Hazel Newvelent, an artist for Comics For Choice, discusses the organization and it's purpose
Transcription of In Depth with Hazel Newvelent
>>Alright I have on the line Hazel Newvelent. She is the uh, a cartoonist and an editor for Comics For Choice. Welcome very much to KBOO.
>>Hi, thanks for having me!
>>You bet! Do you wanna tell our audience what Comics For Choice is?
>>Yeah sure. Comics For Choice is an anthology of comics by about 40 different artists and writers. Uhm, and they're all themed around the topic of abortion. And we look at it from a lot of different angles. There's personal stories, comics about the history of abortion, what it was like pre-Roe Vs. Wade. Modern obstacles people face to getting abortions like advice from activists to sort of give people a really good sense of like, all the multitude of reasons why people get abortions and you know, what that's like supporting that. And uhm, it's also raising money for the National Network of Abortion Fund which is a charity that helps people access abortions, like helps people pay for their medical procedures or pay for transportation or housing. Like in states where there have been a lot clinic closures and it can be difficult. So yeah, we just wanted to create a book that we thought was important and we wanted to see in the world and also raise money for an organization that we-that is supporting the same mission essentially.
>>That's awesome. So it's an anthology with different cartoonists and illustrators. How many are on board for this? In this particular project?
>>Uhm, there are...I think I said 40 before. There's about 60 and about 40 different individual comics. But there's a lot of those comics are made by uhm writer-artist teams. Like, I love having cartoonists tell their own stories, you know lots of thoughts folks have had abortions or you know have medical knowledge of different things they wanted to share. We also wanted to have voices from like, activists and people who work the abortion funds and people who are providers and stuff. So uhm, yeah we were able to pair a lot of those writers up with different illustrators to help them share their stories in a visual medium as well.
>>Awesome. What kind of different styles can folks expect from Comics For Choice? Sounds like there's a huge variety of talent working on it.
>>Yeah, uhm...Gosh, style is such a hard thing to describe but just I guess a range from personal stories you know, lots of people wanted to talk about their own you know, experience or the reasons they got an abortion. Obstacles that they've faced. Some are more essay like, you know explaining for instance, the High Amendment which blocks federal funds from going to abortion procedures. Uhm, and some-actually there's a few that look at it from a fiction angle like, somebody did a comic about you know a dystopian future where uhm, where abortion and not-and failing to report a pregnancy to the government is illegal. So uhm, it's a little hard to describe visual styles but yeah, just really a wide range of approaches from a lot of different talented folks.
>>And when does the campaign end for Comics for Choice?
>>Uh, it's coming up so soon. It ends on June 30th, at the end of the month.
>>That is coming up soon!
>>Yeah, before then we are hoping for folks to go to our indie gogo page and pre-order a copy and all the profits are going to the National Network of Abortion Fund and there's lots more details about that of course on the page.
>>And what is that indie gogo website address?
>>Uhm, the easiest way to get to it is just to go to comicsforchoice.com and then that has lots of samples of the art, a list of all of the creators and also a link to our indie gogo page. And you can like, read a few full comics from it and just learn more about it. We also made a lot of really sweet pro-choice patches so that people can like, wear their support for abortion rights on their sleeves which is another thing that we're using to raise money.
>>Right on. What inspired you to want to take on-this is a huge, wonderful project, you know being the creator, the editor for it. What made you think, 'I've got the bandwidth for this, I wanna do something.'
>>Well that's-I was inspired to-that I wanted to do something in some way to help support abortion access and fight back against attacks on statewide abortion access, clinic closures and stuff. Uhm, I think there was actually a segment on the Samantha Bisha that got me really worked up and concerned about it. And I was just going like, 'what can I do and what's the most excessive way for me as an individual to use my time to make the most difference'. Like, should I be like phone thanking for someone, should I start volunteering at the clinic escort? And my friend who-they're now one of the co-editors of Comics for Choice was like, 'Hazel you're a good editor and your credit-making crowdfunding things happened so why not put together an anthology and have the proceeds go to charity', so that-I was like, 'oh, that's brilliant, that sounds...'
>>Perfect, great!
>>It's also really fun for me. I mean it's you know, it's a weighty topic of course, and the stories you know. Uhm, ranged the emotional damage to sad and reflected by trauma to like, celebratory of the freedom. But it's a really fun project for me to work on. I have loved working with all these artists and helping them bring their stories to light and getting to you know promote what they're doing all the time. So uh, yeah I figured this is the most effective way for me to use my time to make a difference.
>>That's wonderful. And how long have you been illustrating?
>>Oh gosh, uhm I mean I never really stopped drawing since I was a kid but I have...Next year is going to be my ten-year anniversary of uhm drawing comics specifically. I started when I was 16 and around that point I was like, I knew I wanted to be in the industry somehow cause I just really loved comics but uhm...I thought I was going to never be good enough at drawing and to actually make a living doing it so I started out uhm, working for publishers like as an editor. And now I'm making a living doing both and uh, they're both really creatively fulfilling in different ways. I love writing and drawing my own stories but I also love helping to bring out the world, other people's works that I really admire.
>>That's cool. Happy anniversary! [laugh] Happy cartooning anniversary.
>>I'll have to do something good in 2018.
>>Yeah! For sure.
>>It's exciting.
>>Absolutely and I understand you used Portland-based. I think I'm calling you in New York right now.
>>Yeah! I got into comics actually it was uh, summer pre-college workshop at PNCA and then I worked for a while at uh, Dark Horse and Top Shelf, both of which are Portland-based publishers. or Top Shelf kinda moved but yeah. So living in Portland was really instrumental to how I got into doing this sort of stuff.
>>Well that's awesome. That's awesome! Cool. Is there anything else you'd like our audience to know about Comics For Choice?
>>Uh, just they can be part of something really important because I-it's one of the most like, transformative important things that you could do in somebody's life to like, give them the option to end the pregnancy that they don't want or they can't have. Uhm, and that's you know that's directly what the National Network of Abortion Fund does with their donations is they directly help people who are otherwise wouldn't have a choice. Uhm, and we just made Comics For Choice cuz we thought it'd be a good book and we wanted to give people essentially an incentive for donating to something that's really important. And uh, go to comicsforchoice.com and that's got all the details.
>>Wonderful. Well again, for our audience I've been speaking with Hazel Newvelent of Comics For Choice. And I'm Zeloszelos Marchandt.
>>Thank you Zelos!
- KBOO