time. And, as you correctly interpreted, I want to make the lettering nice…
What is your writing process like, and how has it evolved for Reversal?
REVERSAL was entirely written before Skylar started drawing it. I’ve tweaked it a few times and rewritten a she’s drawn it, with the perspective of time and space from the original script allowing me to go back and make it sharper. For graphic novels, I almost always have the entire book written before drawing begins.
My general process is: I write an outline, which is what happens per chapter. Then I write breakdowns, which is what happens per page. (There is a lot of change between outline and breakdowns.) Then I proceed to a script, which is what happens per panel. The script lives in a Dropbox folder we use as a production hub for the book, and I go back and tweak things every so often.
The lettering on Reversal is gorgeous! What is your lettering process like?
Ah, thank you! I think we’re lucky in having a three-person team on this book, where a lot of Webtoons are one person doing it all. I write the script and then come back and do the lettering, so I have enough space to look at my script critically and change it based on the demands of the art.
In terms of actual process, I have my little Webtoons template, and I put the panel in and place it / resize it, then I add in the dialogue, always in a mixed upper/lower font as I think all-caps looks old-fashioned and shouty, plus being harder for folks with visual processing disorders to read. Last, and unusually, I hand-draw the balloons. The fact that I freehand the balloons gives them all those fun calligraphic balloon tails, although it’s not a technique I’d recommend as it’s really too slow to be commercially viable. I’m just a craft nerd. For SFX, I hate most comic book SFX fonts and tend towards more graphic design-based looks.
How do you work with your team to bring this comic to life?
Kelly and Skylar have been great, and this book has been a huge labor of love for them because both of them faced significant health challenges during its production. We just keep open communication, and I ask them to set their own deadlines as I don’t know what’s going on in their lives. Even then, sometimes the deadlines were hard. They got paid page rates, but not fantastic ones as they were out of my own pocket, so I’m hoping we either get a lot more Webtoon subs or the book sells really well so they can get more money (we split all proceeds equally).
Reversal references myths and legends from a lot of different cultures. What was your research process for this story like?
There was almost no research process, as this was all about influences I’d already digested. So much of REVERSAL is based on the Romanian folk tale “Ileana Simziana,” which has elements familiar to almost any Central/Eastern European fairy tale, such as the hairbrush, mirror, and ring. I also wanted the story set in the sort of wonderful, smaller city you see in Japanese comics or anime, and I wanted to write about living in a city under occupation in a realistic way. A lot of American media likes to propose that as soon as people are in danger they turn into awful, infighting psychopaths (see: WALKING DEAD), but I wanted to show how much people just… keep going, even in wartime, even when their city is being attacked by monsters. And how much people help each other.
What’s next for Alex de Campi?
Oof. I have all these books I want to write, but right now I have 600 pages to get to press by end May: REVERSAL, and my new book with Erica Henderson PARASOCIAL, and also BAD KARMA. I also want to find time to put my old book NO MERCY up on Webtoon, and the kids’ book I’m working on slowly with Carla Speed McNeil, RACCOON CRIME SQUAD. (RACCOON CRIME SQUAD is another, “I’m tired of big serious books, I’m just going to have fun” script. It, uh… is a book about raccoons and crime that became complex and full of emotion, somehow.) Anyway, hopefully once I have fewer deadlines I can start writing all these new books that are taking up space in my head.
