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<\/a>Welcome to 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks, a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. <\/p>\nI think it’s been a while since I’ve showcased comics or graphic-novel art here at 7-Imp, so today I’m checking in with Neil Numberman<\/strong><\/a> and Aaron Reynolds<\/strong><\/a>, who have created Creepy Crawly Crime<\/strong><\/em><\/a> (Henry Holt, April 2009), the first title in a new series, called Joey Fly (Private Eye)<\/em>, which Kirkus<\/em> calls an “auspicious series kick-off”<\/em> and Publishers Weekly<\/em> called in their starred review “a wowser of a debut.”<\/em> Pictured here is Joey, about to begin his work-day. You can click on the image to enlarge and read the text. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As I type this, I’m still reading. (Well, I’m not holding the book in one hand and typing with another, but you know what I mean.) And I’m enjoying it. And I’m thinking someone could pair this title up with this<\/strong><\/a>, The Real Spy’s Guide to Becoming a Spy<\/em> by Peter Earnest<\/strong><\/a> (the founding executive director of the International Spy Museum) and Suzanne Harper<\/strong><\/a>, which I’ve also seen a copy of and which was released in October by Abrams, and make detective wannabe-kids quite happy this holiday season. (Free tip there, if you know any children like that.) <\/p>\n Aaron:<\/font><\/strong> I start by writing a script, rather than a traditional manuscript. It has what the characters say, \u201cstage directions\u201d about the action, everything you would see in a script for a play. I come from a theatre background, so when I first started writing graphic novels a few years ago with Tiger Moth, Insect Ninja<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, I was delighted to find out that it was something I was intimately familiar with\u2026a script! It is this final script that I hand over to my publisher, just like any other book. From there, she hands it off to Neil. <\/p>\n That\u2019s your cue to take over, Neil\u2026<\/p>\n Neil:<\/font><\/strong> Oh, hello there! Well, I\u2019m given the final script, which I then break down into little drawings that are so poor only I can tell what\u2019s going on. These drawings are called thumbnails, probably due to them being the size of a thumbnail! They\u2019re artistic notes that help me decide how to pace the book, where each word balloon should end up, and a rough composition of each panel. From there, I begin the sketching stage, which is the part with the most research. I like that I get to simultaneously look up ridiculous-looking insects and film-noir-style compositions. <\/p>\n After the sketches are approved, I finally get to do the finishes, where I trace the sketches to get a much cleaner line and color them in the computer. <\/p>\n Aaron:<\/font><\/strong> I\u2019ve never told Neil this, but when I first saw the sketches of Joey<\/em>\u2026I did not like them at all! The guy didn\u2019t have any pupils in his eyeballs! How do you have a main character with NO PUPILS IN HIS EYEBALLS! But my editor and Neil assured me that it would not limit his emotional range as a character at all. In fact, at my editor\u2019s request, to soothe any doubts I had, Neil drew twenty versions of Joey Fly<\/em> in various emotional states. I was sold. Anybody who could make a character so funny and full of possibilities with no pupils and NO MOUTH had my vote. In the end, they were right, of course. Neil\u2019s take on the characters and the world of the book was wonderful, edgy, and exciting. Neil was the perfect choice for the book. It couldn\u2019t have been better, and I was once again reminded that there\u2019s a reason that editors choose the illustrators, not the author. There\u2019s a reason the process works the way it does. I\u2019m so proud of the way the book turned out, and I can\u2019t imagine Joey any other way.<\/p>\n Neil:<\/font><\/strong> Do you remember the drawing I slipped in there of Joey with pupils? It didn\u2019t look terrible, but he did lose a lot of his mysteriousness and personality. <\/p>\n Jules:<\/font><\/strong> You guys have both worked on picture books as well as graphic novels, right? Different process?<\/p>\n Neil:<\/font><\/strong> Picture books, compared to graphic novels, are much less time-consuming. Not including the writing of my latest picture book, Do Not Build a Frankenstein!<\/strong><\/em><\/a> {Greenwillow Books, July 2009}, it only took me about a month-and-a-half to complete the artwork. In a picture book, the most art you can fit is usually thirty to forty paintings, whereas in a graphic novel like Joey Fly<\/em>, there\u2019s six or seven pieces of art per page, and ninety pages, so around six hundred different pieces of art that need composing, sketching, and coloring! It took me almost two years to complete the artwork for Joey Fly<\/em>!<\/p>\n A lot more care must go into each page of a picture book, though, because often times you have to make one painting really speak for an entire chunk of the story. <\/p>\n Jules:<\/font><\/strong> What\u2019s next, guys?<\/p>\n Aaron:<\/font><\/strong> Well, there is more Joey<\/em> on the way. Even now, Neil is illustrating the second book. I also have a new picture book in the works, called Evil Carrots<\/em>, about a bunny that thinks he\u2019s being stalked by sinister root vegetables.<\/p>\n Neil:<\/font><\/strong> Yep, I\u2019m currently in the middle of working on Joey Fly 2<\/em>! And it is, hands down, the most fun I\u2019ve ever had being an artist. The script is solid gold!<\/p>\n Thanks to Aaron and Neil for stopping by. Boring But Very Necessary Copyright Info: <\/p>\n CREEPY CRAWLY CRIME (JOEY FLY, PRIVATE EYE). Text copyright \u00a9 2009 by Aaron Reynolds. Illustrations copyright \u00a9 2009 by Neil Numberman. Published by Henry Holt, New York, NY. Reproduced by permission of the author and illustrator.<\/em><\/p>\n 2). Maria Tatar’s<\/strong><\/a> newest book, Enchanted Hunters: The Power of Stories in Childhood<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. I’d just like to follow her around and learn from her. But now I sound like a stalker. And I just<\/em> figured out that she blogs<\/strong><\/a>. I had no idea.<\/p>\n 3). Grace Lin<\/strong><\/a> had me tuning into The Today Show<\/em> on Friday. Love that book<\/strong><\/a>. Woo hoo! Seven cheers for Grace!<\/p>\nNumberman uses blues, sepia tones, and some yellow to illustrate this noir-tale spoof of a fly detective, living in a city of insects, and his new assistant, a rather clumsy scorpion named Sammy Stingtail. A beautiful butterfly, named Delilah, hires them to solve a crime involving a magic pencil box, friendship, and a little bit of jealousy. Booklist<\/em> writes, “Young readers will be amused by this noir-type story filled with classic detective dialogue and swarms of insect humor. The plot, characters, and setting in this graphic novel are all inspired from the novels of hardboiled-detective legends Hammett<\/strong><\/a> and Chandler<\/strong><\/a>, but Reynolds expertly injects a buggy layer of hilarious high jinks. Numberman takes it one step further by using the dark color schemes most associated with film noir combined with clean, detailed art. Kids will get caught in the web of this classic mystery cleverly disguised as a simple bug\u2019s tale.”<\/em> <\/p>\nBut I digress. Back to Joey Fly<\/em>…When I asked Aaron how this graphic novel came about, he said, “I love goofy mysteries (probably due to a steady diet of ‘Scooby Doo’ during my formative years), and I love bugs, so a smash-up of the two seemed natural. One day the title popped into my head, and I went from there. At that time it was called Joey Off, Private Fly<\/em> and was just a grain of an idea, but it sprouted as I wrote and took off.” I also asked both Aaron and Neil about their process, as well as a couple more questions: <\/p>\n<\/a>
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\nAaron:<\/font><\/strong> The writing is totally different. A graphic novel really gives you room to move and stretch out. You can develop a story, include stage directions about action, characters, descriptions that aren\u2019t in the writing and that will never be read as part of the story. It really lets you create a VISION for the end product that the illustrator will then take and interpret. Picture books are a blast, but a much more constricting medium. You only have so many words to work with, and the story has to be lean and taut, funny and quirky, but still a story, all in those few words. You also are very limited as to how much you can show or express about the visuals, because the illustrations are totally the illustrator\u2019s turf most of the time. That can be hard, but you learn to open your hands and let go. Even though Neil and I never spoke during the creation of Joey Fly<\/em>, it felt like we were partners from the beginning, like I had an opportunity to cast a vision to him, to pitch the story to him through my script. You don\u2019t always feel that way with a picture book. So much is up for interpretation.<\/p>\n
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\n1). Remember this interview<\/strong><\/a> with the fabulous DiTerlizzis? They are so kind: They sent me a pair of the sunglasses that Angela’s wearing in that opening photo. Here I am wearing them, the closest you’ll ever see me get to a Glamour Shot. (And, since my oldest wanted to wear them, they might<\/em> make it into this year’s Christmas photo. We never manage to get normal photos.)<\/p>\n