“I love when people of color come up to me and say, ‘You don’t know what it meant to me to see myself in a cartoon. I got one little black girl that I get to see that looks like me, thank you so much.’”
The characters are each based upon a pop culture witch, from Samantha Stevens to Gabourey Sidibe’s Queenie from American Horror Story: Coven, though Blacker took inspiration from other, less expected sources as well.
Becky, the character based on Queenie, is also based on musician Lizzo. “With her in my head, writing this character was so joyful. Even when she’s given a bag of shit,” Blacker says. “When she finds out they’re witches, she’s like ‘What? YES. I KNEW IT.’”
“The first scene I imagined for this first issue […] is set in the main ballroom of the house of Mistress Mambo Erzulie Frèda of Dahomey. She is the loa (or lwa, or orisha, or deity) of love and luxury.
[…]
Erzulie sits in state on her throne in the center. I asked for her to be in mermaid form, holding her mirror. I was also adamant that she should have a goodly amount of meat on her bones.A skinny mermaid is a chilly mermaid.”
