An Interview With ‘The Princess Diaries: The Graphic Novel’ Artist Bethany Crandall
by Rachel Bellwoar
Before she was played by Anne Hathaway for Disney, Mia Thermopolis was your average high schooler who finds out she’s a princess in author Meg Cabot‘s book series, The Princess Diaries. Now, the first book is being adapted into a graphic novel by Cabot and artist Bethany Crandall. With inks by Crandall and Isabel Escalante and colors by Escalante, find out what the experience was like for Crandall in the following interview:
Rachel Bellwoar: How familiar were you with The Princess Diaries books going into this project?
Bethany Crandall: I was a big fan of the movies going in, it’s such a great story! I hadn’t read the books, middle school me didn’t want to read anything that didn’t have magic in it, haha.
Bellwoar: With the books having previously been adapted into movies, there already exists one visual conception of the story, but the books are quite different from the movies. Has it been fun carving out your own interpretations of the characters?
Crandall: It was fun getting to reinterpret the characters. The movie versions are fun, but they are not very book-accurate. So faithfully bringing Meg’s vision to life was my goal for this book.
Bellwoar: Of course, the books were also written in diary form from Mia’s perspective. In adapting this story for a graphic novel, were there more opportunities to show what other characters were thinking that Mia might not have noticed?
Crandall: I had a lot of fun with the backgrounds and background characters in this book. I can give them reactions that weren’t necessarily in the script, and the readers can interpret them how they will. That’s the fun thing about doing a graphic novel. A picture is worth a thousand words, and there are probably a couple hundred panels in the comic!
Bellwoar: Mia goes through a number of makeovers in this book (often without much of a say in them). What was it like planning out those transformations?
Crandall: That was really fun! It’s not often you get the chance to give your characters dramatic design changes so it was a fun challenge. I hope Mia’s spirit shines through in all her different looks!
Bellwoar: Mia’s New York is very different from the plaza hotels and fine dining her Grandmère prefers. Was it a challenge to move between so many different settings?
Crandall: Doing a story set in a real city and a specific time period was a fun challenge. Especially since I’ve never been to New York! I spent a lot of time on the internet trying to find reference photos of the places mentioned, and specifically how they looked in the early 2000s. I really tried to capture the Y2K vibe!
Bellwoar: Mia also gets into a lot of conflicts in this story. From fights with her best friend, Lilly, to her parents and Grandmère, what was it like laying out those interactions?
Crandall: I really enjoy drawing high drama situations! I tried to really push the facial expressions and framing so that the emotions of the characters would be felt by the audience.
Bellwoar: Thanks for agreeing to this interview, Bethany!
The Princess Diaries: The Graphic Novel goes on sale June 30th from Harper Alley.
