8/14/2019 Lauren Weinstein on "The Goddess of War"

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Lauren Weinstein on “The Goddess of War”

by Edward Carey

September 2008

The main character in “ The Goddess of War ” is a real diva, but series creator LaurenWeinstein only played one on stage in a rock band. She talked about the inspiration for Valerie, a former Valkyrie turned Goddess, in an interview at Push in New York City.

“I was playing this really ditzy person in my band and I was wearing a blond wig and I’dhave big high heels, so basically the costume is the same. The band was called FlamingFire and the guy who started [it] was the son of a preacher [who] had all these weird

biblical themes in the music, so there’s this whole theatrical element to what we did thatmade me think about trying to be bombastic,” said Weinstein.

Even though she performed a song called “Goddessof War” on their album “Songs From the ShiningTemple,” her book turned out to be quite different.

“She has a much more sympathetic feel than myGoddess of War does, but that definitely got methinking about who the Goddess of War really was,”said Weinstein.

In the book, Valerie decides to take a day off and seek out her old boyfriend Cochise, a great Apache

warrior, which of course angers the gods and promises dire consequences ahead. This first book inwhat will eventually be a four book series was

published by PictureBox Inc.

“The Goddess of War” is a departure for Weinstein,whose previous book was a collection of semi-autobiographical teenage memoir stories called “ GirlStories ,” published by Henry Holt & Co. in 2006.

Aside from her onstage persona, she does share some

similarities with the character which creep into thestory, even though it’s a sci-fi fantasy epic.

“It’s hard to make a character that rings true and I wanted that to be the case withGoddess of War. I wanted to really think about the character and have her be bothcompelling and complex, like a real person. For instance, Nebulon is a friend she callswhen she gets drunk and I have friends like that. Her boyfriend Cochise is a real NativeAmerican hero. They have this star-crossed relationship and I’ve had relationships like

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that before, so there are certain things I identify with the character, but it’s not in anywayautobiographical,” said Weinstein.

She did a lot of historical research about the world’s many wars before writing the story,which began as a series of etchings. Greek mythology and a film by Fritz Lang called

“Die Niebelungen” also influenced the story.

“I’ve never really, really researched something before. Every year I do a freelance comicfor the PBS show “Nature” and I research all kinds of things for that, but this was on awhole different level. I found it both invigorating and exhausting,” said Weinstein.

A couple of months or so after recording“Goddess of War”, she took up etching classes

because she wanted to reconnect with her background as a painter in college.

“I went to school for painting, so I thought thiswould get me back into doing a single image,taking my time with it and building it upslowly. If I had a whole other lifetime, I would

just do etchings, because I like how it feels todig into the plate slowly. They’re very timeconsuming,” said Weinstein.

Inspiration for the etchings came from thestrangest places, though she said it’s hard todescribe where these things come from.

“I have a Creature from the Black Lagoon mask in my house, so how does that morph itself intoher house? I just started drawing and that

became her house,” said Weinstein.

When she attended school at WashingtonUniversity in St. Louis, she had no desire to be a cartoonist, but started drawing comicsfor the school’s newspaper. Her husband published her first comic in their comics’magazine.

“At the time, I found it cathartic, but now I find it the bane of my existence. I went toschool for painting and never thought about being a cartoonist, and I was painting all this

post-modern instruction and felt there wasn’t really room for narrative at all in painting,”said Weinstein.

After being exposed to cartoonists like Chris Ware and Lynda Barry, she began todevelop her cartooning skills, but by that time was two years out of school already. Shecited Philip Guston and Max Beckmann as major influences, with Guston described as “a

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gateway painter for cartoonists” because he utilizes cartoon imagery in his work. Sheread an interview of Chris Ware a year later where he said he loved Guston’s work.

“When I was pacing the battle scene for ‘Goddess of War,’ I thought about using many,many panels like he does and I thought about the way he uses panels as little roadblocks,

little pauses for the reader and that’s what I really wanted to do in the battle scene,” saidWeinstein.

The story was forming even as she carved the etchings which appear in the book,answering the questions which formed in her mind about the character.

“I always think about the story attached towhatever I’m doing, so it wasn’t like do a bunchof random images and attach a story to it.Where does the Goddess of War live? Who washer boyfriend? Looks like she’s gonna do

something really bad? What is her planet like?The etchings were a way of beginning thestory,” said Weinstein.Shortly after college, Weinstein got a job doingweekly cartoon strips in Seattle’s “TheStranger,” an alternative weekly newspaper thatfeatured Chris Ware, Jim Woodring, TonyMillionaire and Sam Hendrickson, all artists thatWeinstein said she idolized. As she gradually

built up all these strips, she applied for a Xericgrant in 2003 and published them in “ InsideVineyland ,” her first book which is now alsoavailable from PictureBox.

“There’s a surreal element to them and they’realso a touch autobiographical, but mostly theywere surreal and I find most people who readthat book find it hard to believe that it camefrom a woman; which is kind of weird,” said Weinstein.

She now teaches to both pre-college and undergrads at the School of Visual Arts, butfinds it really challenging to be a good teacher. She also teaches classes at the 92 nd StreetY.

“I teach classes at the Y and those are great, because they’re so fun and easy, and thereare different people all across the board, from those old ladies who want to be in the NewYorker to young attractive women who want to do memoir comics . . . and evensuperhero people,” said Weinstein.

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She designed a window installation based on one of the etchings for Desert Island , acomic book/art supplies store in her Brooklyn neighborhood. Two friends helped her make the base and a giant hand out of foam.

“It was the first time I had done conceptual art where you put your faith in somebody else

and they really pulled through it. It was fantastic! And then it ended up becoming acommunity art project with people from the neighborhood contributing their owncharacters. I want to keep doing stuff likethat, but I don’t have the time,” saidWeinstein.

The image is called “The Hand of Fate” andshows a giant hand reaching out of the sky,scooping up people left and right, while a tonof characters run from it, including Valerieand her boyfriend Cochise. She said it was

more a preview of what’s to come in the next book.

“I liked doing it because it wasn’t anythingcovered specifically in the comic, just sort of what’s going to happen and it was such aniconic image. I was also looking at thatFletcher Hanks book, [“ I Shall Destroy Allthe Civilized Planets ,”] and there was thisreally great panel with a hand coming downand in “The Yellow Submarine” there’s ahand . . . there’s this whole history of [giant]hand imagery in pop culture, and I decidedthat would look really cool and strange in a

window,” said Weinstein.

The Hand of Fate