Maverick Minute: In the Shadow of the Throne Q & A

Q: In In The Shadow of the Throne, we have this amazing fantasy realm with so much backstory! What was your process in building out the world of Lymeira?

Kate: Oh thank you! For In the Shadow of the Throne I definitely started with an idea of the characters and the world followed. Jordan obviously just comes from our world, so there wasn’t a ton of building to be done there, but with Lymeira I started with Astel as a character and built out from there. A big part of that was me looking at him and just going “why are you like this?” Haha.
Astel’s relationship to magic and these family secrets that have been kept from him are the crux that Lymeira’s built around, both to explain why he is the way he is and to give him experiences that function as a foil to Jordan’s experiences with his family. I also really wanted this to be a dark fantasy world and story because I wanted Jordan to be ecstatic about his fantasy escape and then also realize that he’s bitten off a bit more than he can chew, so the dangerous aspects of Lymeira came from there.

Q: Tell us a little bit about your creative process?

Kate: I’m primarily a planner! There are things that develop unexpectedly and surprise me later on in the process, especially through discussing story beats with collaborators or editors, so generally it goes like this: after collecting research, reference, and inspiration, I file a vague idea into a short pitch, which I then build out into an summary or general outline. Next is a more detailed outline that breaks down scenes by page count, by which point most of the events are pretty set (though things might be cut or altered or moved around). Then I write out a comic script, and if I’m also doing the art for a work, I get to thumbnails, sketches, inks, letters, and finally colors.

Q: What do you hope for people to take away from reading In the Shadow of the Throne?

Kate: I think…just that life and relationships are complex in ways that aren’t easy to tease out and pick apart. Which is something I try to explore in a lot of my work!