By Maritza Ruiz-Kim
WE’RE BACK WITH THE INTERVIEW, PART TWO
In this installment of the interview, Janna Morishima has a frank discussion with newsletter/blog co-editor and anthology comic creator, Maritza Ruiz-Kim, sharing the highs and lows of creative collaboration in LET’S GO!, KCU’s Studio anthology in-progress. Learn about the project’s genesis and how everything from organizing ideas and processes to making the choice to self-publish are interconnected.
(Read Part One of the Interview with Janna here.)
Not to be missed! Get insight into Janna’s early years in the graphic-novels-for-kids space at Jarrett J. Krosoczka’s podcast, ORIGIN STORIES WITH JJK, in his interview with Raina Telgemeier. It’s worth mentioning again because it’s a comics anthology that brought Raina Telgemeier’s work to Janna’s attention, which played such a big part in the launch of Graphix at Scholastic, the first U.S. children’s graphic novel imprint at a U.S. trade publisher.
What follows is an interview script that has been condensed and edited for readability. ~MRK
Digging Deeper to Plant the Seeds
Maritza Ruiz-Kim (MRK): We’ve been talking about the magic and energy that comes when creatives meet in community. I’m wondering… are there some things that aren’t so smooth when bringing people together to do something big like this?
Janna Morishima (JM): I’m glad we didn’t begin this interview with that question! Because I do feel like, oftentimes, when I think about this project, that’s what I think about the most: how to help a group of people, spread across many time zones and with different personalities and backgrounds, work together most effectively. I am really fascinated by “organizational behavior,” how to nurture positive working relationships among people.
MRK: Right, that makes sense. Because that’s what needs the work, right? You are taking time to think about how to improve things.
JM: When we have seedlings and we hit a rough patch, we have to come up with new ways to do things. For example, when we started the anthology project, I divided everyone into four groups: publishing, editorial, design, and marketing. But we didn’t have a group that was specifically in charge of project management. And I realized that while communication within the groups was going well, communication between them wasn’t going as well.
So that was an important lesson: Whenever you’re thinking about communication, you almost always have to think about two audiences–internal and external. Both types of communication are critically important but often need to be handled in different ways.
MRK: Keeping the metaphor going… seedlings definitely need to be handled with care. It’s not easy to think about what’s not working when starting something new, but it’s a necessary part of the process if we want growth. So now we’re talking about all the things that can impede growth. Working out the bugs!
JM: At the get-go, we had about fifty people who wanted to be involved in the project. I thought, “Great! We’ll just divide ourselves into smaller groups and everything will sort of work itself out.” But there have been a lot of periods where things didn’t “sort themselves out” in a nice, harmonious, immediate way. One thing I know for sure is that the creative part of the process and the publishing part are so different.
I think it might have been a mistake that I said in the beginning that everybody has to do both the creative side and the publishing side. There are definitely people involved in this project who are interested in the publishing side and who are excited about it. But I feel a little bad that I forced everybody to be involved in that part. In the end, maybe it’ll be a good learning experience for all of us.
MRK: Oh it is a good learning experience, for sure! If we adapt and grow and let the stress push us in new directions, we can grow in new ways, too. Then we need to water our little plants and absorb all the good, too.
JM: Yes, we do! And I think one big lesson I also learned is this whole truism about herding cats is not easy. Small teams are much easier to work with than large groups.
MRK: I’m afraid I am one of the cats that has not been so easily herded. But look how far we’ve come! So I think it’s good. I know not everyone ended up having as much time to contribute as they initially hoped, but for those who have been able to contribute the time, this anthology project is providing an opportunity to develop skills we didn’t already have.
JM: Every creator has a different amount of enthusiasm and interest in each of those skills, I guess. Having in mind the herding cats thing… forcing a change is not the smoothest. I forced people to be involved in the publishing and now I realize, maybe I shouldn’t have done that.
MRK: Well, I can only speak for myself, but: I’m glad I get to be a part of a team that’s publishing a book! It’s forcing me, like you said. But it’s in a good way. I signed up for this knowing it wouldn’t be easy. Since committing to the publishing part was paired with the opportunity to have my work get into a book for the first time ever, that has kept the motivation going. But of course it hasn’t been comfortable.
JM: I do feel like we’ve bit off a really big bite to chew. So, we haven’t rushed this. We’re nearly one year into this project.
A Garden of Experiments
MRK: We’ve needed all this time. I’m new to thinking about the marketing aspects of things. We’ve formed several sub-committees. It was overwhelming at first, a total cat in my own world, skittish about the business stuff. I saw important publishing tasks happening in real time, but I learned and absorbed even if I couldn’t participate.
JM: In a way, it’s about doing lots of experiments, trying to see what factors seem to result in the most positive forward momentum. When I say “experiments,” what I mean is taking a big project, dividing it into smaller sub-projects, and working on each one with an open mind.
One example would be launching a newsletter. The marketing team had to ask themselves, what is our goal with the newsletter, who is our audience, and what can we create that will help us accomplish our goals and also appeal to our audience? They came up with their best answers to those questions and launched the newsletter (which is where this interview is appearing!). Then they have to see what happens – are they getting signups? What’s resonating with people, and what’s not? Paying attention to these questions and adjusting as you go is the experimental approach.
MRK: If you’re hoping that these experiments bring about positive forward momentum, how would you measure that?
JM: That’s a really good question. I’m not a quantitative person at all, I’m a qualitative person, very gut-instinct-y… I’ve been trying to get better at balancing my gut instincts with data – that’s where “measuring” comes in, as you said. The ultimate measure is: Can you convince people to pay for something? So, can we publish an anthology that people buy? We don’t know the answer yet!
“That’s something else I value about this project: The trust that has developed within the group. In other words, new friendships, deeper relationships, and collaborations between creators. “
-Janna Morishima
MRK: This summer you asked people what workshops they wanted on the calendar in 2025. Someone mentioned being interested in workflow as a topic, and you were like “Workflow? Got it!”
JM: In fact, I already have that workshop planned or at least, I know who I want to ask.
MRK: That’s so great! I like seeing how you’re always thinking ahead, reaching out to people to ask what they need, and you respond to that need. What’s one thing you hope people take away from this project—whether they’re contributors or just following along?
JM: Publishing a book is a complex project. But I hope that working on this anthology helps contributors by making it easier to tackle because they’re doing it in a group. It’s so much easier to do hard things when you’re doing it together with others, especially other people you trust. That’s something else I value about this project: The trust that has developed within the group. In other words, new friendships, deeper relationships, and collaborations between creators.
And finally, because a piece for an anthology is much shorter than a full-length graphic novel, I hope this project is a stepping stone that leads to bigger things for each of the contributors. I think it’s so important to take baby steps. It’s usually many tiny baby steps, not one gigantic leap, that lead to big accomplishments.
MRK: On behalf of all of the anthology creators, thank you so much for sharing your deep insights, candid answers, and for doing all that you can to bring this project to life!
Maritza Ruiz-Kim is a San Francisco Bay Area artist and writer and is a co-editor of the Anthology Newsletter and blog. After spending 15 years as an exhibiting artist and art teacher, she now draws and writes for kids. She serves as an SCBWI Co-Illustrator Coordinator in the SF North & East Bay Region, where she lives with her husband, two sons, and two smoosh-faced dogs
Website: https://maritzaruizkim.com
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While I miss working with you all on this project, my sanity thanks me. I’m really enjoying learning about how the group is navigating this huge undertaking from outside of the fence!