Ivy Noelle Weir is an award-winning comic book writer, librarian, and publishing professional who currently resides in the Philadelphia area. She frequently makes appearances at events and speaks at professional conferences. Her most recent work, Anne of West Philly, which reimagines the story of Anne of Green Gables for a modern audience, was published in 2022 by publisher Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
Mirella Morelli-Peyton: Why did you decide to get into comic books? Why not prose books?
Ivy Noelle Weir: It was almost an accident. I’d written prose for my entire life, but I also have been reading comics since I was very young—my mom read comics and introduced me to things like Love and Rockets, Swamp Thing, and even some of the earliest translated manga that was coming to the US in the ‘90s. Comics as a medium that combines the visual and the written is so appealing to me, and the collaborative aspect of working on them with a whole team of people is so much fun and leads to a final product that is more than just one person.
MMP How did you get into writing comics?
INW: I always knew I wanted to be a writer—in high school I was very serious about it, but after a failed first attempt at college I ended up going back to school for photography and art history, which was another passion. However, I still wrote. I’d always read comics, so right after undergrad, I was working in a comic shop and I ended up meeting Steenz, the co-creator of my first book, Archival Quality, through an online group for people of marginalized gender who worked in comic retail. I’d been toying with the concept as a novel for a few years, but I just felt this immediate connection to Steenz’s work and asked them if they’d like to turn the idea into a comic with me. We originally planned it as a webcomic, but decided to submit it to Oni Press during an open call for unagented work, not thinking they’d pick it up. Well, they did! And I guess the rest is history. I always feel bad when I say I got into comics “by accident,” but it’s kind of true.
MMP: What was it like to adapt the original novel Anne of Green Gables into your comic, Anne of West Philly?
INW: When Little, Brown for Young Readers approached me about these adaptations, I knew that my ultimate goal was to update them to be inclusive and modern, while still identifying and keeping the core of what has made them so timeless. I spent a lot of time with the original works—I think I re-read Anne of Green Gables three or four times, and I watched as many adaptations as I could. I wanted to identify what about Anne made her so special to people, and make sure I could keep those core things alive in my adaptation.
It was also obvious to me how much love Montgomery had for Prince Edward Island in the original work, and I knew I needed to channel that for the work to feel authentic—so I proposed setting it in Philly, my own hometown.
MMP: You’ve done two retellings so far—what is it about modernizing previous stories that interests you?
INW: As I said previously, this is a chance to not only make these long-beloved characters and their stories more relevant for modern audiences, but also more inclusive. I’ve been lucky to co-create these two retellings with two amazing BIPOC artists, Amber Padilla and Myisha Haynes, who portray the world as it is—diverse. There are elements of these books that, as I said, are timeless, and there should be a chance for all kinds of readers to see themselves in these stories.
MMP: You’ve also written some original works; can you talk a little bit about that and how your process is different (if it’s different)?
INW: It’s very different, and it is in some ways much harder. I’m a much tougher critic of my own ideas than I am when I’m adapting. I scrap a lot of things and then find myself wishing I didn’t (I’m trying to get better at just moving pages or ideas into a separate document, and not the trash). Plotting and outlining takes much longer when you don’t have a skeleton to work from, like I do when I’m adapting an existing story. But it’s also really satisfying to work on your own ideas, especially in comics, where those ideas are collaborative and an ongoing conversation with your co-creators.
MMP: What’s next for you?
INW: The next adaptation in the same series as Anne of West Philly is A Little Princess, and that’s slated to be published in early 2026 at the moment. I’m working with a fantastic artist named Melanie Kim for that one. I’m also in the middle of pitching some original ideas, which is exciting!
MMP: You’re not just an author, but you also work as a librarian and in publishing; does that influence your writing in some way?
INW: I’ve been in the professional book industry in some capacity since 2014, so coming up on a decade! In some ways, it’s great because I am constantly inspired by the work I am exposed to. In other ways, the inside baseball knowledge I get from being a publishing professional can sometimes influence my thinking and I get a bit tangled up in what will “sell” versus what I’m passionate about writing. I have to take a step back occasionally and remember that my writing is for me and not part of my day job.
MMP: From your perspective, how is the book world different from the comic world? Is it different? How would you describe the relationship between the two and how they interact with one another?
INW: The book and comic world interaction is a constantly shifting thing right now. The “direct market” (what we call the system that sells comics directly to comic shops) is changing rapidly because of a number of things, like the effect of COVID and the entrance of book distributors like Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster into the comic shop supplier business, which had previously been monopolized by Diamond. When I first started out, the two worlds were very separate, with comic publishers largely working with the direct market only. Now, you see major publishing houses with graphic novel imprints, and comic publishers working with distributors to get their books into bookstores as well as comic shops.
It’s a good thing, I think, because it gets comics into the hands of more readers, who might find them at their local bookstore and would never set foot in a comic shop otherwise. But it also has been such a rapid change that I see some struggle from comic publishers to pivot and keep up. I think the good outweighs the bad, but it has definitely changed the industry a lot in a short amount of time.
MMP: Do you have any advice for people looking to be in the book industry themselves?
INW: If you want to be a writer: Read. That seems obvious, but I find that it’s actually not! An awareness of the market is key to getting an agent and selling your work, so read new releases, and read broadly. You’ll find inspiration in places you didn’t expect if you break out of the box of what you usually read. If you want to work in publishing: Network! Find meetups in your city for writers or publishing professionals, or online communities. Meeting people in the industry not only opens up your opportunities, but also exposes you to different elements of publishing so that you can identify what’s of interest to you. There’s a whole world beyond editorial (I work in marketing, for example, and I love it!).
Right now, it can be scary to be a writer—you may feel like you want to shrink away from ideas that might land you in the sights of those who seek to ban and limit what people have access to read. I encourage you to embrace your ideas and keep going in the face of this bizarre and scary time we’re in when it comes to access to books—the world needs all kinds of stories from all kinds of voices.
You can learn more about Ivy Noelle Weir at her website. You can also purchase Anne of West Philly here.
Mirella Morelli-Peyton is a second-year Screenwriting & Playwriting major at Drexel University. She loves all types of storytelling and hopes to one day make it her career. In the meantime, you can find her doing one of her many hobbies—whether that be reading, drawing, baking, or anything else she can get her hands on.