M. Alice LeGrow
Encyclopedia
Mary Alice LeGrow better known by her pen name M. Alice LeGrow, is an American manga-influenced alternate comic book artist best known for her original English-language manga
series Bizenghast. From the Savannah College of Art and Design
, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts
in Sequential Art
.
, United States. As a young girl, LeGrow was not interested in comics, as she grew up in Weisbaden, Germany, where comics were not readily available. While in middle school, she moved to New England
. In her first year of high school, she learned about comics and anime
; she considered Thieves and Kings
by Mark Oakley the first comic she "ever really got into". She watched the magical girl
anime Sailor Moon, and eventually realizing her fondness for that particular artistic style, searched for similiar books and anime. Enjoying manga because it was not "the regular colorful spandex superhero fare", she read a wide range, from Spirit of Wonder
and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
to Ah! Megami-sama
and Inuyasha
. At age sixteen, she wrote a 400-page adventure
/fantasy novel
that she tried to have published, to no success; in retrospect, she described the novel as "laughable and doomed from the start." She later attended Savannah College of Art and Design
, from which she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts
in Sequential Art
.
At the 2003 Otakon
, an anime convention
in Baltimore, Maryland, LeGrow heard about publisher Tokyopop
's Rising Stars of Manga
competition from her friend Christy Lijewski
. Driving home and with eleven days before the deadline, she chose "Nikolai", a gothic
short story she had written as a child, because of its "simple but engaging plot that had a definite start and finish." It focuses on Sally, a grieving only child
who inherits and moves into an old mansion with her aunt after her mother's death. Befriending the murdered Nickolai, she finds his corpse on the top of a canopy bed, and buries it in a cemetery to help his ghost rest. Because the story was ten pages longer than the twenty-page limit, she decided to rewrite it, and during stops at gas stations and rest stops, wrote ideas on her arm. She renamed the protagonist, Sally Notch, after a road sign called "Notch Road", and based her character design on a model in a Gothic & Lolita Bible
. Additionally, she altered Sally's hair and clothes "to make her more interesting". "Nikolai" won a runner-up place in the competition and appeared in the 2003 Rising Stars of Manga comic anthology. Along with a monetary prize, LeGrow won a chance to potientally have a manga series published by Tokyopop. The editors liked the series she proposed, Bizenghast
, and she became the second Rising Stars of Manga winner to have a manga series published by Tokyopop.
and appeasing the ghosts within.
, Spirit of Wonder
, Thieves and Kings
, Will Eisner
, and the original Sherlock Holmes
comics as influencing her as an author. LeGrow lived in Germany and Connecticut and her work shows influences from "a combination of the German language, art and architecture, as well as the ghost stories and legends of New England". She is also a fan of the manga artist
Mitsukazu Mihara
.
Reviewers have also discussed her style. Joanna Draper Carlson, a long-time reviewer for Publishers Weekly
, described LeGrow's art as reminiscent of those of "some classic fantasy indy comics, perhaps (for example) the work of Teri Sue Wood
." In her review of the Bizenghast artbook, Mania Entertainment's Danielle Van Gorder noted LeGrow's range of styles "ranging from a little bit gothic and a little bit grotesque to detailed work that pays homage to antique woodcuts."
Original English-language manga
Original English-language manga or OEL manga is the term commonly used to describe comic books or graphic novels in the "international manga" genre of comics whose language of original publication is English...
series Bizenghast. From the Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah College of Art and Design
SCAD, the Savannah College of Art and Design, is a private, accredited and degree-granting university with locations in Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia, Hong Kong, and Lacoste, France.-History:...
, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts
Bachelor of Fine Arts
In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...
in Sequential Art
Sequential art
Sequential art refers to the art form of using a train of images deployed in sequence to graphic storytelling or convey information. The best-known example of sequential art is comics, which are a printed arrangement of art and balloons, especially comic books and comic strips.The term is rarely...
.
1981–2003: Beginnings
Mary Alice LeGrow was born on October 13, 1981, in Olathe, KansasOlathe, Kansas
Olathe is a city in and the county seat of Johnson County, Kansas, United States. Located in northeastern Kansas, it is also the fifth most populous city in the state, with a population of 125,872 at the 2010 census. As a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, Olathe is the fourth-largest city in the...
, United States. As a young girl, LeGrow was not interested in comics, as she grew up in Weisbaden, Germany, where comics were not readily available. While in middle school, she moved to New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
. In her first year of high school, she learned about comics and anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
; she considered Thieves and Kings
Thieves and Kings
Thieves & Kings is a Canadian comic book series written, penciled and published independently by Mark Oakley. The first issue was published in September 1994, with the creator planning on publishing a complete saga comprising 100 issues and about 2000 pages. At the time of this writing the series...
by Mark Oakley the first comic she "ever really got into". She watched the magical girl
Magical girl
belong to a sub-genre of Japanese fantasy anime and manga. Magical girl stories feature young girls with superhuman abilities, forced to fight evil and to protect the Earth. They often possess a secret identity, although the name can just refer to young girls who follow a plotline involving magic...
anime Sailor Moon, and eventually realizing her fondness for that particular artistic style, searched for similiar books and anime. Enjoying manga because it was not "the regular colorful spandex superhero fare", she read a wide range, from Spirit of Wonder
Spirit of Wonder
is a manga series authored by Kenji Tsuruta, originally serialized from 1986 in Kodansha's Morning seinen manga magazine, and later in Afternoon, until 1996....
and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (manga)
is a post-apocalyptic manga written and illustrated by acclaimed anime director Hayao Miyazaki. It was serialised intermittently from 1982 to 1994 in Japan...
to Ah! Megami-sama
Oh My Goddess!
, also known as Ah! My Goddess!, is a Japanese seinen manga series written and illustrated by Kōsuke Fujishima. It premiered in the November 1988 issue of Afternoon where it is still being serialized. Every few months, the most recent chapters are published in tankōbon volumes by Kodansha...
and Inuyasha
InuYasha
, also known as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It premiered in Weekly Shōnen Sunday on November 13, 1996 and concluded on June 18, 2008...
. At age sixteen, she wrote a 400-page adventure
Adventure novel
The adventure novel is a genre of novels that has adventure, an exciting undertaking involving risk and physical danger, as its main theme.-History:...
/fantasy novel
Fantasy literature
Fantasy literature is fantasy in written form. Historically speaking, literature has composed the majority of fantasy works. Since the 1950s however, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films, television programs, graphic novels, video games, music, painting, and other...
that she tried to have published, to no success; in retrospect, she described the novel as "laughable and doomed from the start." She later attended Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah College of Art and Design
SCAD, the Savannah College of Art and Design, is a private, accredited and degree-granting university with locations in Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia, Hong Kong, and Lacoste, France.-History:...
, from which she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts
Bachelor of Fine Arts
In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...
in Sequential Art
Sequential art
Sequential art refers to the art form of using a train of images deployed in sequence to graphic storytelling or convey information. The best-known example of sequential art is comics, which are a printed arrangement of art and balloons, especially comic books and comic strips.The term is rarely...
.
Otakon
Otakon is a fan convention in the United States focusing on East Asian popular culture and its fandom. The name is a portmanteau derived from convention and the Japanese word otaku...
, an anime convention
Anime convention
An anime convention is an event or gathering with a primary focus on anime, manga and Japanese culture. Commonly, anime conventions are multi-day events hosted at convention centers, hotels or college campuses. They feature a wide variety of activities and panels...
in Baltimore, Maryland, LeGrow heard about publisher Tokyopop
Tokyopop
Tokyopop, styled TOKYOPOP, and formerly known as Mixx, is a distributor, licensor, and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa, and Western manga-style works. The existing German publishing division produces German translations of licensed Japanese properties and original English-language manga, as well...
's Rising Stars of Manga
Rising Stars of Manga
Rising Stars of Manga was an English-language comic anthology published by TOKYOPOP from 2002 to 2008, and a contest held by the same company. It was originally semi-annual, but switched to annual beginning with the 6th volume....
competition from her friend Christy Lijewski
Christy Lijewski
Christy Lijewski is an American comic book artist and illustrator from Baltimore, Maryland who specializes in OEL manga. She operates on the internet under the pen name .-Style:...
. Driving home and with eleven days before the deadline, she chose "Nikolai", a gothic
Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story"...
short story she had written as a child, because of its "simple but engaging plot that had a definite start and finish." It focuses on Sally, a grieving only child
Only child
An only child is a person with no siblings, either biological or adopted. In a family with multiple offspring, first-borns, may be briefly considered only children and have a similar early family environment, but the term only child is generally applied only to those individuals who never have...
who inherits and moves into an old mansion with her aunt after her mother's death. Befriending the murdered Nickolai, she finds his corpse on the top of a canopy bed, and buries it in a cemetery to help his ghost rest. Because the story was ten pages longer than the twenty-page limit, she decided to rewrite it, and during stops at gas stations and rest stops, wrote ideas on her arm. She renamed the protagonist, Sally Notch, after a road sign called "Notch Road", and based her character design on a model in a Gothic & Lolita Bible
Gothic & Lolita Bible
is a quarterly Japanese fashion "mook", a combination of a magazine and book, which focuses on the Gothic and Lolita fashions. It was first published in 2001 by Index Communications, and is a spin-off of the Japanese fashion magazine Kera....
. Additionally, she altered Sally's hair and clothes "to make her more interesting". "Nikolai" won a runner-up place in the competition and appeared in the 2003 Rising Stars of Manga comic anthology. Along with a monetary prize, LeGrow won a chance to potientally have a manga series published by Tokyopop. The editors liked the series she proposed, Bizenghast
Bizenghast
Bizenghast is an ongoing original English-language manga series written and illustrated by M. Alice LeGrow. It is currently being published in North America by Tokyopop, which has released seven volumes as of July 2010, and is expected to conclude with the eighth book...
, and she became the second Rising Stars of Manga winner to have a manga series published by Tokyopop.
2004–11: Bizenghast
LeGrow describes Bizenghast as "about life, death and fabulous outfits (not in that order)", and notes the presence of religious themes. Published by Tokyopop in North America, Bizenghast spanned seven volumes, with the final volume yet to be released. Set in the eponymous New England town, it centers on Dinah Wherever, a schizophrenic orphan, and her only friend Vincent Monroe. Dinah finds herself tasked with returning each night to a mausoleumMausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...
and appeasing the ghosts within.
Style
LeGrow describes her artistic style as "an amalgamation of different artists [that she] admires and is influenced by patterns and shapes that occur in nature." She keeps a range of reference material: "architecture and design magazines, fashion books, nature books, botanical books", and animal sketches. She also sketches plants in her backyard or from botanical reference material, not wanting to draw generic plants or trees. She cites UzumakiUzumaki
is a horror manga written and Illustrated by Junji Ito, and serialized in Shogakukan's Big Comic Spirits.The story concerns the inhabitants of the small Japanese town of Kurôzu-cho as they become obsessed by the occurrences of natural and artificial spirals around them...
, Spirit of Wonder
Spirit of Wonder
is a manga series authored by Kenji Tsuruta, originally serialized from 1986 in Kodansha's Morning seinen manga magazine, and later in Afternoon, until 1996....
, Thieves and Kings
Thieves and Kings
Thieves & Kings is a Canadian comic book series written, penciled and published independently by Mark Oakley. The first issue was published in September 1994, with the creator planning on publishing a complete saga comprising 100 issues and about 2000 pages. At the time of this writing the series...
, Will Eisner
Will Eisner
William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...
, and the original Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
comics as influencing her as an author. LeGrow lived in Germany and Connecticut and her work shows influences from "a combination of the German language, art and architecture, as well as the ghost stories and legends of New England". She is also a fan of the manga artist
Mangaka
is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...
Mitsukazu Mihara
Mitsukazu Mihara
is an influential Japanese illustrator who helped to influence the Gothic Lolita look through her illustrations, particularly as the cover illustrator for the first eight volumes of the Gothic & Lolita Bible...
.
Reviewers have also discussed her style. Joanna Draper Carlson, a long-time reviewer for Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
, described LeGrow's art as reminiscent of those of "some classic fantasy indy comics, perhaps (for example) the work of Teri Sue Wood
Teri Sue Wood
Teri Sue Wood, also known as Teresa Susan Challender is an American comic artist best known for her early-'90s Wandering Star series, which ran for 21 issues...
." In her review of the Bizenghast artbook, Mania Entertainment's Danielle Van Gorder noted LeGrow's range of styles "ranging from a little bit gothic and a little bit grotesque to detailed work that pays homage to antique woodcuts."