WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Teen Titans: Beast Boy Loves Raven, now available in stores and digitally.
Teen Titans: Beast Boy Loves Raven is the third book in writer Kami Garcia and artist Gabriel Picolo's ongoing young adult graphic novel series about the titular Titans. While outside of the main DC canon, this series is a love letter to fans -- whether they got into Teen Titans via the cartoons or comics. It also serves as a great entry point for readers new to comics.
After the events of Teen Titans: Raven and Teen Titans: Beast Boy, these Titans are off to meet Slade, who's promised them that he has the answers they're looking for. While waiting for him, their paths cross, thus leading to a budding friendship and romance, but things are not as positive as they may hope, as new threats emerge. In honor of the third book's release, Garcia and Picolo sat with CBR for an exclusive interview about the new graphic novel, what this project means for them and what they hope for their Teen Titans in the future.
You've worked together on three books -- with more stories to come by the looks of it. What's it like to have collaborated with each other for so many years now on Teen Titans?
Kami Garcia: I mean, the only person I've collaborated with as long as Gabriel is my original best friend and writing partner Margaret Still on the Beautiful Creatures series. It really feels like the universe is ours. The characters are ours. This series for me is synonymous with Gabriel. It's this amazing thing we created together, and now the readers have taken it over in a way that I love, and it's there still.
Gabriel Picolo: I think it's the first time that I have had a partnership like this, and the one thing that I like is that we get to understand each other's creative voices a lot over the years. So we are on a third book together. I know exactly the way Kami likes the page, the kind of panels she likes, and she understands what kind of scene I like to draw, the kinds of scenes I'm better at drawing, and she puts that on the script for me. That's really cool about having a long term partnership.
With this being the third book, and the first one where we finally have two of the Titans officially meet, why did you want the first one to be Raven and Beast Boy meeting, and what did you want to explore between the two of them in this team up?
Garcia: It felt like it was meant to be because when I originally did this pitch for DC, it was a very large pitch that had a table of contents. It was origin story pitch for each Titan, and then some team book ideas, and then an idea that was called Beast Boy Loves Raven. It wasn't super fleshed out, so it's kind of like they would never let me do this. I didn't even know I was going to be doing Raven first. Then I ended up doing Raven first once I got Gabriel as my artist and found him and knew how much he loved Beast Boy, so let's definitely do Beast Boy next.
We both love the ship of Beast Boy and Raven, so then we started talking about Beast Boy Loves Raven as a real idea, real thing. How did they me? What will it be like? And our editors, they loved it. They love both of the origin stories for the individual characters. They love the idea of that meeting, so it just seemed natural. Like it was meant to be.
Picolo: I was afraid when I was drawing Raven that I was not going to get a second book, because that was my first published comic ever. I was like, "Let's see if that happens," and then great, Beast Boy got greenlit, and then I was like, "maybe Beast Boy Loves Raven is not that far fetched of an idea," so when I went with a greenlit Beast Boy, I was like, "This is definitely gonna happen."
A key part of this book is their relationship and the romance between them. What do you love about this relationship between Beast Boy and Raven? Why are they such a great couple?
Garcia: The thing I like most is that their relationship is rooted in friendship. It's rooted in friendship and respect for each other, and trying to support the other person, so that even if there was no real romantic relationship, at the end of the day, they are still friends.
Picolo: One thing that I love is how different these two characters are, and their personalities are very different. It shows with how they deal with having superpowers, and we see that in the book, but it all comes together in the end. They have each other to overcome the troubles of having superpowers.
Speaking of powers, their powers are amazing, and there are so many different ways to explore these powers and bring them to life. What was the most challenging thing or the most exciting thing about bringing both of their respective powers to life on the page from a writing perspective and from an artistic perspective?
Garcia: I had to pitch at least the basis of what I'd be doing when I wrote the pitch. I wrote it originally as they're wearing regular clothes. They look like regular teens, which is why when I fell upon Gabriel's art, I was like, "He's reading my mind! He's already doing what I want."
The most challenging thing for me was, Beast Boy has these very visible, physical powers that you can see, and [Raven] has these very awesomely powerful abilities, so how do I make those things, number one, something that other people can't automatically see so that it could seem like they're your friends or neighbors or at your high school? But also, how do I frame these in a way that allows you to see how they evolve. This was the perfect example of why comics are such a perfect medium.
I said to Gabriel, "I have to be able to show other people she's absorbing other people's emotions, and I don't really know how to do that. How do we show that?" And he was like, "What if we show almost like a wave -- we call this the emotion, this stream -- between her and the people. I'll color it a certain way." So Gabriel talk more about that, cause we had to figure that out in Beast Boy too, and I feel like that was you and me putting together our ideas to come up with like solutions.
Picolo: I think Raven was definitely the most challenging because it's happening inside her head. Beast Boy is very easy to show. I remember that we even came up with a specific color for Raven's emotion streams. With Beast Boy, it was at some point throughout the book that we came up with the idea of showing whatever animal he is emulating, because he's not yet transforming entirely into that animal. He's just getting the movements, the strength of this one specific animal, and then we show that I'm behind him and then some DNA strands, and then we started showing that and basically just pick those ideas from the solo books, and we used it again on book three, which was easier because we had that figured out.
Garcia: There's an old X-Men comic that I came across where you saw what was going on inside of Wolverine, like how he has the adamantium and everything. That was one of the things I said to Gabriel, "Let's show what is going on a molecular level with him." You remember the old Hulk TV show, where you see like the gamma going through Bruce Banner. I was like, "Let's show it."
Gabriel did all these sketches, and he was like, "I want to show one color for this." We ended up with this really cool visual language to show what was going on inside of [Beast Boy], which I think is not only cool, because it's kind of sciencey, but also because it is a visual representation for the reader to show what he's experienced.
Picolo: Whenever we do show Beast Boy transforming into animals, I will always try to make each point of the transformation, which, as a fan of this character, I wish there was more of that on the main continuity comics, like more of his mid-stage transformations.
Touching on how you're a huge fan of Beast Boy and this team is incredibly popular with the cartoons and the comics, for each of you, who is your favorite Teen Titan and why
Picolo: Beast Boy.
Garcia: Why do you love him so much, Gabriel?
Picolo: First his superpowers are awesome. If I had to choose, let's say Beast Boy... Shapeshifting is one of the coolest powers because you get everything, the whole package. You can fly. You can swim. You can do kind of everything, and Beast Boy's personality is super fun. He's a super fun character to read.
Garcia: Raven's my favorite, which is why I started with her, and then why we did Beast Boy next. We did my favorite then Gabriel's favorite, and Beast Boy is also my second favorite. I feel like I relate the most to Raven because she's scared of herself in a way I related to a lot, especially as a teen. She has her demons -- or literally a demon. She's half demon. She has this dark side of herself that she has to kind of reconcile.
I also really liked the fact that her father's a demon. The fact that he tried to take control of her against her will. It allows you to explore the fact that not every teenager, or adult for that matter, has a parent or parental relationship that's healthy. Sometimes we see in books these kinds of idealistic families, where if you're not in a perfect family -- no family is perfect -- but if you're not in a quote-unquote healthy family, you look at that and feel less than. One of the recurring themes in our books, and Gabriel and I realized it was important to both of us in our respective art, is that idea of found family, finding the people who care about you and love you and accept you, and creating your own family if you don't have the perfect one.
Along with these two Titans, it seems like we're building up the Titans from the ground up in this series as we meet a few others and get glimpses of some of the other members. Which Titans that we haven't fully delved into are you most excited to explore, if you can share that with us?
Garcia: It's hard because I really like all the Titans. I'm a big Starfire fan. I'm a big Damian fan, but I like all the Titans. I feel like I like them because they're not perfect. They don't have everything figured out. It's like you get to go on a journey with them in a way that, as much as I love like Wonder Woman -- unless it's like a really young version of Wonder Woman -- Wonder Woman has it together. So I love that they don't really have it together, and they're kind of figuring it out as they go along.
Picolo: I would love to work on any Starfire content in the future. I really love that character.
We did get to meet Damian, so I was wondering, why did you guys decide this is the book to introduce Damian, and what were you excited to explore with Damian in this graphic novel?
Garcia: From the end of Raven, Max is kind of I need to go after [Raven]. I am afraid for her. I want to go after her, and she kind of preps her mom that might happen. So part of it wasn't just who do you want to write, but it was if Max is going to go after Raven to try to make sure she's okay, who would be an interesting person for her? In my pitch and the way Gabriel and I talked about it, we secretly knew how all of them could meet. We could do it anyway, but who would be interesting on the page? Also, there are parts of this book that deal with trauma that are heavy, and we want it... We have such a good balance I think in the series between the sad or heartfelt moments and happy funny moments, and we needed a little of that. I think Damian, especially with Max, is a little bit funny.
Picolo: One thing I like about Damian in this book is that because of him we start to get a bigger picture. With Raven's solo book and Beast Boy's, they have their own problems. They kind of mix together in this third book; but after Damian comes up, he has a little bit of information that the other two characters don't have. I really started to see the group forming because of him.
Along with our heroes, we also have Slade, who's been this threat in the background since Raven. What about Slade makes him such a good antagonist?
Garcia: I love Slade. I have always loved him.
Picolo: I love the way he's one step ahead of the characters every time. I think that's what makes him so menacing. Because with Trigon, he's powerful. He's this being from another dimension, and it's obvious, but Slade's a little more cunning. He has this kind of evil spy aura around him, and we still couldn't get him to fight against the team, but whenever that happens, it's gonna be pretty cool.
Garcia: I feel the same way. Trigon is a monster. He's a demon. He is all powerful, 100 percent a villain through and through. I like Slade and Adeline Cane because I feel like Adeline's a hero in her own story. Slade feels like he has a reason for everything he does, so he feels like what he's doing is always justifiable. I think characters like that and villains like that are interesting. Also that idea of he is one step ahead of them, but can they get ahead of him? Because it's a lot harder to take down a demon than like another person, even though he has super soldier skills and DNA going through him. I still feel like he is formidable, but also a more realistic threat.
Right, and you guys mentioned Max. I would love to talk a little bit more about Max because I absolutely love her character, love her powers. For you guys, why did you want to include Raven's adopted sister, and what did you want to explore with Max?
Garcia: Max was in my original pitch, but she took on this whole other life when I got Gabriel because I had no idea what she looked like. I was like, "I want there to be the foster sister with this power because I have always felt like raising the dead would be a really cool power." If you're setting a book in New Orleans -- no place has cooler cemeteries.
I said to Gabriel, "Here's the description," which wasn't much of a description, and we talked about what do we want her to feel like. What kind of girl is she? What's going to be written on her t-shirts? What's her attitude like? Gabriel would ask all these really specific questions, and the more he asked, the more she came off the page. Then he was like, "I'm gonna send you some some hairstyle references, some clothes that I think this kind of a girl would wear." It was like creating Wonder Woman from clay. You watched the plate spinning, and she came to life.
Picolo: I think she was too good a character to let her be a loose thread on Teen Titans: Raven. I think it was a really nice move putting her in book three because I was gonna miss drawing her if she wasn't there.
Garcia: Well that was one of the reasons because Gabriel mentioned, while we were doing Raven, how he loved Max so much. It's gonna be so hard not to draw her, and I love Bella and Tank and the characters we created in Beast Boy, but she was the first original character we created together, so I have this soft spot for her.
We talked a lot about Beast Boy Loves Raven, but I also like to do this thing where I give Gabriel a surprise. Like Kong was his surprise in Beast Boy. I did not tell him there was a monkey friend we were keeping. I always like the moment when Gabriel realizes that I throw in the surprise for him, so I would love to find a way to incorporate her that was open so she could come back, and that was why I made the ending that, not knowing if we would get to bring her back, but thinking Gabriel loves her, I love her. Let's leave a way for her to come into another book if possible.
Nice, and in this book, Kami, what were you most excited to see brought to life by Gabriel's art, and Gabriel same question. What were you most excited to illustrate from Kami's writing?
Picolo: I love specific scenes. This is a little bit of a spoiler, but the hotel scene was my favorite one. They're not even talking. It's a silent scene, but it was my favorite. I loved that whole situation. It was very funny. It was very sweet. I love the cafe scene, which is a trope that I absolutely love. I don't know if Kami knew that, but I love the romance in the cafe scene. I like to draw these slice of life kind of situations. Absolutely love those.
Garcia: For me, I was really excited to see them on the page because Gabriel's drawn fanart of them for years, and I want to see him draw our version. I want to see what he's gonna do with them on the page together. I was so excited to see that dynamic and have the fans see it.
I was also really excited because I knew I wasn't sure how I was gonna incorporate it, but I knew that somehow I wanted Raven to kind of open up to Beast Boy, but I wanted Beast Boy to be outed a little in the sense that he was going to have to change. I didn't know how I would do that, but I knew I wanted to do that, because I could imagine -- knowing Gabriel's style now and how he draws their emotions -- I knew he would be able to do an amazing job of showing what it would be like to have your biggest secret come out in such a hard way. I also knew he would do an amazing job of drawing Raven as this supportive friend who's going to be there for him.
Speaking about the slice-of-life moments, which I absolutely love in this comic, as well as the fanart, I've been following [Gabriel] for some time.
Garcia: Thank you.
You're welcome. I was so excited to see this come to life. What was it like finding that balance between these slice-of-life moments and these super powered moments?
Garcia: What do you think Gabriel?
Picolo: The first half it's more like a slow burn, and then the second half is very action-packed. I think we have a nice balance. We kind of need the second part because we need them to realize each of them has powers. I think the last part was harder to draw because there's a lot of stuff happening. There's like guards, and then Beast Boy turns into a tiger. It's a lot of challenging moments. I feel like the first half is much more of Gabriel Picolo's starter pack, and then the second half is more crazy stuff happens.
Garcia: The second half was harder to write for the same reason because I knew how they would relate to each other, all the cute things and situations that Gabriel would love to draw, and when you're a writer, I write the script for my artist. I want to write things that they're going to want to draw. Because the more excited he is when he gets the pages, all that excitement gets into the ink. I think that the second part was challenging because it was making sure I could still have some of those more human moments in the midst of more powers and superheroes.
With both of you starting on Teen Titans: Raven, which came out a few years ago, how does it feel to see that not only her story continues, but also that you guys get to develop this long story that you have been talking about and thinking about for years?
Garcia: It's so fun.
Picolo: One of the best parts is seeing cosplays and fanart of these characters from the book. We saw a couple a few weeks ago, a couple did the illustration of the cover of the title of Beast Boy Loves Raven, and the guy dyed his hair green, and it was absolutely awesome. It was very unexpected. I love to see those kind of things.
Garcia: It's great whenever you, as a writer, when you write something that resonates with people, and even more so with the graphic novels. I feel like we have the art and the words. Just knowing that those characters, that we did change the characters some. What we did is really important to me, because I'm a fan of Titans and Teen Titans, and I don't like it if someone messes with my fandom, and I don't like it anymore, but we were really trying to make sure we did things that, as a fan, you would have liked to see.
Picolo: It's very rewarding to see how people are invested in the series, and all my DMs are, "Hey, what's the next book? What's next?" I can't answer. I'm legally not allowed.
Garcia: The one thing I have been dropping is in most of our books at the end, you get an idea of what we're doing next, so I told people, if you get Beast Boy Loves Raven, maybe that's the case.
What do you guys hope readers take away from Beast Boy Loves Raven?
Garcia: The biggest thing I always want readers to take away, especially from this series, is the idea of whoever you are it's okay if you're different. It's okay if you're not exactly what people expect, but embrace who you are, and find the people who like you for the person that you are.
Picolo: For me, as a big fan of these two characters, I want this book to be like Kami said once. It's kind of a love letter to our fans. As a fan of Beast Boy and Raven, I would love to see a book like this coming to life, and I'm so happy I worked on this project, and I really want to see people's reaction.
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