Posts Tagged #authorinterview

Why Writing Kid Constantine Was No Mystery for Ryan North

By Mimi Powell on August 5, 2021 / Articles, Author Interviews

Ryan North, whose credits include an award-winning runs of Adventure Time, Jughead, and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl recently wrote a middle grade graphic novel featuring John Constantine, one of my favorite DC Comics characters, and I got the opportunity to sit down and talk with him about it.

MUF: I’m Mimi. I write for From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle Grade Authors, a blog for people who love middle-grade books (parents, teachers, librarians, kids, writers, etc.). It’s an honor to be able to interview you. (My husband is also a fan. He’s the one who introduced me to Dinosaur Comics). And congratulations on the Eisner nomination this year.

Ryan North: Aw thank you, Mimi! That’s very kind. I’m excited about it! And say hi to your husband for me. 🙂

MUF: So, tell us about The Mystery of the Meanest Teacher?

Ryan North: The Mystery of the Meanest Teacher is a middle-grade graphic novel about a younger version of Constantine – Johnny Constantine, but he prefers you call him “Kid”. Kid Constantine has to escape from the UK to the United States after one of his capers involving ghosts and demons goes wrong. When he arrives at his new boarding school in America, he discovers his spells don’t work as well as they used to, so he’s left scrambling, faking it till he makes it – but luckily he soon discovers he’s not the only magical kid there. And he’s going to need all the help he can get when one of his new teachers seems to have it out for him personally, and might be a real-life witch…

It’s a stand-alone graphic novel, so you can read it knowing nothing of the character (or even DC Comics!) but if you do, there’s some fun little secrets you might pick up on.

MUF: I’ve gotta admit, Constantine is one of my favorite DC characters, but he’s not exactly kid-friendly, why did you choose Constantine for this project?

Ryan North: Right? He’s basically the last DC character you’d ever expect to be in a middle grade graphic novel. I was working with DC on another project that got bogged down unfortunately, and when they said “Hey, what about Kid Constantine?” I laughed at the idea – always a good sign! And I quickly realized that he actually transforms into a 13-year-old version of himself very easily. That idea of trying to cover for what you don’t know, trying to act like you’re super cool and in control even though you have no idea what’s going on – it’s something that I think feels pretty universal to most of us, and to both Adult and Kid Constantine. So there weren’t actually a lot of changes I had to make! The adult version has a lot of bad habits that we altered (instead of smoking, Kid has a lollipop sticking out of his mouth at the start of the book) but beyond that there really wasn’t a lot to change, to adapt for younger readers. So I loved that the idea sounded so wild, and really wanted to see if we could pull it off.

MUF: You do a great job of capturing Constantine’s wit in a way that’s accessible for kids. Was writing young Johnny difficult?

Ryan North: No, it was actually pretty familiar! Like I mentioned before, Constantine goes through some pretty relatable stuff, so all I had to do was remember what it felt like being the new kid, being somewhere where I don’t know anyone, and I could tap into that pretty easily for Constantine. And while some of the fun is seeing him cover for what he doesn’t know, he’s also a really clever guy, and it’s always fun to write clever characters. They get in the best zingers.

It’s funny – if you look at the Wikipedia article for John Constantine, there’s a section called “In real life“, where several (several!) of the authors who have written Constantine claim to have met him in real life. I kept my eye out for any young kids in a trenchcoat while I was writing – it would’ve been way easier to write the book if I could just ask Kid Constantine what he’d say and do in particular situations! – but unfortunately I never spotted him. So far, anyway…

MUF: I love that you included Etrigan as a “young” demon and that his rhyming is forced. It’s such a cool nod to his lore. What other Easter eggs can eagle-eyed fans catch?

Ryan North: Haha, thank you! Etrigan was the hardest character to write because he speaks in rhymes. It would always slow me down when I got to him, until I finally started writing placeholder dialogue for him: it had what I wanted him to say, but didn’t rhyme, and then I got to go back and spend an afternoon composing poetry that said what I needed it to say.

Beyond the lollipop visual reference I mentioned earlier, there’s also elements in what Constantine and his new friend Anna wear that references the costumes they wear as adults. The artist of the book, Derek Charm, told me that the challenge in designing the characters was that we wanted them to look like their adult versions, but still look credible as kids: their outfits had to be something a 13-year-old would wear. Constantine wants to look cool all the time, so it’s no surprise to me that he’d have a t-shirt printed with a design that makes it looks like he’s wearing a tie. I wanted a shirt like that when I was a kid. Still do, really!

MUF: Also, was it hard coming up with all of those rhymes and/or was it difficult to make them sound stilted?

Ryan North: Hah – well, the secret is that it’s never hard to make a rhyme sound stilted, so that was good at least! As hard as Young Etrigan was to write, Adult Etrigan would be even harder, because there he’s got his rhymes down pat. I tried to use iambic pentameter for his rhymes at the start until I realized Etrigan is speaking a second language here, and he’s definitely not as good at it as his adult version is, so that became a bit less precise in his speech. But honestly, I just went for walks and tried to think of different ways to say what he wanted to say until I came up with one that worked! I like to think out loud when doing character voice writing, so my Secret Writing Technique is to wear a headset with a mic on it when I’m walking. That way, passers-by think I’m a very important businessperson on a very important call and not a random guy trying to make a demon in his head have better rhymes.

MUF: In the book, Constantine and Anna have a few tricks up their sleeve, what do you wish that you had a magic spell for?

Ryan North: Kid Constantine mentions at one point having an anti-blushing spell, and for most of my life before 20 I would’ve loved to have that power. But these days I’d love a spell that would let me learn faster. Every time I try something new there’s such a gulf between what you want and what you can accomplish, and yes it just takes practice, but that means you make a lot of just okay cookies before you unlock the really good stuff. So that’s a shortcut I’d gladly take, thanks magic!

MUF: And similarly, if you were able to sneak into an otherworldly candy shop, what would be your go-to snack?

My favourite food is ice cream, so if I could find a ghost who’s spent their entire afterlife perfecting the art and craft of ice cream production, unlocking levels of flavour and delight that simply aren’t reachable or teachable within a standard-issue human lifetime… I would be there in a heartbeat.

MUF: I read in your bio that you studied Computer Science. How do you go from Computer Science major to creating award-winning graphic novels?

Ryan North: I always kinda did both at the same time! I started my webcomic, Dinosaur Comics, in 2003, when I was in undergrad. (It’s still running today – you can read it at qwantz.com!) Then I kept up the comic through grad school (I studied computational linguistics) and then when I graduated I faced a choice: keep doing comics, or get a real job. And it was really easy to keep doing comics, because all I had to do was fail to get a real job! Super easy. So since then I’ve used my CS knowledge to develop different services that help comic creators, and get to live the best of both worlds. It’s an unusual career path but it’s one that I recommend! All of us have lots of interests and I don’t think you should have to pigeonhole yourself so early in your life – do different things! If you can, do different things simultaneously!

MUF: What were your favorite books and/or comics as a kid? Who were your influences?

Ryan North: The earliest book I can remember loving is The Monster At The End of This Book

by Jon Stone and Michael Smollin. If you haven’t read it, it’s a great Little Golden Book where the fourth wall doesn’t exist, and Grover is afraid because he knows there’s a monster at the end of the book. He does all he can to stop you from turning the pages of the book – building walls that you smash through with your mighty page-turning strength, and so on, until you reach the end, and he finds out the monster… is him, loveable ol’ Grover! And then he’s really embarrassed. It just blew my mind that books could do that, that you could have this object in your hands that was physically like all the other books but told a story in a different way. I still love that, and lots of my projects involve playing with the potential of the form like that. That’s actually one of the things I love about comics: it’s still a young medium and there’s still discoveries about the basic form being made. You can do things in comics that haven’t been done before, and I think that’s really incredible!

MUF: What advice do you have for someone wanting to write comics or videogames or basically just be like you?

Ryan North: The greatest advice I have for someone looking to do writing is to start doing it, keep doing it, and put that work online. This has two benefits: it makes your commitment public, so now you have to keep writing to keep that commitment up (this is why a webcomic works so well: if you say you’re going to every day, you’ve got to do it!) and of course the more you write the better you get at it, even if you’re not trying to improve. There’s no way you can spend a few years writing a comic and not get better at writing comics, it’s just how our brains work. The other thing putting your work online can get you is an audience: people who like your work and want to support it. This helps you in a bunch of ways, but one of the first things it does is make you realize you’re not alone and people are interested in hearing what you have to say. For an early writer, that was really big for me. It made me feel like there was a purpose to it, that it wasn’t just me talking to myself! And of course, when your work is online people can see it and maybe, on day, say “hey, I really like the writing that person did, I wonder if I could hire them to write for me?” and that’s literally how I went from writing a webcomic for free to being paid to write comics for other people too.

MUF: What would fans be surprised to find out about you?

Ryan North: I’m really tall, but also, taller than you think even if you think I’m really tall. I’m that tall. Other than that I don’t think I have that many secrets! Unless of course this is a ruse to get people off the trail of my many startling secrets!

MUF: What are you working on now?

Ryan North: I’m working on a few unannounced projects I can’t really talk about, but I will say that Derek Charm and I have been trying to do more books together for a while and hopefully some of those will bear fruit soon! I’m also working on something that’s sort of a spiritual successor to my first nonfiction book, which was called “How To Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveller”. (That book has also found a lot of middle-grade readers: turns out we’re all kinda interested in seeing if we can rebuild civilization from scratch if we ever get sent back in time!)

MUF: How can people follow you on social media?

Ryan North: I’m not really active anywhere but Twitter, where I’m @ryanqnorth ! I’m also @qwantz on Instagram, where I sometimes post pictures of my dog, Noam Chompsky.

MUF: And, that’s all I’ve got. Thank you for your time, and the opportunity to interview you.

Ryan North: Thanks Mimi! These were really thoughtful questions – I appreciate it!

The Mystery of the Meanest Teacher is out now! And I enthusiastically recommend it to anyone who is interested in spooky, mysterious adventure comics with smart, sarcastic heroes, as well as anyone who is a fan of the grown-up Constantine comics.

Interview with Helen Rutter, author of the MG debut, THE BOY WHO MADE EVERYONE LAUGH + a giveaway!

By Melissa Roske on July 28, 2021 / Author Interviews, Giveaways, New Releases

Let’s give a hearty Mixed-Up Files welcome to Helen Rutter, author the MG debut, The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh. Praised by children’s author Jacqueline Wilson as “Very funny, very touching, and very truthful”—and featured as a Waterstones Book of the Month—the novel was released in the U.K. by Scholastic on February 4, 2021. It will be available in the U.S. on August 3.

Here’s a summary:

Billy Plimpton has a big dream: to become a famous comedian when he grows up. He already knows a lot of jokes, but thinks he has one big problem standing in his way: his stutter.

At first, Billy thinks the best way to deal with this is to . . . never say a word. That way, the kids in his new school won’t hear him stammer. But soon he finds out this is not the best way to deal with things. (For one thing, it’s very hard to tell a joke without getting a word out.)

As Billy makes his way toward the spotlight, a lot of funny things (and some less funny things) happen to him. In the end, the whole school will know—

If you think you can hold Billy Plimpton back, be warned: The joke will soon be on you!

Q&A with Helen Rutter

MR: So glad to have you with us, Helen. Welcome to the Mixed-Up Files! Huge congratulations on having published your first novel.

HR: Thanks so much for having me! It’s so exciting that the book is coming out in the U.S. The whole publication process has been a wonderful series of lovely moments, and this really is a big one!

Struggling with Stuttering

MR: Billy Plimpton, the protagonist of the book, struggles with stuttering. I can relate, because I too have a speech disorder—spasmodic dysphonia. Although my voice problem is different from Billy’s, I connected deeply to the character’s challenges and frustrations. As a non-stutterer, how were you able to capture Billy’s story with such authenticity? Was there research involved?

HR: The research came through raising my son, who is a stutterer. Over the years, we have been to speech therapy together, and I’ve witnessed all the ups and downs that come with growing up with a stutter. As most parents would attest, watching your child struggle and then learn how to deal with challenges is a pretty powerful thing. It’s no wonder he inspired me to write my first novel!

Inspiration for Billy

MR: As above, the idea for The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh came from your son, Lenny, who has a stutter. I’m guessing that Lenny was instrumental in the formulation of Billy’s character. Did he have any specific thoughts and suggestions? Any objections? What did Lenny think of the final product?

HR: He was a HUGE part of the process. I read him each chapter when I’d finished it, and he would let me know when I had really hit the mark. It was such a lovely experience, and offered opportunities for us to talk about things that had happened to him. Also, he told me when things did not work, usually when I used words that “kids just don’t say anymore, Mum!” He really enjoyed hearing the drafts of the story as they developed, and he was an excellent proofreader as his grasp of punctuation and grammar is far better than mine!

When we found out that it was actually going to be published, Lenny was thrilled. He has been involved in TV interviews here in the U.K. and has loved every second of it! He’s much older now, and his stammer has changed a lot. He no longer struggles with it in the same way, and it doesn’t define him like it once did. Because of that, his stutter is not as apparent as it used to be, which gives him more confidence. When it does come back, he realizes that it’s just a tiny part of who his is. I think the story is a great reminder of that.

Creating a Nuanced Antagonist

MR: At school, Billy is bullied mercilessly by a classmate, William Blakemore. I’ve never experienced deliberate cruelty because of my speech disorder, but I could empathize with Billy’s pain and humiliation. As a writer, how do you humanize a bully? What advice would you give to other writers who want to create a nuanced antagonist?

HR: Blakemore’s character grew a lot over the editing process. It took time to get enough of his backstory into the book, in order to give his character depth, without apologizing for his behavior. I didn’t want to hold back on the bullying, to show how brutal and heartbreaking it can be, but I also had to show glimpses of where Blakemore’s bullying behavior came from. For every character, you need to show that their life and personality are complicated, contradictory and nuanced, and to do that they have to do things that are not always expected.

The Joke’s on You

MR: Despite his stutter, Billy dreams about being a comedian when he grows up. His biggest fan is his beloved grandmother, Granny Bread. What is it about comedy—and about the act of telling jokes—that appeals to Billy? For someone who is reluctant to speak in class, telling jokes onstage seems like a herculean task.

HR: The size of the task is what made it so appealing to write. I love an against-all-odds story! Sometimes we are drawn to something that seems beyond our reach for that very reason. I also wanted to show that just because Billy stammers, he still has a lot to say. It’s easy to assume that people who stammer are nervous or shy, and that certainly is not the case with Lenny. He is incredibly confident. He never stopped talking, raising his hand in class, or making his voice heard, however hard it seemed.

Many kids who stammer do withdraw, so I wanted to show in Billy that even though he was tempted to retreat and stay silent, the need to tell jokes and make people respond to him in a positive way had more power. Lenny definitely doesn’t want to be a comedian in real life (he would prefer to be a drummer), but I do know a comedian with a very strong stammer, so when I had the idea of using comedy, I knew it was rooted in reality.

How to Respond to a Stutterer

MR: As a stutterer, Billy is hyperaware of how people react to him when he speaks. He’s even created four categories of listeners: The Encouragers; The Mind Readers; The Jokers; and The Waiters. How did you come up with these categories? Can you tell us a bit about each? Also, what advice would you give to people who interact with a stutterer? What should—and shouldn’t—they do?

HR: This section of the book was Lenny’s favorite. It came from how I had witnessed people responding to him, and he said that it felt like I had climbed inside his head!

The Encouragers do just that; they try and help by telling him to “keep going” or “slow down.” Generally, very kind people, but encouraging is not that far from interrupting and, as it says in the book, “Telling someone to relax when they are clearly struggling is like shouting, ‘Run faster!’ at someone being chased by a tiger.” They would if they could.

Mind Readers finish the sentence, trying to guess what a stammerer is going to say (and often getting it wrong, as far as Billy is concerned).

Jokers mimic the stammerer. I’ve seen this done to Lenny so many times. You may think that it’s just kids who would do this, but I’ve seen more adults do it. I think it’s an attempt to be playful, and I think it happens when a person doesn’t know that it’s a stutter they’re hearing. This is definitely the most shocking response I have witnessed.

Waiters are the best category as far as Billy (and Lenny) are concerned. This is what I would always try to do. It’s harder than you may think. People aren’t the most patient, but it’s a useful skill to practice and I’m grateful to Lenny’s stammer for reminding me to be more patient!

An Actor’s Life Is (not) for Me

MR: Before writing your first novel, you were an actor and stand-up comic. What prompted you to make the switch from acting to writing? Also, can you tell Mixed-Up Files readers about your path to publication?

HR: I loved acting, but after having kids the reality of auditioning and touring lost its appeal. In fact, I started to dread the calls from my agent instead of hoping for them, so I knew it was time for a change. After I had Lenny, I began to write and perform comedy as well as write plays and theater shows. I completely fell in love with writing–more so than any performing I was doing, so when I had the idea for this story, I knew that it was not a theatre show, but a book. It was an exciting moment!

A very quick draft followed, and I realized it was all character and no plot–and so the editing began! I found my wonderful agent and then things went super fast when she sent it out to publishers. After an auction, I was pleased to sign a two-book deal with Scholastic. It felt like I had just the right amount of luck and serendipity, as well as a pretty thick skin!

Writing Rituals

MR: What your writing process like, Helen? Do you have a specific routine or word-count goals? Any writing rituals?

HR: No word count goals; I think that would stress me out! I go and sit in my writing shed in the garden most days after school drop-off, and when the procrastination is out of the way, some writing usually happens.

MR: Finally, what’s next on your writing agenda?

HR: I’m working on book two, which is about a boy called Archie Crumb. He and his mum are really struggling, and just when he thinks things can’t get any worse, he bangs his head and his wishes start coming true! He has no idea if it’s all for real or just a huge set of strange coincidences. I guess, ultimately, the book is about hope, and how we can put positivity out into the universe.

Lightning Round!

MR: Oh! One last thing. No MUF interview is complete without a lightning round, so…

Preferred writing snack? Chocolate, of course!

Coffee or tea? Decaf tea for me. I don’t need to make my brain any busier!

Favorite joke? What did the drummer name his two daughters? Anna One Anna Two.

Zombie apocalypse: Yea or nay? Nay.

Superpower? Flight. No, invisibility. No, flight. No… How about decisiveness?!

Favorite place on earth? My home.

You’re stranded on a desert island, with only three items in your possession. What are they? I am assuming I’m not allowed to say my family or dogs? I’m also assuming that sensible items such as a lighter, water and a boat are not what you’re after either. In which case, I will say suncream, a snorkel/mask, one of those notepads with an attached pencil.

MR: Thank you for chatting with me, Helen—and congratulations on the upcoming publication of The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I know MUF readers will too.

HR: Thanks so much. I am thrilled that you enjoyed the book. Fingers crossed at some point that I can come over to the US and see it in the shops!

And now…

A GIVEAWAY!!!

For a chance to win a copy of The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh, comment on the blog–and, if you’re on Twitter, on the Mixed-Up Files’ Twitter account–for a chance to win!

All About Helen

Helen Rutter lives in the English countryside, just outside Sheffield, with her comedian husband, two children, and two lovely dogs, Ronnie and Billy Whizz. When she is not tapping away in her writing room, she loves walking the dogs, playing board games, and reading. Before writing her first novel, Helen wrote and performed her work on the stage. She has even done some stand-up comedy, and before that she was a jobbing actress. She now much prefers to write the stories than be in them. Learn more about Helen on her website and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

It’s a Bird; It’s a Plane; It’s Drew Brockington’s Metropolis Grove!

By Mimi Powell on April 26, 2021 / Articles, Author Interviews

We sat down with Drew Brockington to talk Catstronauts, comics, cheese, and his new graphic novel, Metropolis Grove, available from DC Comics for Kids on May 4th.

MUF: Hi Drew! I’m really excited to talk to you today because I’m actually a really big fan of Catstronauts and Hangry, which I’ll ask you about in a bit, but first, can you tell us a little bit about Metropolis Grove.

DB: It’s about these three kids who become instant friends in a suburb of Metropolis, Metropolis Grove. The two kids that live there, Duncan and Alex, they’re really skeptical about superheroes. Nothing happens in their small, quiet suburb. It all happens in the big city, and all they see is all this superhero stuff happening online or in the news. So, when Sonia moves from Metropolis to their neighborhood, they’re instant friends, but with Sonia being from the city and having seen Superman, she’s like Superman’s number one fan. She tries to teach them about how cool superheroes are, and they try to teach her about living in the suburbs, exploring the woods, and building a clubhouse. They see Bizarro out in the woods, and everybody assumes that he’s Superman. Sonia, having seen Superman, isn’t so sure, but she doesn’t want to mess up her new friendships. So, she starts keeping secrets.

MUF: That leads right into my next question. Sonia is pretty Superman obsessed. Did you have any favorite superheroes growing up?

DB: Growing up, we had a big collection of the old Super Powers action figures. I was definitely a fan of Batman and Superman growing up. I was really into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as well. That’s actually how I started drawing. I was getting more into the Turtles and learning how to draw them.

MUF: So you got started doing fan art?

DB: Haha, yeah I guess. Back then, I don’t know if the term was fan art, but I was just drawing in my spiral notebook. I remember my brother teaching my how to draw 3-D so that the characters weren’t just flat on the horizon.

MUF: Kind of going back to Metropolis Grove, Sonia’s fish-out-of- water story dovetails nicely with Bizarro’s. Did you choose to write about Bizarro or how did that work?

DB: DC really wanted a story that was not another little Bruce Wayne story or Wonder Woman growing up on the island. They wanted to dig a little deeper into their universe of characters. I came across Bizarro in the animated series, and I remembered him from Superman comics from when I was a kid. I really liked his origin that he was a Superman clone that wasn’t finished and escaped. So, I liked this idea that he’d just broken out of the clone facility and had the idea that he was a hero, but he didn’t know how to go about it.

MUF: I’ve already talked about how much I love Catstronauts and Hangry. You’ve already created these wildly popular characters and worlds. What was it like going into an already established world?

DB: That was a little daunting, and part of the reason of me taking it out of Metropolis and putting it in the suburbs gave me the blank slate so that I could build that world. But there was this point where I was working on it that I realized that they existed in that same universe. It’s a scene where Sonia is doing research on the DailyPlanet.com, and there’s a story by Lois Lane, and it’s as I was writing those lines, I was like “Oh yeah, this in the universe.” So, then I went back and mined the DC Universe for those nuggets to pull in to make it feel like it’s part of the same world, but it’s a new part of a map that you haven’t explored yet. So, that was exciting to dip my toes into.

And the other thing that I wasn’t prepared for that I should have been was that this was a book with humans as opposed to cats like in Catstronauts. So, I had to remind myself how to draw humans, and just because you are drawing a person, there’s a lot more attention you have to pay to the artwork to make it feel more natural. Like no one has ever seen a cat flying a spaceship, but when there’s a kid climbing out of their window, you have a very specific image of what that looks like. So, it was a much more intense art session.

MUF: Did the story come first or the art? What does that process look like?

DB: When I was working on this book, I was writing the outline to the story, but also in my sketchbook, I started trying to figure out who these characters were and what they looked like. The character design happened as the same time that the outline was being written, and as I started writing the script, I do really rough page thumbnails to gauge how the book is gonna be paced. Then, I go back through and revise the thumbnails and tweak the script. When all the words are in the bubbles, I read the words out loud so that it sounds like something a human would say.

MUF: Can you tell us a little bit about your writing journey to this point?

DB: Catstronauts was the first book that I published and it was the first thing I’d written professionally. Before I spent two years working on a graphic novel that was to teach myself how to write graphic novels and explore comics. I also started going to different comic cons and zinefests. I was working on this large graphic novel and also working on all these mini comics. I remember when I got the green light from Little Brown on Catstronauts, and I was like “This is amazing!” A few days later, they came back and wanted four graphic novels, and I was kind of diving in and trying to figure out how these characters were gonna grow in the series. The cast of Catstronauts is really large, and one of the big hurdles is how to further a character’s development when they’re only in the book for a page or two. I started re-watching Star Trek The Next Generation, and that’s a huge ensemble cast, and you have all these little nuggets of characters in the background, and I really took that to heart and put that into practice while working on the Catstronauts books. I’ve now written 6 Catstronauts books, and one picture book, which is another way different genre to write for. When I was working on Hangry, you only have 40 pages to tell your complete story, and word economy is such a big part of picture books. So, every thing you write has to be the word you intend on using, as opposed to Catstronauts where you have room to play. Then, pivoting to work on Metropolis Grove, with these new characters that have to exist in the DC universe, I relied on those lessons from Catstronauts and working with an ensemble. I needed to make sure that when you met these kids, they had a whole childhood before the story.

Someday, I really want to write a story where someone is shipwrecked on a new planet or on an island where it’s one person and they’re all by themselves because everything I’ve drawn lately, like the last Catstronauts had like nine characters that I had to draw, and Metropolis Grove has 3 kids and Bizzarro, and the whole middle school showing up, and it’s like what am I doing to myself.

MUF: I gotta ask because I saw it on your bio. Cheese-eating contests?

DB: My old neighborhood had a big street festival every summer, and the local cheese shop would sponsor a cheese-eating contest. So, I was a part of that for about four years in a row, and my personal best got better every year. They always did New York Cheddar which is a strong, dry cheese, and you had two minutes to eat as much New York Cheddar as you wanted to. My personal best is 9 ounces of New York Cheddar in 2 minutes, and I trained for it. I remember reading how the hot dog people can eat that much, and they do things like swallowing ice cubes to condition their throat and mouth to take bigger gulps and take a sip of water after each bite.

MUF: Do you have any writing or art advice to anyone who is starting out?

DB: If you don’t have a sketchbook, start a sketchbook. It doesn’t even need to be a book. It can just be a folder that you keep all your drawings in. That has been a game changer for me. Seven years ago, I took a self-imposed sabbatical from my graphic design job. And I said, “I’m gonna take a year. I have this graphic novel idea. I have a new sketchbook, and I’m going to draw in it every day.” That was my goal. I just needed to draw something. Some times I’d do drawing prompts from Inktober or random word generators online, and every basically every story has started as doodles in my sketchbook. Catstronauts started as a doodle, and then a joke with a cat holding a fish that says “Prepare for lunch”. I made a comic to help deliver that joke, ad now that joke is in every Catstronauts book.

MUF: What are you working on now?

DB: Right now, I’m working on a picture book called Puppy Bus. It’s about a kid who moves to a new town, and he’s about to get on the bus and go to his new school and accidentally gets on a bus full of puppies and spends the day at obedience school. It’s about how to navigate this new culture you’re in. It’s kind of absurd, but really fun. I just finished the artwork on that, and I’m working on a prequel series for Catstronauts about Waffles when he was a kitten. It’s about how he found the inspiration to become a catstronaut later. It’s called Waffles and Pancake. The first one is Planetary Yum, and it’s coming out in September. Waffles and his sister Pancake go to the science museum with their

dad and see a planetarium show and have lunch in the cafeteria. It’s intended for earlier readers, but Catstronauts readers will find lots of fun Easter eggs and cameos.

MUF: How can people follow you online?

DB: I’m on Twitter and Instagram, and I have the same handle for each. It’s @thebrockart, and I’m constantly posting behind-the-scenes and sketches and things I’m working on. You can follow on there for behind-the-scenes, and every once in a while, I’ll try to do a live drawing.

MUF: That’s so cool! Thank you for sitting down and talking with us today.

DB: It was great to talk to you too.

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