Warm up your voice and set up your equipment! It’s time for the battle of the bands! The Black Dolls are here and they’re ready to prove to everyone that they have what it takes rock with the best! Rachel Faturoti is a YA and children’s fiction writer, editor, and poet with a passion for broadening the scope of authentic Black representation in YA and children’s fiction. She believes it’s important for readers to see themselves represented well in stories. The graphic novel, The Black Dolls, explores the problems that come with being Black and wanting to be a rock star.
You normally write YA and childrenโs novels. What made you decide to dip into graphic novel writing? Did you have any difficulties?
Iโm a very visual person so I pictured it in that comic style rather than like the other books Iโd written. I was seeing Scott Pilgrim-esque scenes in my head and I knew it had to be a graphic novel. Also, there are more things you can do visually in a graphic novel than you can do in a standard novel. The main difficulty came from balancing the dialogue and illustration on the page. I love dialogue so I had to definitely cut back.
How did your collaboration on this project with Flo Woolley come to happen?
We needed an illustrator for Black Dolls and my publisher asked if I had anyone in mind, but the artist I had initially thought of was busy โ I’m glad they were! Hachette put together a list of well-known and newer artists with their portfolios. Flo’s illustration of Spider Punk stood out for me. I love Spider Punk and Flo’s illustration had the edginess I wanted so it was a match made in heaven really.
What inspired you to create a graphic novel about a Black girl punk band?
It was a mixture of my experiences and what I saw more recently in the media. Growing up, I loved rock, emo and punk music, but I didnโt see or wasnโt aware of many Black bands in the UK especially. Then a few years ago, We are Lady Parts premiered and I was hooked. After this, I saw a Black Tiktoker killing it on the bass and I thought, why donโt I write the graphic novel I wish Iโd had growing up.
How many volumes of Black Dolls do you hope to release? I saw the recent announcement about volume 2! Congratulations!
Thank you! We have 2 volumes confirmed.
Who do you think we would find on the Black Dollsโ playlists?
It would be a mixture of artists and bands. Meet me at the Altar, Skunk Anasi, the Nova Twins, Big Joanie, Pinkshift, Fefe Dobson, Magnolia Park and many others.
Are there any active Black women in rock are you listening to currently?
Yes. Lilith Ai, Skunk Anasi (Skin), Big Joanie, Meet Me at The Altar (Edith Victoria), Nova Twins and Clayrocksu to name a few.
Is there anyone specifically that inspired each of the girls?
No, I believe the girls are a mixture of people I know, met and my imagination, but some of the side characters are based on British punk legends like Skin and Poly Styrene.
Do you have any other book recommendations that you think our readers would be interested in?
My graphic novel/comic recommendations are Shuri (Nnedi Okorafor), Eve (Victor LaVelle) and Carry On, a Pan-African comic anthology which I supported on Kickstarter.
Can you tell us a bit about Black and Black alternative representation in the UK?
There’s much more visible representation now with social media and there are more events Iโve seen popping up, but there’s still not enough representation and that’s why I joined a group for Alt POC people in the UK. It’s a great place for support, to share music, plan outings and events with people with similar tastes.
Our magazineโs main mission is to provide visibility to alternative Black creatives and provide representation for younger Black alts. Can you think of any Black alt representation you had in the past? What would you like to see for the future?
I would say Skin and Grace Jones, but I didnโt see that much representation in the past. In future, I want to see even more Black alt representation than we have now and for it to be the norm.