Drawing interest: Twin sisters never gave up on making their mark

LYNNWOOD — The date July 3, 2014, is burned into the memories of Kelly and Nichole Matthews. That was the day the twin sisters got their big break in the comic book industry.

At the time the two worked at a grocery store deli and only drew as a hobby. But things changed after they were hired to draw an entire comic series for an indie studio. The sisters soon left their day jobs and began freelancing full time.

The twins have drawn 14 graphic novels to date, some based on the works of “Goosebumps” author R.L. Stine, “The Muppets” creator Jim Henson and Disney’s “Little Mermaid.” They’re currently working on the graphic novel adaptation of the “Magic Tree House” children’s book series.

The duo work together out of their Lynnwood home office with desktops and tablets sitting across from each other. Kelly Matthews, 36, primarily pencils and inks while Nicole Matthews, 36, colors. Teamwork makes dream work as they spend six months minimum to finish a novel.

“I know exactly what she’s going to do, and I don’t have to worry about it,” Nicole Mathews said. But do the siblings always get along?

“Not always,” Kelly Mathews said. “We’re lucky that we like each other.”

‘We just kept drawing’

Online, the sisters are known by the handle KickingShoes. It’s a name originating from a childhood story their mom likes to tell. One day in elementary school, the twins came home crying because of bullying. The next day their mom asked if they wanted to stay home.

“And then we just told her, apparently, ‘oh no, it’s OK, mom, we have our kicking shoes on,” Kelly Matthews said. “And we went to school and we came back and we never had an issue with the kid again.”

The sisters don’t remember what exactly they did at school to stop the bullying, but their mother thought the phrase “kicking shoes” was the funniest thing her daughters ever said as kids. So the name stuck.

Growing up, the Matthews described themselves as visual learners who found it easier to express themselves through art. The two kids obsessed over the “Elfquest” comic series and it inspired them to draw. They self-taught themselves the craft by reading how-to-draw manga books and by tracing over characters from their brothers’ X-Men comics. The sisters used their talent to copy Pokemon trading cards, which they made a decent profit from selling to the neighbor kids at $5 a pop. Drawing was a fixation.

“If you could see our elementary school paperwork, you probably could barely read the stuff because the margins were all just filled with doodles,” Nicole Matthews said. “And some of our teachers appreciated it, and some of them did not.”

The Matthews twins drew into adulthood and dreamed of turning their hobby into a career.

“In junior high school. We’re like, we’re going to do this for a job one day and then we just kept drawing and didn’t give up,” Kelly Matthews said. Her sister Nicole Matthews adds, “It didn’t start out that way though.”

‘Above and beyond’

The sisters worked at Safeway for a decade and on the side took drawing commissions from folks online. They slowly grew a social media following, including Whitney Leopard. She was a fan of their superhero drawings, and in 2012 become an associate editor at comic publisher Boom! Studios. One of her assignments was a series based on the witches from the Shakespeare play Macbeth called “Toil and Trouble.”

Just like the stage show, Leopard called the book “cursed” because people kept dropping out of the project. After going through three artists, Leopard reached out to the Matthews twins to audition for the job by drawing a few test pages based off the written script. Leopard said it’s common for new comic editors like herself to scope out talent on social media.

The sisters nailed the audition and were asked to start work immediately.

“They just really blew it out of the water,” Leopard said. “They had no real publishable credit to their name, but they came in and were far above and beyond. They could get the action. They could get the drama. They could get the surreal magic. And they were and they still are artists who are ahead of their time and an extremely talented duo.”

As work picked up, the sisters left their “reliable job” to freelance full time. Their mom was not thrilled by the decision, and those first few years weren’t easy. Sometimes money was tight, but they landed more jobs over time and launched an Etsy shop and Patreon to help cover bills.

“That was like over almost 10 years ago now and we have not regretted it since,” Nicole Matthews said.

Leopard, who now works at Random House Graphic, recommended the sisters for other projects like the “Magic Tree House” series. The 37th book in the main series released last January. And if the twins had their way, they’d draw graphic novel renditions of every single one.

“If we could just keep doing the ‘Tree House’ books into forever,” Kelly Matthews said, “that would be great.”

The sisters will be at this year’s Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle from March 2-5. They’ll be selling merch and meeting fans at Booth F-22 and will be speaking at the Writing & Illustrating for Tweens panel from 12:30-1:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 5, in room 340-341.

To learn more, visit kickingshoes.art.

Eric Schucht: 425-339-3477; eric.schucht@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @EricSchucht.