Comics Bulletin logo
Search
  • Columns
    Random
    • Stalking the Tone of Nathaniel Dusk with Tom Ziuko

      Jason Sacks
      April 27, 2012
      Columns, Riding Shotgun
    Recent
    • What Looks Good For the Week of December 4, 2019

      Daniel Gehen
      December 2, 2019
    • What Looks Good for the Week of November 20th 2019

      Daniel Gehen
      November 19, 2019
    • The Full Run: FINAL CRISIS – SUBMIT

      Daniel Gehen, Jason Jeffords Jr.
      November 15, 2019
    • What Looks Good
    • Comics Bulletin Soapbox
    • The Full Run
    • Leading Question
    • Top 10
    • The Long-Form
    • Jumping On
    • Comics in Color
    • Slouches Towards Comics
  • Big Two
    Random
    • 4.0

      Review: 'Marvel Boy' #1 is top-notch entertainment

      Jason Sacks
      June 5, 2000
      Big Two Reviews, Marvel Comics, Reviews
    Recent
    • Collecting Profile: DC Stargirl

      nguyen ly
      November 30, 2019
    • Collecting Profile: The Eternals

      nguyen ly
      November 16, 2019
    • The Full Run: FINAL CRISIS – SUBMIT

      Daniel Gehen, Jason Jeffords Jr.
      November 15, 2019
    • DC Comics
    • Big Two Reviews
    • Marvel Comics
  • Indie
    Random
    • Preview: Generation Zero #8

      Jason Sacks
      March 23, 2017
      Indie, Valiant
    Recent
    • Review: Transformers Galaxies #3 and the problem with Constructicons

      Stephen Cook
      December 3, 2019
    • AHOY Comics Announces A Wave of Titles for 2020

      Daniel Gehen
      November 12, 2019
    • What Looks Good for the Week of November 13th, 2019

      Daniel Gehen
      November 11, 2019
    • Reviews
    • Archie Comics
    • Boom! Studios
    • Dark Horse
    • IDW
    • Image
    • Oni Press
  • Reviews
    Random
    • Starve is a Perfect Combination of Smarts, Style, and Passion

      Jason Sacks
      May 12, 2015
      Reviews
    Recent
    • 2.0

      Review: Roku #1 Fails to Deliver

      Jason Jeffords Jr.
      November 11, 2019
    • 3.5

      Review: AMAZING MARY JANE #1 Starts Strong But Plays it Safe With Messaging

      Daniel Gehen
      October 29, 2019
    • 4.0

      Review: Count Crowley – Reluctant Midnight Monster Hunter #1

      Mike Nickells
      October 22, 2019
    • Singles Going Steady
    • Slugfest
    • Manga
      • Reviews
    • Small Press
      • Reviews
      • ICYMI
      • Tiny Pages Made of Ashes
  • Interviews
    Random
    • Fred Chao: Building Your Everyman's Hiro

      Jason Sacks
      July 16, 2009
      Interviews
    Recent
    • Interview: V.E. Schwab on revisiting Red London in The Steel Prince

      Stephen Cook
      March 13, 2019
    • Interview: David Foster Wallace and Hellblazer, words on Wyrd with writer Curt Pires

      Stephen Cook
      February 27, 2019
    • “The Night Has Teeth” An Interview with Sarah deLaine, Artist of Image Comics’ “Little Girls”

      Jason Sacks
      February 26, 2019
    • Audio Interview
    • Video Interview
  • Classic Comics
    Random
    • Classic Interview: Nick Cardy Pt. II - "Some People liked my Work, but they Never Told Me"

      Jason Sacks
      May 27, 2016
      Classic Interviews
    Recent
    • Countdown to the King: Marvel’s Godzilla

      Daniel Gehen
      May 29, 2019
    • Honoring A Legend: Fantagraphics To Resurrect Tomi Ungerer Classics

      Daniel Gehen
      February 15, 2019
    • Reliving the Craziest Decade in Comics History: An interview with Jason Sacks

      Mark Stack
      January 2, 2019
    • Classic Comics Cavalcade
    • Classic Interviews
  • News
    Random
    • Kickstarter Spotlight: Nowhere Man: Jacked Up

      Jason Sacks
      May 29, 2014
      Kickstarter Spotlight, News
    Recent
    • AHOY Comics Announces A Wave of Titles for 2020

      Daniel Gehen
      November 12, 2019
    • Valiant’s BLOODSHOT Trailer is Finally Here

      Daniel Gehen
      October 21, 2019
    • The Rafaels Team-Up for “HIDDEN SOCIETY”

      Daniel Gehen
      October 3, 2019
    • Titan to Release Phantom of the Opera GN

      Daniel Gehen
      October 1, 2019
    • GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS Title Awarded to Todd McFarlane for SPAWN

      Daniel Gehen
      September 30, 2019
    • Jim Shooter Brings SLOW CITY BLUES to IMAGE

      Daniel Gehen
      September 24, 2019
  • Books
    Random
    • Jeff Lemire's 'Roughneck' is a Journey to a Wilderness as Bleak as its Characters

      Jason Sacks
      April 11, 2017
      Books
    Recent
    • Collecting Profile: Disney Frozen

      nguyen ly
      November 22, 2019
    • Collecting Profile: NFL Superpro

      nguyen ly
      August 31, 2019
    • “THE BEST OF WITZEND” is a Wonderful Celebration of Artistic Freedom

      Daniel Gehen
      September 15, 2018
    • Review: ‘Machete Squad’ is a Disappointing Afghan Memoir

      Jason Sacks
      July 31, 2018
    • Review: ‘Out of Nothing’ is the Antidote to Our Sick Times

      Jason Sacks
      July 23, 2018
    • Review: ‘Bizarre Romance’ Shows Rough Edges in the Early Days of a New Marriage

      Jason Sacks
      July 10, 2018
What's New
  • Review: Transformers Galaxies #3 and the problem with Constructicons
  • What Looks Good For the Week of December 4, 2019
  • Collecting Profile: DC Stargirl
  • Collecting Profile: Disney Frozen
  • What Looks Good for the Week of November 20th 2019
  • Collector’s corner: Old school long box diving for comics is still fun
  • RSS Feed
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Contact Us
  • Write for us!
  • Visit Video Game Break!
Home
Indie

Interview: Jen Bartel: An Underground Magical Girl Fight Club

Jason Sacks
May 4, 2016
Indie, Interviews

Jason Sacks for Comics Bulletin: I’m here with Jen Bartel.  Congratulations. Your booth has been packed. Every time I walk past this weekend, you are just mobbed with people.IMG_5502

Jen Bartel: I know. I’ve been slammed. It’s a really good problem to have. But I haven’t been able to get out.

CB: People seem to love Jem and the Holograms.

Bartel: Yeah, I see a lot of people who are like, “I loved it back in the eighties.” They stop here and they haven’t heard about the comics. So it’s nice to be able to show them the new way.

CB: Tell me about your STELA series.

Bartel: It’s called Chaos Arena: Chrystal Fighters. I’m working on it with my husband, Tyler. Jim Gibbons is our editor and he is amazing. He approached me like six or seven years ago. He was like, “Hey, Jen. Do you want to pitch me something?” And I was like, “Yeah! How about an underground magical girl fight club?” I was fully expecting him to say, “No! That’s crazy.” But Jim is the most enthusiastic cheerleader editor ever. We love him. He was like, “Yes! Do it!” So we have just kind of run with it. It has been a lot of fun.

CB: It starts out very cute then gets very dark.

Bartel: Yeah. It does. It is funny because Tyler and I both really, really love this cyber-punk genre. We wanted to do something that… Really, we just wanted to make something fun and lighthearted. But we wanted to hit all of our nostalgic favorites. So it’s this weird combination of magical girls, our favorites like Sailor Moon and all of that kind of genre. But it also is kind of mixed in with Tron and Ghost in the Shell and all those weird cyber-punk things, too.

CB: And a little Fight Club mixed in, too.

Bartel: Yes! Got to have that.

CB: It’s a really interesting mix with kind of neon art, too. It is all flash and beautiful. The comic must have been a lot of fun to work on.

Bartel:  Yeah, absolutely. Well, and it is really cool because I feel like STELA has done a lot of talking about wanting to give creators full rein over what they can do. I love my other projects too, but sometimes they can feel a little micromanaged. Especially when you do licensed work, you have to be loyal to the source of the material and you have to do things justice. Everything that I have done for STELA, they have pretty much been like, “Do whatever you want! It is free rein.” So it’s really fun.

CB: I’ve only gotten to read chapter one. I don’t want to ask for too much, but does it get even deeper and crazier?

Bartel: It does, yeah. We find out more. Really the first arc is a lot about Stella navigating her way through this underground club that is kind of secret. She ends up in there kind of by accident. So a lot of that is just figuring out why she is there and who the Chaos Club is. They’re this shadowy figure in the background and no one really knows a lot about them. We touch on that a little bit.

Really what we wanted to focus on is what it is to be a teenage girl and trying to figure out where you stand with other people and where you fit in and how your friendships really are. We wanted to touch on that dynamic a lot.

1200_72dpi_blue

CB: I think you pull it off really well in the first chapter. You see her intrigued but also a little scared of this world.

Bartel: Yeah! I think that is how anyone would be.

CB: It could be getting involved in soccer or something for all that matters.

Bartel: Yup.

CB: Do you see it as a little analogy for your own life in a way?

Bartel: I think so, yeah. I think every teenage girl has gone through that experience of feeling like you really just don’t quite know where you stand with people and wanting to be accepted, but not really knowing how to achieve that. I definitely think that’s Stella as a character.

CB: So you felt that way, too?

Bartel: Yeah.

CB: You probably had art all of your life.

Bartel: Yeah, well I did have that. That was an easy in for things.

Crystal Fighters

CB: How did you approach creating on this interesting different canvas? Like the vertical scroll is sort of a splash page.

Bartel: It’s so fun! I think that I’m lucky in that I don’t actually have a ton of sequential art experience so I’m not really set in my ways. I think a lot of people coming from your traditional book might struggle with it a little more. But for me, I’m a blank slate starting. It’s been easier to adapt to it. It’s so much fun. To me, it feels more cinematic because the reveals happen in a line. So it’s almost like the passage of time is a little bit easier to show in that format. You can really set it up for some epic reveals.

Later on in Crystal Fighters, there are definitely some fight scenes that have some very long vertical scrolling, like epic battles. So we are excited about that.

CB: When is the whole series going to be available?

Bartel: Soon, I believe in May. I don’t have a specific date. But they’re telling me some time in May.

CB: What’s your next series after this? Are you going to continue on Jem or is there another thing coming as well?

Bartel: Oh, I don’t know. Right now I have a book called Spacepop that I am actually doing for Macmillan. So that is a two book little mini thing.

I think the format is they are doing an actual novel. But inside of it is a comic. So I don’t know if we will see more of that format coming up, but that’s what I am working on right now. I also am always doing more stuff on Jem and the Holograms. So my plate is full right now.

CB: I was going to say you’re nice and busy.

Bartel: Yeah!

CB: Which is where you want to be. You’ve created this kind of fun, kind of poppy, bright, bold stuff.

Bartel: That’s the thing.

CB: Do you ever want to go dark?

Bartel: I don’t know. The thing is I love looking at that kind of art. But I just have never been really good at creating it.

Chaos Arena: Chrystal FightersJem and the HologramsJen BartelStela

Share On:
Tweet
Guarding the Galaxy: Star-Lord #6
How Representation in Superhero Comics Helped Me with Clinical Depression

About The Author

<a href="http://comicsbulletin.com/byline/jason-sacks/" rel="tag">Jason Sacks</a>
Jason Sacks
Publisher Emeritus
Google+

Jason Sacks has been obsessed with pop culture for longer than he'd like to remember. Jason has been writing for Comics Bulletin for nearly a decade, producing over a million words of content about comics, films and other media. He has also been published in a number of publications, including the late, lamented Amazing Heroes, The Flash Companion and The American Comic Book Chronicles: the 1970s,1980s and 1990s. Find him on Facebook and Twitter. Jason is the Publisher Emeritus of Comics Bulletin.

Related Posts

  • Micro Reviews 3/13/2019: A Slayday Celebration!

    Daniel Gehen, Jason Jeffords Jr.
    March 14, 2019
  • Micro Reviews: Wonder Week!

    Daniel Gehen
    February 14, 2019

Support Us!

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Friends of the Site

  • Your Chicken Enemy
  • Psycho Drive-In
  • Women Write About Comics
  • The Beat
  • Loser City
  • Comic Book Collect
RSSTwitterFacebookgoogleplusinstagramtumblr

Comics Bulletin is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for website owners to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, audible.com, and any other website that may be affiliated with Amazon Service LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate, Comics Bulletin earns from qualifying purchases.

All content on this site (c) 2018 The Respective Copyright Holders