INTERVIEW: Özge Samancı on 'Dare to Disappoint: Growing up in Turkey'

Sometimes modest ideas can be deceptively sophisticated. Özge Samancı's graphic memoir, "Dare to Disappoint: Growing up in Turkey" is an ostensibly simple graphic memoir about growing up in a lower-middle class family in İzmir, her life at boarding school, and her later time studying maths at Istanbul's prestigious Bosphorus University. 

The book (reviewed in HDN here) is light-hearted in tone, but its simple drawings of Samancı's trials and tribulations also cleverly reflect on Turkey's broader modern history. It's a charming formula that became a bestseller in Turkey after being published in English last year. A Turkish language version is due to be published soon. 

Samancı sat down to speak with the Hürriyet Daily News about her book, how she created it, and her plans for the future.

"Dare to Disappoint" was first published in English last year. But it sold very well in Turkey and now it has been translated into Turkish. Did you always plan to publish that way round?

Honestly I didn't have a very clear plan. Things developed organically, one thing followed another. I used to draw for the Turkish humor magazine Leman many years ago. When I moved to the United States I lost my connection with Leman but I started making a web comic called "Ordinary Things." I was doing it to entertain my friends in Turkey but I decided to do it in English because it was going to be available on the web and I wanted it to be available to my American friends. But it went beyond entertaining my friends and gained a larger audience from all over the world. I kept doing the website and started preparing this graphic novel idea I was carrying in my mind. I didn't consciously decide to do it in English but that's how the book emerged...