Interview with Sean Lykins: Creator of Lora and the Paper Mirror

The indie comic scene is full of talented artists and writers, and Sean Lykins is one of them. He is the creator of an upcoming children’s comic called Lora and The Paper Mirror. Sean’s previous projects have included designing and producing puppets for other puppeteers.

In his spare time Sean Lykins can be found going to concerts, creating puppet shows for the local theatre, and his greatest passion is supporting other indie artists. Sean also has a variety of tastes in music, enjoys making cartoons, and has a love for anime.

Currently his favourite animation is Bee and Puppycat.

Lora and The Paper Mirror is about a girl who goes looking for a magic mirror that she reads about in a book. Once she finds the mirror she is transported to a magical land filled with monsters. She eventually finds out that these monsters are recreations of her own drawings. Lora also learns that in order to find her way back home, she must create new drawings.

There were two places which served as an inspiration to Sean Lykins and sparked the idea for Lora and The Paper Mirror.

The first was watching children play at his best friend’s son’s birthday party. “There were several children playing with a toy mirror and coming up with all sorts of interesting monster stories. I was in awe of the imagination that these kids had displayed,” said Sean Lykins.

The second source of inspiration had come from his friend Lora Price. “The main character gets her name from her and Lora always had this magical presence about her that reminded you of being in the movie Labyrinth and Alice in Wonderland.”

Lora and The Paper Mirror took Sean Lykins about a month to write and illustrate, and says that he was so inspired that he ended up writing and illustrating over 100 pages, which will be turned into a six part comic series.

He also gave a detailed explanation about the process of putting a children’s comic book together.

“I had prepared a few rough writing drafts for a short story I was going to write, but after that party I decided I wanted to combine my story with what I just heard at this party and throw a little bit of my friend Lora in there for good measure,” Sean Lykins began.

“The illustrations started as rough sketches and scanned into a computer, they in turn were touched up and background elements were added in by computer. I turned all the photos into vector art which gave it a cartoon like feel. I was going for a paper doll look where the environments would look like paintings. Speech bubbles were then drawn in and finally the text was added.”

You can best describe his style as an illustrator and writer as a mix between Jim Henson, and Tim Burton. “They had such a heavy influence on me and they both spawned their own culture on a generation of artists”.

Sean Lykins said that the main challenge he faced while creating this comic book, was making sure that there was an aesthetic that appealed to kids while maintaining the interest for older readers.

Sean Lykins then shared what he hopes readers will experience as they read this comic. “From the time anyone picks up a copy of Lora and the Paper Mirror I hope that their own imaginations are sparked. As I said before, imagination leads to creation and if this book sparks someone to create or keep their essence of child-like wonder than I think as an artist my job is done.”

A rewarding experience for Sean Lykins was seeing his drawings take on a life on their own, he says it is an amazing feeling. He now knows what Lora must have been feeling in her many adventures.

There is however one regret of his that he shared. “My only regret is not including more people in the creation process. People who have seen the finished book are in awe and have added their own stories of monsters and ideas for story arcs,” said Sean Lykins.

 

In five years Sean Lykins hopes to go back to school and get a job in graphic design as he loves all aspects of the creative process. He also hopes to be working on an animation project that is either funded by himself or through a studio.

Every story has a theme and in Lora and the Paper Mirror it is that the imagination is the starting point to creation. Never lose your sense of wonder.

Special Thanks to Sean Lykins for chatting with me.

You can support this project by heading on over to kickstarter and making a pledge.

Kickstarter Project Page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/739841783/lora-and-the-paper-mirror-childrens-comic