Revisit: Özge Samancı

Murder on the Bosporus

This past June, Forecast alumna Özge Samancı released the graphic novel Evil Eyes Sea (Uncivilized Books, 2024), which she worked on during her mentorship with Ulli Lust.

The book is a feminist political mystery set in Istanbul during the 1995 elections. It tells the story of two students who witness a mysterious death while scuba diving one day. As the case’s investigation unfolds, they become increasingly entangled with political corruption, religious pressure, and possibly murder.

During her time at Forecast, in 2021-2022, Samancı completed the novel’s first chapter, wrote and sketched out the rest of the work as thumbnails, and secured a publishing deal. Forecast caught up with Samancı for an email interview as reviews of the work were pouring in, including writeups in The New York Times Book Review, The Comics Journal, and a recommendation by the American Library Association, to name a few.

The novel is semi-autobiographical and deals with a painful past experience. How do you decide when to inject the narrative with personal insights and memories, and when do you use fiction—both in the writing as well as the artwork?

Evil Eyes Sea is semi-autobiographical, which means I’m pulling from personal experiences, but I fictionalize them. Only the people who were close to me back then would know the exact line between truth and fiction, which helped me bypass any fears of self-censorship. Writing about real life can be tricky because there’s always the worry of upsetting loved ones or being judged by strangers. I deeply admire artists like Ulli Lust and Alison Bechdel, who have managed to tell their stories honestly without self-censorship.

I create a list of all the anecdotes I can recall from the period I want to write about. It ends up being pages and pages of just keywords, and then I circle the anecdotes that scream, You have to tell me! From there, I try to weave connections among the stories that I chose. I’m particularly drawn to the absurdities of life and the ingenious ways people come up with solutions when under stress.

I am obsessive about images. I want them to be as true as possible to what I remember. I made deep image searches to find the right references. The story takes place in the ‘90s, so I searched for nightclubs of that era, uniforms, and cars. When I couldn’t find exactly what I needed, I created the reference images by taking photos and even using 3D modeling. My phone is full of images of me in ridiculous poses for reference.

The political climate has become even more conservative compared to the era described in the novel—not only in Turkey. How has the book been received so far?

Releasing a graphic novel to the world after five years of work is a threat to the ego. But the feedback I’ve received has been deeply rewarding. People whose opinions I respect have praised the humorous narration, despite the serious subject matter, along with the powerful ending and the well-crafted plot mechanism. The Comics Journal described it as, “A book that’s never quite what you expect, and its power as a narrative is not of a sudden explosion, but of a quiet storm.” I intended to create a poetic and humorous book about serious subjects, and I see that getting across.

So far, the book has received blurbs or reviews from major outlets like The New York Times Book Review, The Comics Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, The Beat Magazine, and many others. It was also included in the American Library Association’s 2024 Best Graphic Novels for Adults Reading List. I toured major cities in the States for book events and met with many readers.

I told the story of Turkey: the rise of populism and how hard it is to change people’s minds. American readers may relate to it more now, after the results of the recent election in the United States.

When you participated in the mentorship program, you still had a long way ahead of you to finish the book. What were you able to take with you from the program for the following months of work?

When I applied for the fellowship, I already had the story in my mind and a clear sense of what would happen in each chapter. During the Forecast mentorship program, I wrote the entire story word by word and made dummy sketches for each chapter. Ulli Lust, Ness Garza, and M.S. Harkness [who were Nominees at Forecast] gave me invaluable feedback—they pointed out where the story lost them, where it felt less believable, where it got monotonous, where they felt entertained, which parts needed to slow down, which parts I should never throw away, and how I could improve the drawings.

Being a teacher helps me understand how easy it is for students to get defensive when receiving feedback. So, I made a conscious effort to let down my defenses and really listen to Ulli, Ness, and M.S. Their guidance was a gift, especially during the pandemic, when so many of us felt confused and isolated. It was an incredibly productive time for me. By the end of the fellowship, I had completed all the thumbnails—essentially the entire book in sketch form. With the funding I received, I was able to hire help for coloring, copyediting, and even to create an animated book trailer.