Kazoo Editor Erin Bried on Noisemakers: 25 Women Who Raised Their Voices and Changed the World

Next week, Kazoo magazine will release its first-ever book, Noisemakers: 25 Women Who Raised Their Voices and Changed the World. The book is a comics anthology celebrating the lives of some of history’s most inspiring and influential female figures – including several that may not be household names. ComicBook.com had the opportunity to chat with Kazoo Editor-in-Chief and founder Erin Bried about the exciting project. We’ve also scored an exclusive preview from the book featuring the story of early American civil aviator Bessie Coleman, the first woman of African-American as well as the first of Native-American descent to hold a pilot license, as brought to life by Shannon Wright.

ComicBook.com: What was the inspiration for Noisemakers?

Erin Bried: I want girls to know they don’t have to be the sidekick in their own stories—they can be the hero. That’s one of the reasons why I launched Kazoo magazine back in 2016. Our mission is to celebrate girls, 5 to 12, for being strong, smart, fierce and true to themselves. You wouldn’t think that’s still a radical notion, but one glimpse at the newsstand, and you’ll see why it is. In every issue, we include one True Tale comic about a woman who’s made history by being all of those things. We’ve been getting such overwhelmingly positive feedback about them that it made sense to turn them into a graphic collection. Noisemakers includes not only many of the best comics that have run in the magazine, but also 15 brand new ones. I’m so excited to share them with the world!

There are some – actually quite a few – women whose stories are included in Noisemakers that I had never heard of before (Eugenie Clark, the opening story, comes to mind.) How did you come up with the women and stories you wanted to tell in the book?

Thank you! We certainly included a few women in the book whose stories are more widely known—Rosa Parks, Frida Kahlo, Eleanor Roosevelt—but even when telling these stories, we wanted to be sure to introduce something new and surprising. Frida Kahlo, for example, had an imaginary friend, who she wrote about in her diaries, and artist Naomi Franquiz used this friend as the narrator of her story. And yes, there are so many other women in this book, who most people have never heard of. We just haven’t been taught these women’s stories in school—the detective who saved Abraham Lincoln’s life, the botanist who snuck her way onto a ship and sailed around the world in disguise to advance science, the singer who smuggled top secret information for the Allies during World War 2 in her sheet music. All of these stories deserve to be in our collective consciousness, and if they were, I really do believe we’d all be better off for it.

In every issue of the magazine, we cover certain topics: science, engineering, art, critical thinking, cooking, sports. Each of those pillars became our chapters: grow, explore, tinker, create, really, play. And once we were able to narrow down the scope of each, choosing the women to feature became slightly more manageable.

Did the creators choose their own women/stories to tell or was there a guiding process?

Well, I always knew I wanted Mary Shelley’s story told by Emil Ferris, because I’d read My Favorite Thing is Monsters in probably the same position as everyone else who picked up the book—with my jaw on the ground. Her work is so stunning! I knew there’d be nobody else in the world who could tell Shelley’s story like Emil could. I knew I wanted Lucy Knisley, author of Relish, to do Julia Child. And Lucy Bellwood, who sails on tall ships for fun, to do Jeanne Baret. I based other pairings on the artist’s style. I knew Alitha Martinez could really capture singer Josephine Baker’s glamour and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell could evoke the quiet solitude of Hallie Daggett’s life as a forest lookout. Bottom line: I feel so incredibly lucky to have had the chance to work with all of the incredible artists who put so much of themselves into each of these stories.

Were there women and stories you wanted to include, but didn’t?

Of course! I hope we’ll get the chance to keep telling these stories! I’m constantly adding to a list of other stories I’d like to tell: environmentalist Rachel Carson, postal carrier Stagecoach Mary, opera singer Marian Anderson, underwater archeologist Honor Frost. How much time you got? I could keep going!

One of the things that I kept thinking about while reading Noisemakers is that while this is a powerful book for girls, I kept thinking how the book presented a real opportunity for boys to learn more about some of the female “heroes” that they otherwise may not learn about, offering a real place to do more than empower but educate. Is this something that you considered when working on Noisemakers?

Yes, and such a good point! I loathe the idea that, because this is a collection of stories about powerful women, boys should not read the book or would not be interested in it. Of course, they should, and of course they would! I often talk about how representation matters so much for girls, and how you’ve got to “see it to be it.” But it matters for boys too. They also need to know that women are, and have always been, powerful. And don’t get me wrong here: I don’t mean to say boys should read Noisemakers simply because they’ll learn a lesson. Boys should also read Noisemakers, because it’s a fun book to read, full of thrilling stories and amazing art. The other stuff is an added bonus.

One of the things I noticed right off the bat when looking at the list of artists and creators that contributed to the book was that it was a roster of not just female creators but non-binary ones as well. How important was it that Noisemakers include those creators in the making of this book?

The kids reading Noisemakers get to learn not only about the amazing women in these comics, but also the incredible creators who made them. So, when I talk about how representation matters, I mean that in every sense both on and off the page. In the magazine too, we’ve featured transwomen and non-binary experts, not because they are trans or nonbinary but because they’re experts, and though I’m proud to be I think the first and only kids’ magazine to have done so, I also wish it weren’t such an issue for others.

There’s a rich range of styles of art in Noisemakers. While reading it I noticed everything from art that was definitely more youthful and approachable for a young reader to some truly complex and elegant work that is right up there with comics that are definitely not geared for a young audience. What was the process like for choosing artists and creators to bring these stories to life?

Every story in the book is geared toward young readers, but that doesn’t mean the art has to be juvenile or simplistic. I wanted there to be room for every artist to tell the story in the way that felt true to them, their voice and their style. I think of Noisemakers like a feast of amazing art, where each new course is different but so delicious.

I made a dream list of creators I wanted to work with—women and nonbinary artists who are doing interesting things in comics or whose books or style I love—and I reached out to them one by one. I feel so lucky that I got to work with so many of the greats!

Are there any creators you wanted to work with on Noisemakers but weren’t able to?

Of course! Alison Bechdel did a single-page comic for Kazoo‘s first issue, which sold out, and she also drew this amazing and intricate spot-the-difference for our 7th issue, which unbeknownst to our young readers but possibly not their parents, was based on the passage by Virginia Woolf that inspired The Bechdel Test. I dream of enticing her to do a full six-page comic for us one day. Also, Victoria Jamieson, Tillie Walden, Jillian Tamaki, Julia Wertz, Ellen Forney, Roz Chast and so many others.

How did Kazoo come about?

I was in a bookstore with my older daughter, who was 5 at the time. We stopped by the newsstand on the way out to see if she wanted anything, and on the cover of every girls’ magazine was either a princess, doll or little girl in makeup. She was bored and left empty-handed. I was annoyed, but I just couldn’t let it go. I kept thinking, Is this really the best we can do for our daughters? Is this all there is? Someone should do something about it. Eventually, I realized if I wanted something to change, I’d have to be the one to change it. I’d spent my entire career as a magazine writer and editor, so I knew I had the chops to do it. We launched our Kickstarter in the spring. Alison Bechdel, Diana Nyad and Mickalene Thomas all agreed to be in our first issue, before we knew if we’d ever even get a chance to make it. Roxane Gay was one of our first (and most generous) backers! Neil Gaiman started tweeting about Kazoo, encouraging his fans to back us. I’ll always be so grateful to all of them. We gained more than 3,000 backers and raised more than $171,000 in a month, which allowed us to get our start. Now, Kazoo has readers in 44 countries around the world, and just last year, we became the first kids’ magazine in history ever to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence.

We develop all of our stories with top women in their fields, and we’ve had the chance to work with a truly unbelievable roster of powerhouses: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Jane Goodall, Misty Copeland, Ellen DeGeneres, Margaret Atwood, Shonda Rhimes, Greta Thunberg and so many others. We also run original fiction, featuring a fierce girl protagonist, in every issue, and I’m so privileged to count among our contributors Joyce Carol Oates, Kristen Arnett, Angela Flournoy, Meg Wolitzer and more. We’re doing things that no other kids’ magazine is doing, and I’m so thankful to everyone—every contributor and every subscriber—who made it possible.

Do you have a favorite story in the book and, if so, which one is it?

It changes based on the day, because there’s truly something in each of them that deeply resonates with me: Nelly Bly, the journalist who told stories that actually changed people’s lives; entrepreneur Madam CJ Walker, who says, “I got my start by giving myself a start.” That’s what I did with Kazoo. I launched a Kickstarter in 2016 in hopes that there were enough people out there who wanted to see a new kind of print magazine for girls, and within 30 days, we closed as the highest funded journalism campaign in crowdfunding history. I love Eugenie Clark’s story by Maris Wicks, in part because I spend so much time with my two daughters at the New York Aquarium in Coney Island, which is where Eugenie first fell in love with the ocean. I also love how Maris tells Eugenie’s story through the sharks’ and other ocean creatures’ points of view. I didn’t want Noisemakers to read like a collection of Wikipedia biographies (“So-and-so was born on this day in this place…”) How boring that would be to read one of those, much 25 of those in a row! We tried to tell every story in a fresh way, and Maris certainly delivered.

What do you hope readers take from Noisemakers?

I hope that these stories will give kids a little extra courage to follow their own path, wherever that may lead. And I want them to remember that no matter how distant a dream feels, they already have what it takes to make some noise and change the world.

What’s next for Kazoo? Anything fun on the horizon we should be looking out for?

Oh, we’ve always got fun on the horizon! The next issue of the magazine comes out in March, and I’m so proud of it. To get it, subscribe at www.kazoomagazine.com. We’re working on book 2, and I’ve got so many other big ideas rolling around. I can’t wait to bring them to life!

Noisemakers: 25 Women Who Raised Their Voices and Changed the World goes on sale February 4th.

Cover

“Story of Bessie Coleman” Page 1

“Story of Bessie Coleman” Page 2

“Story of Bessie Coleman” Page 3

“Story of Bessie Coleman” Page 4

“Story of Bessie Coleman” Page 5