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<\/p>\nYou’ve heard of partners who finish each other’s sentences, but what about a married couple who finish each other’s creative ideas?<\/p>\n
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Marc McBride wants readers to get lost in Blunderbore. (Supplied: Penguin)<\/p>\n
That’s the case for Melbourne couple Sofie Laguna and Marc McBride, who have collaborated on their first graphic novel, Blunderbore, which tells their version of Jack and the Beanstalk.<\/p>\n
Laguna is an acclaimed author for adults and children, and won the 2015 Miles Franklin award for The Eye of the Sheep.<\/p>\n
McBride is a prolific illustrator and artist, with a particular interest in fantasy. He has illustrated more than 200 book covers and the Deltora Quest series, which has sold more than 18 million copies.<\/p>\n
Talking to ABC Arts over Zoom, the vivacious couple’s chemistry and admiration for each other’s work are clear.<\/p>\n
“I discovered we bounce off each other really well,” Laguna says.<\/p>\n
“Whenever I hit an obstacle or a tricky moment, or I needed a way through, I could run it by Marc, and then we’d go on, advancing each other’s suggestions. What a joy that was to have happen.<\/p>\n
“He is pretty brilliant. It was funny too, because he would do voices for all the characters!”<\/p>\n
Turning mess into beauty<\/p>\n
McBride laid the groundwork for the project when he drew a series of pictures illustrating familiar scenes from the fable: Jack climbing the beanstalk, entering the giant’s towering castle and stealing the golden goose.<\/p>\n
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After scaling the beanstalk, Jack finds the giant’s castle floating in the sky. (Supplied: Penguin)<\/p>\n
Laguna brought different strengths to the project such as a novelist’s understanding of structure and pacing.<\/p>\n
“It was just a mess of drawings, really,” McBride says of the initial drawings. “I knew roughly my version of the story, but Sofie took over and turned the mess into \u2026 can I say something beautiful?”<\/p>\n
McBride’s sketches introduced a new twist to the old story (the first printed version dates back to 1734), as the last frame revealed a young girl was drawing the action, raising the question of whether the whole tale took place in her imagination.<\/p>\n
“That drew me in,” Laguna recalls.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It was very compelling, the way a child gazes at a story and feels themselves into it.”<\/p>\n
The finished product is epic and immersive, with McBride’s black-and-white art conveying the sheer scale of the giant and his destruction and capturing the army of rat servants in all their repulsive glory.<\/p>\n
Unplanned collaboration<\/p>\n
While the pair had previously collaborated on children’s picture books, McBride says there was never a grand plan to create a graphic novel.<\/p>\n
“We’ve been married quite a long time, but we never really planned to work together,” he says.<\/p>\n
“We were always very separate. I was mad about fantasy and obsessive about Lord of the Rings, and Sophie wasn’t.”<\/p>\n
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McBride is influenced by English comic book author Alan Moore and make-up artist Tom Savini. (Supplied: Penguin)<\/p>\n
When the COVID lockdowns in their adopted hometown of Melbourne limited their options, they began working together more and enjoyed the process. Still, they hadn’t tackled a project of this scale before.<\/p>\n
Laguna says she underestimated how much work McBride, who created more than 1,000 of his incredibly detailed drawings for the project, would have to do.<\/p>\n
“I remember standing in our backyard and saying ‘How hard can a graphic novel be?'” she says, with a knowing laugh.<\/p>\n
“Our roles and responsibilities are so different; I just provide a template, or a bunch of seeds for Marc.”<\/p>\n
While Laguna was able to move between writing projects while working on Blunderbore, McBride often laboured into the early morning on his illustrations. He created them with a range of techniques and mediums, including drawing on creative pen displays, making 3D models and using Photoshop to draw over and rearrange airbrush paintings.<\/p>\n
Teamwork makes the fairy tale work<\/p>\n
Blunderbore isn’t just the result of artistic collaboration; it’s also a story about how people can work together and use their creative powers to solve seemingly impossible problems.<\/p>\n
There are dozens of different versions of the fable, many which feature Jack acting alone to defeat the giant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Along with piles of treasure, Gemma and Jack find Blunderbore hoarding scores of animals in his castle. (Supplied: Penguin)<\/p>\n
In Blunderbore, however, it’s much more of a team effort; intrepid young artist Gemma, the mild-mannered but formidable Aunt Lucy and even the hordes of animals the ogre has imprisoned all play crucial roles in ending the monster’s reign of terror.<\/p>\n
“This is all unconscious, but it does occur to me that [Blunderbore] is all about collaboration; the way they problem-solve together and support and encourage each other,” Laguna says.<\/p>\n
Even the couple’s youngest son, Milo, was involved as the photo model for Jack. McBride remembers him being a willing sitter, but Laguna suggests there may have been a chocolate bribe or two.<\/p>\n
Their friends also lent a hand, being photographed to help McBride illustrate Aunt Lucy and the servants imprisoned in the giant’s castle.<\/p>\n
“We’d have a barbecue, and you’d see everyone from Blunderbore running around,” McBride says.<\/p>\n
Marriage and creativity<\/p>\n
While some creative couples have strict boundaries for when and where they discuss their joint projects, Laguna and McBride are happy to let their work and personal lives blur together.<\/p>\n
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