Adeline Kon is a freelance illustrator and designer from Miami who graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in illustration. Just Between Us is their debut graphic novel.

I had the opportunity to interview Adeline, which you can read below.

First of all, welcome to Geeks OUT! Could you tell us a little about yourself?
Hello! I’m Adeline Kon, a lesbian artist and designer from Miami, Florida. Just Between Us is my debut graphic novel, but I’ve previously created a variety of self-published work, including the queer horror comic My Father Was a Good Man and co-creating the yuri comic anthology Glimmr Magazine*.


What can you tell us about your project, Just Between Us? What was the inspiration for it?
Just Between Us follows competitive figure skaters Lydia Chen and Elaine Yee, longtime rivals whose competition reaches a breaking point during the Olympic season. As they chase their dreams, they must balance the intense pressures of elite competition, the weight of expectations, and a growing tension between them that begins to blur the line between rivalry and romance.  The inspiration for Just Between Us comes from my love of watching competitive figure skating. I became a fan in 2018, and ever since then I’ve wanted to translate that passion onto the page.


As a creative, what drew you to the art of storytelling, especially graphic novels/comics?
I’ve been a voracious comics reader ever since I discovered that my local library carried English volumes of Naruto when I was a kid. For a long time, I didn’t realize Americans could make comics outside of superhero stories—learning about graphic novels later on completely changed my perspective. What I love most about the medium is how clearly one person’s vision can be expressed on the page. I enjoy telling stories that feel deeply personal and unique to me.


How would you describe your creative process?
I’m definitely not a very strict planner, I tend to let my emotions guide my storytelling. The nice thing about Just Between Us is because I already knew so much about figure skating I had pre-existing guidelines of how the figure skating season progresses in real life. I just had to fill in the blanks of what emotional beats or romantic moments I felt best suited the timeline. I’m the type that does a lot of rough compositions and iterating until I find the best way to express the emotions and feelings of the story!

What are some of your favorite elements of writing/illustrating? What do you consider some of the most frustrating and/or difficult?
My favorite things to write and my least favorite things to draw are, in some ways, one and the same. I love writing conversations: whether characters are connecting, fighting, or circling around each other emotionally. My stories are deeply character-driven. However, it can be easy to fall into the habit of drawing talking heads on every page and that’s what makes it so difficult. I want my scenes to communicate the feeling of what’s happening rather than depict every moment with literal precision. One of the best examples of this in Just Between Us is the scene where Helen and Lydia talk about Lydia’s fixation on Elaine, and Elaine literally skates around the conversation. She isn’t an active participant in the dialogue, but her presence is still strongly felt. That said, there are also more straightforward things I struggle with, like drawing detailed backgrounds. Sometimes it’s just really hard!

As a creative, who or what would you say are some of your greatest creative influences and/or sources of inspiration in general?
My biggest inspirations are other sequential artists. While my art style has a strong manga influence, my compositions and paneling are heavily inspired by North American creators. Some of my biggest influences include Meredith Gran, Bryan Lee O’Malley, and Jillian Tamaki. I’m also deeply inspired by mangaka Takako Shimura, whose work features a wide range of LGBTQ+ characters. I love the quiet reverence of her writing and the emotional complexity of her queer characters.

What’s a question you haven’t been asked yet but that you wish you were asked (as well as the answer to that question)?
I get asked a lot about which figure skaters might have inspired my characters but less so on what specific skating programs inspired my comics! My all-time favorite skating programs are written at the very end of Just Between Us but I’ll name two that directly influenced Elaine and Lydia’s depictions of skating: Song for the Little sparrow by Satoko Miyahara for Elaine and Beautiful Storm by Rika Kihira for Lydia.

What advice might you have to give for aspiring storytellers out there?
I tried making Just Between Us about 3 times and only got the attention of editors and publishers on the third try. Sometimes you might feel “not good enough” but the feeling of not good enough doesn’t have to last forever. The process of being a better artist and writer is a long one! Keep going, keep drawing, trust that growth takes time.

Finally, what books/authors (LGBTQ+  or otherwise)  would you recommend to the readers of GeeksOUT?
The webcomic What Happens Next by Max Graves is one of the greatest webcomics I’ve ever read. It features incredibly complex queer characters and explores heavy subject matter, so it can be challenging at times, but it’s absolutely worth checking out. I’d also highly recommend Takako Shimura’s Wandering Son, which follows the life of a trans girl from elementary school through high school. It’s a beautifully thoughtful and sensitive work.