49. The Making of a Comic: 'Chasing Yesterday' with Boris Hartl, Steph C., and Lucas Gattoni
A one-shot comic about the scent of nostalgia
Howdy Brave Being,
Guess who’s back? Back again: The Making of a Comic! I’m kicking this one off with the lyrical stylings of Eminem because I am pleased to introduce you to the creators of a special one-shot comic that has brought the music of nostalgia to my ears.
Writer Boris Hartl, artist Steph C., and GLAAD award-winning letterer Lucas Gattoni are joining me to chat about CHASING YESTERDAY, their recently debuted comic which is available now for free on Globalcomix and I highly recommend reading it!
I also had the honor of editing it, so I’m doubly excited for you to meet my colleagues and hear more about their story, which I think y’all are going to love as much as I do.
Let’s hop to it!
The Writer: Boris Hartl
Brittany Matter: Give us the delicious deets about CHASING YESTERDAY. Who will we meet in this one-shot?
Boris Hartl: In a word, this story is about nostalgia—the yearning for a time when things were simpler and when we were the best versions of ourselves. The story, which switches between 1995 and 2023, tracks the relationship of two characters: Nash (the narrator) and Ireland (his amour).
Nash wants to disappear from his current life and finds comfort in his memories. In this story, he gets lost in the escapism of nostalgia.
BM: Tell us about your lightbulb moment when you decided to write this comic. Why is it important to you to tell this story?
BH: In 2014, a woman mourned the end of her relationship by spending a week living and eating at a Kentucky Fried Chicken location in China.
I tried for years to crack the nut of a love story set in a fast food restaurant. Then one day when I was ordering a soda, I smelled a hamburger that took me on a trip through memories of my high school days.
From there, the idea of how smells can drag us back in time really expanded the story’s potential. But things came together at the start of the pandemic, when I began to rewatch comfort movies like “The Breakfast Club” and “Before Sunset”. I later realized nostalgia was my escape to a romanticized version of my past.
But looking backward means looking back with regret. But as my French grandmother once said, “With ‘if’ we can put Paris in a bottle” — meaning we can’t change the past.
BM: What were your first steps in bringing this story to life?
BH: The best thing about being a new comics writer? No one is waiting for a story about a relationship unfolding in a fast food restaurant. And that meant I could take my time to craft the story and say everything I wanted in 10 pages. It also left me time to hone the story with you, Brittany, and make the script easy for Steph C. and Lucas to do their best work.
BM: Tell us about the team. How did you connect with each of them?
BH: With “Chasing Yesterday” being my first comic, I only wanted to collaborate with professionals who would make their part of the story their own. And who would have the patience to guide me through the comic-making process. I swear I must have written “Thanks for your patience” around 50 times.
And I searched through Twitter. Let me tell you what a blessing #VisibleWomen and #PortfolioDay are to find talented illustrators, colorists, and editors whose work made me say “wow”.
Steph C.’s art has an ethereal quality that I was sure would be perfect for this story (I love when I’m right), and Lucas’s lettering elevated the story in ways that a great letterer can do.
And thanks to your recommendation, Brittany, I reached out to AndWorld Design to design a wonderful package.
BM: What else can readers expect when they read this comic on Globalcomix?
BH: I’m a fan of special-edition albums full of b-sides and outtakes and Criterion Collection blu-rays that are jammed with extras. So I didn’t hesitate to commission an alternate cover from a delightful illustrator named Heather Vaughan and an additional sketch cover from the brilliant writer/artist Tango.
The Artist: Steph C.
BM: What about Boris's pitch drew you in to draw this comic?
Steph C.: Honestly, I have a big draw to and respect for my medium, telling stories and finding ways to tell them visually, is one of my favorite aspects, couldn’t say no to give it a try with a new story, each of which requires different skills, different sets to tell it; I like to say, “Comics can be whatever you want them to be,” so i conduct myself with that, and I jumped into this new prospect!
BM: Who was your favorite character to design and why?
SC: I think the concept of Ireland on itself. In the story, she moves more as a beacon of what could have been, what was and what it is, characters like this are always fun to design because there is so much symbology that can go into them: the prototypical teenage high school girl, butterflies, natural colors, she’s meant to look more like the idea of, but it also works on the real world as a person.
BM: What kinds of things inspired you while working on this one-shot?
SC: I have a soft spot for existentialism, human life and what does it mean to grow up, and how different it is for each of us. Boris’ story represented a path I hadn’t considered yet, so putting myself in what that prospect could work on as a story set in a fast food restaurant just made me excited! I guess there is a little bit of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and it feels a tad like sci-fi as well.
BM: What kinds of things did you do to warm up before drawing CHASING YESTERDAY?
SC: When it comes to these kind of stories and work, I’ll say it depends more on the person I’m working on: Usually, just getting familiar with the paraphernalia of the story: nostalgic places, the Americana sense of life, and the prospects of growing up compared to the ones we have today. I like to stare and study photos of places that I imagine the story could have taken place and I sketch them out just to get a feel of it.
BM: How did this comic challenge you as an artist?
SC: Well, comics always challenges me in a sense of “how much can I do here?” And when you have a flexible person to work with, it becomes easier. I wanted to try and play more with the colors, a sense of line of direction that was part of the story (the aroma trail) and, on itself, how is the aroma trail part of their story? It’s the creative part of my job I really enjoy, I always like to try as many new things as possible!
The Letterer: Lucas Gattoni
BM: How did you get into lettering comics?
Lucas Gattoni: I started reading comic books as a teen and developed a profound love of the medium and many of its characters, which made me consider working as a comic book "anything" early on. So while in High School, I tried my chores at writing, drawing and coloring, and honestly didn't feel I was enjoying any of those tasks (mostly as I felt I wasn't really good at any of them). Later on, I went on to study Graphic Design and that's when I first noticed lettering as its own craft.
I'm from Argentina, so even though I tried contacting letterers back then, the technological advances and payment options were not at a place where I could work remote. So I kinda shelved that dream job while working full time as a prepress manager and typesetting freelance, until a point where I felt I could give lettering a crack again. So a slow work Summer I lettered some sample pages I found on an online forum and I used those to contact very small indie creators—two days later I had my first (and still unpaid, but that's another story) assignment!
BM: Tell us a little bit about your lettering process.
LG: It doesn't differ much from what other letterers do except maybe in little technical details, mostly derived from the fact that I was first a Prepress Manager for 15 years, so there's some shortcuts and ways of saving time that are kinda engraved into my being. Besides that, when I'm offered a project I need to know what's the story that is being told and how, what's its genre and its target audience, and get at least a sample of the final colored art, as all that really informs the first decisions I make (which entail creating the lettering styles). With that as visual and conceptual input, once I get the script and pages, I prepare a sample of the style I have in mind (with maybe one alternative if I'm not convinced myself) and discuss this with my client (editors if it's publishers, or usually writers when it's an indie project). Once we settle on the definitive idea I adjust my first page template, which keeps building up and mutating as I letter each page. Then for the following issue I'll use the last page of the previous one as template and so on.
BM: What was your first step in picking a font for a story like this one?
LG: As is usual in my lettering process, I wanted to know what this story was about and how it was narrated. When I discussed this with Boris, I noticed basically the whole story is told via captions, which read to me like sort of a written journal/diary (versus say a traditional inner monologue narration) an idea which Boris supported. I had a certain penmanship-like font in mind as it had been quite recently released, so that was my first choice to try.
I usually look for little graphic elements in both the artwork and the font that connect them (like how elegant, precise or squiggly their lines are). But in the end this is where I let a little magic happen: I usually pick several other fonts to sample, and try them directly on the page to see which of them I feel like could've been written by the artist. And my first choice instantly spoke to me, so I knew that was the right one (BTW, it's Blambot's Wishful Thinker). Finally, I designed very rough and grainy captions with an offset back outline and notebook-like horizontal lines, which I felt matched Steph's artwork style. After some tweaking (we dropped the horizontal lines) we settled upon the definitive style and that was it.
BM: What or who inspires your work?
LG: Basically, each and every single piece of media I read/watch and continue reading/watching. I like thinking a bit outside of the box if possible, so I try to get inspiration from any other medium I can get a visual input from. I like to stay both as current as possible and able to hark back to retro looks when needed.
And yes, there's some specific letterers which I admire and love to follow their creative journeys. Aditya Bidikar is one of the most talented letterers today, and I'm amazed at his thought process and very analytical approach to lettering. Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou is my go-to guy for creative, original stuff as I think he's doing things no one else is and isn't afraid to think outside of the box every time. Sal Cipriano, Tom Napolitano, Deron Bennett, Ariana Maher, Frank Cvetkovic are also amazing letterers that inspire me daily.
BM: What was your favorite part about lettering CHASING YESTERDAY?
LG: I'll choose two actually. The first one was coming up with a cool way to add emphasis to some words. I noticed the font we picked didn't have a bold variant, and its italic was way too subtle so I thought, "How do I highlight words when I'm writing with a pen?" and that's where the underline came up. I think it looks quite cool and natural and adds up to that "written note" spirit the narrative caps have. The second would have to be the very few but very specifically tailored onomatopoeias I had to design! That's always one of the most fun parts of any lettering gig.
Collaboration Station
BM: Boris, since you’re a newcomer to making comics, what did you learn about collaboration?
BH: My role as the writer is to make the jobs of my collaborators easy. That means having a script that is locked and formatted for easy reading before the artist and letterer work their magic.
BM: What advice about collaboration would you give to comic-book creators just starting out (or even seasoned ones like me who could learn something too)?
BH: Be truthful. Be kind. Be clear. This is my first comic and I asked for patience and guidance from everyone. And hoo boy, did I ask a lot of questions.
This was a graduate-level exercise on how to tell a story visually. I learned so much from working with the team—from print dimensions and the safe area to trusting in colleagues’ creativity and beyond.
Also, if you’re looking to up your comic creation game, then Shelly Bond’s Filth & Grammar is an amazing resource.
BM: What was your favorite part about working on CHASING YESTERDAY?
BH: Not needing permission to dream in color and to make art. Having a group of trusted creatives in place to collaborate on crafting an even larger story than I’d initially hoped.
BM: A trusted team is hard to beat! Thanks, everyone, for giving us an inside look into how comics get made.
Dear readers: Remember to check out their comic, CHASING YESTERDAY, which is available for FREE on Globalcomix now!