The Biggest Hurdle Is Just Starting — Discussing ‘My Dearest’ With Creator Natalie Huff

For the last three years, Natalie Huff has been working on her debut graphic novel, My Dearest. The thriller/horror book, which is due out August 5th from Source Point Press, is inspired by manga. Comicon.com caught up with Huff and asked her about the impact that manga has had on her creative process and why this project means so much to her.

Tom Smithyman: My Dearest is a real passion project for you. Why is the story so important to you?

Natalie Huff: My Dearest was a huge passion project because my whole life I dreamed of being a comic book artist. But, for most of my life, it was just a dream. I started this book honestly on a whim with very little planning. As I continued writing it, it taught me how much work goes into any comic book, or book in general. It also really reinforced how much I loved creating and how I knew this was the right path for me!

So, My Dearest helped me overcome the fear of starting, and it plunged me headfirst into comic creating. I definitely believe that the biggest hurdle is just starting, so this really helped me with that fear!

Smithyman: The story centers around a college student being stalked. How did you come up with the story?

Huff: This story actually began as a college assignment for a screenwriting class I took. I had a couple of ideas flying around for this assignment, but I felt like portraying a horror story from the perspective of a college girl (which I was at the time) was the most relatable, and easiest for me to formulate.

I always loved horror and all things twisted, so it was just a no brainer for me. It initially was going to be nothing more than an assignment for that class … but then I thought to myself: “Wait, I already have this entire screenplay written, why not just turn it into a comic?” And thus, My Dearest was born!

Smithyman: You’ve said that manga is a huge influence on your work. What is your favorite story and how did it impact My Dearest?

Huff: I always grew up reading manga, watching anime, etc. My all-time favorite story is Berserk. It has all the grittiness, the brutality, and beautiful artwork to accompany its dark themes. I definitely consume a lot of other horror, whether it be movies, books, or shows. But manga has always been my favorite form of media, and work like Berserk is perfection. Which is why I strove to make a comic of my own!

Smithyman: This is your first graphic novel, and you wrote and illustrated it. What did you learn about the process that surprised you? Were there any big challenges that you had to wrestle with?

The biggest thing I have learned about creating a comic is that you are never as good as you initially think you are. I started this comic at 18 years old, and I thought I was pretty decent at art. Until you draw hundreds of pages with 5+ panels each. So, looking at my first drafts and seeing how inexperienced I was really was eye opening!

Comic creating really hones all of your skills though. My artwork and writing dramatically improved by just doing it. Every single page is an experience and teaches you something to improve on in the next page.

I think my overall biggest hurdle was understanding proper print formatting, of which I had to manually go back and fix all 300 pages to ensure it printed correctly! But this experience will definitely save me time on my next book!

Smithyman: Given that, are you excited to take on writing and illustrating another graphic novel, or do you want to scale back a bit for your next project?

Huff: I’ve even started my next book already, and was planning its creating during the middle of writing My Dearest. It’s definitely difficult to balance life and comic book creation, but it’s super rewarding and worth it in the end.

Smithyman: Looking forward to seeing what you come up with next. Thanks for taking the time to talk to Comicon.com.