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This morning over at Kirkus<\/em>, I take a look at two picture book debuts. These are debuts in the sense that they come from two illustrators who previously have not written their own books. Yup, they’re branching out on their own now, both writing and illustrating for the first time, and I happen to think the results are good. The link is here<\/a><\/strong> this morning. <\/p>\n Last week<\/a><\/strong>, I posted an abbreviated Q & A with George O’Connor<\/a><\/strong>, the creator of the Olympians<\/a><\/strong><\/em> series from First Second Books. These are graphic novels about the gods and goddesses of Greek mythology, and O’Connor loads ’em up with vibrant art, snappy dialogue, and rip-roarin\u2019 action. <\/p>\n Below is the full interview (and just below here is George at his computer, “trying to look busy,” he says), complete with some illustrations and sketches. I thank George for stopping by. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: I’ve read in more than one review that these Olympians<\/em> titles are great for so-called reluctant readers. Your thoughts on that?<\/font> <\/p>\n George<\/font><\/strong>: I think that\u2019s great. The combination of pictures and words makes for an incredibly valuable teaching tool. From my own experience, I grew up reading comics strips, like Bloom County<\/a><\/strong><\/em> and Calvin and Hobbes<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, that used some immensely sophisticated vocabulary that could have gone way over my head, but the combo of pictures and context helped me to read well above the level I would have been capable of otherwise. <\/p>\n I think a lot of readers who might look at a block of written text will dismiss it as too difficult to read, but might read the exact same text spread out over a graphic novel\u2014that was kind of the whole idea behind my first graphic novel, Journey into Mohawk Country<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, which used as its sole text the complete journal of Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert, a 17th century Dutch explorer. His text was always out there—anyone could find it and read it—but I think a lot more people have read it as a graphic novel than would have otherwise.<\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: How do you feel about the resurgence in the past several years of graphic novel titles, which seem to be more popular than ever?<\/font><\/p>\n George<\/font><\/strong>: I\u2019m not sure “resurgence” is the term I\u2019d use \u2014 it makes it sound as if graphic novels had previously reached this level and retreated. Like you said, they seem to be more popular than ever. They\u2019ve moved into uncharted territory regarding their mainstream popularity and acceptance, particularly by librarians and teachers. Is “surgence” a word?<\/p>\n So, with that being said, I love it. I grew up always wanting to be a creator of both comics and picture books, but when the time came to try and break in to the business, I went for picture books first, because comics as a medium seemed to have a hard time being taken seriously. For so many years, the only way to make a viable living at it was to draw superhero books. (Not that there\u2019s anything wrong with them.) Now, in incredibly short order (and I credit this largely to the teachers and librarians coming aboard), comics have blossomed into this amazing field that just a few years ago would have seemed impossible. I feel very fortunate to be making comics at this point of time, when such a wide variety of subjects and styles are being explored and published. It\u2019s a new golden age, comics-wise.<\/p>\n George<\/font><\/strong>: Wow, that can really depend. At heart, there is probably nothing in this world I love more than writing and drawing about the Greek myths. I, like many little boys, had always loved to draw pictures of muscle men fighting monsters, and when I was first introduced to the myths in fourth grade, they, by default, became my favorite thing to draw — and have pretty much remained that way until now. I\u2019m also like the geekiest guy you\u2019ll ever meet (and I mean that in a good way) and I just love hiding all these little Easter eggs in my books to reward the careful readers. There\u2019s a lot more stuff in each volume of Olympians<\/em> than is even spelled out in my “G However, trying to distill these old, wonderful stories into approximately 65 pages of comics—with a point-of-view, and a story arc, and relatable characters, etc., etc.—well, sometimes, that is incredibly difficult. When the story flows out of me easily, like it did when I wrote Zeus: King of the Gods<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, it\u2019s indescribably wonderful \u2014 there\u2019s a sort of magic in it. I can feel the story come together. Connections form between the threads of these old tales that I didn\u2019t realize were to be found going in, and it strengthens the whole story. <\/p>\n On the other hand, other times that magic is harder to find. I\u2019m experiencing a bit of that right now as I work on the fifth Olympians<\/em> book, Poseidon: The Yet to be Subtitled<\/em>. Just yesterday, with pretty much the whole book laid out in thumbnails, I came to the long overdue realization that the story just wasn\u2019t where I wanted it to be. I had to make some brutal cuts, jettisoning a few sequences THAT I REALLY WANTED TO DRAW, DARN IT, repurposing some other parts, and totally changing the narrator. I think it\u2019s going to work better now, but it\u2019s maybe too soon to tell. Writing is the hardest part of the whole bookmaking experience for me, no doubt. <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: What is your research like for each title?<\/font><\/p>\n George<\/font><\/strong>: At the beginning of a new book, I spend like a month or two just reading all the original sources I can that pertain to the god or goddess in question. I am very well versed in Greek mythology in general, but there\u2019s always new things to learn or old misconceptions to clear up by reading the original writings. A lot of what we think we know about the Greek gods has been caricaturized by later retellings of the myths \u2014 these characters are some much bigger, so much more expansive when you read about them in the context of the societies that really believed in them.<\/p>\n After all that reading, I spend another couple of months doodling key scenes and writing snippets of script until something approaching a cohesive story starts to materialize out of the jumble. I really like to let my books steep for a long time in the stew of research. <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Tell me about your medium-of-choice on these Olympians<\/em> titles.<\/font><\/p>\n George<\/font><\/strong>: I have a healthy mix of old-school and new technology coming together to create the artwork for Olympians<\/em>. All of the original artwork is drawn in pencil and then inked with pens and brushes on Bristol plate. The size of the original artwork is maybe 10\u201d by 15\u201d or so and includes hand-drawn dialogue bubbles but not panel borders. I scan this artwork and add the colors and panel borders (as well as correct any glaring artwork errors) in Photoshop. I give these files, and First Second designer Colleen Venable lays the text into the hand drawn bubbles, and it\u2019s done.<\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: What’s next for you? Will there be more Olympians<\/em> titles after Hades<\/em>? Any more picture books or (non-Olympians<\/em>) graphic novels in the works for you?<\/font><\/p>\n George<\/font><\/strong>: Well, if all goes according to plan, there will be twelve total books in the Olympians<\/em> series. As I already mentioned, I\u2019m hard at work on book 5, Poseidon<\/em>, to be followed up by Aphrodite<\/em>. I also have a couple of picture books coming out from Candlewick Press, If I Had a Triceratops<\/em> and If I Had a Raptor<\/em>, that both play on my other great childhood obsession, dinosaurs, and that I\u2019m very excited about. The first of those is supposed to be coming out some time next year.<\/p>\n All images are copyright \u00a9 George O’Connor and reproduced with his permission. All OLYMPIANS titles published by First Second Books, New York.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Olympians group shot(Click to enlarge) This morning over at Kirkus, I take a look at two picture book debuts. These are debuts in the sense that they come from two illustrators who previously have not written their own books. Yup, they’re branching out on their own now, both writing and illustrating for the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-intermediate","category-blogger-interviews","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/p>\nJules<\/font><\/strong>: I love all the source notes at the close of each Olympians<\/em> title (the “Gr<\/del>eek Notes”), and School Library Journal<\/em> even wrote about Athena<\/em>: “The author’s affection for his subject is evident in a chatty note.” Are they as fun to write as they look?<\/font><\/p>\nr<\/del>eek Notes.” If I listed everything I included in a book, the Gr<\/del>eek Notes would be, like, twice as long at least.<\/p>\n
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Page (without text) from<\/em> Zeus: King of the Gods<\/a><\/strong> (First Second, 2010)<\/em>
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and exchanged their vows.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<\/a>
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(First Second, July 2011)<\/em>
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