This week YA Author Kate Glasheen took over our Twitter as a part of our weekly Thursday Twitter Takeover. Kate Glasheen is the author of Constellations. (See YEM’s interview with Kate Glasheen here.) See highlights from the takeover below.
Hey there! My name is Kate Glasheen and I’m the author/illustrator of the YA GN Constellations. YEM has let me bust into their account for the evening– stay tuned for the next two hours as I dig into my place in comics and what brought me here! #YAauthortakeover
— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
Currently I’m in Philadelphia working as an illustrator and tattooer. I’ve been making my own comics since the first second my lil’ brain could handle mashing my drawings and writing together. #YAauthortakeover
— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
A random selection of comics that hit me hard when I was just a tadpole: Calvin and Hobbes, Eastman and Laird’s TMNT collections, Havok and Wolverine: Meltdown, Swamp Thing Annual 4-Vol. 2, Epic’s Akira run, Nintendo Power’s Metroid and Star Fox serials. #YAauthortakeover
— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
The comic that has influenced me more than any other is Calvin and Hobbes. Beautiful, expressive draftsmanship. Stories that intermingled hilarity and poignance. And all within the time and formatting constraints of working with a newspaper! #YAauthortakeover
— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
I also got a ton of artistic inspiration from video games. As an 80’s kid, nothing tugs on my guts in the good way quite like the original NES. Favorite games include: Maniac Mansion, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Faxanadu, Willow, Shadowgate, and Bubble Bobble. #YAauthortakeover
— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
In both grade school and high school my art and english teachers were the greatest. They did so much with so little, and along with my artist mother, laid all of the groundwork for my future career. #YAauthortakeover
— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
I was really torn figuring out college. I was waffling between visual art and english right up until the last minute. I ended up pursuing a BFA in Fine Arts with @PrattInstitute . I spent my 2 foundation years on the Utica, NY campus . #YAauthortakeover
— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
I never stopped making comics though. I contributed regularly to my school’s student run anthology called Static Fish. I stayed in Brooklyn for several years after I graduated and I got by with various day jobs while I tried to build my career in illustration. #YAauthortakeover
— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
Two years out of college, in 2006, familial ties (re)connected me with a talented writer named @TomPinchuk . Tom had a few ideas he was seeking a sequential illustrator for. 1/3
— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
It was while tabling at cons for the very first time for HB! that I met two of my current day besties: @alexeckmanlawn and @NickTapalansky . 3/3
— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
I took on William Faulkner’s early piece “The Hill,” and through it was able to make this ultra rare short story a little more accessible (Russ previously had to send me cell phone pics of pages from the rare lit section of his campus library!). 2/2 #YAauthortakeover
— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
Remember my good bud @NickTapalansky? Well he and I worked for years building and pitching our book, “A Radical Shift of Gravity.” After a few different iterations, we found a publisher in @TopShelfComix in 2013. #YAauthortakeover
— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
Meanwhile, I was asked to return to the Canon project w/ Russ + @7StoriesPress for The Children's Literature edition in longtime favorite, Margery Williams’ “The Velveteen Rabbit.” I still think my work on that is some of the best comic work I’ve ever done! #YAauthortakeover
— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
Back to Rad Grav! Our GN finally came out in 2020, right when COVID shut known life down. Way bigger problems in the world at the time than a comic book, but it was difficult to watch literal years and years of work just kind of go poof. #YAauthortakeover
— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
However, in the best turn of events, A Radical Shift of Gravity was optioned just last year for a feature film with @IDWPublishing and @HiddenPictures . It was and is tremendous news, and we're so grateful our book has been given this second life. #YAauthortakeover
— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
Jumping back again to 2016, I started formulating the idea for Constellations. Through @NickTapalansky’s help, I was able to get my rickety proposal presentable enough to try to find an agent once again (I had been trying on and off since I got out of school). #YAauthortakeover
— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
It was with an early version of Constellations that I linked up with Anjali Singh at @Pande_Literary.
1/3#YAauthortakeover— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
She stuck with it and me though, and once we thought we had it, Anjali started shopping Constellations out in 2018.
3/3— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
Forty publishers said no to Constellations. Forty! And that rejection felt extra bad because, right off the bat, a handful of the big houses wanted the book, but wouldn’t commit if it wasn’t officially a memoir. The rest of the rejections trickled in over the next year or so.
— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
So I tried pivoting into tattooing, a field I had tried to get into when I was younger to no avail. But as I was starting my apprenticeship, Anjali reached out because @HolidayHouseBks wanted Constellations. (2/2)
— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
And I can’t possibly overstate what an amazing experience @HolidayHouseBks and my team have given me. I feel such loyalty to them for making me and my work feel valued, and for being the ones to take the chance. (2/2) #YAauthortakeover
— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
This leads me to the current state of things: I’m still making comics, I still play video games, and I’m in my first year professionally tattooing out of my apprenticeship. #YAauthortakeover
— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 14, 2023
This officially concludes my YEM Twitter Takeover. Thanks to @YoungEntmag for having me and thanks so much for tuning in! (2/2)
— Young Entertainment Mag (@YoungEntmag) September 15, 2023
