Madeleine Holly-Rosing on Writing for TV, Comics and Building a Creative Team

We first met Madeleine Holly-Rosing at the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco. The Shortboxed staff is, perhaps unsurprisingly, enamored with steampunk. Madeleine’s pitch was “Steampunk meets X-Files” – say no more, we were hooked. We also wanted to get to know Madeleine more, and share that knowledge with Shortboxed readers.

Madeleine is a TV and feature film writer, Madeleine holds an MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA where she won numerous awards as well as the Sloan Fellowship which requires integrating science and technology themes into a script. Madeleine is also formerly a nationally ranked epee fencer, she has competed nationally and internationally. Badass, right?

Shortboxed: So, you’re a writer with a story to tell. What makes comics the most appealing medium to you?

Madeleine Holly-Rosing: It’s very visual. Coming from a  film and TV background,( I have an MFA inScreenwriting from UCLA,) it was very easy to to make the switch to comics once I got my head around the whole paneling thing. Once I learned it’s like directing, it all fell into place.

SB: Were you an avid comic book or comic strip reader when you were younger? Do you remember your first comic book store experience? What was it like?MH-R: I liked Snoopy growing up, but my introduction to comics came through my brother. An avid collector of Daredevil comics, I was allowed to look but not touch. This didn’t bother me as I wasn’t interested in superhero comics and it wasn’t until I learned how to write comics that I discovered the world of indie comics. What a shock!   I loved them and I now even review them for Fanboy Comics.

SB: You and Emily Hu (the artist of BMS) are a female team working in the comic industry. In what way, if any, has this fact influenced your creation process, or your road to being recognized and published?MH-R: I do use the fact that we are a primarily female creative team (colorist – Gloria Caeli) as a marketing tool since there are fewer creative female teams in mainstream comics though in indie comics I think there are quite a number. However, I think any smart publisher would be looking at the art and the story, not the gender of the team.

As for your question as to whether it has influenced my creative process…absolutely not. When I started putting together the team, it never entered my mind to create a “female” team, I simply wanted the best people for this project and one’s who I could afford.

You have to understand that this is everyone’s first book except for Troy and Shawn (Letterers). So we are all newbies together.

The Shortboxed Top 5: We ask every creator what their top 5 desert island comics are, and why? (trades,

graphic novels or mini-series are all game).

1. Locke and Key

2. SAGA

3. The Bunker

4. Astro City

5. Pretty Deadly

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