Rebecca Sugar is about to make a little TV history. And right now, she is not entirely enjoying it.

“I’m having a hard time feeling good about all this,” she says, with a half-laugh, “until the first episode is on.”

Sugar sounds so calm and confident, though, that she belies this case of show-biz nerves. Yet the moment must be noted.

By following her artistic passion from Silver Spring to Hollywood, Sugar has become something of a trailblazer. On Monday evening, Cartoon Network will debut its newest program, “Steven Universe,” officially making Sugar, at just 26, the first woman to be a solo show creator in the channel’s 21 years on the air.

She is thrilled to achieve the breakthrough, but with just days until the debut, she’s not focused on being the first female creator — she’s

too busy simply being a creator, with plenty to still decide and coordinate.

“It’s definitely a whirlwind,” Sugar, a veteran of Cartoon Network’s popular Adventure Time, says of steering her own show to launch. “But I feel more ready than if I hadn’t made so many independent comics and done so many films.” Everything, in other words, feels as if it’s been naturally leading to this opportunity. From that, the animator draws confidence.

Sugar’s creative vision, after all, wasn’t just born at Cartoon Network’s studios in Burbank, Calif. Her dream to do precisely what she’s now doing was launched many years ago, a coast and an ocean away, back home in Montgomery County.

“You can’t wait for someone to give you a show,” says Sugar. She’s long been an ambitious artist who regularly attended Baltimore Comic-Con and Maryland’s Small Press Expo to listen and learn from luminaries while also getting professional feedback on her portfolio. “That can’t be the first time you’re writing and drawing a character.”

Sugar summons inspiration from characters she has created since childhood. “Steven Universe” may appear to be an action-fantasy cartoon about gem-powered superheroes, but beneath the bright tints and battle scenes, the

show plays like an ode to Sugar’s artistically supportive upbringing in Sligo Park Hills. The program is even named for her younger brother, Steven, who is a background artist on the show.

“I realized, while working on the show, that it’s not what I thought it was going to be about. It’s about how much I needed emotional support in high school — just with little things, going through tough times, high school teen angst,” says Sugar, who simultaneously attended

Montgomery Blair High and the Visual Arts Center at Einstein High.

“My brother would just be hanging out with me, not having to say anything. If I ever felt weird around friends, Steven would always be there. I felt that would never change.”

Sugar stops herself, joking that she should move on to another topic before she gets verklempt.

“Aw, that’s nice of her to say!” Steven Sugar, 23, replies to his sister’s sentiment. “We spent a lot of time together as kids watching

cartoons, playing video games and drawing. We’d brainstorm ideas for comics together, run ideas past each other and get critiques — all of which sort of set the groundwork for

what [we’re] doing now.”

In the new show, three female superheroes named for their gem-related powers — Amethyst, Garnet and Pearl — are shepherding irrepressible Steven, an ever-smiling boy who hasn’t yet discovered his gem power. Rebecca says that to write each character, she thinks about how she interacts with her brother — from the laid-back Amethyst to the authoritative Garnet. (As for having his name in the title, Steven says:

Adventure Time alum Rebecca Sugar is

poised to become a Cartoon Network

trailblazer: she’ll be the first female show creator in the

network’s history.

STORY BY MICHAEL CAVNASteven Universe

premieres Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. on

Cartoon Network.

I REALIZED, WHILE WORKING ON THE SHOW, THAT IT’S NOT WHAT I THOUGHT

IT WAS GOING TO BE ABOUT.

Continued on next page ➤

on ionsk in October 2013 24