💬🦸🏾‍♀️Nilah Magruder's Origin Story

Origin Stories w JJK

Support Origin Stories by visiting StudioJJK.com/shop. And use code PODCAST to receive 10% off your order!

Nilah Magruder is an absolute joy and an uber-talented author and artist. She was the first Black woman to write for Marvel, illustrated all of the Heroes of Olympus covers for Rick Riordan’s books, and worked extensively in animation. Not to mention the books that she is the sole creator of, which have proven to be legendary in my home.

Jarrett: Nilah Magruder. How are you?

[00:00:03] Nilah: I'm doing pretty good. How are you?

[00:00:06] Jarrett: Hangin', it in there Nilah, you will forever and ever be iconic in my home because your picture book, "How to Find a Fox" has been read so many times. So many times. In our home that it is held together by like scotch tape and like bubble gum.

[00:00:29] Our son, we must have read that so many times.

[00:00:32] Nilah: Oh my God.

[00:00:32] Jarrett: Huge home run pal and I remember we met at Comics Crossroads in Ohio and we were tabling next to each other and, like we just were chatting the whole day and I'm always looking for something to bring home to the kids to make up for being gone.

[00:00:45] And wow that book, man, I'm telling you like, iconic like that, that we will read that. I will read that to my grandkids, my wife and I will be reading that to our grandkids someday. So thank you for stop and a chat with us. But of course I what the show is all about of

[00:01:01] course is about getting to know how creative people in comics got to be doing what they're doing.

[00:01:09] And so I like to start at the very beginning cuz I, I love the idea and I also love the idea of imagine. A young author, an artist and getting to, to hear those stories directly from some of your favorite creators. My first question for you and it might really be the only question I ask and then we're gonna get into a conversation, but what was life like for you as a kid?

[00:01:29] What was your home like? What was your family set up? What kind of art and stories were you consuming? What sort of laid the groundwork to create Nilah Magruder?

[00:01:39] Nilah: My home life as a child, I grew up in a house in the woods in a small community back in a time where it was largely forest and largely rural.

[00:01:53] And I think that had a lasting impact on how. I think visually in how I view story, the sort of stories that I'm interested in. A lot of the things I was interested at interested in as a kid were very pastoral and natural. I loved anything featuring animals and, honestly, I was isolated for a lot of my childhood.

[00:02:20] This is something that you and I have in common. I had an alcoholic parent and as a kid, I didn't like to bring friends home because then they would see my dad and, whatever state that my dad was in, it was really unpredictable. I never quite knew what I was bringing friends into. So I didn't, bring friends here very much.

[00:02:44] And I didn't go to friends' houses very much. And so a lot of my time was spent at home, but we were surrounded by this woodland, all of these trees and animals and so much nature. And that's really where I spent my time as a kid. Now, what I was interested in, like what I was ingesting, we had a small video rental store in the community, and this was long before Netflix.

[00:03:18] This was even before Blockbuster. We didn't have a Blockbuster within driving distance. I'm not even sure if Blockbuster existed back then. And so we had this local mom and pop rental store and they would bring in videos from all over the world. A lot of imported... movies and television series.

[00:03:43] And as a kid, I was interested in anything animated. If it was a cartoon, if it was drawn, I was there. And so like any cartoon that they had, I'd be like, mom, can we get this please? And I remember once I showed her one video that I hadn't watched yet, and I was like, mom, can we get this? And she looked at it, she looked at the cover and was like, no.

[00:04:05] And she put it back and we never spoke of it again. and years later, like I was an adult on the internet and I saw this title called when the wind blows and I was like, oh, that's familiar. And I looked at the summary. I looked at the art from the movie and I was like, oh my God, that's it. That's that one movie that my mom wouldn't let me watch.

[00:04:27] And so when the wind blows is a British animated film about nuclear fallout, And it's about it's about this couple. I think it's like a rural couple and there's this big catastrophe in England. And the government sends pamphlets out to everyone and is every, they're just like, don't panic everyone. It's fine.

[00:04:54] Just stay at home. And so basically this couple they're older, they're very trusting. They're like the government knows what's best. So we'll just stay home. And eventually radiation reach reaches them and they get sick and die.

[00:05:11] So...

[00:05:11] Jarrett: what a prude! What a prude! What a...

[00:05:14] Nilah: I know wouldn't let me. And then another time she was also a teacher and one day she brought home the animated Animal Farm.

[00:05:22] Jarrett: Wow. Yeah.

[00:05:23] Nilah: And, my thing is animals, of course. And she looks at me and she's do not watch this. And then she leaves it out.

[00:05:32] Jarrett: Oh...

[00:05:33] Nilah: And so one day when she wasn't there, I popped it in the VCR and watched it. And I think I was like nine or 10 at the time. And I loved it. So all that to say when I was a kid, I would just watch anything.

[00:05:49] And so I was, and we had this rental store that would bring over anything. And so I was getting to watch animated movies from Japan and England and Russia and Canada, like Canada had a really great experimental animation program that was supported by the government.

[00:06:07] Jarrett: Yeah.

[00:06:07] Nilah: And so they were producing just like wild animated shorts and half the time, I didn't understand what I was watching, but because it was moving pictures, moving drawings, I was fascinated.

[00:06:21] And a lot of the stuff that I look back on that I loved as a small child, it's very experimental and dark. And then I lived in this woodland that was also creepy, a lot of animals lived here and also a lot of people in the community were like fascinated cuz our home was situated secluded.

[00:06:45] And so people would come drive through late at night just to, see the house or they'd, walk through, like it was a public park here.

[00:06:55] Jarrett: Oh.

[00:06:55] Nilah: So I had this experience as a child of just like constantly our space just constantly being invaded by strangers. And it was like scary, you're in bed at night....

[00:07:11] And headlights reflected on your wall. Yeah. And you're a little kid and you're just like, oh my gosh.

[00:07:19] Jarrett: Yeah.

[00:07:19] Nilah: I have this, like I have this just this little, knot from my childhood, that's very...