Since Kings Rising, Pacat fans have been gobbling up the novellas, and waiting on tenterhooks for news about her next projects. Last week, the LA Times released an exclusive interview that informed us all about her Top Secret Next Project.
New Sports Comic, Fence
This is the part where I’m supposed to make words.
I don’t think I can …
The variant cover for “Fence” No. 1. (Kevin Wada / Boom Studios)
… because this exists.
CS Pacat is teaming up with artist, Johanna the Mad, to create LIFE a sports comic series that according to the LA Times,
“… follows the rise of 16-year-old outsider Nicholas in the world of competitive fencing at an elite boys school. “It’s all about the world of fencing,” said Pacat. “The elegance, the danger, the high stakes of what’s essentially a combat sport.”
“It’s also very much about the characters and all the things that sports narratives can bring out in them like intense rivalries, lifelong friendships,” added Pacat. “As well as romance between teammates.”
There are so many reasons to be excited about this new project. If you read the LA Times piece, Pacat goes into them in detail, and I don’t want to take away a single word of her interview … you should read it. Because she says awesome stuff like
…that’s why I love the kind of art that is generated out of [the online] community. I really wanted to work with someone who came up in that community, who was still in touch with those passions and that kind of creative freedom of expression.
So let me tell you why this excites me as a fan of her work, of comics and of LGBTQ stories.
This Art Thing
Comics are a new thing for a lot of us. I dated guys in high school that were into them, and spent many Wednesday afternoons at a local comic book shop in Memphis, TN that was torn down to the ground about a decade ago. I still remember the inflatable Spiderman they had on the ceiling.
But I wasn’t a comic reader for myself until much later in life. Comics like Watchmen, Saga, Paper Girls, Sex Criminals and others have proven that I can get connected to stories and to characters without the weighty prose I thought I needed. It’s the visual medium, man. It’s a direct vehicle to the reader that you can’t dismiss.
The first time I read through Check Please! I cried. The art created something different than just a story I wanted to binge. These were characters that I knew, that I fully understood. I could pin them up on my wall. They were real.
Captive Prince began as an online serial, and immediately lent itself to the type of fanart that online communities are made of. Pacat is not just aware of these communities, she began in one, found her artist in one, and remains active in her own. A story born out of the love of these types of creative expressions is one that I want to support.
Pacat is a comic and anime reader and lover. Through her recommendations, I’ve found several other manga, web and traditional comics that I love. She knows this world, and she has good taste. I’m not worried that she’s stepping out of her wheelhouse to do something trendy. This moves feels like she’s falling into her own fandom to give us exactly what we wanted.
This Sports Thing
Hi, my name is Beth, and I played basketball in the 6th grade. That is the extent of my sport knowledge. Enter Check Please! where I learned All The Things™ about hockey and bros, and Yuri! on Ice where I learned Many of The Things™ about figure skating, and you’re well-versed in Ways That Beth Consumes Sports™. Hint: it’s through sports comics/anime.
I don’t want to admit that my only knowledge of fencing comes from that scene in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice where Darcy tries to overcome his hard-on for Lizzy by beating on some earl in whites, but that’s it. I’m actually geekily looking forward to googling a ton of things I’ve never heard of it and don’t understand with each new installment of Fence.
The main cover for “Fence” No. 1. (Boom! Box)
But the greatest part about this being a sports comic is the STAKES. And the DANGER. And the RIVALS. And the butts.
Sports stories are inherently about growth, rivalry and set goals. Sports comics about well-drawn athletic guys who are pushing themselves and their teammates and rivals to be better are also about well-drawn butts. Guys, this is a win-win.
This Romance Thing
CS Pacat is dedicated to writing LGBTQ stories.
I hope to be writing something that’s very joyously and unabashedly queer. That’s very important to me.
Have you ever heard a better sentence? There are lots of reasons that stories and series like Check Please! and Yuri! On Ice are so popular and resonate across racial, sexual orientation, generational and international lines. They are honest. They are pure. They have been MISSING. And reading rivals work through seasons of unresolved sexual tension in highly physical pursuits while also dealing with relational and emotional highs and lows IS A GOOD DAMN TIME.
The Captive Prince trilogy is way more than a romance, but Pacat did something courageous and beautiful with her main characters. Laurent and Damen, despite having the TROPIEST OF GAY ROMANCE TROPEY NAMES, and seemingly ticking a ton of gay romance trope characteristics, are, like the comic characters I mentioned above, very real to Pacat’s readers. She created characters that don’t just fulfill the fantasies of readers in a superficial, easy reader, beach book way, but that relate to one another in flawed, extreme and unique ways. Their dialogue, their backstory, their growth is the stuff of epic romances. They are IMHO … one of the great romantic couples of literature. That’s not hyperbole. I love them that much.
And that makes me more than excited to see what Pacat brings us in Fence.
Artwork from “Fence.” (Johanna the Mad / Boom Studios)
Are you excited to read Fence?
