Women In Comics Month: Interview With JP Roth

In honor of Women in Comics this March, PREVIEWSworld talks with writer JP Roth!

PREVIEWSworld: Tell us a little bit about yourself! What are you currently working on?

JP Roth: My name is Jo Perfilio my pen name - JP Roth. Obviously, JP signifies the first letter of each of my “mother-given” names, whilst the Roth part, simply came from my brother reading my first manuscript, Ancient Dreams. When he finished he said…”Oh, my god! We are going to be as Rich as the Rothschild’s!” I liked that thought, so I adopted “Roth”, to constantly remind me of what I am capable of. 

I am number 5 in a family of 10 – I know right?!? Without going too deep into my “sordid past” let’s just say, we did NOT grow up conventionally by any means. Our parents were involved at a high level with a cult that is synonymous with an alarming number of well-known actors, from Rose McGowan to the Phoenix’s. This cult was known as The Children of God. 

I have been back and forth on the issue of wanting to be known as, “JP Roth – a child of the cult”. But what I have come to realize is, all that I went through as a child and the unfortunate circumstances I grew up with – all had a reason. I ABSOLUTELY WOULD NOT be who I am today if I had not been put in that place. And who knows? If I believe my own mythos and storytelling – I may have even chosen this destiny for myself in this particular life for a particular purpose.

Since launching my first series “Ancient Dreams” a book actually intended to be a Three-Part Novel, I somehow managed to convince a longtime friend from my childhood, Dawn McTeigue, to “take a chance with me” and “make a comic book series”. Fast forward 4 years and here we are!

Our current project (which is still a secret) is one we have actually been working on, in the shadows, for about a year now, it’s called DiVinica. For those of you that know my work, you will know that I specialize in all realms of mythos with my own stories intertwined. But, I am a mythological purist at heart, and I do follow the legends very precisely without taking too much liberty, because, well…why fix something if it isn’t broken? DiVinica will feature the never faltering beauty of Dawn McTeigue’s artwork – and the never quiet voices of my mind, to bring you the re-imagined, lost in time, spellbinding tales of the goddesses from all realms of lore and mythology.

PREVIEWSworld: How long have you been working with sequential art? What titles, companies, and creators have you worked with over your time in comics? 

JP Roth: Oddly enough - Not long at all! 4 years ago, myself, my older sister and now manager, Clare Bendandi, Dawn McTeigue and a wonderful Brit, by the name of Mike Krome, (some of you may know who he is) strolled down to a Kino’s, style establishment, named Copy for Less, and literally printed out 1 copy of a first draft of our “Comic Book”. 

We took that flimsy paper book - cut wrong, stapled wrong and nowhere near close, to the “standard industry size”, and walked through San Diego Comic- Con. Without knowing we were doing EVERYTHING wrong, we somehow managed to do everything right. We instantly gained momentum, quickly learned about how to ACTUALLY print a comic book. Went back to the literal drawing board, and 6 months later, Rothic was born and we have been making “Rothic Novels” ever since.

Luckily my sister had just come from working with Thomas Tull, setting up Legendary Pictures (famously known for 300, The Hangover and Batman Returns) so she had some kind of working knowledge as to the concept of “networking” and we instantly set our sights as high as they could go – again, if you don’t know the boundaries, then they don’t exist. By the time my second creation Southern Nightgown was ready to launch, we had Dawn McTeigue’s very own idol, J Scott Campbell’s, beautiful work featured as the cover for its launch. A literal dream come true. 

Since then I have been so blessed to be able to work with the greatest talents of our generation, to name a few: Eric ‘E Bas’ Basaldua, Peter Steigerwald, Ale Garza,  Nei Ruffino, Paolo Pantalena, Mike Krome, Sabine Rich, Ula Moss and of course our very own Dawn McTeigue.

PREVIEWSworld: Did you have a mentor or hero in the industry that inspired you to pursue a career in comics? 

JP Roth: From as young as I can remember, my greatest influence, truest hero and mentor has been Anne Rice. The first time I met her I was so overwhelmed, I nearly fainted! My sister still makes fun of me for that moment.

Now I know she is not known for comics – but her story telling always resonated with me. She has a perfectly grounded yet totally fantastical strength to her fictional stories – a true genius! When my journey as an author began, I modeled my storytelling to honor her, but as I became more intimately involved in re-imagining my novels as comics books, I began to take a closer look at the one and only Frank Miller, who again, somehow manages to hold a strange power over the complete fictional world he introduces, and once you are in that world – boy do you believe it! My sister, Clare says, if Anne Rice, Frank Miller, and Quentin Tarantino had a love child, it would be you. I am strangely comfortable with that notion.

PREVIEWSworld: In your opinion, how has the comic book industry evolved in terms of gender? 

JP Roth: Historically, this has been a predominantly male industry, with very few women coming to the floor. The psyche of this, I would not even want to begin to take a stab at – however, what I do believe is happening is that women are “finding a voice” in storytelling. They have always been there, hiding on books shelves under the “fiction/romantic novel” section, but none really took the floor until very recently. 

In fact, I remember when I was “walking the floor” of my first Comic-Con, I turned to my sister and said, why are there no women? I actually had subsequent interviews in the months following with various magazines, blogs and “geek-world” channels, if you will, all of whom asked me – “what does it feel like to be one of the only women creators in comic books?” In truth, it felt empowering! 

I have at least one person a show come to my booth and say “OMG are you one of the model’s for Mr. Roth’s comics?” to which I reply, with what I can only imagine, is an extremely goofy looking ear to ear grin on my face, “Actually, I am JP Roth, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

PREVIEWSworld: What stereotypes do you see surrounding women in comics? How could people of all genders go about breaking those stereotypes? 

JP Roth: I realized early on that a culture that has been created over the years – we, the women, are the “sidekicks”, the “sexy minx on the stripper pole”, the Black Cat to the Spiderman – we are not typically the focus. Thus, fiction is mirrored in life. 

I intend to change that and I strongly believe that we NEED more women bringing their view and talent to this and the entire entertainment industry. We need our generations Anne Rice, and J.K. Rowling’s and we are finally starting to see a new line of storytelling emerge.

As far as stereotypes are concerned – I say, just break them! Don’t think about conforming! Just do what you do and if you do it right and believe in your talent, the rest of the world will be forced to see it.

PREVIEWSworld: How do you want to see women represented in comic books 10 years from now?

JP Roth: We will be Black Cat and Batman will be our secret admirer. We will not only be the force driving the hero, we will be the hero. Do you know what the true power of a woman is? Well, I didn’t either until my very wise sister told me this: “The true power of a woman is that we have the strength of a man, the love of a mother; the beautiful guile of a cat, AND the wisdom to know when to use each”. If that isn’t the best explanation, I don’t know what is?!

Before the famous witch hunts in the Middle Ages, women were fiercely in control. They were queens of nations that were wealthy, happy and peaceful. I personally believe that the witch hunts were man’s only measure of gaining an upper hand and the evil men of that time, armed with their ridiculous and loose interpretations of the so-called “word of god” launched an all-out war to change the world’s perception of a woman.

This is all changing for the better and I believe that as more and more of us women authors and creators find our voice we will wake up our ancestors from their sleep and call back the power of the goddesses that was silenced and once again the world will have back its magic, beauty, and strength.

PREVIEWSworld: If you could give advice to any aspiring editors, executives, writers, or artists, what would you tell them? 

JP Roth: Think outside the box, or in this case “the shelf”. Stop looking to re-write already written stories. Create, imagine and focus on NEW heroes or heroines and their new adventures. Invest in NEW talent and untapped storytelling. 

If you’re the one telling the new story, TELL IT! Don’t hide it, don’t “wait to be noticed”. Make yourself noticed. If you have something to say – say it! But for god’s sake, say it well!

PREVIEWSworld: And lastly, are there any up-and-coming women creators who you would recommend readers check out? 

JP Roth: Of course, I will use this question to take the lowest of bows, to my beautiful and amazingly talented friend, Dawn McTeigue, who has worked so hard and achieved so much in so little time, all the while raising a family. She is a TRUE hero and one of the best women I know. You can see all of her amazing work here at: www.dawnmcteigue.com.

Then there is our very own little Fairy, Sabine Rich, who has given beautiful life to my series, Theory of Magic. This comic is drawn and colored by this amazing little lady and I could not have imagined it any better – she took the ramblings of my mind and brought them to life. You can see this and much more on her site: www.sabinerich.com.

And Miss Nei Ruffino. The shiniest of shining stars, which has been burning in the background, warming up all the talented men of her world. But she is now finding her own path. We are finally able to hear the beautiful voice behind those amazingly electric and fantastically beautiful colors of hers, in her very own mini-series, titled The Secret Life of Crows. You can find it on her site at: www.organikmechanic.com. I am not loose with compliments, so when I tell you to read it…trust me! You can thank me later.

A special thank you to PREVIEWSworld (Diamond) and specifically to Jay Spence, for finally hearing my voice, and believing in me. I am so grateful to have been given this platform to tell my stories to the world.

See more Women In Comics Month interviews in our special section on PREVIEWSworld!