Entophilezzz! The Cutest Bugs Ever!

The only time I get stereotypically girly is when a bug invades my space. They’re creepy, they’re crawly, and they haunt my dreams. I don’t like bugs.

However, sister/brother team Michelle Amodio and Peter Pasquerello have created a lineup of bugs that I can get behind without jumping or screaming like a girl.

Meet Lucy Lepidoptera, Adalaide Arthropoda, Harriet Hymenoptera, Cleo Cleopatra, and Madeline Mantodea. Together they’re the Entophilezzz (en-toe-files), stars of a t-shirt line and an upcoming webcomic.

Lisa Fary: When did you two start Entophilezzzz?

Michelle Amodio: We had Lucy Lucy Lepidoptera, the butterfly. for a long time, but we kind of cast our fate to the wind and officially incorporated in April of 2008, then launched the website in November 2008. It was around that time that I started thinking about this entire line that stemmed from the butterfly. I thought they’d be really cool characters and, while trying to find the right medium to put them on, had the idea to make them wearable. So, we did the whole t-shirt thing.

That’s how we started, then the characters took on a life of their own and we started writing storylines for an upcoming webcomic. It might have been cart before the horse syndrome, but we’re just rolling with it.

LF: How did the two of you collaborate to design the characters?

MA: I can’t draw a stick figure to save my life, but I always had this idea with Lucy in particular; she’s such a cool character. Peter is not only my business partner and creative director, he happens to be my brother. I think since we were both very young, between me being a writer and him being a visual artist and illustrator, we always knew that we would wind up doing something creative together. We saw this as an opportunity to see if we could go public with some of our crazy ideas.

Peter Pasquerello: Michelle actually wrote a poem about how this came about. Sometime, about eleven years ago, I had a pair of sunglasses and in one of those clumsy moments, I broke them right down the center where it would go over the bridge of your nose. I’m holding the two pieces in my hand in such a way that the earpieces were sticking out over the tops like antennae. If you look at Lucy, her eyes look a lot like cat sunglasses. That’s exactly how I got the first visual of Lucy. I had said “Wow. It was an accident. It broke in my hands,” and Michelle later wrote a poem called “An Accident That Broke in My Hands”.

So, it came from that pair of sunglasses, then imagining the eyelashes on those sunglasses. I thought it was a good look, kind of insectisoid. That’s how it visually started and from there, I have piles and piles of versions of the butterfly.  Not even a year ago we decided on the final look. The rest sort of spilled out after Lucy was done.

LF: Pete, what’s your background with sequential art? Had you worked in that medium before?

PP: I pretty much grew up on that. Although I wasn’t an avid comic collector, I was pretty particular, I started being drawn to the sequential art that was very cutting edge, that were more painted instead of pen and ink, the ones that told really in depth stories. When I’ve done sequential art I’ve tried to model myself off of those. I’ve done it here and there. But, being that I made these creatures and Michelle writes them, it’s much easier because I know where it’s coming from.

LF: Michelle, as a writer, is this your first shot at comic work and what other kind of writing have you done?

MA: This is my first foray into comics. Growing up with Pete, I was an avid lover of comic books, but I tended to follow his opinions, being the little sister always tagging after her older brother. I was more of an X-Men, Spider-Man, Superman, Wonder Woman kind of girl. Then as I got into college and started studying writing, I focused a lot on prose, short stories. I spent some time as an editor for an online communications journal which totally killed any creativity. I broke away from that and re-evaluated where I was as a creative writer and when we started really solidifying the Entophilezzzz line, I felt like I wanted to get back to that creative writing and do something different and try my hand at writing these punchy, four panel, six panel webcomics. Then of course a couple years ago I got into reading webcomics, like Two Lumps.

I’ve seen webcomics become a more popular medium for a lot of no-name artists to get their work out there. I love seeing how people can have this sort of DIY approach to writing and drawing and getting it out there. It’s actually a challenge writing short punchy comics when you come from a background of studying fiction and poetry and journalism, but it’s a challenge I welcome and have a lot of fun with.

LF: My biggest problem starting out was thinking visually. Being an English major, I liked to get wordy.

MA: That was me. I was an English major, so I always thought more in terms of syntax and grammar, and I painted with words. It was hard to envision the characters interacting, visualizing that on the paper. I’m used to show don’t tell, but you’re kind of doing both in this medium.

LF: Being siblings and working together not just in business but also creatively, do you find that there are challenges with collaborating with someone you’re so close to?

MA: Sometimes yes and sometimes no. I guess the best way to explain that is that we’re both so different, like night and day. I’m very loud and outgoing, I’ve always been the front woman for a lot of things. Pete’s always been the quiet, artistic type. As different as we are, we’re very much in sync on a creative level. We always kind of get each other. But, we have our moments where I have an idea, and say, “I see it doing this,” and he’ll look at me like I have two heads. We’re pretty constructive in how we criticize each other or disagree. We’ve left the sibling rivalry behind – we don’t beat each other up anymore. But, it’s rare that we have challenges talking or getting along.

LF: As far as the merchandise, you’ve got the hoodies and the t-shirts, and I saw the panties at the con, which I thought were the cutest things ever.

MA: We sold out of those. We got them as a test to see if anyone would actually like them. Well, that was a resounding yes, so we just put in an order for more and we’re going to get them on the website very soon.

LF: Do you have any other products in development?

MA: I’m getting a lot of requests for tank tops. Girls are asking for yoga pants, which I would have never thought of. I’ve even been asked for short skirts, but that might be just among my roller derby friends because that’s all they wear for practice. Beyond wearables, I see these characters as toys. I don’t see why these girls couldn’t be action figures or stuffed toys. I see jewelry, charms, that sort of thing. It depends what kind of market you’re trying to target. I’d even love to get an animated cartoon on the web.

PP: I think the webcomic and how it’s received is going to dictate what comes next.

MA: I would love to break into the toy market, though. Collectible toys, posable toys, stuffed toys. You know you’ve made it in life when you have an action figure!

For more, visit the Entophilezz at Luulay.com.

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Lisa Fary’s early exposure to classic Battlestar Galactica in 1979 is largely responsible for her lifelong interest in science fiction and her childhood ambition of being an intergalactic space cowgirl. She thinks diagramming sentences is a fun alternative to Sudoku.

Images copyright Luulay.com

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