The latest Walking Dead comic is all about Clementine of the Telltale games

She has been releasing her first comic since then. The end of summer Tillie Walden is one of today’s most influential and highly regarded cartoonists. She’s created some of the most affecting and powerful comics of this century, from her sprawling queer science fiction epic SunbeamThe intimate autobiography Spinning.

In that same span, comics and graphic novels about queer people — especially YA titles — have become ever more prominent and popular. The 2021 comic book market sold more comics than 2020 and 2019 combined. This means that more comics are being read and bought than ever before. Quer comic book bestsellers have been increasing over time, such as The One Summer, Gender Queer and The Witch BoyAndThey called us Enemyhave started to make it onto the bestsellers list more frequently.

Webcomics have long been a space for queer stories, but the massive Kickstarter success of Ngozi Ukazu’s Check, Please! — The second volume was a NYT bestseller —This opened the doors to more queer stories through the enormous print success of Webtoons, like Lore OlympusThis includes multiple queer characters. Heartstopper (gay romance), NYT bestsellers both. Beyond literary publishers and webcomics, DC Comics has published an abundance of DC original graphic novels which have examined, celebrated, and highlighted queer heroes in a way that we’ve rarely seen in the main universes of big two comics.

And it’s not a stretch to say that Walden and her catalog have played a key part in this landscape. Walden and her catalog will be released in the near future with Get Clementine: OneWalden enters a new realm: licensed long-form comics. She talks about taking on the fan-favorite character from Telltale’s Walking Dead video games, her growth alongside the comics industry, and what’s changed since then.

Walden shared her enthusiasm for comics over Zoom. Although, if it wasn’t for two of comics’ most influential figures, we may not have gotten Walden or her comics. After finding an original copy of “The Comics Man”, her love affair began with this medium. BuddhaOsamu Taka in New Jersey, while visiting her father. “I loved it!” Walden exclaimed. “When I saw Buddha — the simple line art, the beautiful story, these beautifully rendered backgrounds, And there were also some cute ladies, kids, and adults, and trauma and religion — it just tapped into something deep inside of me.”

Like many of us, manga became her key to unlocking comics, shōnen stories like Dragon Ball Z and YuYu Hakusho were some of Walden’s faves. “Interestingly, I never read a lot of shoujo,” she said. “I’m always curious if other lesbians found shoujo, because shōnen really worked for me and I was a tomboy. But I also think I would have loved shoujo if I’d found it sooner.” And as a teacher at the Center for Cartoon Studies — from where she also graduated — Walden teaches a large shoujo assignment, which has impressed its influence and impact on her. However, she does say with a chuckle that readers shouldn’t expect to see too much of that influence in Clementine.

Scott McCloud was the second main influence in bringing Walden into comics after Tezuka. Scott attended an workshop at 16 with the famous author of Understanding Comics. Walden, who was a bit rusty about art and needed encouragement from him, decided comics was her path. “It was an amazing class,” she said. “And at the end of it, Scott said, ‘I think you’re good at this. I think you should keep it up, kid.’ I was so touched by his encouragement because I was not good at comics. Since then, I’ve been looking at the comic. I didn’t see any talent. Yet, I was honest, sincere and cared. I was still young. And he put his belief in me because he was a good teacher and you always put your belief in your students regardless of where they’re at.” It was a life-changing moment. “I went home and started making comics and never stopped.”

Image: Tillie Walden/First Second

In just seven years, Walden has released six graphic novels and a kids’ picture book, she’s won three Ignatz awards, two Eisners, and an LA Times book prize as well as being nominated for many more — and for good reason. Walden’s work feels unique in the way in which her characters are given space to grow, breathe, and live. “There’s something weirdly radical for queer people being allowed to take your time and take your space without saying why you deserve to be here or making the most of it or making it dramatic or making it sad,” Walden said. “It’s funny, I don’t always love reading books at that pace, but I love making books at that pace.”

To those who read them, Walden’s in-depth explorations of love, the cosmos, or coming-of-age can feel achingly cool thanks to her striking illustration skills and unique choices, but she’s quick to contradict that notion: “I’m not cool! I’ve never been cool!” But with the upcoming release of Get Clementine. Book oneThis could all change. Still, taking on the high-profile queer video game character felt didn’t feel like a gear shift for Walden. “For me, it felt very natural.”

Clementine was first introduced in “A New Day,” episode 1 of Telltale’s The Walking Dead Season One. Only 8 years old when the zombie apocalypse began, she’s a child who’s grown up with the Walkers, and that dark past has informed her journey as an efficient killer and badass survivor. You can read more. The Walking Dead: The Last SeasonClementine was confirmed queer after players had the option to select whether they could be in a relationship. Many fans loved this move.

Walden felt right at home bringing Clementine’s queerness to the page, but another aspect of the character offered more of a challenge in research and listening. In the final game in Telltale’s series, a teenage Clementine lost part of her left leg to a Walker bite. “I’ve talked to a lot of people to learn about life as a unilateral below-the-knee amputee,” she explained, “because it really is a different experience for her and how she goes through the world.”

As far as Clemetine’s queerness, for Walden it was both natural and full of exciting potential. “My own experiences of my own trauma have helped inform it and that’s been fun. It’s also been really fun to think about what it’s like to be this queer person in a world that is so new and so reborn and so messed up in so many ways, but also full of so many different opportunities.”

The appeal of dystopian fiction and zombie stories is based on the idea that a world in disarray could be rebuilt to make it a better place. “I think it’s a very weird fantasy to be like, I am here at the end of the world and I get to remake the world in my own image now, I get to choose who I’m with, which is really, really special,” Walden shared. It’s an idea that also resonates in terms of the unexpected accessibility of The Walking Dead. “There have been some papers written about how the Walking Dead universe is actually a really interesting commentary on how the world could sort of remake itself to accommodate the sheer amount of disability that would show up because of the mechanics of how Walker bites work.” It’s a great point and an idea that Walden is keen to continue exploring in Get Clementine: OneAnd beyond.

Image: Tillie Walden/Skybound

One of the angles of Walden’s take that has caused the most controversy online has been allowing Clementine to exist outside of the badass characteristics that have come to define her. “I thought a lot about how tough Clementine was in the games and how that made her such an inspiring and relatable character,” Walden said. “But when she came to me, I saw all that toughness and was like, Now her next badass step is to cope or let it mess her up, let it wreck her, because that’s what it does. Then, learn how to move on.”

This is exactly what the intricate, black-and white graphic novel achieves. This graphic novel feels almost identical to Made in America. The Walking Dead so popular. We still get to see Clementine killing Walkers in an efficient and brutal fashion, but she also — like every key character in the series — has to struggle to keep her humanity amongst all the death and decay. “It’s such a natural progression, I think, for a child of the apocalypse to go from feeling invincible to eventually beginning to feel your mortality and your past, especially when things slow down.”

Image: Tillie Walden/Skybound

Clementine grew up in the unorthodox world of zombie apocalypse. Walden, on the other hand, has the unique experience of growing in comics. So as queer stories have become more prevalent and mainstream at every level of publishing, does Walden feel like she’s seen a change in the way queer stories are treated in comics? “I feel like it has changed,’’ Walden said. “I feel like maybe six years ago there was much more of an emphasis on coming out.”

Another thing that’s changed is who’s getting to make those comics and get paid to do so. “I also think that the queer graphic novels we were seeing were predominantly white creators. I think that’s changing now. We’re getting queer stories from all queer people.”

She continued, “I do think there’s still a pressure and a tendency for a lot of queer comics to focus on pain. Of course people will still want to write about their pain and they should, but I feel like I’m beginning to see a trend of people who are queer but go on an adventure unrelated to their queerness.” That leads into one of Walden’s biggest wishes for the industry as it moves forward. “I hope that publishers are starting to realize that they don’t have to hire a person of color or queer person to just tell a story about their marginalization. They should just hire them and let them do whatever fuckin’ story they want to.”

While those changes are steps in the right direction, Walden still feels there’s a way to go. There were times when Walden felt like she was being approached to simply tick a box. And while she doesn’t feel like it’s ever going to be perfect, she does have ideas for how it could be better. “I think the next step is getting more queer people and people of color who work in publishing, which is extremely predominantly straight and cisgender and white.”

She remains optimistic. “I’ve seen so much progress. I couldn’t be happier to be a cartoonist right now. I’ve never had anyone stop me from doing what I really wanted to do in my stories, but it’s always this push and pull of, ‘We’ve come so far and we have so far to go.’”

Image: Tillie Walden/Skybound

As a queer creator, Walden’s hopes for the future of the comics industry speak to the wider issues in the industry, like a lack of distribution options for indie comics. “There are all these amazing comics I see that can’t get into bookstores, So now it’s all about how we get these comics in more people’s hands.” There’s some hope, though, as Walden reminds us that “webcomics have been huge for that!”

Her other concern is survival. This has been a problem in the comics business since its beginning. Despite the fact that the world has changed enough to allow queer cartoonists Wendy Xu and Walden to make six-figure deals in the future, some of the limitations placed on them by the industry are unrealistic. And then there’s the issue of healthcare and stability. “There’s no system in place for my publishers to actually be my employer,” Walden explained. It means there are no health benefits or paid holidays, and the only payments that can be made to the company for their work is the money they agreed on.

“I’ve talked to other cartoonists who have families and who take these next steps in life, and how the strain can really start to show. We make this money doing these comics, and it’s one thing when you’re single and young and healthy, and doing OK, but as time goes on, it’s like, How does comics give back to us? It’s something I really struggle with, because my wife and I really want a family but it’s like, We need to be there for them.”

She continued, “Getting your books out there — when they sell, that’s great. It still feels like comics are a job without much safety net. And as more people come into this career that didn’t have access to it before, I sometimes feel a little bit like these big book deals are misleading because it calms people down, making them think that we’re supported. In a lot of other ways, this is a very difficult job with very little support.”

What does Clementine feel about all the industry chatter? “I’m excited!” Walden said. “I’m excited for people — and teens, especially — who don’t like zombies or don’t really know or like The Walking Dead to have a chance to engage with it and to have a chance to feel like this genre of post-apocalyptic stories is actually really fertile and interesting ground for them too.”

Get Clementine: One It is available now at digital and comic book stores and everywhere books can be purchased starting June 28.