The origins of The Prince

The Prince had a rather long journey before he ever came alive under Annie's pencil (pen ? quill ? charcoal nib ?).

(cue water-ripple flashback movie effect)

The year was 2004. I was in college at the University of Washington, which is in Seattle, and not St. Louis. The other common misconception is that typical UW students looked like this:

This is completely untrue. These would be students of The Evergreen State College, 70 miles to the south. Actually, I lied. These are what you get if you typed "hippies" into Google Image Search and take the 3rd result. In any case, UW students looked like this:

The other person in this photo is Jason, a then-coworker. Jason has since gone on to become incredibly successful, so this is both shameless name-dropping and an attempt to embarrass people using old photos without context. It is true, however, that UW students are prepared for any emergency if it involves indoor carpentry and ill-fitting labcoats.

In any case, between practicing lab safety and not wearing tie-dyed Tshirts or getting sensible haircuts, I was talking to my father about what I wanted to do with my life. I was typically very ... spirited (to put it very mildly) in these conversations, while my father was characteristically calm, erudite and understanding. He emphasized that whatever advice he may give me, it's important for me to find my own path and not to be caught in anyone's shadow, even if it was his.

As is often the case in life, I didn't realize the importance of these conversations until later. And when I did, I thought they would make for a good story, since they were both personal and universal. After the words came together, the quest was on for an illustrator !

Attempt 1: My first stop was my friend Ben, who was an illustrator for our highschool newspaper. We knew each other well and actually made a short movie together in highschool. Ben was backpacking around the world but had his sketchbook with him and regular access to Internet cafes. He had time to do a quick fun sketch for me unrelated to the project:
                                                                     

However, as he got to more remote areas he felt he needed more time on his trip. I began a semester of unusually intense classes and we fell out of touch. Lesson learned: traveling around the world makes collaboration very, very difficult.

Attempt 2: a classmate who doodled a lot. She made several backgrounds before saying that she didn't really like the story. Lesson learned: make sure the story resonate with the artist.

Attempt 3: a friend of a friend who was a commercial illustrator. She was working on so many projects that ultimately things didn't work out. Lesson learned: make sure the artist has enough time.

I think there were one or two others, but things never got past the initial meeting. I believed in the story, so I didn't care how long I had to look, I wanted someone who was as passionate about making The Prince as I was. I learned a lot about publishing books (a topic for a future post?), and after a few tries, I also developed a sense for whether the project would take off. On our first meeting, Annie had organized her portfolio, questions for the story and asked for a timeline. My sense didn't fail me and a year later, here we are !

--Phu

PS: As shocking as it may seem, the "Phu 2.0" sketch had some basis in fact: I neither have a cape nor that much upper body strength, but I was a member of the UW Kendo Club and did wear glasses at one point. I think Ben was trying to be flattering by implying I was good at many things, I actually find it a little alarming that I would hold a sword while reading, even if it was only a wooden one.