Babs Tarr Talks With Us About Batgirl!

Last month I had the chance to sit down with new Batgirl artist Babs Tarr, and talk about her first foray into the world of comic books. In case you missed it, Batgirl has a whole new creative team, including writers Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher, and artists Stewart and Tarr. The new direction for the book has been one of the most written about and anticipated things to happen in comic books in years, and it has been overwhelmingly positive — no small feat when the writer you are replacing is Gail Simone.

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NC: How did you get this gig?

Babs: It came out of the blue. Cameron Stewart emailed me and asked if I was interested in doing a comic – for DC Comics, one of their major titles. I said “Of course – of course I’m interested.” You know, he then was telling me that didn’t even have the gig at that point and he was just putting feelers out there. And I was up front and told Cameron I had not done a comic before and that my style wasn’t really like anything under their umbrella right now. I don’t know if that was a mistake.

But he said, “No, you’re exactly what we want, we want to try to pitch something fresh. I’ll keep you updated.” Then through the grapevine I heard it was Batgirl – some comic friends told me. He eventually told me who it was.

I was very skeptical the whole time. I wasn’t really thinking I was going to get the gig. It just seemed like I would be such a long shot, what with not having any experience and my style being so different. So every time he emailed me I was like “OK, Cameron, we’ll see what happens.”

So then it ended up they went with him for the writer. I think the way it works is they decide a title needs a new direction and they reach out to a writer to pitch some stories and once they pick one, they pitch artists. Eventually they landed on Cameron Stewart’s and Brenden Fletcher’s story, and then they had submitted a list of artists and my name was on that list.

Cameron emailed me and said it was down to two people, and that’s when it really became real. Then I heard from an editor and the rest is history.

NC: Did Cameron submit your name or did the editors come up with a list?

Babs: Cameron submitted my name.

NC: So he must have been familiar with your work.

Babs: Yeah, Cameron knew my name – I think we both follow each other on Instagram.

NC: Now that’s a testimonial to the power of social media right there,

Babs: I know – that’s why I’m on every single one. As an artist and someone who self-promotes, if you’re trying to get yourself out there definitely don’t limit yourself.

NC: When you got the word that you would do a redesign on the costume and the look, did you and Cameron have any reservations about that?

Babs: They asked Cameron to redesign (Batgirl) and when I became the artist on the book he showed me what he was working on and I added sort of my Babs layer to it. So he had it basically designed — she already had the yellow Doc Martens boots and she had the snaps on her cape and she had a leather jacket, but there was like no detailing on it except for the symbol. I love leather jackets and I love fashion and I thought of some ways to jazz it up. So I added the zipper on the front and the straight lines in the front to help with – lady jackets need to be cut in a certain way to be fitting and I added those lines for that.

He had the top of the jacket looking like sort of a track suit and thought it would look cooler if it had a strap on it to sort of echo the snaps he already had on the cape. But I just tried to embellish the great design he already had. I think that together it really helps makes the costume sing and level her up to the next level.

NC: You are sort of known for doing different takes on established characters, like your Sailor gals, which are pretty badass. Was there ever a moment when you wanted to take her design into that total “Daughters of Anarchy” direction?

Babs: For Batgirl? No, because I could tell what Cameron was trying to do and I didn’t want to completely disregard what he already had, because that would have taken it really far into another direction, So even though I could do that and I probably will for fun one day, I know it wasn’t the right direction for our story.

NC: Since this your first full-on comic book gig, how are you handling that kind of deadline pressure?

Babs: It’s not that bad, because Cameron is doing the layouts. It helps me immensely with speed, because instead of struggling with the storytelling aspect of it, like how the panels should be on the page – which is what I did with the test pages I did for DC to get the gig initially, it definitely slowed me down – so I talked to Cameron about it and I said if you’re down, I would love it if you could do the layouts and I can do my pencil and ink work on top of it. He was all for it, and that cuts down on my time immensely.

The last deadline was kind of tight because I was at Hasbro the past couple of months working designing toys, and at night I would be drawing pages for the comic. That was kind of tough. But now I am full time Batgirl and it is going much smoother.

And the boys – well, when I say the boys I mean everyone else on my team – the writers and my editors were telling me I am very fast but I chalk it up to Cameron every time.

NC: So he’s essentially like storyboarding the thing and you’re the cinematographer.

Babs: Yeah, exactly and it’s great – we really complement each other. We’ve be collaborating on the character designs and costume designs, but I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, because Cameron has been around for 14 years. He’s so established and he’s so talented and he’s done fashion things. The fact that he even asks for my two cents and is so collaborative with me is beyond flattering. He is a heavy hitter.

NC: So no more freelance jobs?

Babs: I get little jobs here and there but I am trying to concentrate most on Batgirl because it is like my baby right now. I’ve had a couple of cover offers, but we’ll see how the time goes.

I got this notoriety so fast that it’s been like a crazy outpouring of commission requests and con invites. Like I went from zero to 60 pretty fast and I want to say yes to everything but it’s probably not a good idea. But right now I am concentrating on Batgirl so it can be the best it’s going to be.

 NC: What are some of the characteristic Babs-style elements you are bringing to the book?

Babs: I’ll tell you something really fun. The writers, when they found out I was the artists they starting making a villain based on my portfolio. I don’t know if you saw the cover for the next issue, but it’s got these two biker girls with studs and jackets and crazy bikes and they’re just insane looking and they are very much in the vein of my bosozoku Sailor Moon girls. The boys wrote and designed the characters that way because I am the artists on the book, and that has been so surreal. And there’s more characters coming up – not all on bikes – but if you look at my style you’ll be like “Yeah that makes sense.” Also I am trying to be more of a fashion look to the book. The book is for everybody but I think girls are going to get more of a kick out of it. Usually it’s generic kilt, generic skirt, generic jacket for ladies in comics, and I kind of bring a level of thoughtfulness to it that you don’t usually see.

NC: I’m assuming established characters like Jim Gordon will show up – you’re not going to turn him into a Trilby wearing hipster, are you?

Babs: No, no, he’ll still look like Jim Gordon. He won’t be super-kawaii. I can draw all kinds of things, whatever they need me to do.