Anya's Ghost

Anya's Ghost

Anya's Ghost cover
Author Vera Brosgol
Language English
Genre Coming-of-age
Ghost story
Supernatural[1]
Set in New England[2]
Published June 2011
Publisher First Second Books
Media type Graphic novel
Pages 221[2][3] or 224[1]
Awards Cybils Award (2011)
Eisner Award (2012)
Harvey Award (2012)
ISBN 978-1-59643-552-0
741.5973

Anya's Ghost is a coming-of-age[4][5] ghost story[6] in graphic novel format,[7] and the first book by author Vera Brosgol.[8]

In the novel, unpopular Anya befriends the ghost of Emily, an equitably-aged girl who died 90 years ago. After failing to make Anya popular and happy, Emily becomes manipulative and controlling leading Anya to discover that Emily actually died running from the police after murdering her unrequited love. Emily and Anya eventually face off over the truth and Emily's attempts to live the life she never had through Anya.

Anya's Ghost took four years from inception to publication, and is drawn predominantly in hues of violet. Well received by critics, Anya's Ghost is the recipient of Cyblis, Harvey, and Eisner awards. The film rights were bought in 2015.

Plot

Annushka Borzakovskaya[7] (Anya) is a Russian emigre living in the United States with her mother and brother (Sasha). Unpopular at her New England private school, Anya skips school and walks through a nearby forest. Not seeing it, Anya falls into a dry well and finds herself alongside a human skeleton. The skeleton’s ghost, a shy, homely girl named Emily appears and explains that she too fell down the well and died of dehydration after breaking her neck ninety years ago. Emily wishes to befriend and help Anya, but cannot move far from her bones. Anya is soon rescued by a passerby, but Emily's skeleton remains undiscovered.

Emily later appears to Anya at school, Anya having inadvertently taken a finger bone from Emily's skeleton. Anya decides to keep the bone after Emily helps her cheat on a biology exam and spy on her crush, Sean. Emily gives her full name as Emily Reilly and explains that her fiancé died fighting in World War I, and that her parents were murdered at home. She was running from the killer when she fell down the well. Anya promises to find Emily’s killer, while Emily agrees to help Anya fit in at school and win over Sean. As their friendship develops, Anya drifts away from her one friend at school (Siobhan) while Emily becomes disinterested in discovering her murderer's identity.

At Emily's insistence, Anya dresses up and goes to a party attended by Sean and his girlfriend Elizabeth. There, Anya discovers that Sean habitually cheats on Elizabeth with her consent. Distraught, Anya leaves the party which makes Emily angry and confused for she believed Anya and Sean were destined for each other. Anya later notices Emily becoming more controlling than before and adjusting her appearance by straightening her hair and smoking ghostly cigarettes. Anya goes to the library without Emily to research the killer, and learns that Emily had no fiancé, and had in fact murdered a young couple in their home after the man rejected her, and then died running from the authorities.

When Anya returns home, the finger bone is missing. After being confronted with the truth, Emily shows that she is capable of moving solid objects, implying she put her finger bone in Anya's bag. Emily begins threatening Anya’s family to make Anya comply, even causing Anya’s mother to fall down the stairs. After Emily appears before Sasha, he reveals he found the bone earlier; Anya retrieves it and runs to the well, pursued by Emily.

Once there, Anya confronts Emily and accuses her of trying to live vicariously through Anya. Emily rebukes Anya, saying that she is no better (Anya having lied to Sean and distanced herself from Siobhan), and that the two of them are more alike then she wants to admit. After Emily fails to push Anya into the well, Anya drops the bone back in. Emily then possesses her own skeleton, and climbs out to give further chase. Anya stops and instead convinces Emily of the futility of her situation, causing the tearful ghost to dissipate, and the skeleton to fall back into the well. Later, Anya convinces her school to fill the well and rekindles her friendship with Siobhan.

Development

Writing

The character of Anya came about when Brosgol was working on the Belle and Sebastian comics anthology, Put the Book Back on the Shelf; she wrote a short story about a disaffected schoolgirl to accompany the song "Family Tree" (Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant). Brosgol didn't finish the story, but enjoyed drawing "that character with her fat little legs and cigarettes." Then, it was after reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle that she decided her unnamed character should fall down a well. The rest of the story came later, drawn from the author's own life and other inspiration.[9] Brosgol started work on Anya's Ghost in 2007.[8]

Production

As Anya's Ghost was her first book, Brosgol admitted that its production was an exercise in trial and error. Brosgol does not work from a script, saying that "the art and the dialogue come at the same time and one suggests the other". She also prefers to illustrate events rather than use dialogue in her comics. Working from a detailed outline, Brosgol drew thumbnails of each panel—two to a page in a Moleskine notebook—and wrote the dialogue as she went along.[10]

From her thumbnails, Brosgol would use her Wacom Cintiq to draw a rough version of the ultimate art. This rough version of Anya's Ghost went to her editor for approval. After approval, Brosgol went back through her rough draft and "tightened the roughs up just enough so that I could ink them." She then used paintbrushes (being especially particular about her Winsor & Newton series sevens) to paint on Canson translucent vellum atop her printed-out rough draft. Brosgol inked the panels and speech balloons first, adding in the lettering digitally later with a custom font developed by John Martz. Coloring was done in Adobe Photoshop.[10]

Anya's Ghost is drawn in a "deep violet palette"[2] that Brosgol called "purpley-blue". The artist chose the colors she did "for no other reason than I like purpley-blue and I think it feels right for the story."[10] Susan Carpenter of the Los Angeles Times interpreted the colors as "a subtle underscoring of Anya's bruised ego."[7]

Publication

Having worked on Kazu Kibuishi's Flight comics, Brosgol connected with his talent agent (Judith Hansen) who had agreed to look at the work of anybody involved. After completing the art for Anya's Ghost in 2009, Brosgol brought it to Hansen who agreed to represent the artist. Brosgol finished the cover art in 2010, and then "there’s a full year on the end for printing, and marketing, and all of that which comes with a book publisher."[8] The book was published in June 2011[3] by First Second Books.[11]

Reception

Anya's Ghost won the 2011 Cybils Award in the Young Adult category.[12] The graphic novel also won the 2012 Harvey Award for "Best Original Graphic Publication for Younger Readers"[11] and the 2012 Eisner Award for "Best Publication for Young Adults (Ages 12–17)".[13] Anya's Ghost was nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Best Graphic Novel, but lost out to Neonomicon by Alan Moore.[14]

The Los Angeles Times' Susan Carpenter reviewed the graphic novel and described it as "a well-paced story that feels dynamic and also intimate." She further lauded the work, calling it "humorous" and "beautifully drawn".[7] Pamela Paul with The New York Times positively compared Anya's Ghost to Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, saying that the novel felt real (even with its supernatural elements) and that Anya was "a smart, funny and compassionate portrait of someone who, for all her sulking and sneering, is the kind of daughter many parents would like to have."[2] Wired's Kathy Ceceri also noted an artistic similarity to Persepolis; she not only liked how Anya's Ghost intertwined the teen angst and fantasy elements of the novel, but praised how Anya's desire for a boyfriend doesn't overwhelm the story.[5] Cory Doctorow reviewed Anya's Ghost for Boing Boing, calling it "really sweet, really funny and really scary, [with] a powerful message about identity, fitting in, and the secret selfish bastard lurking in all of us and whether having such a goblin inside makes us irredeemable or merely human."[6] Whitney Matheson with USA Today wrote that Anya's Ghost is a "funny, creepy and a delightful page-turner" and cited author Neil Gaiman who called the novel "a masterpiece".[15] Steve Duin of The Oregonian praised the inventiveness of Brosgol's storytelling, and called her art "[a] little uneven, but [...] at its best when the lights go out."[3]

Film development

Andy and Barbara Muschietti, director and producer of 2013 English-language Spanish supernatural horror film Mama, bought the film rights to Anya's Ghost in 2015. As of October 2015, they were speaking with scriptwriter Patrick Ness for a screenplay.[16]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "ANYA'S GHOST". Kirkus Reviews. New York City: Virginia Kirkus Bookshop Service. 2011-06-07. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2016-06-23.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Paul, Pamela (2011-06-08). "A Girl and Her Ghost". The New York Times. New York City: The New York Times Company. ISSN 0362-4331. OCLC 1645522. Archived from the original on 2015-08-11. Retrieved 2016-06-23.
  3. 1 2 3 Duin, Steve (2011-05-01). "The timely arrival of Vera Brosgol and 'Anya's Ghost'". The Oregonian. Advance Publications. ISSN 8750-1317. Archived from the original on 2011-12-08. Retrieved 2016-06-23.
  4. ↑ Wilson, Kristian (2016-06-15). "'Anya's Ghost' Author Vera Brosgol Has A New Graphic Novel On The Way! — EXCLUSIVE IMAGES". Bustle. Archived from the original on 2016-07-12. Retrieved 2016-06-23.
  5. 1 2 Ceceri, Kathy (2011-05-31). "Review: Anya's Ghost". Wired. Condé Nast. ISSN 1059-1028. OCLC 24479723. Archived from the original on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2016-06-23.
  6. 1 2 Doctorow, Cory (2011-04-06). "Anya's Ghost: sweet and scary ghost story about identity". Boing Boing. Happy Mutants. Archived from the original on 2016-05-01. Retrieved 2016-06-23.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Carpenter, Susan (2011-06-19). "Not Just For Kids: 'Anya's Ghost'". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California: Tribune Publishing. ISSN 0458-3035. OCLC 3638237. Archived from the original on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2016-04-25. A girl from Russia has a hard time fitting in as an American teenager in Vera Brosgol's graphic novel.
  8. 1 2 3 Liu, Jonathan H. (2011-10-15). "Wordstock Interview: Vera Brosgol". Wired. Condé Nast. ISSN 1059-1028. OCLC 24479723. Archived from the original on 2013-03-26. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  9. ↑ Brosgol, Vera (2011-12-31). "Frequently Asked Questions". verabee. Archived from the original on 2016-04-06. Retrieved 2016-07-12.
  10. 1 2 3 Brosgol, Vera (2011-06-16). "process". verabee. Archived from the original on 2016-03-31. Retrieved 2016-07-12.
  11. 1 2 Tree, Brad (2012-09-09). "Congratulations to the Harvey Award Recipients!". Harvey Awards. Archived from the original on 2016-03-15. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  12. ↑ Alverson, Brigid (2012-02-16). "Comics A.M. | Anya's Ghost, Zita the Spacegirl win Cybils Awards". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on 2015-09-20. Retrieved 2016-06-23.
  13. ↑ "2010-Present". Comic-Con International: San Diego. Archived from the original on 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
  14. ↑ "Past Bram Stoker Nominees & Winners". Horror Writers Association. New York City. Archived from the original on 2016-05-03. Retrieved 2016-06-27.
  15. ↑ Matheson, Whitney (2011-05-17). "Comics recs: 'Anya's Ghost,' 'Change-Bots,' more graphic goodness". USA Today. Gannett Company. ISSN 0734-7456. Archived from the original on 2011-12-25. Retrieved 2016-06-23.
  16. ↑ Mayorga, Emilio (2015-10-30). "Muschiettis to Produce Supernatural Thriller 'Shadows' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Los Angeles: Penske Media Corporation. ISSN 0042-2738. OCLC 810134503. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2016-06-23.

External links

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