MALLORY AND THE TROUBLE WITH TWINS

In The Baby-sitters Club: Mallory and the Trouble with Twins, based on the prose novel by Ann M. Martin and adapted by Arley Nopra, Mallory has been watching her seven younger siblings for years. But nothing could prepare her for the challenge of the Arnold twins! 

Today, Comics Beat is proud to present process images from Mallory and the Trouble with Twins alongside an interview with Nopra. The Beat asked about her history with The Baby-sitters Club, about her adaptation process and about what it’s like to depict identical twins. Plus, Nopra the process pictures will give you an idea of what goes into the process of adapting a Baby-sitters Club books to comics!

AVERY KAPLAN: Do you have a personal history with The Baby-sitters Club?

ARLEY NOPRA: I remember seeing The Baby-sitters Club growing up. I started reading the books when I became an adapter for the series and I think they’re wonderful! I love that the BSC members feel authentic and it’s amazing that so many readers feel connected to their stories. I’m a fan now!

KAPLAN: How did you come to be involved with The Baby-sitters Club adaptations?

NOPRA: I was working as a colorist for another graphic novel series when my literary agent, Thao Le, brought up the opportunity to be involved with The Baby-sitters Club adaptations. Cassandra Pelham Fulton, an editor at Scholastic, expressed an interest in having me test for the series. I went through the testing process and, well, here I am! I was thrilled and honoured to join The BSC team. When I was a kid, one of my favorite books was Smile by Raina Telgemeier, who was the first adapter for The Baby-sitters Club graphic novels, so it’s been an incredible full-circle moment for me. 

KAPLAN: What is your process for going through the prose book and taking notes? Is color-coding involved?

NOPRA: I approach note-taking like it’s a conversation with my future self. I write brief comments in the margins and use colorful tabs to highlight moments that stick out, like important story beats and scenes that got a reaction out of me. A majority of these highlights end up in the graphic novel. 

I use different colored highlights to classify each moment in the book. For example, I use orange to highlight fun or funny scenes, green for descriptions of settings, yellow for character details, pink for sweet moments, and purple for scenes that made me sad.

The note-taking process helps me focus on significant plot points and easily find specific details in the book. It allows me pinpoint the tone of a scene and how I should go about illustrating it. It’s also really fun and motivating to look back on all the colorful highlights and silly notes to myself. While re-reading Mallory and the Trouble with Twins, it felt like Past Me was cheering me on and saying, “Hey, remember when this funny thing happened? This’ll be SO fun to work on!”

KAPLAN: Did any element of adapting the book to a comics script present a specific challenge for you?

NOPRA: Luckily, writing the script for the adaptation was mostly a smooth process thanks to Ann M. Martin’s wonderful writing for Mallory and the Trouble with Twins! One specific challenge was figuring out which twin would say certain lines in the adaptation. There are a bunch of moments throughout the book where one of the twins speaks, but the readers aren’t told specifically that Marilyn or Carolyn is speaking.

This makes sense in the book because the story is told from Mallory’s POV and she can’t tell them apart. However, in the graphic novel, readers can actually see the twins, their slightly different facial expressions and poses, and even the ‘M’ and ‘C’ on their bracelets.

When the book didn’t specify which twin was speaking, I had to choose who would speak in the adaptation. I had to ask myself, “Is this something Marilyn would say? Or is this something Carolyn would say?” They are different people after all, and I didn’t want to simply hand over a line of dialogue to a twin just because she was a twin.

KAPLAN: Do you have a favorite Baby-sitter Club character?

NOPRA: Right now, my favorite characters are Claudia and Mallory. (I’m sorry! I can’t choose just one!) I have so much in common with Claudia. She loves art, quirky earrings, winged eyeliner, and junk food, just like me. I love how witty Mallory is. It was a delight to read her narration in Mallory and the Trouble with Twins.

KAPLAN: What’s it like drawing a book with identical twins? Did you ever have trouble keeping track of who was who?

NOPRA: Admittedly, I have some experience drawing comics with identical twins. When I was a kid, I worked on a 20-volume comic book series with identical twin brothers as the main characters! I drew these comics in flimsy dollar store notebooks and only a handful of schoolmates read them, haha.

Anyway, it would be an understatement to say I was thrilled to work on Mallory and the Trouble with Twins. It felt like I was stepping back into my childhood. Things can get silly and chaotic in stories involving identical twins and it was fun to illustrate these moments with Marilyn and Carolyn. Additionally, books with identical twins have the potential to explore messages about individuality and self-expression, and I adore these types of stories. 

There certainly were times when I lost track of who was Marylin or Carolyn. On the rare occasion I didn’t have the script by my side, I had to put my pen down and ask myself questions like, “Is this Carolyn speaking to Mallory? Which twin is standing on the left side in this scene? Who am I drawing right now?!” 

Hints of Marylin and Carolyn’s different personality traits show through their actions and dialogue in the book. I came to the conclusion that Marilyn seemed like the sentimental and sweeter twin, and Carolyn was cooler and had a shorter temper. It helped to refer to these personality traits when I wanted to draw them with slightly different facial expressions or poses in a scene, or if I needed to figure out which twin was speaking when I didn’t have the script by my side.

KAPLAN: There is some amazing structural symmetry in the sample pages you shared with us. Do you have a specific process for determining how you’ll arrange your pages?

NOPRA: Aw, thank you! Symmetry was an element that stood out to me in the book. The book mentions that the twins look like reflections of each other and that the details on opposites sides of their room are arranged identically. I thought it would be fitting to roll with symmetrical visuals for these pages in the adaptation.

Honestly, my process for determining the arrangement of panels involves a lot of trial and error. I pay close attention to what a scene demands and shift things around until I develop a composition that looks and feels right. But for this scene, the pages were mostly clear in my mind. I knew very early on that I would be aiming for balanced backgrounds and mirrored poses, and it was an exciting challenge to figure out how I’d pull this off.

The Baby-sitters Club: Mallory and the Trouble with Twins is available at a local bookstore and/or public library near you now.