20 Questions with Ned Wenlock
We catch up with Ned Wenlock, author of Tsunami - an astute and darkly comedic new graphic novel from Aotearoa’s own boutique publisher, Earth’s End. Tsunami is a coming-of-age story, a nuanced examination of teenage alienation and the unpredictable consequences of our actions.
From childhood fears to favourite animals, we ask all the important questions that you want to know about Ned and Tsunami.
1. Who are you and what do you do?
Hi my name is Ned and I live and work in the village of Paekākāriki as an animator and illustrator.
2. How has your day been?
Pretty good.
3. What is Tsunami? Was there a particular moment that led you to start writing this story?
Tsunami is a 276 page graphic novel about Peter, a righteous 12 year old boy, and his last 6 weeks at Primary School.
The catalyst for the story was thinking about myself at age 12. Like Peter I think I might have been a little bit righteous and I found the idea of a 12 year old thinking he knew best quite funny. Writing the story I wanted to explore the strange dynamic of a character that is at odds with everybody around him.
4. What drew you towards the coming-of-age genre?
I honestly didn’t think about the coming-of-age genre as I was writing the book, or that the story might be suitable for a YA audience. If anything I was thinking more along the lines of a noir story featuring children. I wanted to write a story about physical conflict in New Zealand and the only time that’s happened to me was in school. I imagine it’s the same for most people. As adults we tend to work out our problems verbally. When you’re a kid things can get messy fast and sometimes it seems the only way to solve a problem is to lash out.
5. What were you like when you were 12?
In my head I was extremely clever, I was always right, I was much more mature and wiser than my peers. In reality I was an average kid with average grades at school. I was tall for my age and probably quiet. I lived a lot in my imagination.
6. What’s a memory that defines your coming-of-age experience?
Moving to New Zealand when I was 13 opened my eyes. I feel like I was quite sheltered before this. Having to assimilate into a new society with different values was hard but I think I changed for the better.
7. What was something you were afraid of as a kid? Are you still afraid of that now? If not, what are you afraid of now?
Large bodies of moving water scared me as a kid. Sounds strange I know but I grew up on a canal boat in the UK. Canal water is sedentary, it doesn’t move, and so living on a boat you feel safe. But when the boat, which is your home, travels on a fast flowing river like the Thames, all bets are off. We had a couple of hair raising incidents on rivers, one where we nearly capsized. Also, out of the five of us, only my mum could swim.
Even now I have dreams of floods and tsunamis. I can swim but I don’t think the primal fear of large bodies of moving water has ever gone away.
8. What do you feel is special or important about the visual narrative medium - whether that be comics, animation, children’s book illustration, etc
It’s a universal language that almost everyone understands. You can be as complex or simple with it as you like. You can express feelings and emotions in abstract ways.
9. Do you feel that Aotearoa comics have a particular style compared to the rest of the world? Why or why not?
I’m probably too embedded in the scene to see it but I think it probably does have its own flavor. When I look at comics from different countries around the world, each place does have it’s own thing, it’s very hard to put your finger on but I can normally tell the difference between say English and American artists for example.
10. What did you want to be when you were a kid?
After I stopped copying the other kids at school in wanting to be a fighter pilot I actually wanted to be a children's book illustrator.
11. Is life now how you imagined it would be when you were younger? What has the biggest surprise been?
When I was a kid I imagined I would be living in a small village by the sea somewhere and I’d have a home office where I could draw all day. This is my life now. The biggest surprise is that I’m on the other side of the planet.
12. Your artistic style is so sharp and iconic - how did you land on it?
Very much by design, I wanted a style that wouldn’t take too long to draw. The people that inhabit my comics are made up of very simple shapes that are then filled in with detail to help define who the character is. The idea for this came from old tin toys and Mexican pottery which are sculpted or molded shapes with the detail painted or printed on top.
The backgrounds are mostly flat, layered up as they recede. Sometimes I use perspective but not too often. Also I just like line art where the line is the same thickness all over, this adds to the flatness of the image, there is something calming about that.
13. What are some inspirations for your work that may seem surprising?
I like a lot of expressive visual artists that are loose in their style and are playful. Gary Panter, the American comic artist is a good example. Sarah Laing, the New Zealand writer and graphic novelist is another. Total opposites to my stuff but they remind me to invest energy into the scenes that I draw. I want my work to be as expressive as theirs, just in a different way.
14. You made music videos for about 10 years - what is the process to capture the feeling, narrative, and style of a particular band?
I listen to the track about 100 times. Let my mind go through all the obvious ideas that pop up. Start doodling and wait for inspiration to strike. The format of the song, how it’s structured will often give me a story idea. Or it might be as simple as this song is suggesting this feeling, how can I get this across visually, is there something I haven’t tried before?
15. What’s your favourite animal?
I think horses are amazing, I don’t ride or own one, I just think they are cool. I also like seagulls.
16. What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
I don’t know who told me this but if you feel something you’ve made is perfect, break it.
17. What’s something you feel nostalgic about?
The sound of rain on a lake.
18. In an interview with Slated Magazine, you mentioned a fear of tsunamis that keeps you up at night…beyond the obvious (tsunamis being terrifying), are there any other reasons that tsunamis have been prominent for you?
Refer to question 7.
19. Do you feel you still have that child-like wonder or curiosity for the world? When was the last time you felt it?
I don’t in day-to-day life but I get it back when I travel.
20. Why is Tsunami relevant for readers of this day and age?
We are currently experiencing a time where people seem to have very rigid, inflexible, hard line points of view. There’s a lot of shouting going on and not a lot of listening. Tsunami attempts to explore this. I think It’s a suitably dark story for a dark time.
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Grab your copy of Tsunami here!
Written and Illustrated by: Ned Wenlock
ISBN: 9780473655679
Format: paperback, 276 pages, 216x170mm portrait, black & white illustrations
Publisher: Earth’s End Publishing
Publication date: August 2023
Ages: 15+ contains mild violence, offensive language