An artist and designer from the Mid-Michigan area, creator/artist of the webcomic Plume
K Lynn Smith found her start in the comic book world as a cartoonist for her university newspaper. In 2006, her artwork won the Michigan Press Award, as well as the Helen Victoria Haynes World Peace Cartoon Contest.
She is currently working on the western webcomic Plume, the science-fiction novel Crack Goes the Engine, and has been involved with projects such as Garfield and Cards Against Humanity. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, enthusiastic car-singing and getting caught in the rain.
Plume is a western webcomic about Vesper Grey and her supernatural (and reluctant) guardian Corrick. On their way to recover some stolen artifacts, they start to uncover the gritty truth about their pasts and learn that the West is anything but tame. A successful kickstarter campaign for the comic has produced a print version with Devil’s Due Entertainment.
Started in March 2011, Plume is now read in over 70 countries, translated in three languages, and landed the #6 slot for the Best Webcomics of 2013
Emertainment Monthly reached out to K Lynn Smith for an interview about Plume and her career in comics.
Emertainment Monthly: When did you first get into drawing comics and animating?
K Lynn Smith: I went to Grand Valley State University for Film and Video, emphasis on Animation and New Media. I did a lot of storyboarding, which quickly became my favorite part of the project. In my sophomore year, I got a little gig as a weekly comic strip artist in the college newspaper. That was the beginning of my comic love. After I graduated, I started making a few comics on the side, just as a hobby, and it was from here that Plume was developed.
EM: Tell us about Plume. What is it about and where did the idea come from? What were your influences in terms of both writing and art style?
KS: The idea came from a novel idea I wrote a while back about guardian angels in a Victorian setting, but the story somewhat morphed into what it is now. I’ve always loved the Western Genre, and being a huge Red Dead Redemption fan, it seemed fitting to base the setting there. Influences in style and writing come from all corners of my fandoms. The look of Corrick is heavily influenced by Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist. Avatar: the Last Airbender influenced a lot of the look and writing as well; Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko really know how to tell a story.
People have described my style as American Anime meets Disney or Don Bluth, and I’m quite okay with that.
More of the interview at: http://emertainmentmonthly.com/2015/05/31/k-lynn-smith-talks-about-webcomics-plume-and-time-travelling-pirates/
More about K Lynn Smith’s Plume:
Plume, chapter 1: http://emertainmentmonthly.com/2015/05/31/k-lynn-smith-talks-about-webcomics-plume-and-time-travelling-pirates/
Facebook: http://emertainmentmonthly.com/2015/05/31/k-lynn-smith-talks-about-webcomics-plume-and-time-travelling-pirates/
