After getting the chance to read the first issue of the new comic series, Harley Quinn The Animated Series: Eat. BANG! Kill. Tour, from DC, I spoke with its writer, Tee Franklin, to talk about how she went about writing such an amazingly fun book. My review for the first issue can be found here.
First off, how did you end up working on the book? Did DC approach you to make a pitch for the story, or did you go to them about it?
Sorta.
Over the summer last year, I ended up randomly chatting with Marc Guggenheim (Arrow) and he was impressed with my writing, like he actually purchased my digital comics — BINGO LOVE, JOOK JOINT, A BLAZIN — and was letting me know what he thought of them as he read it. He then asked me about the Big Two and I was honest that I didn’t think I was what they were looking for.
Boy, was I wrong!
He introduced me to editor Katie Kubert and at the end of the year I was asked to pitch and I started my new year with the news of me writing Harley Quinn!
Happy New Year indeed!
I loved the way that the book absolutely felt like part of the show, how it had the same sense of humour and how the characters, particularly Harley, Ivy, and Gordon felt like they'd jumped straight off the screen. Was it difficult to get their voices right, or did you find it flowed quite easily for you?
Max! Max! MAX!!! Max is a damn beast!!! I’m in awe of every single page they turn in, I have all the reactions. It’s truly Max’s facial expressions for me, they have me laughing my ass off for real.
Taylor’s letters show such emotion and attitude of not just Harley and Ivy, but also Kaley and Lake. Even Chris’ Gordon. Everything just flows so beautifully.
Marissa’s colors! Can we talk about them real quick? It's not just the colors of Ivy & Harley’s outfits, but the background. The fire and sun meeting just gives off this beautiful background color. Amazing!
The entire team did the damn thing!
With all of that said, I’m sooo hyped that you picked that up! I tried to embrace what Patrick, Justin, and the team did on the animated series. I’ve seen the show fourteen times now and I never get tired of it. This flowed easily, I gotta shout out my autism for that, I hear Kaley, Lake and Chris’ voices in my head and I type what they say to me.
I love being autistic!
Were you a fan of the series before getting the chance to write the comic, and if so what about the show appealed to you enough to want to write the comic tie-in?
Before December of last year, I was already on my third re-watch. The show is that good! I would randomly tweet about it, but when that first kiss happened…BAYBEEEEE!!!!! Shit got real for me, I was always talking about it online, I was hyped!
I’ve been a fan of Harley from her first appearance, I have pieces of art, sneakers, shirts of Harley as well as Ivy. I cosplayed as Ivy a longgggg time ago.
So being a massive fan that just so happens to be a comic book writer is kismet. When I read the email about Harley Quinn the animated series I remember a high pitch, blood curdling scream escaping my mouth! My poor kids thought something was wrong. Sorry babies.
For me it was a no-brainer that I would pitch to write the series—and, for what it’s worth, I’m the first Black woman to write Harley.
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| Issue one releases physically on September 14th. |
The first issue has a lot of fun moments in it, but also takes some time to treat Harley and Ivy’s new relationship with care, and we see Ivy dealing with the fallout of what happened in the show. Was it important to you to show the deeper, emotional side of the characters rather than just them having wacky hi-jinks?
The first issue was sooo much fun to write! Torturing Gordon made me so unbelievably happy. Lol!
Harley and Ivy are now navigating something brand new: a queer relationship. They’re baby queers! So, of course it was beyond important that I get this blossoming romance right.
People are complex, as is Harlivy. We’re gonna have every moment possible — wacky, loving, emotional, sensual, sexual — I didn’t just wanna focus on them being the usual Harley and Ivy seen in the show.
The comic doesn’t shy away from the relationship between the two leads, and is more explicit than I think I’ve ever seen the two of them in any other comic. Was it important to you to push this in the comic, to not cut away and show the physical love between two women?
Honestly, I want to give the fans what they’re craving. Every issue I’m trying something, it’s just so important to see a healthy queer love in any medium.
Your work has always involved important issues and has been about representing more marginalised and sometimes overlooked communities, and I love that a queer relationship is being given such a big focus by DC. Why is giving queer voices a space in comics something that you’re passionate about?
Like I said before, these healthy queer relationships need to be more visible. The narrative of LGBTQIA people, with some exceptions, have been trash for so long, I’m gonna do my best as a queer woman to put out content where people can see themselves.
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| Tee's graphic novel Bingo Love. |
DC have been including more queer characters in their comics now, and recently published DC Pride, as well as having some graphic novels that feature queer content, such as I Brought You The Ocean. Have you found that the comics industry has become more open to queer content in recent years?
Honestly, the comics industry has had tons of queer content. The indie comics, Webtoons, webcomics, Kickstarter, the content is there, you just had to look for it outside of the Big Two.
You’ve written comics that feature Black characters and queer people, and these have been things that you’ve brought a lot of attention to as a queer Black woman. You’re also disabled though, and one of the things that I’ve noticed as a disabled person myself is the lack of representation for disabled people in comics. Do you think that could be something we will begin to see more of in the industry in the future?
Almost every comic that I’ve put out has disabled people in it. I’m Black, Queer, disabled and autistic, I NEED to see characters that look like me in everything that I do in some capacity. For whatever reason there aren’t many disabled characters in comics — I’m sure the reason is ableist. Just like how it is in real life and in Hollywood. Disabled characters are played by non disabled people, because they can do a “better job” than us or we’re just an inconvenience.
Disabled people are extremely talented and I truly hope that other editors take notice of it. This entire time writing Harley Quinn I’ve been in the hospital — March to June, every month hospitalized. I knew I was going to be fired, but I wasn’t; DC accommodated me. If editors and publishers and Hollywood would just accommodate disabled people and reach out to them, they would sell more. Y’all are leaving money on the table, because we don’t look “normal” or again, we’re inconveniencing you in some capacity. It’s played out…it’s 2021, do better.
Hire disabled people. PERIOD.
What are your plans after this series, are you hoping to continue to work with DC, or do you have any other creator owned projects that you’re going to be bringing out?
I HOPE that Harley Quinn: Eat. Bang! Kill Tour does astronomical numbers and I get multiple DC projects — particularly Vixen. I love this character so much and she has a TON of potential.
I’m currently working on a creator owned comic with some extremely talented people and I’m also working on a few TV shows that haven't been announced yet. I’m not too busy DC, holla at your girl!
Be sure to pre-order Harley Quinn: Eat, Bang, Kill Tour today so that I can continue to write for DC!
Harley Quinn The Animated Series: Eat. BANG! Kill. Tour releases in print on September 14th, so make sure to pre-order your copy.
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