Graphic Content: Emma Beeby on Mata Hari

Mata Hari tells the story of the Dutch dancer who was executed by firing squad after being found guilty of spying in military court in 1917. Beeby’s story is a revisionist take on the story that finds the truth is very different from the received history that has been passed down over the last century.

Added to that, Beeby and Kristantina layer narrative voices upon narrative voices and time-shift from panel to panel in a virtuoso display of the flexibility of the comic book format.

Here, Beeby talks about the origins of the comic and why living in Edinburgh has helped her with her comics career:

Emma, what is the origin of Mata Hari in comics form?

It was a decade in the making. I thought it would be a screenplay, but when I started in comics, that made more sense. Comics could give me more freedom to do it the way I wanted - but I didn’t want her to be hyper-sexualised and I wasn’t telling a high-octane spy story, both of which are a much easier sell for comics!

So, I had no idea what to do with it. I talked about it in an interview which Karen Berger happened to read, and she got in touch. Karen was such a big deal for me in discovering comics in the first place, it was a real pinch yourself moment when she said she wanted to publish it.

What did you know about her?

I was aware Mata Hari was a real person with an interesting name, skimpy outfits, a sense she was someone…bad? Until I happened on a biography in a bookshop that was all I knew. Then I was obsessed. Every part of learning her story was a revelation - that an exotic dancer turned courtesan turned spy had even existed, but that both she and her story was not at all what I expected, and that even today there is so much misinformation and judgement about her.

I didn't know much about her myself and mostly what I did was just a vague negative impression. Fair to say she has been badly misrepresented in the public imagination?

That’s what interested me. This myth of a turn-of-the-century female Bond with few clothes and even fewer morals - that’s the story that’s stuck for 100 years. The truth has so much more: survival, grief, rags to riches, riches to rags, wars, romance and female sexuality. You can interpret it many ways: that she was an immoral woman who abandoned her child for luxury and profit, through to her being a feminist martyr paving the way to sexual liberation. I think the interpretations say a lot more about us than her.

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What fascinated you most about the woman you discovered and her story?

She makes the most extreme decisions, spontaneously, with total confidence in her success: she finds a husband through a joke want ad in the paper; she quite literally runs away to joins the circus; she announces she’s a princess from Java, despite being Dutch; says she’s a holy dancer despite no dance training; and as a spy, her only tactic to try to get into German HQ was ‘fabulous clothes’. She’d take on new identities and give herself a new name to go with it every year or two.

What were your research methods? And at what point did you know the story you wanted to tell?

I read several biographies, got her Mi5 files, hunted endless newspaper cuttings from the time (many full of brilliant fake news - my favourite was one claiming she wasn’t dead after being sighted in a non-existent shipwreck). She moved through these intense moments of history: Dutch colonies, World War One, Belle Epoque Paris. Researching it was equal parts horrific and charming, and I wanted that in the comic, too. The hardest research was finding visual reference for everywhere she went, all the real people - trains, stations, cabs, hotels, clothes, performances, colours. We were committed to showing it all accurately.

The result is very sophisticated storytelling. There are bravura time shifts throughout and you are playing with the layering of narrative voices. It makes the case for complexity in the comics form. Was that always your plan and is it something we see enough of in comics?

I saw these repeating themes and events of her life, that was one of the things that made me want to write it - I knew I wanted to layer different narratives together on the page. I wanted her veil dance to be constantly present, moving between the story panels - comics lets you do things like that. Comics have a reputation as being simplistic, or just for kids. People love to tell me that the main virtue of comics is to help move young or disinterested readers onto ‘real’ books. They ARE real books. They are as versatile a medium as white paper with black type, if not more so. Comics don’t just illustrate text, they bring beautiful, thrilling visual storytelling techniques that interact with words to become something more than the sum of its parts. You can do things with comics that you can’t do in any other medium.

What were the conversations you were having with Ariela, Pat and Sal?

We were all on different continents, so we almost never spoke! It was all by email. We shared everything from references to rough sketches through to final colours, placement of lettering, it was very collaborative. It wasn’t the easiest of comics given all the extra work to portray real places and people and with almost no colour reference material for a full colour comic.

How was Karen Berger to work with?

Karen more than deserves her reputation as the best in comics. She’s there to offer advice and support and keeps everything running. Karen’s instincts about how to improve an idea are always inspired and from my experience, completely right. I could go on and on! I couldn’t have asked for anyone better to bring this all to fruition. She got the vision of it immediately and made it even better.

Where do you feel the comic industry is at right now?

It’s in this complicated resurgence; there are so many amazing comics being published, more publishers, more titles than ever and new ways to buy them and it’s all come about in the last few years. There’s a growing acceptability and a growing audience. You just have to go to any Comic Con to see that. Creators and publishers and media are still adapting to it, but it’s a pretty exciting time.

How does living in Edinburgh feed into work?

Edinburgh is a great place to be a writer, we’re everywhere, it's easy to find a community. And Scotland is one of the best places in the world to work in comics, there’s comics greats everywhere, Mark Millar, Frank Quitely, John Wagner. I’ve been very lucky to encounter them because of where I am.

What's next?

I’m writing a new series of Judge Anderson for 2000AD just now. I’m also developing a new and very different creator-owned series with more of a sci-fi feel. I can’t say more than that just now!

Emma Beeby will be at the Edinburgh Comic Con signing copies of Mata Hari this Saturday and Sunday.