While quarreling with expatriated Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev in the German town of Baden-Baden, Fyodor Dostoyevski suggested his compatriot might see his homeland better-and thus, the implication goes, write about it more accurately-were he to buy a telescope. The meaning of the insult is clear: in order to write about a place, one must inhabit that place, see it in all its mundane and quotidian totality.
Of course, the flip side of this sentiment could be called the anthropological ideal: only outsiders, with their unjaded and uncorrupted perspective of an unfamiliar locale, can really see what's really going on. If a Martian landed tomorrow on Capitol Hill, it might have some interesting things to say about the neighborhood.
The comic-strip artist Z, as she calls herself, isn't from Mars. She's just from "the boonies of Snohomish," where she was born, raised and still lives. Nonetheless, her latest work-an on-line strip called Z Metro Tales-takes a look at life on the Hill from the pen-and-inked perspective of a handful of mostly young, mostly alienated and identity challenged characters. Were she to meet, say, cartoonist Scott Adams, would the creator of Dilbert tell her to buy a telescope?
"I've just been visiting for the past seven years," Z says of her familiarity with Capitol Hill and its culture. "It seemed really cool, so I kept coming back," she adds, noting that she tries to make it into town at least once a week, and sometimes makes it in two or even three times. In Z's mind, it's her stranger-in-a-strange-land status that maintains the neighborhood's exotic appeal, and keeps her eye sharp for the sorts of details that make for an interesting comic strip.
"It would stop being special if I lived here," she explains. "It would be like eating cake every day."
Z Metro Tales is something of an anti-picaresque focusing on the budding friendship of its two main characters, Kenneth Cross and Simon Alloy: the former, a small-town twentysomething fleeing Snohomish and the aftermath of his parents' divorce, moves to Capitol Hill, where he meets and befriends the loner Simon, a 17-year-old Hill native with a cat named Precious and dreams of becoming a scientist.
Orbiting around these two are a cast of oddballs and obsessive misfits that includes the reclusive Sue Baroo; Kenneth's best friend from Snohomish, Julie Orchard, who sells her father's produce at Pike Place Market; Michael, a self-righteous college student from Sultan; and Narcissus and Echo, an inseparable couple comprised of an egotistical actor and his yes-man sidekick. There are also the Trendoids, a clone-like clutch of identical-looking 18-to-21 year olds who glom herd-like onto the latest trend.
According to Z, who has been drawing comics since she was 5, these Capitol Hill characters and their stories have a strong autobiographical component, starting with the author's childhood.
"I spent a lot of time hiding in closets-literally hiding in the closet," she says of growing up. "There was a lot of drama," she says of her home life, culminating in her parents' divorce when she was 21.
As might be expected, her experience at Snohomish High School was that of the willful outsider.
"I was the freak, and everyone hated me," Z recalls. "I was pretty much alone most of the time. I was a nerd." During those years, she adds, she worked at McDonald's-the postmodern rite of passage for suburban teenagers-as well as doing time as a barista at such distinctly non-urbane locations as the Monroe State Fair. Z is licensed to be barber, though currently she is technically unemployed, spending the majority of her time honing and promoting her craft.
Z calls Kenneth a "mash up" of someone she knows and several fictional characters-Bart Simpson, Nerudo and Ken of Ken and Barbie toy doll game. "I guess he's just supposed to represent a typical person from Snohomish," she says, explaining that folks from those environs "are more gruff in our mannerisms." Simon, she goes on, is based on a guy she knew. "He was really weird and he caused me a lot of problems," Z says, adding, with an artist's offbeat optimism, "but he gave me a really good character idea." What's more, she adds, Simon is also "like me in high school."
Z describes much of the humor in her strip as slapstick.
"I'm not trying to write anything deep or meaningful. It just all seems to work on an intuitive level," she said. Many episodes are comprised of random encounters, such as when she ran into a guy carrying an umbrella strung with Christmas lights who said he was a "light Seattle rain" for Halloween. She asked him if he minded being drawn into her strip, and he said fine. The irony of this, she said, is that "throughout the whole comic it never rains. I don't know how to draw rain," she laughs.
Z Metro Tales made its debut during this year's Gay Pride Parade, both in Seattle and Olympia. Z rolled up about 100 copies of the strip tied them with a bag of Skittles candy, making a kind of scroll. She has also advertised the cartoon in various zines and comics, and posts her stuff on line at www. zmetrotales.com.
According to Z's tally, there are about 100 visitors a day to her Web site, which 699 people added to their "favorites" list this past October, she adds. "I'm finding that the most positive response is with teenagers," she notes. "I have some young gay fans, 14 or 15 [years old], and they just like Simon. Everybody loves the emo-bashing." Z says she's intent on advertising to what she calls "a more queer audience." She also has plans to publish the strip in book form, and make it available as a pay-to-print publication on Amazon.com. "People are actually reading the book now," she notes.
For now, Z-who sites artists Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes), Gary Larson (The Far Side), Neil Gaiman (Sandman) and R. Crumb as big influences-is focused primarily on continuing work on the Z Metro Tales Capitol Hill series, which is made up of 22 pages per issue. Besides drawing and gathering Hill-oriented experiences, she says she spends about 4 to 6 hours a day on-line, corresponding with other graphic artists. Eventually, she may take up work again on an older strip of hers, called "Happy Burger, and she would also like to adapt the Capitol Hill series as a live-animation cartoon some day.
"I have lots of ideas," she says.
Z Metro Tales, by the artist currently known as Z, can be read on-line at www.zmetrotales.com.
