We are excited to be talking with Jon Chad, author/illustrator of the Physics of Life SCIENCE Comics, and the new Solvers comics about Math.
Because this month’s topic is chemistry, we are specifically talking about this book:
Science Comics: The Periodic Table of Elements
JS: How did you get the idea to write this awesome book and why did you choose to make it a graphic novel?
Jon C.: I was asked by my publisher, First Second, if I would be interested in doing a Science Comic about chemistry, specifically the periodic table of elements. I find chemistry extremely fascinating, and I was eager to tackle it in a way that could connect to young readers. When I make a STEM comic, I like to play around with genre and narrative as not only a way to make the work have more appeal and excitement, but also as a way to create stakes and tension in a way that draws the reader in. There isn’t a need to fully silo off nonfiction from fiction in comics. Readers are astute enough to know the difference between the two.
When I am figuring out what sort of narrative framework I will use in a book, I try to find some sort of connection between the genre and the topic. As I researched and thought about the periodic table, I was ensorcelled by how distinct the different sections are. I started to view the table as a thing to explore, rather than look at. That thought, plus the realization that the table itself looks like a top-down map from old dungeon-delving games like The Legend of Zelda, gave me the idea to frame an exploration of the periodic table and its distinct, interesting sections as a dungeon crawler. From that point, I started working out who would be the hero, who would be the villain, and what sort of narrative beats I could map onto the conveyance of information to keep the reader hooked.
JS: Do you think graphic novels are a good way to help kids to understand difficult topics? And if so, why?
Jon C.: I think there is tremendous value in using comics to communicate STEM ideas; from the large complex ones, to the smaller, less complex ones. Everybody’s brains are wired differently, and people connect to, and retain, facts in different ways. Personally, I have a difficult time reading. I struggle with mistakenly rereading the same word or line over and over. Information presented solely through text is not an efficient way for me to learn. Seeing pictures/diagrams/examples in conjunction with text is a much more accessible way for me to retain information. It is why my research always includes documentaries and interviews with living scientists/experts. Making STEM graphic novels have the ability to connect to a reader that might otherwise not engage with a topic.
JS: Clearly you are both author and illustrator of this book. What advice would you give to authors who want to write graphic novels, but won’t be the illustrator?
Jon C.: My biggest piece of advice would be to practice thumbnailing your own comic pages as you script them out. Thumbnailing is the stage of comics making where you make a quick, small drawing of what a page might look like, where the dialogue might go, how many panels there are, etc. Even if it is just a bunch of stick figures and simple shapes for the background, thumbnailing can help you figure out whether your vision of a panel or page is doable by an artist. Even if you don’t turn those thumbnails over to a cartoonist, you will have considered the flow and density of your work during its creation, and that will pay off big time.
JS: How hard is it to condense complex topics to the format of a graphic novel?
Jon C.: On the whole, the process for creating a comic about a complex topic, and one with less complexity is almost the same. The biggest difference is what is my own personal level of knowledge on the topic upon starting the comic. When I’m making a STEM comic, long or short, I am trying to communicate some larger takeaway about a topic. It’s impossible for me to say everything I want to about chemistry in 122 pages of comics, so I make sure that everything I’m putting into the book funnels back to my one core takeaway. In my volcano book, it was how volcano shape and eruption strength were all on a spectrum that was dictated by magma viscosity. In my periodic table book, my core takeaway is about identifying periodic trends and the characteristics of each section of the table, rather than a deep dive on each individual element. As long as I’m keeping that core, digestible takeaway in mind, I can tackle very complex topics.
JS: What would you like readers to get out of this book?
Jon C.: For my book Science Comics: The Periodic Table of Elements, I want to get young readers excited about chemistry, and what makes up the world around us. There are a lot of stand-out elements to fawn over in the book, but as I eluded to before, the most important takeaway are the periodic trends that I illustrate near the end of the book. Having an understanding of the periodic table and trends as a whole can give us an idea of the properties of a given element just from their position on the table. You can also use these trends to predict whether an element will be stable or reactive, malleable or rigid, solid or gaseous, etc.
JS: How would you like teachers/librarians to use this book?
Jon C.: My hope is that educators and librarians use this book either to engage readers that are having a hard time connecting with prose or spoken instruction, or as gateway material for a reader who is interested in science and is not quite at the grade level where a full chemistry curriculum is taught.
JS: Can you give any tips to writers who want to break into nonfiction children’s books?
Jon C.: Good question! The first thing that jumps to mind is to familiarize yourself with different national- and state-based standards and curriculums. I’ve found these resources invaluable in figuring out what sort of topics young readers will have potentially been exposed to, based on their grade. I’ve also used these sorts of guides in seeing what sort of information is taught in the subsequent grades. I like to include information in my books that is one step above the intended grade levels of my books. Even if the topic that I am writing about is not actively covered in the target grades that my publisher is aiming for, I can still use something like the common core to see what they are learning. I can extrapolate trends from that, and approach my topic the same way.
I would also recommend finding any combination of adults, experts, and young people to give your writing a once over, even in the preliminary steps. Getting the right measure of information that is clear and not bogged down in specifics and still accurate can be a real balancing act.
JS: What are you working on now?
Jon C.: I just wrapped up a wild west true crime story written by Steve Sheinkin called DIAMOND FEVER that comes out in May that I’m very excited for people to read. I’m also in the middle of a book about veterinarian sciences, and one about the Voyager spacecrafts. It’s been fun to work on such a wide array of nonfiction topics!
Jon, thanks so much for stopping by and chatting with us today! Check out Jon’s other awesome books and learn more about him Here: https://www.jonchad.com/
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