Author Lily Wojtkowski’s published comic book, ‘Pretzel Rat’ was inspired by her beloved pet rat, Pretzel.
Lily had been drawing comic books for around four years before creating Pretzel Rat. Her previous comic book art had been focused on recreating her pet hermit crab, but her creativity wasn’t ignited when drawing the crab, luckily, Lily was gifted two pet rats for her 11th birthday.
Only a fifth-grader at the time, she decided to try drawing her pet rats, and discovered that they were exactly the inspiration she had been seeking, claiming, “I wasn’t very good at drawing crabs, but rats are a different story.”
Now Lily has self-published her brilliant first book of comics, “Pretzel Rat“. Thanks to the popularity that Pretzel Rat has been gaining, Lily has since been working on the sequel called ‘Pretzel Rat: A New Era’.
‘Pretzel Rat: A New Era’ continues where the original ‘Pretzel Rat’ left off, chronicling the adventures that her pet rat Pretzel has embarked on in Lily’s brilliant imagination.
In the new ‘Pretzel Rat: A New Era’ comic book, you will meet two new rats called Biscuit and Baxter, which are characters inspired by Lily’s new rats appropriately called Biscuit and Baxter. The second comic book features Pretzel’s adventures when he explores a new marsh he has discovered.
This incredible 12-year-old says she is inspired by Bill Watterson, the Artist behind ‘Calvin and Hobbes’, but points out that her work does differ in that her ‘Pretzel Rat’ isn’t focused on being funny.
The ‘Pretzel Rat’ is a fantasy adventure grounded in reality, and while it has humorous moments, it’s not predominantly a comedy.
“The adventures are invented, but the actual rats exist in real life.” says Lily. Before having pet rats, Lily never imaged drawing rats or writing adventures involving them.
“I wasn’t scared of rats. But I had never met a rat in real life, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. My mother suggested doing research on rats. So, I did a lot of research and I learned about rats, and then I was really excited to get rats because it’s like, ‘oh, they’re actually like dogs, just really tiny'”.
Lily is a student at Manatee School of Arts and hopes to go onto become a professional Artist.
“The rats live in a big cage in my room” says Wojtkowski, “but they’re frequently allowed to roam inside a room while under supervision.”
“You don’t have to take them on walks because their cage is big enough for them to walk their selves.”
She remembers the amusing time, “I forgot to put them back in their cage, and when I came back my room, they had eaten my blinds.”
While Lily is unsure how intelligent rats are, describing interacting with her pet rats “just like you might your pet bird of cat,” she goes onto say, “rats are very friendly. They won’t bite you.”
“They might nibble on your nails or groom your fingers. But mostly rats will show affection. They’re also very hyper and want to run all the time.”
“Rats are social creatures that I enjoy to have around me because they make me happy,” Wojtkowski continues.
“I actually started out with two rats. Unfortunately one passed away, so we got two more rats. Now we have three.”
The busy school girl says that “I mostly enjoy the work of creating the comics.” leaving the admin work to her mom, Kate. Lily’s supportive mom has assisted her daughter in the self-publishing process, while Lily squeezes in school work, extra curricular activities, creating comics, and all the other things in her life!
Lily has ambitious plans to attend Ringling College of Art and Design, and would like to be cartooning as a job when she’s older. When she was in first grade, she wanted to try animation, but didn’t have the necessary equipment, but she did have access to plenty of paper and marker pens, so began drawing comic books as a creative outlet.
“I fell in love with the concept of making comics,” says Lily. “You’re able to draw a story without writing every little detail about it. It’s more interesting because you could look at the pictures if you’re not into reading a chapter book. They can be funny, they can be adventurous.”
“It can be laborious; one storyboard can take a week to develop, and one page can take me as much as three hours once I’ve decided how it should be drawn and colored.”
Her first comic book in the ‘Pretzel Rat’ range was 24 pages, taking Lily a long time to draw it. “Sometimes the words come before the drawings, and then I’m like, ‘OK, that works,'” says Lily.
“And then sometimes I make a drawing and it’s too blank. Wait, what should I write here? So, then I’ll think about, what if he says this? I’ll write that down. And if I like it, I’ll be like, ‘yeah’, and if I don’t, I’ll erase it and restart until I find something that suits Pretzel.
“Sometimes, I’m thinking I don’t know if this makes sense for the character,” Lily says. “Other times, I look at Pretzel and I’m like ‘no, he wouldn’t do that.'”
Lily says drawing Pretzel has been difficult t times because she wanted to make sure the Pretzel character actually looked and acted like the real Pretzel. For example, questioning whether Pretzel would ask for food or just take some.
Kate, Lily’s mother, proudly says her daughter “has been drawing ever since she could hold a crayon.”
“I’ve stepped away from my desk a few times and come back to a little dragon or a little doodle,” says Kate.
“I’m not safe around empty papers.” says Lily amusingly.
Proud mother, Kate continues, “she started creating this comic so he could have a more adventurous life than he has right now.”
After Lily’s first winter school break with Pretzel, instead of wanting to go back to school, she wanted to spend more time with Pretzel. “Every day I would make a comic and come back to Pretzel at home,” Lily says. “It was like I could have him both at school and at home.”
Lily says she fell in love with Pretzel the moment she met him. Her mother, Kate, suggested pet rats for Lily’s 11th Birthday and they went to the pet store to choose some.
Lily remembers the day she met Pretzel vividly. She was holding Pretzel, and he snuck into the sleeve of her green sweater, and then just sat there calmly (and warmly)!
“I thought it was lovely, and I was excited to meet him,” says Lily. “I fell in love with them. I had never met a rat in real life. I’ve only seen them in videos, but I was never afraid to see a rat. I just didn’t know what they were like.”
Lily has done a lot of research on rats since then, and done a lot of learning that comes with being a rat parent. She says a rat is sweet, kind, and smart. Although Lily hasn’t found teaching a rat tricks very easy, (I think most of us agree with that!).
She has found Pretzel figured out how to take a treat from her hand before successfully completing a trick! Luckily, Lily doesn’t mind this, and finds it endearing.
Lily says Pretzel’s adventurous nature is what inspires her comic books the most. And his need for adventure has rubbed off on his brother, Dots, a rat the family brought into the family soon after Pretzel.
In the comics, Pretzel is working as a mail man while Dots is working at the Post Office. Pretzel spends his working hours travelling around the marsh delivering mail and interacting with the other characters, including a pair of dragons called Sprinkle and Leaf, a gray fox called Butterscotch, and a fish called Guppie.
The last page of the comic book features photos of Lily’s real life pet rats, Pretzel and Dots.
Lily was ecstatic when she saw the final comic book come together into a real book. It’s been her dream to have a published comic book that she can share with the world.
Her mother, Kate, an Entrepreneur, says she is extremely proud of her daughter for creating a comic book. Lily has plans to make stickers of the characters – don’t worry, we’ll let you know when that happens. Follow us on Instagram or Twitter to make sure you’re the first to hear!
