Blogs

Kristen Haas Curtis on Chaucer


I will never forget my first experience reading the medieval English poet, Geoffrey Chaucer. 

If you’ve had this experience, you’re not alone! It took me about five weeks to warm up to him, but by the end of the semester, I was hooked.

Fast forward six years, and I’m now in the final year of my doctorate focusing on Chaucer’s work and the many adaptations and modernizations it has inspired. If you’re not (yet) familiar with Chaucer’s work, his writing displays a remarkable versatility, ranging from the tragedies of first love to talking birds to extended fart jokes, with a little bit of hagiography thrown in, too.

He’s smart and funny; he’s a keen observer with a knack for capturing personalities and situations in a way that still resonates today… that’s if you can make your way around the Middle English.  

Hmmmm. 

As a reader, you have a couple of options: either you read it in modern translation or you use a text that includes extensive glossing to help you with the language. Most students end up working with the latter, as I did (and do) because the language really is fun once you get used to it.

However, the glossed text brings a problem of its own: bouncing back and forth across the page from text to gloss and back again can make it difficult to follow the story unfolding 

Hmmmm.  

As I spent more time with Chaucer and began to think about adaptations and how they work, I started wondering if a story from Chaucer told in comic form might be able to provide a more inviting experience for new readers by using visual cues to aid in comprehension of the Middle English.  Could the combination of words and images for which comics are known actually function as a new kind of glossing on a very old text?  

This question became the core of my Masters thesis in 2020.

I decided to work with one of the stories from Chaucer’s famous Canterbury Tales, a long poem written in the late 14th century that follows a group of people going on pilgrimage who engage in a storytelling contest to pass the time as they travel (best story gets a free dinner)! I settled on abridging “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” as my text and I retained Chaucer’s Middle English in order to test my idea. I read, reread, planned, drew, and lettered and then I enlisted a couple of non-medievalist friends to read the nearly-finished comic for me and offer feedback. A couple more changes and it was off to print! 

Since then, my little chicken comic has been taught in classrooms, included in university reading lists, distributed and discussed at academic conferences, and a copy is currently on display at the Bodleian Library as part of the incredible “Chaucer Here and Now” exhibition.

And now? My chickens have come to roost with the fantastic Good Comics team. I hope you enjoy it! 

(Do you want to know more about Chaucer, adaptation, or chickens? In that case, you might enjoy this chat I had with Dan Berry last year on his podcast “Make It Then Tell Everybody.” Caution: contains John Dryden.)


3×23: Josh Hicks

Can you sum up your work in 3 words?

Jokes, diagrams, punching

What comics plans do you have for 2023?

I’m finishing up my next book, Hotelitor, which is a sci-fi action comedy about a giant robot that is also a hotel. After that’s done I’ll see what I want to do next.

Up to anything else exciting this year? (we can’t wait for Ultrabrawl to arrive!)

I’ve got the Glorious Wrestling Alliance: Ultrabrawl card game coming out, which has been a labour of love, and some animated short films that will hopefully be seen at some point this year.

https://joshhicks.co.uk/

3×23: Niki Bañados

Can you sum up your work in 3 words?

Where I’ve been.

What comics plans do you have for 2023?

I’m doing 8 pages for Island Magazine. They’ve committed to publishing a comic in each issue in 2023, which is a really cool project to try to get more comics into literary spaces (where they belong).

Up to anything else exciting this year?

I might finally get into a few comics and zine fairs around Sydney. I had everything lined up in 2020 but then various Things happened and now three years later I’m only just about ready to enter society again.

3×23: Claire Spiller

Can you sum up your work in 3 words?

Wildlife, Empathy, Learning

What comics plans do you have for 2023?

I’ve gotten pretty deep into making non-fiction informative zines, the ‘A Guide To’ series, about different wildlife so comics have taken a step back for the moment. It really appeals to my inner child, getting to do deep research into an animal and figure out how to relay that information in a way that’s fun, creative and genuinely engaging.

I’m laying the groundwork for a new comic project that I’m hoping will be my biggest, most ambitious and personal story yet. I’m still feeling out the story beats but I just did a very exciting research trip to Postojna Caves for it. 

Up to anything else exciting this year?

I just released a bunch of amphibian-themed goodies in my shop including A Pocket Guide to Amphibians mini-zine as well as some super cute pins and stickers. I’m aiming to make A Guide to Owls and maybe, if things go to plan, A Guide to Pigeons might come out towards the end of the year. Between zines I have some other bits and pieces of wildlife art planned and will, of course, be continuing to develop my next comic.

https://www.clairespiller.com/

3×23: Kristen Haas Curtis

Can you sum up your work in 3 words?

Autobio-meets-lit-crit (but fun)

(English majors cheat with hyphens…)

What comics plans do you have for 2023?

I have a few fun things going on! 

I’m still working on the comic, Repainting the Lion, that I’ve been drawing alongside my doctoral dissertation-in-progress since early 2021.

Academic work aside, diary comics are my first love so I will continue making those throughout the year, particularly when something very interesting or very mundane happens. I’ve been making them for ten years now and I can honestly say the practice has changed my life.

In keeping with the theme of diary comics, I also have some fun interactive projects coming up this year. For those who are new to my work, two things I love are using constraints in my diary comic (ahem #bythebones) and teaching other people (particularly those who think of themselves as “not artistic”) to experiment with diary comics. My Personal Comics Manifesto comes in two parts: a) anyone can make comics and b) perfectionism is keeping you from having a lot of fun in life. For me, comics are as much or more about the process of making them as they are about the comic you make. In my workshops, I encourage people to let go and play and take joy in whatever comes out but I also know that the fear of the blank page is a real thing. 

These ideas and interests are driving one of my current projects —  an interactive comic that provides both instructions and space for people of any artistic skill level to play around with their own life story and have fun making some comics. This project has been in my heart for a couple years now and I am so pleased to finally have it in the works (and it could not ask for a better home for it than Good Comics!) In the run-up to releasing this comic, I will be sharing an exercise or two right here on the Good Comics blog later this year, so be sure to keep an eye out!

Up to anything else exciting this year?

I’m in the third year of my PhD at the University of Bern in Switzerland, thinking about feminine aging and obscenity in eighteenth-century literary adaptations starring medieval poet Geoffrey Chaucer’s Wife of Bath. (Interested? Check out Repainting the Lion!). As you might imagine, that’s pretty much filling most of my available time, but I’m having such fun with it that I don’t (generally) mind. I’m also invited to give a few guest lectures and classes about literary adaptation, making comics, Chaucer, and how those three things can fit together. Honestly, this is my dream!

I’m also looking forward to a trip back to the US to visit family later this year and a summer holiday in Ireland – both excellent excuses for making lots and lots of diary comics. It’s looking to be a very full year in all sorts of very nice ways!

Thanks Kristen! You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter, and also check out her website.

3×23: Gareth A. Hopkins

Can you sum up your work in 3 words?

Experimental, textured, sincere

What comics plans do you have for 2023?

I’ve got quite a lot boiling away… ‘The Gone Tower’ is a project where I post a new comic page every day on Patreon (following on from a similar project last year called ‘The Sluice’). I’ve set up a small press with my daughter Martha called ‘Absolute Collider’ so we can release comics we’ve done either together (like ‘Ghosts In Things’) or separately – Martha’s got a zine of paintings called ‘Panjabear’ ready to come out, and I’m doing some collaborations with writers (‘Kynance’ with Kate Dowling and ‘Atlas’ with Andrew Mbaruk). And I’m also doing a sequel to the comic I made using Sean Azzopardi’s studio off-cuts… the first was ‘Jetwash Tramploine’ and the sequel is called ‘Detergent Bouncehouse’. Oh! And I’m working on a comic called ‘Between Teeth’ for Douglas Noble’s Pocket Chillers series. This will all hopefully be coming out in the next few months, and along the way I’ll try and clear space to start work on a new book-sized project to follow on from last year’s Explosive Sweet Freezer Razors.

Up to anything else exciting this year?

At some point I’m hoping to get some shelves so I can move some of the piles of paper I’ve amassed off my office floor, which is sort of exciting, if you like tidying? Otherwise just taking each day as it comes. Oh, and maybe have a holiday or something, we’ll see.

Thanks Gareth!

3×23: Ollie Hicks

Can you sum up your work in 3 words?

Funny, gay, energetic

What comics plans do you have for 2023?

So much! Possibly too much! My debut graphic novel is out! I co-created GRAND SLAM ROMANCE Book 1 with my wife, the unbelievably talented Emma Oosterhous and it’s finally coming out in the UK in June 2023. It’s a ridiculous, funny, sweaty, sexy story about softball lesbians and magical girls and long-lost love! So we’re launching that, and soon (very soon -like this week!) I’m going to sit down and start writing GSR Book 3!

I’m also co-editing a smut anthology with the amazing Tab Kimpton and Niki Smith called Succulent, which is opening submissions soon and I’m SO EXCITED to edit it!

I’m also working on solo stuff! I debuted Butch Bros Vs The Skate Park in Short Box Comics Fair 2022 and just fell completely in love with the characters – two butch himbos who are ride or die for each other but keep falling out over sexy supernatural creatures – and so I made a sequel, Butch Bros Vs The Resignation Letter, which is out in April. I really love this comic and I’ve really pushed myself as a colourist making it, so I’d like to do a third and final instalment, but that’s going to probably be 2024 because I somehow have another comics project this year! This final project is a solo comic, a little longer than my usual 24 pages, and a bit more reflective. It’s a story that’s been brewing inside me for ten years at least, and I’m excited to start writing it. But that one’s a secret for now!

Up to anything else exciting this year?

Laughs feebly Nope! Just comics!!! I’ve had a really exciting* couple of years with the pandemic where a bunch of life stuff happened and making comics sort of went on the back burner, except for Grand Slam. I’m really happy and grateful to have a few months this year to be more creative and draw more.

*Absolutely soul crunchingly awful

You can order GRAND SLAM ROMANCE BOOK 1 here. Or go here for a list of UK queer indie bookshops that you can request it from.