The Puppet Makers: Interview with creator Molly Crabapple

by Teresa Jusino

Artists and writers Molly Crabapple and John Leavitt are an unstoppable team in the indie comics world.  And from their Act-i-Vate webcomic, Backstage, to their graphic novel, Scarlett Takes Manhattan (Fugu Press), it is obvious that they share a fascination with debauchery in a historical, highly-sexualized context.  Burlesque performers, prostitutes, and courtesans dominate their work, and their latest offering, The Puppet Makers, is no exception.  However, this comic, starting on Zuda.com this week, has a decidedly science fiction/steampunk bent.

Official description:

Dangerous Liaisons meets Blade Runner. The Puppet Makers is a mystery set in an alternate historical Versailles. Versailles is run by clockwork and aristocrats wear robotic suits, or Dollies, to go through the elaborate rituals that proscribe daily life. When the king’s Dolly explodes, it is revealed that he’s long since vanished. A young monk’s investigations into the king’s disappearance draw him into the dark secrets of the court.

Here, Molly Crabapple talks about her fascination with Versailles, extols the talents of her collaborator, and explains exactly what her mother thinks about Heidi Montag.

Teresa Jusino: The Doctor Who episode “The Girl in the Fireplace” is set in Versailles, features clockwork androids, and has a steampunk/17th Century vibe to it.   Did Puppet Makers take any inspiration from that?

Molly Crabapple: I’ve never seen an episode of Doctor Who.  I did hear about it though when the fanboys on io9 pointed out the similarities.  The inspiration for doing a comic about Versailles was actually taken from Versailles- it’s been my area of historical obsession for going on a decade. Madame de Pompedeur is also a generation after the events in the Puppet Makers- she was the mistress of Louis XV, not of Louis XIV, the incredibly long-lived Sun King.

I got the inspiration for Puppet Makers way back in college. Upon reading how a hapless courtesan fainted upon her dozenth elaborate curtsey, I got the notion that court protocol was better performed by robots than human beings.

TJ:
Why Versailles, as opposed to any other culture in which courtesans were used?  What is it about this court that so fascinating to you?

MC: Versailles is the utterly alien land of indulgence and beauty and high artifice, of fashion used as a weapon. Louis XIV was tasked with the world’s most rebellious aristocracy- people holed up on their chateaus with private armies, ready to overthrow any king who displeased them.  Instead of trying to fight them directly, he builds Versailles.  Suddenly, the same aristocrats who killed his ancestors are raping their lands to buy party costumes, going into massive gambling debt, and fighting over who gets to watch him as he took a shit.  We saw the Dollies- the robotic exoskeletons that the highest aristocrats wear- as an extension of Versailles.  They’re gorgeous.  They’re expensive. They’re the height of fashion.  And they make you totally, completely unable to challenge the way things are going.

TJ:
After Scarlett Takes Manhattan, why go back to the web? What is it about webcomics that keeps you coming back?

MC: Feedback junkiness.  Comics are such a solitary artform.  Scarlett had me locked in my room for months. Doing a webcomic on a  great platform like Zuda lets us communicate with the outside world while we’re in our comics hermit mode.

TJ: Why do you continue to collaborate with John Leavitt?  What’s special about him as a collaborator?

MC: Me and John have been best friends since college, and know eachother so well that when we work together, it’s sometimes like monster borg brain. He writes for my art.  I draw for his writing.  His incredibly kickass, agile wordplay complements my angsty sensibilities.  He’s my best collaborator in the world.

TJ: What do you think Scarlett would make of Dollies?   Do you think there’s something particularly European about them, or would they fly among the well-to-do of New York’s Gilded Age?

MC: My mom is always joking that Heidi Montag is Dolly 2.0.  Sure, she doesn’t care about Protocol, but she also can’t move her face.

Check out The Puppet Makers at Zuda.com!

Teresa Jusino was born on the same day that Skylab fell. Coincidence? She doesn’t think so. She is a contributor to Tor.com, a website that covers sci-fi, fantasy, “…and related subjects.” Her work has also been seen on PopMatters.com, on the sadly-defunct literary site CentralBooking.com, edited by Kevin Smokler, and in the Elmont Life community newspaper. She is currently writing a web series for Pareidolia Films called The Pack, which is set to debut Fall 2010! Get Twitterpated with Teresa, Follow The Pack or visit her at The Teresa Jusino Experience.

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