New graphic novel embodies DIY ethos

River Heights

St. Vital

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This article was published 04/10/2024 (456 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s impossible to tell where a story will go, if a character takes on a life of its own.

Just ask Nicholas Friesen, author and illustrator of American Youth, a new graphic novel that follows fictional Winnipeg musician Olivia Sea as she navigates the icy roads and dingy basements venues of the ever-dramatic indie music scene all the way to Portland, Ore.. Seven years in the making, American Youth is a full-colour, 152 page graphic novel “touching on mental health, Svengali figures in the music industry, friendship, being Canadian in America, and sad robots.”

“It started out … as a script for a short film or something, about a young woman who’s a musician who decides to leave Winnipeg and start fresh,” said Friesen, a 41-year-old Dakota Collegiate and University of Winnipeg alumnus. “That concept stayed throughout the whole process.”

Friesen, who studied film at the U of W, first started drawing Olivia Sea (and her sad robot buddy Four Track) on show posters for his own and his friends’ bands about a decade ago. Five or six years ago, he bought some new recording equipment and invited pal and local musician Andy Cole to come record some instrumental tracks to test out the new gear.

“We didn’t know what to do with them,” Friesen said. “One of us suggested maybe these were Olivia’s songs.”

An animator, Friesen has crafted videos for local acts like Greg MacPherson, the Sorels, and Sierra Noble. He thought, perhaps, he could make videos to accompany the tunes he and Cole recorded, but first he’d need to find a singer to complete them.

“I needed a singer who could act or an actor who could sing, we found Olivia Ulrich — the name is a total a coincidence,” Friesen laughed. “We’ve been putting out music now for Olivia Sea since then. Over the pandemic, I shifted gears from animation to a graphic novel.”

Along the way, Friesen added drummer Matt Powers to the band, and the group has written and recorded music to accompany the whole novel, or to be enjoyed on its own, all of which can be found on Olivia Sea’s Bandcamp page.

“Creating a comic is so isolating, it’s nice to have a component of the project that is collaborative,” Friesen said.

Inspired by graphic novelists such as Adrian Tomine, the Hernandez Brothers, Katie Skelly and more, Friesen drew each page in American Youth, pencilling then inking and lettering by hand, before scanning and digitally colouring each page. He finished writing and drawing the book over two years ago, and has spent the interim colouring the pages and releasing each chapter as a 20-(ish)-page comic book, allowing him to grow Olivia Sea’s audience in the meantime, including at comic conventions across the country.

“The response has been great,” Friesen said. “Even though I’ve been in bands for years, I’d never been on tour in a band. That’s my way of taking Olivia Sea on the road.”

Now that American Youth is out in the world, Friesen will be hitting a number of events to spread the word, including the Prairie Comics Festival on Oct. 5 and 6 at the Millenium Library, Winnipeg Comiccon, which runs Oct. 25 to 27 and the Winnipeg Punk Rock Flea Market on Saturday, Nov. 2 (both at the RBC Convention Centre Winnipeg), and hosting a workshop on publishing indie comics at Riley Grae (701 Corydon Ave.).

For more information, visit oliviasea.net