Friends With Boys is a 211 page graphic novel that will be published by First Second Books on February 24th, 2012. How it came to be that is hopefully a (slightly) interesting story!

My name is Faith, and I started drawing comics and putting them on the internet way back in 1999. At first I did comics because I enjoyed writing stories, and I wanted drawings to go with the stories. The fact that I wasn’t terribly good at drawing wasn’t a deterrent. After all, I was just doing comics “for fun.” That was about 12 years ago, and over those 12 years, I drew about 1600 pages of comics. The comics I’ve written and drawn are: Demonology 101 (my first online comic and how I learned to draw!), Ice, Zombies Calling, The War at Ellsmere, Brain Camp (art only) and my current online comic, The Adventures of Superhero Girl.

Friends With Boys started out as a pitch for DC Comic’s now defunct Minx imprint. Minx was all about comics for girls, and as a girl who drew comics, I was very happy when I was asked to pitch for it. Sadly it wasn’t meant to be, and the imprint was cancelled before I had the chance to be a part of it. But it worked out in the end as my wonderful publisher First Second gave Friends With Boys a home.

Friends With Boys is the first comic I’ve written and drawn where I used my own life as a jumping off point. The comic is not autobiographical. Nothing in it happened to me, but there are certain similarities that were intentional: I have three brothers (although I am the oldest, not the youngest). I was home-schooled until high school. My parents for a time separated. I’ve put the feelings I had about those experiences into this comic, so it is probably the closest thing to autobiography I will ever do, even if I have never had punk friends in high school. I have also never seen a ghost.

Friends With Boys was written and drawn from the end of 2009 until August 2010 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Those familiar with Halifax will recognize certain familiar landmarks in the panel backgrounds. The comic is not set in Halifax due to logistics (I needed it to be set in a small town), but I decided to use Halifax as a model for the town Friends With Boys is set in.

I hope you enjoy this comic, and I really hope that you’ll tell your friends it’s available online. My roots are in online comics, in the constant discussion that arises from putting your work online, and I’m incredibly happy that First Second is allowing me to do this. So please, spread the word, drop a comment in the comment section, or shoot me an email! I hope to hear from you. :)