How do you remain so open and forthcoming regarding something so intimate and/or personal, and how do you balance fantasy and real-life? It’s both really exciting and scary to work alone, because I have total control, and I also have no one else to blame if I don’t like the finished product, haha.ĪIPT: The book, at least in part, is based on your own experiences. When it was still a webcomic, I didn’t write scripts beforehand, but I realized how much easier it is to change things in the script before drawing, and incorporated that into my process. So when I came back to Himawari House after having worked on that book, I had all this experience working with other writers as a foundation to draw upon for my own work. HB: It’s interesting, because it was after I started the original Himawari House webcomic, Himawari Share, that I got approached to work on They Called Us Enemy, which was created by a team of four. What’s it like going it alone? And what’s it like balancing the work of both writer and artist for a project? The story follows them over the course of a year as they experience the joys and struggles of recreating themselves in a new country and a new language.ĪIPT: This book’s basically your solo debut. Harmony Becker: I always struggle giving an elevator pitch for Himawari House because it isn’t very “X meets X”! Basically, Himawari House is a multilingual graphic novel about three international girls living together in a share house in Tokyo. Listen to the latest episode of our weekly comics podcast!Īhead of today’s release (November 9), we caught up with Becker via email, where we talked about working as both the writer and artist, her love of YA audiences, learning Japanese, and much, much more.ĪIPT: What’s your elevator pitch for this book/project? Do you think it’s all like “X meets X”?

Himawari house by harmony becker