Exploring Storytelling, Adventure, And The Fight Against Censorship With Ryan Estrada
Ryan Estrada combines his adventurous spirit with a deep commitment to fighting censorship, creating compelling graphic novels that tackle serious themes with humour and authenticity.
Ryan Estrada is an award-winning artist, author, and adventurer whose bold storytelling and compelling visuals have captured the hearts of readers across the globe. With a catalogue that includes works such as Banned Book Club, No Rules Tonight, and Occulted, Estrada has gained a reputation for exploring deep themes of censorship, freedom, and the human spirit, all while drawing from his own diverse and daring experiences. In this interview, we dive into his creative process, the inspiration behind his adventurous characters, and his commitment to amplifying voices that have been silenced or suppressed. Join us as we uncover the mind behind the tales that not only entertain but also challenge the status quo.
Estrada’s work expertly blends adventure with important social themes, creating stories that both entertain and provoke thought.
In “Banned Book Club,” you depict your wife Kim Hyun Sook’s experiences in 1980s Korea. How did collaborating on this project influence its authenticity?
I think it’s always important to let people tell their own stories. I’d known my wife for over a decade when she casually mentioned her time smuggling illegal books under the nose of a murderous dictator. I was so surprised at this revelation that I tweeted about it, and was offered a book deal in the replies. I was adamant, though, that I would only do it if Hyun Sook were a co-author rather than just a subject. She’d never been interested in writing, but threw herself into the project, reuniting with all her old book club members, classmates, and teachers to make sure everyone’s story was captured accurately. We thought we were writing about history, but history repeated itself so quickly that before the book was released, not only was there a sudden wave of book banning in America, but Banned Book Club itself ended up being banned in several states.
“No Rules Tonight” explores a unique curfew exception in 1980s Korea. What inspired you to illustrate this particular event?
During the Korean war, American soldiers started a curfew, and the dictators that followed kept it up. Anyone out after midnight went to jail. The exception was a day that meant a lot to the Americans who included it, but didn’t have any existing traditions for the Koreans it applied to. December 24th. I was fascinated by the question of what I would do if I only had one night of freedom per year. And it was fun to write a Christmas special set in a country that doesn’t celebrate Christmas. We turned it into a book about how important it is not to forget who you are and what you care about while fighting to survive!
“Occulted” tells Amy Rose’s story of escaping a cult through banned books. How did you approach adapting such a personal narrative into a graphic novel?
I was hosting a storytelling show when my friend Amy stepped out on stage to tell a story she’d never spoken aloud before. How she escaped a UFO death cult with the help of a secret abandoned library. Usually, audiences were busy chatting, ordering drinks, catching up with friends, etc. But this time, the entire audience was silent and in tears. I wondered… does everyone I know secretly have a story about how banned books saved their life??? Amy was hesitant at first to turn her traumatic story into a book, but then realized that books had saved her life, and now her book could save someone else. It was a difficult process for her, because every time she wrote, she’d relive the experience and end up with nightmares. So we took turns writing, with the goal of creating the exact book that would condense everything Amy wished she had known for kids in a similar situation.
The “Student Ambassador” series draws from your travels. How do your adventures shape the stories and characters in these books?
When I was a kid, I was part of a student ambassadorship program that took me to Australia. I had visions of international intrigue and adventure, but it ended up being a very organized package tour. Right then and there I started writing the story of what I’d wished had happened. But in the decades I spent developing the story, I actually started living the exact kind of adventurous life I was writing about. I got lost in the Maasai Mara, nearly eaten by lions. I was thrown from a moving train by the police in India. I slept on a park bench during a typhoon in Japan. So I used my experiences to create the story. Each Student Ambassador mystery takes place in a real location where I have actually been, and I reenact the action scenes and take photos so that the story is completely accurate to the real location. The main character is a little kid whose superpowers are curiosity and empathy, in the hopes of making readers as curious and excited about the world as I am.
Your works often address themes of censorship and freedom. What drives your focus on these issues?
Censorship was never really something I thought about for most of my life. My only experience with it was when I made a comic for my middle school newspaper about an adventurous insect called Wendell the Wasp. The principal banned it because he said the word wasp was insensitive to white Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Censorship always seemed silly to me, not a real threat. But when I started working on books like Banned Book Club, Occulted, No Rules Tonight, and my upcoming graphic novel Good Old Fashioned Korean Spirit, I was entrusted with the stories of dozens of people who risked their lives for the freedom to read. When our books started getting banned, I saw who librarians in the US were risking their careers and safety to protect them. I saw how books about Black people, Asian people, queer people, and even books about empathy were being ripped from shelves and labeled pornographic. I realized that book banning is not the work of some oversensitive soccer mom, it’s a concerted political project meant to remove the voices of people they don’t want in society… as a precursor to going after the people themselves. So I’ve followed the example of all my collaborators, and decided to keep fighting.
Collaborating with various illustrators, how do you ensure your vision aligns with their artistic style?
I’m an artist myself, so when I decide to work with another illustrator it’s only because I trust that the artist will do a better job than me. I picked illustrators like Axur Eneas, Ko Hyung-Ju and Jeongmin Lee because I know their style was perfect for the project, so the best thing I can do is trust them. I have been rewarded every time with amazing work that far exceeded my expectations and told the story not the way I envisioned it, but in a way even better than I could have dreamed.
Your stories blend humour with serious themes. How do you balance these elements to engage readers?
My biggest laughs come from dramas, and I cry most at comedies. Life encompasses the full spectrum of emotion, so you need contrast in tone to make a story feel real and exciting. Writing is about knowing where to place them. Do you need to cut the tension with a joke, or let the audience sit in the tension? The best way is to know what your characters feel, and figure out how to place the characters in the same state.
“The best way is to know what your characters feel, and figure out how to place the characters in the same state.” – Ryan Estrada
