As Latinos from the Midwest we’ve often felt like the Other and that makes its way into Claudette books. Raf and I both feel like our Latinidad finds its way into our French inspired world. I read a bunch of Mafalda before writing the first book and I re-read Mafalda before writing each book. The voice of Claudette, however, was inspired by the Argentine cartoonist, Quino's character Mafalda. So the birth of the idea came from an image Raf had. He shared them with me and we developed the characters and world into Claudette. He couldn’t get the image out of his mind. For a year or so he kept drawing these three street urchins in the French visual style he liked. Rafael was born and raised in Puerto Rico (moved to Ohio as a teen) but he has always loved the look of French comics. The pages Raf's been drawing for Iggy have really moved me. Raf and I are really excited for Iggy to get out in the world. Thanks for the question and thanks for reading our books.
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