Kare11
‘Schitt’s Creek’ actor Emily Hampshire making magic in comics
For a self-identifying “misfit,” Emily Hampshire has really never been more popular.
Between filming new television shows and movies — and several years on the clock as Stevie Budd at the Schitt’s Creek Motel — the Canadian actor recently found herself in a position to bring yet another extremely relatable character to life.
“I was approached to do a comic book, which I’d never thought about in my life,” Hampshire said. “I’ve been writing a lot for television and stuff, but not comic books.”
Hampshire’s first graphic novel, “Amelia Aierwood: Basic Witch,” (Z2 Comics, April 2023) was born from a juxtaposition of childhood reminiscing and a present-day viewing of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”
“[As a kid] I didn’t feel like there were comics for me as much as there were for my brother,” she said. “I liked the misfits in the kind of YA books like ‘Ramona’ or Judy Blume, so I wanted to take that misfit character and put her into graphic novels for my younger self. Like, if there was a graphic novel I would want to read as a kid, it would be this.”
Amelia the character, the black sheep of her famous witch family, was fully conceived from a night of guilty-pleasure television. Hampshire said that an episode of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” made her think: If she had been born into a similar situation, she had no doubt she’d be “kicked off the show” — just like Amelia, sort of.
“Amelia is not not me,” she said. “That was kind of where Amelia came from — the black sheep of this very famous family of super witches. She gets kicked out, cut out of the show, and because her magic is a little off-brand, she has to find her own kind of magic that had been percolating.”
‘turbo-weirdo energy’
With her own magic percolating during the book’s early stages, Hampshire was paired with Minnesota’s own Eliot Rahal, an already well-known voice in the comic book world.
“I had a hard time finding my people,” Hampshire said. “Eliot, right away, had a 13-year-old girl inside of him that rivaled my own.”
“I think we both have like, turbo-weirdo energy,” Rahal said. “She’s a really driven person and so am I; I think we just kind of connected on that level.”
Rahal, who has joined up with other notable names — like musician and actor Machine Gun Kelly, and comedy duo Cheech & Chong — on comics in the past, spent the last few years beside Hampshire, helping translate her vision from brain to pen to paper.
Transferring passages back and forth in the process, a team of talented artists and illustrators would also go on to back the project.
Artists like Kristen Gudsnuk, who went from panel to panel hiding so-called “Easter eggs” in her illustrations, drawing inspiration from things like “Schitt’s Creek,” and Rahal’s daughter, Olive. The pair was ultimately looking for someone with the “right kind” of humor to join the team, unequivocally meeting that match in Gudsnuk.
But as they say, “It takes a village,” and the same is true for building comic books. Rounding out Amelia’s team of artists were Ames Liu, Fred Stressing, Jarrett Williams and Stephanie Mided.
“The joy of comics is that collaborative process,” Rahal said. “There’s little jokes all over the place. That was really fun to do, especially with a book that’s geared toward a younger audience where you can be kind of silly and fun in that way.”
Rahal has written comics all across the genre spectrum, but “Amelia” was the first opportunity he’s had to dip his toes into more young-adult content.
“I’ve been working in comics for 10 years,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of really weird and strange work, creator-owned work, so I just have a lot of understanding of working with a person’s vision and helping translate that to the medium in a way that allows the artist to also grab hold of it.
“At the end of the day, ‘Amelia’ is Emily’s story and these are her characters. She’s so unbelievably passionate about telling the story and you can see that bleed through the pages. That, for me, only made the process more enjoyable.”
it was always in you
Luckily for Team Amelia, the Aierwoods’ story isn’t quite over yet. Hampshire said they’re already tossing around ideas for the next book, with aspirations to spread Amelia’s story even further.
“I want it to be a show. I want it to be a musical. I want it to be, like, ‘Matilda’ meets ‘Wicked.’ I want everything for Amelia.”
But first, Hampshire and the crew at Z2 are trying to slow down enough to revel in the success of “Basic Witch.” Although having planned an extensive book-signing tour across the U.S. before leaving for the UK to film the second season of Amazon Prime’s “The Rig,” Hampshire’s plans were ultimately foiled — but, she admitted, in the best possible way.
The first batch of books sold better than either Hampshire or Rahal could have imagined. Essentially selling out on some online retailers, the writers had to wait for more copies to be printed.
“Comics is a fast-growing market, but it’s hard to discern what success is,” Rahal said. “When the book is doing well — it’s wild. When you work in the independent arts for as long as I do, you’re like, ‘Are we actually doing a good job?’ And then it’s like, ‘We are.’ We can say that out loud — and that’s OK.”
“That’s OK”: Two simple words that fittingly, might just sum up the showrunner’s message, which is all told through the lens of a misfit, who in some ways, could be identified in all of us.
“By the end of the book, I felt like I got to go back and tell my younger self, ‘Everything you think is wrong with you, and that you’re trying to hide or fix, that’s your magic,'” Hampshire said. “That’s the thing that when you’re older, is going to be your special thing. It was always in you — you just had to see it for yourself. Anybody reading the book, if it makes them feel braver to be their authentic self, that’s the goal.”
“Amelia Aierwood: Basic Witch” is available via Z2 Comics, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and several independent bookstores across the country.
To keep up with book signings, other appearances and forthcoming projects from Hampshire and Rahal, visit them on Instagram at @emilyhampshire and @eliotrahal.
Editor’s note: Eliot Rahal is the husband of KARE 11 reporter Heidi Wigdahl.
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A ceremony was help honoring the Minnesota Supreme Court’s newest member.
ST PAUL, Minn. — A vast array of judges, lawyers, family and friends gathered at the Minnesota History Center in Saint Paul to honor the newest member of the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Natalie Hudson administered the oath of office to Associate Justice Theodora Gaitas, who was appointed last spring to replace retiring Associate Justice Margaret Chutich.
“A strong judiciary guards against tyranny, against oppression, against injustice. But a strong judiciary also serves the people,” Gaitas told the crowd.
Gaitas, who spent her childhood in Greece, quoted Greek philosopher Aristotle several times in her speech.
“Aristotle wrote law is order and good law is good order,” she said. “Here in Minnesota, we have good order. Good order relies on a strong judiciary.”
Gaitas has spent the past four years as a jurist on the Minnesota Court of Appeals and before that spent two years as a Ramsey County District Court Judge. She took the legal oath previously before joining the Supreme Court in August, so Monday’s event was purely ceremonial.
Gov. Walz appointed Gaitas and Judge Sarah Hennesy last April to fill two vacancies that were expected on the high court in the months ahead. Justice Hennesy joined the Supreme Court on May 13, replacing the retiring Associate Justice G. Barry Anderson.
Walz took a break from the vice-presidential campaign trail Monday afternoon to attend the ceremony and thank Gaitas for accepting the new role.
“One of the questions we asked is what life experiences shaped who you are,” Walz said. “Justice Gaitas’ personal journey, her personal heartaches, as well as her commitment to others shined through in so many ways. Putting others in front of herself, and her work as a public defender doing it with every ounce of her intellect, but with the compassion that needed to be there too, shined through.”
The heartache he referenced was the sudden death in 2023 of Justice Gaitas’s husband R. Christopher Sur. He died while cross-country skiing in Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis with a friend. Their daughter Clea performed with a musical combo at the ceremony and held a copy of the US and Minnesota Constitutions as Gaitas took the oath.
Lt. Gov. Flanagan praised Gaitas for her breadth of experience and connection to those who use the court system.
“Justice Gaitas has excelled at every level of the legal profession and the judiciary. Her extensive experience as an appellate public defender and judge in the district court and court of appeals instilled a deep understanding of how our justice system can and should treat real people.”
Mike Olson served in the Secret Service for over two decades and has some thoughts on what went wrong and what could be done better by the Secret Service.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — It’s no secret that the agency tasked with protecting former president Donald Trump are constantly on the lookout for threats, especially following the assassination attempt in July.
The heightened level of concern has former Secret Service agent Mike Olson questioning the actions of Secret Service agents on Sunday. Olson was in the Secret Service for over two decades, and now runs his own security firm, 360 Security Services.
“I have been a part of those golf outings in my career and typically there is much more security on those outer roads outside of the fence line,” Olson said.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, faces charges of possessing a firearm despite a prior felony conviction and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. He did not fire any shots and never had Trump in his line of sight, the Secret Service’s acting chief said.
Routh appeared briefly in federal court in West Palm Beach, kickstarting a criminal case in the final weeks of a presidential race already touched by violence and upheaval. Though no one was injured, the episode marked the second attempt on Trump’s life in as many months, raising fresh questions about the security afforded to him during a time of amped-up political rhetoric. It prompted Republican allies and even some Democrats to demand to know how a would-be shooter could get so close.
The Secret Service’s acting chief said the golf outing was ‘off the record’ and not released a part of the former president’s public schedule.
“True off the record is going without all the cars and trying to go undercover so to speak,” Olson said.
Routh was arrested Sunday afternoon after authorities spotted a firearm poking out of shrubbery on the West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing. He was spotted by a Secret Service agent assigned to Trump’s security detail who opened fire. Routh sped away before being captured by law enforcement in a neighboring county, the authorities said.
Olson said in his experience, there were few levels of protection in off the record outings, usually meaning there wasn’t a massive outside perimeter around the location. This is the part he has questions about, considering the predictability of where the former President likes to golf in West Palm Beach and the day of the week he usually golfs. With heightened level of threat following the first assassination attempt at a rally in July, Olson thinks even ‘off the record’ outings need to be treated as a normal event.
“I am saying across the board, we need to really step things up between now and the election,” Olson said.
The U.S. surgeon general calls parental stress an urgent public health issue that requires the nation’s immediate awareness and action.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — We all know parenting can be stressful but the U.S. surgeon general said it goes beyond that.
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has issued an advisory on parental stress, calling attention to an “urgent public health issue.” Murthy said. “advisories are reserved for significant public health challenges that require the nation’s immediate awareness and action.”
Dr. Murthy said there are many factors affecting parents today. Beyond the traditional challenges, he mentions “there are new stressors that previous generations didn’t have to consider. These include the complexity of managing social media, parents’ concerns about the youth mental health crisis, and an epidemic of loneliness that disproportionately affects young people and parents, just to name a few.”
Meghan Tompkins of Golden Valley is a mom to three — ages 5, 3 and 11 months.
“My husband and I were just talking about it the other day, actually… deciding if we want to have another kid or not. We’re almost at this point, even with a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old and just their kind of basic activities… there’s kind of an expectation to put your kids in all these things and try everything and you want them to. But then we also feel like we’re kind of capped out almost,” Tompkins said.
According to the surgeon general’s advisory, 41% of parents say most days they are so stressed they cannot function.
“I try to talk to my mom about it and tell her that it’s different, that it is more stressful and the stresses are different, and she doesn’t really understand it,” said Emma Skala of Minneapolis.
Skala’s kids are ages 7 and 4. Skala homeschools her boys, citing school shootings as one of the main reasons behind her decision.
According to the report, school shootings or the possibility of one are a significant source of stress for nearly 75% of parents.
“I can’t fathom putting a small child through an active shooter drill. I just, it breaks my heart every time I hear about it. I cry every time I hear about any kind of school shooting that happens. That’s I think one of the main things is the safety of our children,” Skala.
The advisory also mentions nearly 70% of parents say parenting is now more difficult than it was 20 years ago, with children’s use of technology and social media as the top two cited reasons.
“I let my 3.5-year-old scroll YouTube and I’m nervous about that. Should I really be letting him do that? How much control do I have on that? And you know that we need to limit screen time, and yet that’s an easy go-to when I’m trying to make dinner… I’m trying to do my part-time job from home,” said Kristi Thao, who also has a 3-month-old baby.
Thao also mentioned how social media and access to so much advice can put more pressure on parents.
“Then we try all these different things but it’s like, then there’s so many options. I think having too many options can also make things more stressful. There’s too many choices,” Thao said.
The advisory acknowledges an “intensifying culture of comparison—often propagated by influencers and online trends—with unrealistic expectations around the milestones, parenting strategies, achievements and status symbols that kids and parents must pursue. Chasing these unreasonable expectations has left many families feeling exhausted, burned out, and perpetually behind.”
Lena K. Gardner became a mom three months before the pandemic.
“In my personal journey, I am a single mom by choice,” Gardner said. “And I thought I could do that because I have a big support network but COVID took that all away.”
The advisory states, “This high level of stress among parents preceded the COVID-19 pandemic, and the pandemic notably contributed to additional stressors on parents and caregivers.”
During the pandemic, Gardner isolated with her daughter. At the same time, her daughter would only sleep for 1.5 hours at a time before waking up.
“I became so sleep-deprived, I started having hallucinations. I called my therapist and I was like, ‘That’s it. Motherhood has broken me.’ And she said, ‘No it hasn’t. This is the first sign of extreme sleep deprivation.’ And she’s like, ‘You need help,'” Gardner recalled.
Once her daughter was in daycare, Gardner said she had to navigate daycare closures or exclusions during the pandemic.
“It still happens. Your kid gets COVID. They’re excluded for how many days and you’re left to bear the brunt of it,” said Gardner, whose parents have both passed away.
The report said social isolation and lack of social support can lead to heightened stress. On top of that, parents, on average, are working more than before.
“Most people are required to be at their jobs from something like 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. But schooling is from like 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and it just doesn’t make logistical sense,” Gardner said.
She went on to say, “There are a lot of solutions and it baffles me why we’re not doing them more.”
Dr. Murthy mentioned the need for a cultural shift that recognizes the importance of raising children.
At the same time, he also pointed to the need for policy changes. Among his recommendations include promoting and expanding funding for programs such as Head Start and the Healthy Start program, establishing a national paid family and medical leave program, and ensuring parents and caregivers have access to affordable and high-quality mental health care.
The full advisory can be found, here.
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