Meet Deb Fox: Everett’s Graphic Novelist
To put it simply, Wendt Award-winning Everett artist Deb Fox is a graphic novelist.
To put it more accurately, as a graphic novelist, Fox is also a historian, archivist, sketcher, graphic designer, photographer, scriptwriter, and researcher.
Her role as a graphic novelist is in turn informed by her career as a storyboard illustrator for music videos and commercials. During the 1980s, Fox worked on animation, motion graphics and motion graphics design for productions like “Back to the Future 2”, “Max Headroom”, “Weird Science”, “Star Trek”, and “Quantum Leap” among others.*
A panel from Deb’s 2016 graphic novel “The Everett Massacre.” In which Sheriff McCrae shouts “Who’s your leader?” to Wobblies on the Verona // Image courtesy of Historic Everett
Deb’s first graphic novel, “The Everett Massacre,” tells the true story of violent labor unrest in our city in 1916. The 24-page book took about a year to complete. It was commissioned by Historic Everett.
While making the “Everett Massacre”, Fox realized that she loved the process of making graphic novels. She had never created one before, but her career history in making sequential visual art soon came into play.
”It’s so much fun,” says Deb of the genre. She speaks with her hands in her typical, outgoing and enthusiastic way. “It’s a type of art that can educate people, transport them back in time... You can get people to feel stuff in your artwork — it can strike an emotional chord.”
Deb consulted Manly’s autobiography for reference. The gold-covered book is an original printing. During the course of her research, Fox consulted with historians and was granted access to the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, where the personal letters of Manly are archived
Deb Fox has been working on a new graphic novel for almost three years now. It’s shaping up to be about 100 pages in length.
The new book is based on the autobiography of William Lewis Manly. Manly was a pioneer who discovered, and survived, Death Valley in the 1850s. His 400-page autobiography, published in 1894, tells the remarkable tale of his travels from Vermont to California. Fox’s novel covers the portion of the book that details Manly’s trip across the American West en route to California.
Fox excitedly characterizes the narrative of the tale as “a story of heroism, unrequited love, betrayal and friendship” — all the plot elements of a Hollywood thriller.
For her current project, Deb Fox has gathered a mood board for reference. In her mood board are photos of actual historical characters, period-appropriate garb, and Victorian-era illustrations
To visit Deb Fox’s studio is to see her thorough artistic process in action.
She describes how difficult it can be to fill out a complete visual narrative from a handful of historic documents. There’s a certain amount of “connecting the dots” to be done.
To help fill out Manly’s story, Fox recreated his original route through the desert, traveling in his footsteps to the places he actually visited. Her high-resolution photographs of specific landscapes fill the background in the graphic novel. The contrast of the photos’ realism with her illustration style makes for a visually interesting and compelling aesthetic.
Fox also turned Manly’s handwriting into a custom font, so that she can include direct narrative excerpts from Manly’s account into the novel, superimposed over the action.
The novel in progress in Adobe InDesign
Deb Fox plans to finish her current graphic novel project by Spring 2020. She will have physical copies printed and wants to independently distribute them.
Where will her graphic novel passion take her next?
Deb hints that Manly’s autobiography has enough content to fuel a prequel and a sequel.
We at Live in Everett will stay tuned. It seems that everything that emerges from the studios of Deb Fox, Everett artist, is solid gold.
*Having worked in Tinseltown for so many years, Deb has some great juicy Hollywood gossip. Ask her sometime about fixing Michael Jackson’s face frame-by-frame in a music video.
PURCHASE DEB’S FIRST BOOK ABOUT THE EVERETT MASSACRE HERE.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE WENDT AWARDS HERE. OR, NOMINATE AN EVERETT ARTIST FOR THE AWARD.
Richard Porter is a writer for Live in Everett.