{"id":24095,"date":"2022-05-10T14:05:23","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T18:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=24095"},"modified":"2022-05-10T14:09:54","modified_gmt":"2022-05-10T18:09:54","slug":"montana-free-press-graphic-novel-brings-native-story-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2022\/05\/10\/montana-free-press-graphic-novel-brings-native-story-to-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Montana Free Press: Graphic novel brings Native story to life"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Thunderous\"<\/a>
The cover of Thunderous by Helena- based poets M.L. Smoker and Natalie Peeterse. Courtesy image<\/figcaption>\r\n
Montana poets embrace Native culture in new graphic novel<\/div>\r\n
The Lakota storytelling of \u201cThunderous\u201d seeks to honor Indigenous traditions.<\/div>\r\n
Tuesday, May 10, 2022<\/div>\r\n
By Erika Fredrickson<\/div>\r\n
Montana Free Press<\/DIV>\r\n
montanafreepress.org<\/A><\/DIV>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nFor the past decade, comic books and graphic novels have grown in popularity, with Hollywood movies and TV series adaptations \u2014 especially from Marvel \u2014 finding critical acclaim. Last year, the graphic novel industry posted $24 million in sales, an increase of 171% over 2020. But the increase in titles and revenue is maybe less interesting than a shift in content.

<\/P>\r\n\r\nWhile Japanese graphic novels have been popular for decades, a new wave of comic stories from around the world, focused on a variety of cultures \u2014 India, Australia, all across South America \u2014 are coming out of small and medium-sized publishing houses. That environment has given a new Native American-centered, young-adult graphic novel called \u201cThunderous,\u201d by two Montana writers, an opportunity to reach a wider audience.

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\u201cThunderous<\/a>\u201d is about a Lakota teenager from South Dakota who yearns to fit in. The main character, Aiyana, worries that what makes her different \u2014 her Lakota heritage and connection to her previous home on a reservation \u2014 are what she needs to hide. And despite loving her family, she pushes them away to seek acceptance among her classmates. Not long into the story, Aiyana is transported into a world of talking animals and a special quest that will transform her. The characters, themes and lessons of the story are rooted in Lakota storytelling, and while Aiyana is not a hero with superpowers in the Marvel sense, her journey has a classic hero\u2019s-origin-story flavor.

<\/P>\r\n\r\nSmoker and her co-author, Natalie Peeterse, are both Helena-based poets. Smoker is a member of the Sioux and Assiniboine tribes, has published a poetry collection called \u201cAnother Attempt at Rescue, \u201d formerly worked in the Indian Education Division of the state Office of Public Instruction, and currently works as the Indian Education Practice Expert for Portland-based Education Northwest. Between 2019 and 2021, she shared the role of Montana Poet Laureate with Melissa Kwasny. Peeterse, who co-runs Open Country Press, a Montana literary publishing company, has published two collections: \u201cBlack Birds: Blue Horse, An Elegy\u201d and \u201cDreadful: Luminosity, Letters.\u201d Neither had written a comic-style story before.

<\/P>\r\n\r\nEarly last year, a media group called Curiosity Ink Media, which partnered with the independent comic publishing company Dynamite to produce original stories with diverse perspectives<\/a>, approached a Lakota friend of Smoker\u2019s. They wanted him to create a young adult story with Indigenous characters. He already had several projects on his plate, so he asked Smoker if she wanted to take it on. Smoker says the companies didn\u2019t have any particular ideas for the story, they just knew they wanted to support a Native project.

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\r\n\"Thunderous<\/a>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
The poster for Thunderous by Helena-based poets M.L. Smoker and Natalie Peeterse Courtesy image, © Curiosity Ink Media LLC<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cIt was a big deal,\u201d Smoker says, \u201cbecause less than 1% of children\u2019s literature is by or about American Indians, which is a very deplorable number. My friend told them, \u2018Hey, I know the person for this.\u2019 And so he called me and asked if I would be interested in writing a children\u2019s lit piece based in Indian Country.\u201d

<\/P>\r\n\r\nSmoker and Peeterse are longtime friends and collaborators. They spent time with each other through the pandemic, which brought them even closer together, and made Peeterse the obvious choice as writing partner.

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\u201cAs a poet, I was apprehensive about writing dialog and characters in this new setting,\u201d Smoker says. \u201cBut I knew I wanted it to be funny. We got through the pandemic together with our families with a sense of humor and appreciation for one another. I knew it would be fun to collaborate.\u201d

<\/P>\r\n\r\nThe humor in \u201cThunderous\u201d is grounded in the world of teenagers and young adults. Aiyana responds to the talking animals with a balance of reverence and teenage disbelief, which gives the story a modern authenticity, but also allows her character to take the weighty lessons of experience seriously enough that she is transformed into a stronger person by story\u2019s end.

<\/P>\r\n\r\nSmoker and Peeterse tested that story against a tough audience: their two graphic-novel-reading 9-year-old daughters.

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\u201cWe had a little peanut gallery,\u201d Peeterse says. \u201cWe would knock around ideas in front of the kids, and they\u2019d be like, \u2018Mom, that\u2019s so dumb.\u2019 So that was helpful. They would either think it was cool or roll their eyes. They had lots of feedback.\u201d

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\"Thunderous<\/a> \r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\nA page from the graphic novel Thunderous by Helena-based poets M.L. Smoker and Natalie Peeterse. Courtesy image, © Curiosity Ink Media LLC<\/figcaption><\/div><\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nGraphic novels are centered on visual art. Dale Deforest, a Navajo illustrator and graphic designer, created the main work for \u201cThunderous.\u201d Barcelona-based artist Oriol Vidal drew the cover. Smoker says they insisted on having a Native artist do the bulk of the drawings as a way to support Native artists and inspire emerging comic illustrators.

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\u201cHopefully he will inspire another generation of kids that are already into comic books, already into all the Marvel stuff,\u201d Smoker says. \u201cWe want it to really provide a gateway to that universe to help Native kids be like, \u2018I can draw that. I can do that.\u2019\u201d

<\/P>\r\n\r\nThough it was a new experience for the authors, there were some familiar elements that echoed the process of writing poetry.

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\u201cIt was sort of like a poem in that you change one part of the story and there\u2019s a domino effect to the rest of the story,\u201d Peeterse says. \u201cAnd the culmination of Aiyana\u2019s journey is like the turn of a poem. The moment she has her epiphany, that\u2019s straight poetry, right there.\u201d

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\r\n\"Thunderous<\/a>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
The cover of Thunderous<\/a> by Helena, Montana, based poets M.L. Smoker and Natalie Peeterse. Courtesy image, © Curiosity Ink Media LLC<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nPoets are by nature economical with language. Still, writing a graphic novel meant giving even more space to the illustrations and paring down the story. That aspect was especially difficult for Smoker and Peeterse because \u201cThunderous\u201d is a retelling of a Lakota story that involves four days and seven traditional values. In the end, they had to condense Aiyana\u2019s journey to two days and focus on three values: generosity, kinship and fortitude.

<\/P>\r\n\r\nFortitude isn\u2019t exactly the right word for the concept, Smoker notes, but it\u2019s the closest English equivalent they could find. And that was the other challenge. The concepts and text of \u201cThunderous\u201d are based on the Lakota language. And there is no exact translation. Even the Lakota spellings were difficult to pin down because the stories have been spoken more often than written. The authors were able to get feedback on language and dialog from tribal members, but there was almost never agreement, even among Indigenous consultants.

<\/P>\r\n\r\nOne thing they did want to do was offer some Lakota words within the story without explanation, though they do provide a glossary, which they included in the hope of piquing the interest of Native and non-Native kids interested in language.

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