'Female Force: Loretta Lynn' by Ryan McCall
On Oct. 5, TidalWave Comics published Female Force: Loretta Lynn, a 22-page debut comic biography written by Wisconsin author Ryan McCall with art by Martin Gimenez. The graphic novel follows the life of award-winning country singer and songwriter Loretta Lynn, focusing on her rise to wild success and her fight to get there.
TidalWave Comics publishes a comic line called “Female Force” that features trailblazing women in history. The print publishes creative comic biographies on outstanding and influential activists, entertainers, politicians, authors and journalists. Loretta Lynn joins TidalWave’s growing library of over 200 comic book biographies. Some previous biographies focus on people as varied as Michelle Obama, Cher, Oprah Winfrey, Elizabeth Warren, Mother Teressa and Selena. These biographical comics artistically and creatively show the intricate lives of these historical women, delivered by some of the best comic writers in the world.
Ryan McCall is based in West Bend, and started his career in radio, having been interested in music from a very early age. His family influenced his love of country music and made it his life. McCall reached out to Tidal Wave Comics after seeing a “Female Force” comic publication on country legend Dolly Parton and asked to be considered as an author for another country music biography. They responded quickly with the go-ahead for Loretta Lynn’s story. And he started writing. Though it was his first comic book published, McCall has seen success with his debut biography. He is a passionate and creative author, with a knack for historical theatrics and witty humor. This is seen in Loretta Lynn. “It is very special,” McCall says. “It’s the first one I’ve ever written. I’m very proud of how it turned out,”
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The biography is a chronological depiction of country icon Loretta Lynn’s life and career spanning from the 1940s to the present day. Her journey began in a poor Kentucky family and continued through her induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. It’s a depiction of the American dream, but in the perspective of a hard-working woman wanting to make her way. Touching on motherhood, a troubled marriage, and her beginnings in the industry, the comic lightheartedly depicts her path. Though only 22 pages long, McCall paints Lynn in her historic light, highlighting her collaborations with artists such as Patsy Clein, Ernest Tubb and Jack White. She is depicted as a coal-miner’s daughter that inspired so many.
Loretta Lynn’s songwriting was hugely influential. Her songs convey themes such as alcoholism, cheating husbands, poverty, motherhood and birth control. Her more controversial songs were sometimes banned from radio stations. “Loretta has a huge demographic of fans because a lot of the people that probably started listening to her when she was new, their children became fans because they were used to that music and now their children have become fans.” Truly an admirer of Lynn’s music, McCall chokes, “It’s like she’s still here. She will always be here in terms of what we have from her music. She’s just so relatable to people. She came from nothing to have the success that she’s had. And she had to fight for it.”
McCall wrote Lynn’s comic biography not only as a lifetime comic book collector but as a lover of country music and Lynn herself, having seen her and met her in concert numerous times. He began working on the biography on Lynn’s 90th birthday, to honor her life spent inspiring and uplifting so many. Himself included. McCall considers himself a country music historian, and only took a week to write the book. He chose to take his research year by year, following the chronological framework. “There are some things that I really delved into,” he says. “I essentially would just research the heck out of the era I was writing about at that time. I wrote it on her 90th birthday and the book was published the day after she passed away, which is crazy.
“It was so bittersweet,” McCall continues. “It breaks my heart that she didn’t get to hold one and flip through the pages. I think she would have gotten a kick out of seeing her life in that type of format. I mean, her life has been an academy award winning movie and tons of hit songs of things she experienced.”
Over her six-decade long career, Lynn released multiple gold albums and received many awards and accolades for her groundbreaking role in country music. She was nominated 18 times for a Grammy Award and won three times. Lynn was the most awarded female country recording artist. Having the opportunity to have met Lynn during her tours, McCall recounts his experience with the star. “She was very approachable. There was something magical when you were around her. Something about her,” McCall trails off, almost on a whim. “I don’t know, there’s just something there.
The passion that McCall has for country music, history and Loretta Lynn shines through in his debut comic biography.
To order “Female Force: Loretta Lynn” on Amazon: amzn.to/3V1Disb
