Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Bird Boy, Vol 1: The Sword of Mali Mani
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.aszabla.com/
CITY: Boston
STATE: MA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://bird-boy.com/ * https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-szabla-6669891b * http://www.multiversitycomics.com/reviews/bird-boy-vol-1/ * http://www.themarysue.com/anne-szabla-bird-boy/ * http://comicsalliance.com/anne-szabla-bird-boy-interview/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Buffalo, NY.
EDUCATION:Rhode Island School of Design, B.F.A., 2010.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Comic book artist and writer. Has worked as an environment artist for a video game producer; 38 Studios, concept artist, 2010-12; Harmonix Music Systems, concept artist, 2012—.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Anne Szabla is a comic book artist and writer. She grew up in New England and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a B.F.A. in illustration in 2010. Szabla worked as an environment artist for a video game producer and later worked as a concept artist at 38 Studios and Harmonix Music Systems.
Szabla published the graphic novel Bird Boy: The Sword of Mali Mani in 2016. Originally conceived as a Web comic, Bird Boy centers on a young boy from the Nuru tribe named Bali who finds a magical artifact. He is desperate to prove his worth to the much larger men of his tribe, as his diminutive size and awkwardness have always held him back. Bali ventures into the forbidden forest and uncovers the secret that allowed for legendary hero Mali Mani to defeat the evil Rook Men. As this evil continues to plague his people, Bali believes that his discovery can help his tribe and prove his ability to them. Szabla admitted in an article in the Mary Sue Web site: “My dream project would probably be to keep working on Bird Boy just as long as I can. Just, as my day job.”
In an interview in the Comics Alliance Web site, Szabla talked with J.A. Micheline about what excites her most about her first Web comic to be published in print and where she sees it going from there. Szabla shared: “I think the most exciting thing has been working as part of a growing team. Working with my editor and everyone at Dark Horse to make this book as successful as it can be. Webcomics can be kinda lonely sometimes. It’s nice to have other people who are just as excited to get this book out as I am. I’m most looking forward to sharing this story as it continues with as many people as possible: the characters changing and growing, exploring more of the world and the impact they have on it.”
Booklist contributor Snow Wildsmith insisted that the combination of a “rich color palette and panels full of small details … gives readers much to enjoy.” A contributor to Publishers Weekly found that Szabla is “as adept at putting together ripping action sequences as she is at quieter moments.” Writing in the Multiversity Comics Web site, Matthew Garcia concluded that the first volume of the Bird Boy series “is a visual accomplishment. Szabla offers up more than several pages that are frankly breathtaking. Her control of the action and intrigue is completely on point, and I had a difficult time pulling myself out of the narrative to go get a drink of water or anything. Yet while the storytelling is so assured and confident, the story itself runs kind of conventional. The characters are still broad and when there are more than three on the page, they’re indistinguishable. Most of this comes from being an opening chapter, however.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, August 1, 2016, Snow Wildsmith, review of Bird Boy: The Sword of Mali Mani, p. 54.
Publishers Weekly, May 16, 2016, review of Bird Boy: The Sword of Mali Mani, p. 40.
ONLINE
Anne Szabla Home Page, http://www.aszabla.com (February 21, 2017).
Bird Boy Web site, http://bird-boy.com/ (September 6, 2010), author profile.
Comics Alliance, http://comicsalliance.com/ (October 10, 2015), J.A. Micheline, “Wild Lands & Weird Creatures: Anne Szabla Brings ‘Bird Boy’ to Dark Horse.”
Mary Sue, http://www.themarysue.com/ (August 12, 2015), Maddy Myers, “Boston Comic Con 2015: Indie Spotlight Interview with Anne Szabla, Bird Boy Creator.”
Multiversity Comics, http://www.multiversitycomics.com/ (May 20, 2016), Matthew Garcia, review of Bird Boy: The Sword of Mali Mani.
Wild Lands & Weird Creatures: Anne Szabla Brings ‘Bird Boy’ to Dark Horse [Interview]
by J.A. Micheline October 10, 2015 2:00 PM
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Dark Horse announced at NYCC this weekend that it’s publishing the first print edition of Anne Szabla’s webcomic Bird Boy, the beautifully illustrated tale of a young boy traversing a mythic land of gods and monsters in an attempt to prove himself to his tribe.
We sat down with Szabla to talk about the announcement, what it means for the future of her webcomic, and what readers new and old can look forward to in the print version.
ComicsAlliance: I see a lot of indigenous influence in Bird Boy. What were your inspirations?
Anne Szabla: There really is a little bit of everything in there, from Mayan to Norse, but my love of Northwest Native American art I think shines through most clearly in Bird Boy. When I was a little kid my mom used to read me all these American myths and creation stories, and the stories and the art really stuck with me, so that when I went to college many years later, I was drawn to art history classes that were exploring these cultures in depth, and it became deeply ingrained into the artwork I was producing.
BRDBYV1 PG 16
Around the time I first started writing Bird Boy, I was seeing a lot of European inspired medieval fantasy in the webcomics scene. I kept thinking back to those creation myths that my mom read to me and realized there was territory out there in terms of fantasy stories that utilize the kinds of shape language and themes we see in indigenous art. So I started pulling from all these different sources, and the world just expanded from there.
CA: Before I forget: congratulations! This is a big announcement! This seems to be the first time you’ve had a comic published in print! I think there are a lot of artists looking to make the webcomic-to-print-comic leap, and we’ve seen a few big names accomplish it — Noelle Stevenson, Jake Wyatt — but the game is hard. How does it feel and how did it happen for you?
AS: Thank you! I’m beyond ecstatic about it! I feel like for me, it was sort of a case of right-place-right-time, honestly! I had been working on Bird Boy for a couple years on and off, not really planning or expecting much from it at the time. I attended the Illustration Master Class in Amherst, MA, which is this great illustration workshop that happens every summer. I remember I tweeted something about the workshop and a Dark Horse editor who was on the faculty at the workshop picked up on that tweet and then asked to check out the comic. After that he kept nudging me to bring the comic to Dark Horse when I was ready, and in turn I picked up the pace to get it done!
BRDBYV1 PG 17
CA: What does the Dark Horse announcement mean for your webcomic going forward? Will there be backmatter or other materials included in the book that wasn’t available online?
AS: For now the webcomic will keep updating. It’s been important for me to keep it up because without feedback from my readers as I produce pages, I sometimes become a little lost. I need to have someone reading over my shoulder to keep me going, I guess!
People who have read the webcomic will notice that the printed book is a little different: there’s a bit more context, stuff’s been changed a little bit. It can sometimes be hard to go back in to a comic once it’s already been “published” online, but I’ve always given myself permission to change things up until it becomes a printed book. So there is definitely material in the book that isn’t online!
CA: Pacing is something I think about with styles. Manga, for example, gives itself a lot more time than American comics do, for both structural and cultural reasons. Webcomics also flow differently than print comics, so I’m curious about the process of translating from online to print — and whether you’ve noticed yourself writing differently now that you know Bird Boy will eventually be in book form.
BRDBYV1 PG 18
AS: I always intended for Bird Boy to be a printed book. I didn’t always know how it was going to get there, but having that plan in my head from the get go was definitely important when I sat down to write. I knew there were times the pacing would be strange for people following along with the webcomic — especially during action scenes, where people have to wait a week between pages, rather than flipping quickly though! That was a sacrifice I was willing to make for the overall pacing when it would be a book, but I knew it would impact how some people felt about the webcomic.
I would always preface these scenes by reminding people “Hey, this is gonna be weird, it’s meant to be read all at once” on the site. I have a number of readers of the webcomic who have combated this by reading a big chunk, bookmarking the site, and then coming back several months later to read the next chunk. Others love waiting for single page installments and trying to guess what will happen next, and then others just cannot handle that at all and simply say “tell me when the book’s out”!
To this day I believe Bird Boy reads best as a finished book, rather than weekly updates, so that makes me even more excited that it’s finally going to be in it’s intended form.
CS: What’s been the most exciting part about the making of this book? What are you looking forward to sharing with readers, new and old, the most?
AS: I think the most exciting thing has been working as part of a growing team. Working with my editor and everyone at Dark Horse to make this book as successful as it can be. Webcomics can be kinda lonely sometimes! It’s nice to have other people who are just as excited to get this book out as I am!
I’m most looking forward to sharing this story as it continues with as many people as possible: the characters changing and growing, exploring more of the world and the impact they have on it. There are all sorts of wild lands and weird creatures I’ve thought up and have been excited to get to for years. I think it’s going to be a really fun ride.
Read More: Interview: Anne Szabla Brings 'Bird Boy' to Dark Horse | http://comicsalliance.com/anne-szabla-bird-boy-interview/?trackback=tsmclip
Boston Comic Con 2015: Indie Spotlight Interview with Anne Szabla, Bird Boy Creator
by Maddy Myers | 1:38 pm, August 12th, 2015 6
We interviewed lots of comics creators at Boston Comic Con this year, including several independent artists creating exciting work that should have more eyes on it. Anne Szabla, creator of Bird Boy, still works her day job and crafts striking artwork at night after working long hours. We interviewed her about the process of indie creation and her long-term dream of making comics her full-time gig.
Here’s the transcript for the video.
***
My name is Anne Szabla, and I’ve been working on a comic called Bird Boy for the last five years now. It is going to be published next year. It is about a little boy who lives in a tribe of very big people, and so to prove himself, he goes into the super-big forest and meets with all of these gods and beast and crazy creatures, and has all sorts of crazy adventures.
My typical day is, I go to work, and I get really frustrated that I’m not working on my comic! Then I come home full of all sorts of energy to make the comic, and then I just go at it with a crazy fury until two in the morning.
My dream project would probably be to keep working on Bird Boy just as long as I can. Just, as my day job, which has always been the hope. Hopefully, someday I’ll get there.
You can get a hundred good reviews and you’re like, “oh! That’s really cool!” But if you get that one bad review, you’re like, “oh, my day is ruined.” It doesn’t matter how many good reviews you get along with it. I tend to — I take it into my heart, while I’m working, and I try to go, “Okay, now I’m going to prove them wrong,” by working even harder. It kind of fuels the fire.
I think we should have female characters in every way, every kind of person you could be. A female character — a hero, an anti-hero, a villain, or anything like that? There shouldn’t be any limitations on a genre for a female character to be.
Anne Szabla
Concept Artist at Harmonix Music Systems
Greater Boston AreaComputer Games
Previous
38 Studios, Bird Boy Graphic Novel, GAMBIT [Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab]
Education
Rhode Island School of Design
359
connectionsSend Anne InMailMore options
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-szabla-6669891b
Contact Info
Background
Summary
Concept Art
Concept Art
Comics
Comics
Experience
Concept Artist
Harmonix Music Systems
June 2012 – Present (4 years 9 months)Cambridge, MA
Environment Artist/Concept Artist
38 Studios
July 2010 – June 2012 (2 years)Providence, RI
Created high quality concepts of props and environments for a fantasy MMO based on an established style, often working in teams with designers and other artists. Rendered hand painted textures for 3D assets within the game.
(Open)5 recommendations, including:
Joe Mirabello
Joe Mirabello
Senior Video Game Developer
I directly managed Anne for almost two years, mentoring her when she first learned Unreal, Speedtree, and Maya, and then...View
Drew Whitmore
Drew Whitmore
Principal Concept Artist at Atomhawk Design Ltd
Im not sure where 38 kept finding all these ridiculously awesome artists. Anne quietly creates exquisite concepts that have...View
3 more recommendations
Artist and Writer
Bird Boy Graphic Novel
October 2009 – May 2012 (2 years 8 months)
Creator of a long form graphic novel which involves expansive worldbuilding, character and environment concept design, and strong visual narratives.
Artist
GAMBIT [Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab]
September 2009 – December 2009 (4 months)Boston, MA
Created background paintings, 2D game assets, concepts and promotional art for the flash-based game, "Pierre: Insanity Inspired".
Skills
Top Skills
24Maya
23Concept Design
13Game Development
10Photoshop
10Environment Art
9Painting
8Texture Painting
8Texturing
6Illustration
6Drawing
Anne also knows about...
5Storyboarding
4Perforce
43D
3Video Games
2Comic Books
2Digital Art
2Character Designs
2Game Design
2Unreal Engine 3
2Game Art
1drawing
1painting
1Concept art
1Visual Development
1Scrum
See 4+
Education
Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design
Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) with Honors, Illustration, English Concentration
2006 – 2010
Honors & Awards
Additional Honors & Awards
Deviantart ComicCon Scholarship winner, 2011
Lucasfilm Student Art Competition first prize winner, 2010
Society of Illustrators Student Competition finalist, 2010
Volunteer Experience & Causes
Organizations Anne supports:
Joslin Diabetes Center
Canine Companions for Independence
Dogs4Diabetics
About
on September 6, 2010
bali2
Bird Boy follows the story of Bali, a 10 year old Nuru boy, who is desperate to prove his worth to his tribe, despite his small stature. Banned from the ceremony that would make him an adult in the eyes of his people, he takes matters into his own hands. In an attempt to bring proof to his tribe that he is capable of taking care of himself, he stumbles upon a legendary weapon, and must end up fleeing across a dangerous land of gods, men and beasts to keep it from falling into the wrong hands…
Bird Boy updates every Thursday on the web!
—–
Anne Szabla was born and raised on the arctic snowdrifts of Buffalo, NY, before moving to the slightly more temperate snowdrifts of Boston as a teen. She graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2010 with a BFA in Illustration. She currently lives in Boston, MA with her dogs Aidan and Sienna. She is currently working as a concept artist at Harmonix Music Systems in Boston, MA and makes comics in her spare time (this usually means super late at night!)
About
Anne Szabla is a writer, vis dev and concept artist currently living in Boston, MA with her two dogs Aidan and Sienna. She graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2010 with a BFA in Illustration and a concentration in Creative Writing. She started her career in video games as an environment artist and concept artist at 38 Studios, and currently works at Harmonix Music Systems as a concept artist, creating a range of art for a number of creative games!
Please email aszabla@alumni.risd.edu for job inquiries!
Some of the titles she has worked on include:
Kingdoms of Amalur MMO (In game assets, textures, prop designs)
Fantasia: Music Evolved (Environment design)
Dance Central Spotlight (Environment design, Key Art)
Record Run (Environment textures)
Amplitude (Character design, ship designs)
Rock Band 4 (Map designs, icon designs)
Beatniks (Environment design and in game asset creation)
She has also written and illustrated a number of graphic novels. Some of her current projects include:
BIRD BOY VOL. I: THE SWORD OF MALI MANI (Dark Horse Comics)
BIRD BOY VOL. II: THE LIMINAL WOOD (Dark Horse Comics)
BANQUET (unpublished personal project)
Bird Boy, v.1: The Sword of Mali Mani
Snow Wildsmith
Booklist.
112.22 (Aug. 1, 2016): p54.
COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Bird Boy, v.1: The Sword of Mali Mani. By Anne Szabla. Ulus, by the author. 2016. 88p. Dark Horse, paper, $9.99
(9781616559304). 741.5. Gr. 36.
Many years ago, the hero Mali Mani rescued the light of the world from the terrifying Rook Men. But then he was
swallowed by the forest and lost to the tribes of men. Now Bali, a foundling raised by the Nuru tribe, is determined to
show his worth, despite his small stature and clumsy nature. What he finds in the forbidden forest might be the key to
saving the people and defeating the Rook Men. Szabla's plot is mostly world building and prologue to what is clearly a
longer tale, but her illustrations keep readers engaged to the end. Her world is part generic Native American, part
strange fantasy, with the characters' faces obscured by masks and the creatures around them a mixture of bizarre flora
and fauna. With a rich color palette and panels full of small details that pop up on second and third glances, Bird Boy
gives readers much to enjoy.Snow Wildsmith
Wildsmith, Snow
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Wildsmith, Snow. "Bird Boy, v.1: The Sword of Mali Mani." Booklist, 1 Aug. 2016, p. 54. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA460761777&it=r&asid=1aab5344dd234500d131c8e13c7fc7bd.
Accessed 4 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A460761777
Bird Boy, Vol. 1: The Sword of Mali Mani
Publishers Weekly.
263.20 (May 16, 2016): p40.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Bird Boy, Vol. 1: The Sword of Mali Mani
Anne Szabla. Dark Horse, $9.99 trade paper (88p) ISBN 9781616559304
Originally published as a webcomic, this graphic novel tells a familiar story: Bali, a young boy, discovers a coveted
magical artifact, and adventure ensues. In her print debut, Szabla's meticulously designed pages help this transcend a
mundane narrative. She's a deft storyteller, as adept at putting together ripping action sequences as she is at quieter
moments. The star element is the imaginative character designs: the opening showcases hunters tracking a herd of
sheeplike creatures with sticks for legs and faces like masks. Later, the hunters battle a bear whose head resembles a
Viking's helmet and whose innards are rocks and twigs. Despite the book's visual qualities, it's discomfiting how
Szabla fetishizes imagery associated with the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest in her imagined Nuru tribe.
She surrounds Bali, who is blond and not a Nuru, with the trappings of indigenous culturesnot out of respect, but
because it provides an attractive fantasy backdrop. (May)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"Bird Boy, Vol. 1: The Sword of Mali Mani." Publishers Weekly, 16 May 2016, p. 40. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA453506789&it=r&asid=3c019fedb96959206ec8b1ea18d9c9eb.
Accessed 4 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A453506789
“Bird Boy: The Sword of Mali Mani”
By Matthew Garcia | May 20th, 2016
Posted in Reviews | 0 Comments
Making its way from the Internet to the print, “Bird Boy: The Sword of Mali Mani” absolutely sings on the page. A triumph of visual design, Anne Szabla’s all-ages adventure spins a fantastic tale with an old school animation spirit. The book is marvelous to look at, with an overall aesthetic helping to cover some of its more conventional aspects.
Written and Illustrated by Anne Szabla
Bird Boy follows the story of Bali, a ten-year-old boy desperate to prove his worth to his northern tribe despite his small stature. Banned from the ceremony that would make him an adult in the eyes of his people, he takes matters into his own hands. To prove that he is capable of taking care of himself, he sets out into the forbidden forest and stumbles upon a legendary weapon. Bali fights his way across a dangerous land of gods, men, and beasts to keep the sword of Mali Mani, the savior of the sun, from the hands of the terrifying Rooks.
There’s a lot in “Bird Boy: The Sword of Mali Mani” that might seem familiar. Anne Szabla mines the genre for all these elements and basically throws all the ones she likes on the page. We’re given a high fantasy world, maybe not yet filled with magic, although she offers plenty of legends and monsters. The story centers on this young boy, Bali, on the eve of some coming-of-age ceremony, who’s deemed too small and clumsy to withstand the ritual. Myths permeate the atmosphere of this world, tales of a hero from a long time ago who battled this great beast after it ate up all the light; the hero overpowered it, but was lost with the thing.
So, sure, the plot may have a certain conventionality to it, but Szabala uses this structure to help her build up the rest of the world. It all seems more like a vessel for her intricate designs, stunning backgrounds, and overall world-building, but what a fascinating place to get immersed in.
Szabla not only weaves the design together to create this visual treat, but also strives to make sure everything fits the logic and reality of this world. There’s the legends segments, approached like they’re tapestries. There’s these incredibly realized monsters and beasts, heavy and impending as they stomp across the environment. There’s the wonderful backgrounds and sets that feel ancient and lived in, where everything looks both cool and practical. Check out the village, for instance, with its crescent huts to ward off the snow. Last but not least, there’s the outfits and costumes, these giant bird helmets the hunters don when they set out. They’re all individually decorated and hint at a larger culture and hertiage we’re not seeing (or have yet to see, this is a number one after all). We might not know what’s going on at the start of the story, but we can still understand these people. We can guess where they’re coming from.
The book is also 80 pages long, and Szabla uses that longer running time to deliver some sustained and intense action sequences. The bear attack at the end of act one lasts about ten pages along, and Szabla allows the scene to breathe, so it’s eventual defeat feels hard-fought and well-earned, and the contents inside its body feel all the more disappointing (but also intriguing). She takes her time with the scene in the temple, and those extra beats and moments let the mysteries develop and the questions grow richer. I first read this book when it was published online, and some of these scenes could get frustrating when we were only given a couple pages a week. Having it all collected together now, however, I got a strong sense of the tone and mood and intensity Szabla was going for. She reveals information and poses questions with confidence. She builds and propels the story along with aplomb, and you get the sense she’s in control of her environment. The longer page count also allows her to go for larger panels and framing compositions. There’s a splash page where the titular sword of Mali Mani bursts out in an explosion of light, and it’s stunning.
Continued below
Of course, not much gets resolved by the end of this volume. It’s debatable whether or not the plot even gets put into motion by the end of this volume. I can see all the elements on the page, but I don’t think they’ve started to quite come together yet, and it feels like Szabla has so much more to build up and explore in her weird little world. Her characters are interesting and likable, but we’re still left only at the beginning of their arcs and with hardly anything more than the broad strokes to define them. Their environments may help build their culture, but their characterization is still emerging.
“Bird Boy: The Sword of Mali Mani” is a visual accomplishment. Szabla offers up more than several pages that are frankly breathtaking. Her control of the action and intrigue is completely on point, and I had a difficult time pulling myself out of the narrative to go get a drink of water or anything. Yet while the storytelling is so assured and confident, the story itself runs kind of conventional. The characters are still broad and when there are more than three on the page, they’re indistinguishable. Most of this comes from being an opening chapter, however. Szabla clearly has a wider vision for this world and the fate of our characters, and it’s one I want to see unravel.
Final Verdict: 8.0 – I wouldn’t go so far to say there’s more style than substance, but it definitely feels like the engines are starting to rev.