Huda F Approved This Interview: A Talk with Producer Iris McElroy and Huda Fahmy About Creating Audiobooks from Comics!

Audiobooks, particularly those of the electronic variety, are at an all-time high in terms of popularity these day, and who can be surprised? Whether you have a Hoopla or Overdrive account with your library or are a fool and waste money with Audible (am I biased? very well then, I am biased), access to them has never been easier and the quality has never been higher. Of course, not all books have a chance to become audiobooks, and that’s a real pity. Perhaps that will all change when our AI overlords rule over us, but for now just a percentage of total books published will ever be available to our eardrums. And until lately I would have said that graphic novels fall firmly into that category… but have you noticed what I’ve been noticing?

Comics are getting a new life. For example, there are all kinds of productions that are capable of transforming graphic novels into immersive audio experiences like EL DEAFO (Odyssey Winner) and MEXIKID (Odyssey Honor).

And who makes such productions possible? That would be the Audie-nominated producer Iris McElroy, who works with book creators to bring their stories to audible life. And who has she worked with most recently? None other than Huda Fahmy, creator of the graphic novels HUDA F ARE YOU? and HUDA F CARES?

Honestly, I don’t understand any of this process. It seems the only way to learn would be to talk to Iris and Huda together. Could they clarify things?

Let’s just see:

---

Betsy Bird: Huda and Iris! This is incredible! I’m just so dang delighted to have a chance to speak to the both of you today! To start us off, I want to begin by finding out more about how these audiobooks even came to be in the first place. Huda, a lot of people talk about getting “the call” when they’ve won an award. I want to know about “the call” or “the email” or whatever it was that happened when you found out that your books were to become audiobooks. How did you learn about it? And what was your reaction?

Huda Fahmy: Hi Betsy!! It’s so nice to speak with you, too, and I’m so dang delighted to get to talk about these audiobooks!!

To answer your first question, I kid you not, a week or two before I received *the* email, my friend Pedro Martin, author of the graphic novel Mexikid was receiving so many accolades (rightfully so!) for his incredible audiobook adaptation, and my heart was full of happiness and pride for him, and deep down it gave me hope that I might get to see my graphic novels become audiobooks one day! So, when Iris emailed about just that thing, I actually screamed and dropped to the ground in prostration to thank God for all His blessings! …OK, that’s not true LOL at first I thought the email was fake because neither my editor nor my agent was cc’ed on the email, so I wasn’t sure what to think. I fw’ed the email to my agent with the single word “ummmm” in the body. I wanted it to be true SO bad, but I had to verify it first. Once she verified it, then I screamed and dropped to the ground in happy prayer. 

BB: A wise move. Also, I’m inordinately happy that you’re frends with Pedro Martin. So Iris, since you’re the producer of these books, can you tell us a little bit about what it was about them that appealed to you on an audible level? What is it about the HUDA F series that struck you as good audiobook candidates?

Iris McElroy: First of all, Hi! Thank you for having me. I love the Huda F series (and Huda!) and am happy to chat about them with anyone who will listen.

I was drawn immediately to these books I loved Huda’s sense of humor, the dynamic with her sisters, and OMG all the homages to cartoons that I grew up with. Overall, I was really touched by Huda’s story of searching for who she is and her place in the world. I really connected to it. Also, I’m a sucker for dad jokes. “I have GRADE expectations!” I still giggle to myself at that one.

BB: Speaking of which, Huda, it’s incredibly cool that you get to voice the Huda in the book, but it must also be a bit of an odd experience. In a sense, you’re giving voice to your younger self. Did you get any advice on how to play … well, you? Did you change how you spoke from your everyday speaking voice, or is it entirely the same? 

Huda: Omg, getting to do voice work was another dream come true! It definitely helped that my director for the audiobooks, Maureen Monterubio, was so in tune with the vision I had for the books and her tips were invaluable during recording. I tried to pitch my voice a little higher to make my character sound younger and more energetic. I do change pitch/tone/accents in real life when I talk anyway—because why not? So, it felt really natural giving voice to my younger self.  

BB: Iris, the adaptation of books like EL DEAFO and MEXIKID from comics to audiobooks is not unheard of, but there may still be folks out there that find the entire idea baffling. You are, after all, going from a visual medium to an audible one. What, to your mind, are the hallmarks of a successful transition from eye to ear? What makes a graphic novel work as an audiobook?

Iris: In any audiobook production, the goal is to always honor the story with the author’s intention in mind whether it is a graphic novel or standard book. I think a graphic novel adaptation is successful when the story moves along at a good pace, the characters are fully realized, the jokes are landing, and we’ve struck the balance with script adaptation and sound design without making it too busy or changing it too much.

BB: Huda, you mentioned on Instagram that you got to help come up with some of the sound effects for your books. What did that process look like? I’m imagining a set-up like those old radio plays of the 1930s, where there’s a guy breaking celery and wobbling metal saws to make thunder, but that was probably not the case. So what is it actually like to make or select sound effects for an audiobook?

Huda: I love those behind-the-scenes videos of professional sound-effect artists! Most of the sound effects that make the audiobook so cinematic an enjoyable to listen to come from the amazing editing team. I got to make fun noises with my mouth when the graphics in the books called for something like someone drowning or being splashed with water. It was awesome! We would do multiple takes in different tones/pitches and it was just a really fun experience all around.

BB: Iris, let’s talk a little bit more about the actual collaboration you do with your authors when adapting their books. How much did you work with Huda specifically? What does that process look like?

Iris: This process was wonderfully collaborative, and we were on the same page from day 1. We had an initial conversation about approach, script adaption, and ideas for SFX, music and casting. From there, we built the audio scripts, using the graphic novels as a starting point and added sound design notes as we went along. The goal is to enhance and not change the story too much, but we did have to add in lines or sfx/music to make certain visual elements work within the flow of the story. And there were moments where we had to cut certain jokes or lines because they didn’t make sense for audio. Huda was imperative in this process and was involved every step of the way. We would email a pass with notes back and forth tweaking as we went along until we were happy with a final recording script. Further adjustments were made during the recording between Huda and the director. So, we had a plan but there was a lot of improv and play as we went along. I think it made the experience more fun!

BB: Shoot, I love process. Thank you! Now Huda, did you get any say in the casting decisions? I know that for my own audiobook I got to listen to a range of actors all reading the same part. Did you do that at all? Or were they all pre-selected for you?

Huda: I did have a say in the casting decisions! Iris found amazing and talented voice actors and sent me their portfolios. I listened to each one multiple times trying to imagine their voices as my characters. The hardest one to cast was my mom because she has such a distinct voice in my head, and it was imperative that I get her cast perfectly and I’m so happy we chose Aixa Kay because she did such an incredible job!

BB: Oh man, it never even occurred to me that you’d have to cast your own mother! That’s incredible. And Iris, was there anything about these particular books that was different from the others you’ve done in the past and that you wanted to get exactly right?

Iris: This was actually my first solo produced, fully designed, graphic novel series. This was a big undertaking! I was excited to do it, but also very nervous about it. These titles are so personal to Huda. I wanted to get this right and make sure that we were representing her, her experiences, and her family in the most honest way possible. The most important elements for me were the recording scripts and making sure casting was authentic.

The sound effects and design were the fun part! What I really wanted to get right though was the Lil Huda’s that showed up as her consciences. We had Huda record all those lines with different inflections for each and pitched them higher to make it seem like there were three versions of her. The inspiration came from Krunk from the Emperor’s New Groove (a classic film!) and his devil and angel.   

BB: I am officially giving you 100 points for mentioning Krunk in this interview, so well done there. Finally, this one’s for Huda. This gets back to something we were just talking about. There had to be a moment when someone, somewhere, suggested you have your mom play your mom. Did you ever seriously entertain the notion? Because as a fan of your webcomics as well as your books, it was something I was kinda secretly hoping for.

Huda: LOL my mom wanted to play my mom! She even sent an audio sample for me to share, but by then we had already cast Aixa! But who knows maybe for the next book she and I can record an in-conversation Q&A to come at the end of the book as a little perk for listeners! You’ve got my gears working, Betsy!

 Iris: I did not know this! Maybe she can make a special appearance in the next book? 😊

---

Man. That was awesome. Incredible thanks to Iris and Huda for taking the time to talk to me today. Thanks too to Kate Smith and the folks at Penguin Random House Audio and Listening Library for putting this interview together today. HUDA F ARE YOU? and HUDA F CARES? already came out on sale on July 16th, so go on out and listen to them for yourselves. And who knows? Maybe you’ll be able to identify the Krunk reference Iris alluded to!

Filed under: Interviews