Guest Post: Blaze (or Love in the Time of Supervillains)

Blaze (or Love in the Time of Supervillains) is a debut book from Laurie Boyle Crompton coming out this February - and to help celebrate this upcoming release, Sourcebooks Fire has put together a very special blog tour highlighting one of the unique aspect of this book - the special comic book illustrations!

Today I've got some a sneak peek of the illustrations by graphic artist Anne Caine and a special post from author Laurie discussing her main character, Blaze, to share with you! Enjoy~

Why My Character is “Comic Book Cool” by Laurie Boyle Crompton

Blaze’s character showed up in my mind like Blam! Pow! “Tell my story!” She’s really into
comics and is sort of stuck in her life as an outsider, but she isn't ashamed of being a geek.
She displays her superhero buttons proudly and is constantly drawing and reading comics.
I couldn't wait to write about her. Of course, working on a project where studying comic books
counted as research was a bonus!

My step-father has this Ah-mazing! collection much like the one Blaze’s dad has in the book and
I remember staying up late at night reading through stacks of them as a kid. I would try to tell
my friends about these awesome characters like the Silver Surfer and Iron Man, and I’d even
try to imitate Thor’s Norse God way of speaking. This was before the movies made these guys
more mainstream and I was definitely on the fringe with my obsession, but when I’d find another
comic book nerd we had an instant bond.

As I was writing, Blaze surprised me when she fought back against Mark the way she did and
I knew at that point I could just allow her character to take over. Of course things don’t go as
she plans, but no matter what tight spots she finds herself in, she uses comic books to guide and
empower her. Readers who aren't into comic books will definitely still enjoy Blaze, but my hope
is that she will inspire them to check out comics for themselves, too!



I've been watching our for this book ever since I first discovered it (when it was first titled FANGIRL) because I've been such a fan of superheroes and comics since I was younger. I love that Blaze has such a different feel to it than other YA books, and I'll be sharing my review with you in just a couple weeks so keep an eye out for that :)

If I hadn't been sold on the story's description, these illustrations by Anne Caine completely would have sold me on the book. Aren't these just amazing?! We have a few sketches of the Blazing Goddess and a Mark the Shark trading card design.

Artwork © 2012 Anne Cain
You can find more of her artwork and learn more about Anne on her website.

So what do we think, guys? Are you intrigued yet? 

Blaze comes out on February 1, 2013 so keep your eyes out for it!


Blaze is tired of spending her life on the sidelines.

Blaze has always wanted her to life to be a little more X-Men/Jean Grey-cool rather than the reality: nerdy chick that drives a mild-mannered brown minivan (aka the Subatomic Superturd of Steel) for her brother and his friends, the Soccer Cretins, and spends all her time drawing comics.  Then, super-hot soccer god Mark takes her on a couple of dates, and Blaze is certain her life is finally beginning. But when he uses her and dumps her, Blaze creates a comic book starring Mark the Shark that has everyone talking. 

Mark retaliates online, and suddenly Blaze is gigabytes deep in an epic online battle to the (social) death. Mark may have humiliated Blaze supervillain-style, but he quickly learns geek girls always get revenge.