Marjorie Liu is a success story. She is a New York Times best-selling author and award-winning comic book writer. Marjorie first drew acclaim for her paranormal romance and urban fantasy novels including The Hunter Kiss and Tiger Eye series. She then shifted into comic book writing. Her work for Marvel Comics included NYX, X-23, Dark Wolverine, and Astonishing X-Men.
It was during her work on X-23 that she first collaborated with talented artist Sana Takeda. In 2015, Image Comics debuted her creator-owned series Monstress, along with Takeda, for which she was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best New Series. But the awards were just getting started. In 2017 Marjorie won a Hugo Award for the first Monstress trade paperback collection. The following year, in July 2018, she became the first woman in the 30-year history of the Eisner Awards to win the Eisner Award for Best Writer for her work on Monstress.
Now, Marjorie is once again partnering with Sana on a new series for Abrams ComicArts, The Night Eaters. A horror filled story of mystery, the supernatural and family drama all mixed into a page turner of a book. We recently had the good fortune of sitting down with Marjorie to discuss her career, her successful partnership with Sana and the new book. So, let’s welcome Eisner Award Winner Marjorie Liu to GVN Talking Comics.
GVN: Thanks for some of your time, Marjorie. Since this is our first opportunity to talk, let’s start at the beginning. When did you take in interest in writing and how did that passion end up over-powering your law degree?
A Love of Reading
ML: Thank you so much for chatting with me! An interest in writing was secondary to my love of reading. My mom began taking me to the library before I could walk, and some of my earliest memories are of sitting in her lap, looking at books. She had me reading on my own by the age of three, and that’s what filled my world. I spent more time in my imagination than anywhere else — and honestly, I’m not sure that’s changed.
I never thought I’d be a writer, though! That wasn’t ever a “real job”, just something other people did, and even if I occasionally daydreamed about writing for a living, it didn’t feel like an option. Still, I’d jot things down as a hobby, though I never finished anything I started.
All it takes is a Line…
And then after law school, when I was looking for a job, I woke up one day with a line in my head — what would end up being the first line of my first novel, Tiger Eye. I wrote it down…and kept writing. Writing furiously, intensely, until one month later I finished that novel. I think it was one of the best experiences of my life — absolute creative freedom.
But there I was with a book…and why waste that? So, I revised, did some research, sent it out to the slush piles of agents and editors, and got rejections from every single one. Except for the last publisher, who bought the book and three others in the series. And that’s the short version of how I become a professional writer.
GVN: Perserverance pays off. As I understand it, after writing a number of books including the aforementioned Tiger Eye, and A Taste of Crimson, you expressed your interest in writing for Marvel Comics. Which led to your work with Pocket Books and the X-Men and eventually NYX, X-23 and Astonishing X-Men for Marvel Comics. How did that come about and why X-Men?
The X-Men
ML: I’ve loved the X-Men ever since high school, when I first watched the X-Men cartoon on Fox. It resonated with me as both a soap opera and allegory for racism and chosen family. But I didn’t imagine I’d end up writing those characters.
The opportunity, however, came rather early in my career with that licensed X-Men tie-in novel, Dark Mirror — and I used that work as an excuse to introduce myself to the head of Marvel’s recruitment during the first New York Comic Con. I said, “Hey, if you ever need a writer…” And lo and behold, after three years of conversation, I ended up on NYX: No Way Home, which was a fabulous introduction to Marvel — and the editor who mentored me, John Barber.
As my dad always says, “If you don’t ask, the answer’s always no.” Fortunately, I took his advice to heart — otherwise, I might never have had a career in comics.
Working with Sana Takeda
GVN: Dads know best. Now, if I could only convince my son of that. So, you have had great success with the talented Sana Takeda in your award-winning series Monstress. It is apparent that you have established a great working relationship with Sana. When did you discover her work and what is it about her art that meshes so well with your writing?
ML: Maybe it was fate or just luck, but Sana was assigned to draw some fill-in pages on X-23 during the early part of my run. I was instantly drawn to her work. Her X-23 was incredibly soulful and had real presence on the page. And when the regular artist was pulled away, I asked for Sana to join the book — and that began a lovely collaboration at Marvel. Eventually, though, X-23 was cancelled (the fate of many a superhero book), and we both went our separate ways. I never forgot her work though, and when it was time to transition over to Image, I reached out to her. We then began laying the groundwork for what would become Monstress.
And what a journey it’s been. Sana is an amazing person, a wonderful friend, but also a supreme talent and visual storyteller. I think we mesh well because she’s so sensitive to the inner lives of the characters, and their emotional states. She’s able to capture feelings with exquisite sensitivity, whether it’s a fox child or a monstrous god, and I resonate powerfully with that. I think readers do, too.
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The Development of Night Eaters
GVN: Speaking about your latest partnership, when did the groundwork start for The Night Eaters and how closely did you and Sana collaborate as the book progressed?
ML: Sana and I had floated the idea of doing a second project in addition to Monstress, but The Night Eaters series was not planned at all. I wrote it at the height of the pandemic, when most of us were still in “lock-down”. I had been watching too many horror movies (they were strangely cathartic for an anxious person like myself — no clue why). One day, I found myself wondering what would happen if my grandmothers and aunts encountered a ghost. The idea was so funny to me, I sat down and started writing.
From there, the story flowed. All the characters, their difficulties with each other, their secrets and voices — their world opened up, and book almost wrote itself. I can only guess that I had way more pent-up creative energy than I realized! But when it was done, I immediately texted Sana, and we started talking about what this new series would look like.
The Importance of Relationships
GVN: Part of the charm of this first book in the series (if charm is the right word in an also disturbing horror filled narrative) is the complicated and at times relatable relationships between the twins themselves and their parents. Such as the wife believing that her husband was too lenient with their children. It explains why the father’s displeasure seemed to affect the twins more than the constant apparent disapproval of their mother. Was this relationship an important element as you drafted this story?
ML: Relationships are vital to this story. Family is where we all begin, for better or for worse, and the dynamics of the siblings and their parents were the most interesting part of writing the book. Whether it was exploring the expectations that parents have for their children, decisions around child rearing that are later regretted, the conflicts of being an immigrant parent — or the special pressures that children of immigrants contend with. The supernatural elements were just an excuse to lend tension to very familiar stressors.
Future Projects
GVN: I thank you once again for your kind attention. Before I let you go, do you have any other projects you want to mention? Also, where can fans follow you on social media and the web?
ML: Thank you so much! I’m not on social media, but I do regularly update my website with book news (and Sana’s on Instagram, so she’s definitely someone to follow). She’s hard at work drawing the second Night Eaters book, which is called Her Little Reapers (out next October) —and meanwhile, we’re still creating Monstress. The next arc begins in January. As for other series projects, my middle grade graphic novel, Wingbearer, came out this year, and it’s been a delight writing for a younger audience.
Senior Writer at GeekVibesNation – I am a 50 something child of the 70’s who admits to being a Star Trek/Star Wars/Comic Book junkie who once dove head first over a cliff (Ok, it was a small hill) to try to rescue his Fantastic Four comic from a watery grave. I am married to a lovely woman who is as crazy as I am and the proud parent of a 18 year old boy with autism. My wife and son are my real heroes.