Bin Boy by Tom Vaughn and Emma McCann
We often get to ask authors questions about their books, and sometimes illustrators- but today we get both perspectives. We sent our questions to both Tom and Emma and you can read their responses below!
Fantastically funny, this book is sure to get readers giggling- how important do you feel funny books are for young readers?
Tom Vaughan: I owe the majority of my personality to all the funny books and TV shows I devoured as a kid. They shape how I see the world. When I meet someone who sees the world in the same way, it’s almost like there’s a chemistry. Funny books are a great way of getting kids reading, they are a brilliant form of escapism, but most importantly, they can help you see the fun and the funny in life. Plus, they can be a great source of new fart jokes, which are worth their weight in gold on the mean streets of the playground.
Emma McCann: Oh, massively. If you can make someone laugh, they will relax, they will feel comfortable, and that creates a bond. And I’m a firm believer in laughter being the best medicine; when the world feels like a dark and intimidating place – and it really does right now – a funny book is escapism. When you are reading and laughing you are somewhere else entirely and that laughter can help you through the tough times. Plus, it’s really important to be able to learn to laugh at yourself and not take yourself too seriously – life can be pretty bonkers, after all!
The cast of characters are brilliant- from Phil to the LOVERS- how much fun did you both have in creating these? Tom from a writers perspective and Emma from illustrating them?
Tom: It was a blast. It was as if I stumbled upon a little part of my brain that had been collecting and storing all the rubbish supervillains that were in films and TV shows when I was a kid. Once I’d opened that box, they all came pouring out in weird, wacky new shapes. It was almost as if they’d be in there this whole time, plotting how to get out. I’m very lucky in that I get to watch them being born twice – once when they pop out of my head and onto the page, and then again when Emma draws them. Her illustrations genuinely made me laugh out loud when I first saw them. And I don’t give laffs away for free.
Emma: Tom has written the all characters so well that they pretty much popped in to my head fully-formed! The most enjoyable part of illustrating any book is taking the character descriptions and then pushing them a little so I’m showing something that the text doesn’t specify – look out for Madame Mink’s vampire-like teeth! It’s like I’m showing the pictorial equivalent of a back story – what happened to this character that made them look/dress/stand/arch an eyebrow/pick that awful hairdo like that? I’ve aimed for something a little looser than my other recent work and had loads of fun looking at other creators like Fred Blunt, and Eric Guillon who designed the characters for the Despicable Me and Minions films; I hope I’ve captured some of that zany characterisation. And I always love the opportunity to design an outlandish costume!
Do you have a place where you work best? What are the ideal conditions for getting your deadlines met?
Tom: As an ex-journalist I’m a deadline fiend. If I don’t have one, I just procrastinate. If I have a delivery date, I just need to have peace and quiet and I can work anywhere. But mainly I’m up in my bedroom in our converted attic eagle-eying my kids as they rampage around the garden.
Emma: When I’m working on the rough ideas for the illustrations, I tend to use my iPad and work in an armchair downstairs. It has more of a relaxed vibe which can help the initial ideas ideas flow! Several large pots of tea helps with that, too. When I’m working on the final illustrations I need to use The Mighty Beast – ie my more powerful desktop PC – and that is up in my attic conversion. Then I’m chained to the desk with more tea until it’s done. I’m more of a creative night owl so I’m usually scribbling away once everyone else is in bed.
How have you found the journey to publication with Bin Boy?
Tom: The idea for Bin Boy came to me – almost fully formed – when I was waiting for an elevator one day at work. I finished it in six weeks and then re-drafted it a few times. I think it took me a few months to find my brilliant agent and six months or so after that to get a book deal. Along the way, not everyone who read it found it funny. Which was like a dagger in my heart. But now I’m slightly older and a tiny bit wiser, it makes you realise how subjective reading is. Every equation of reader + book is different and each one has its one unique outcome.
Emma: I was approached at the end of September last year and it took us longer to decide on the front cover than it did to illustrate the rest of the book! The cover is really important to get right and to get finished before all the other illustrations so it can go off in the world and start promoting Bin Boy months before it’s in the shops. I have a whole folder full of cover concepts that poor Liam the designer had gone through before the shiny red and blue cover was the winner! The cover was ready by the end of January this year, and then the rest of the illustrations took a few weeks for roughs in March and the same again for the final artwork in April, and that was me done. I’m sure it was much more long-winded and nerve wracking for Tom!
The book, though funny, deals with important issues in a timely and relevant way- from grief and loss to bullying and blended families. Is it hard to maintain a serious level of writing/illustrating while consciously dealing with the balance of humour and issues?
Tom: The story’s emotional heart is always my starting point. I have to know what my protagonist wants and what they need. The biggest challenge is fitting the laughs and silliness around that so that the two are easy bedfellows. But it’s a challenge I love, and the humour comes from the voices of the different characters. If I wrote all humour without heart, I think the cynical part of me would criticise it for being trite. And if I wrote all heart without humour, the same cynical part would say it was too mushy. So I’ve made a rod for my own back.
Emma: Hmm. That’s a tough question. I think the answer is “no” because humour and issues don’t happen at separate times – they’re always intertwined. If you don’t laugh you cry, as they say. So as were are always all living in a soup of good and bad, light and dark, funny and serious – particularly over the last 18 months or so – that balance is unconscious. And comedy needs tragedy to make those funny bits funnier, and those tragic bits all the more affecting.
Can you share any clues as you anything you are currently working on?
Tom: A new book still centred around families and blended families, still with lots of humour and heart. This one’s a murder mystery, which I’ve always wanted to write. I used to think: how hard can it be? Turns out it’s really hard.
Emma: I am just starting on the rough illustrations for Anisha: Accidental Detective no.4 for Serena Patel and Usborne but if I told you any more about that I’d be in serious trouble….
Can we hope for more from Bin Boy?
Tom: I’d like to hope so. At present, he’s been cryogenically frozen while I work on the above.
But there are so many great characters in there that I’d love to come back to it and I have ideas where I can take them all.
Emma: I reeeeally hope so. This one has been so much fun to work on I’d love to do it again!
The addiction to PholaCola is a great addition to the story- is there anything you cannot live without?
Tom: Bread (the food). Also bread (money), but that’s obvious and I don’t need loads, just enough to pay the mortgage and buy lots of bread (the food).
Emma: Please see my tea addiction above.
If you could be a superhero- what would you call yourself and how would your costume look?
Tom: I think a USP is everything with superheroes, so I’d like my superpower to be firing jam out of my fingertips. Or marmalade. I’ve never seen that done before, and you need canny branding to stand out in a crowded superhero marketplace. I’d be called Jam Man or Condiment Guy or something and I’d sell advertising space on my cape to condiment companies, providing a secondary revenue stream. I also feel like there’s a Hartley’s tie in waiting to be done as well. Basically, I’d like to be a superhero that retires early after selling out commercially.
Emma: I came up with an alter ego a few years ago called Red Velvet – master baker by day and crime fighter by night. I would wear all red with a huge cape covered in glittery cake sprinkles, and have loads of gadgets like an icing pump full of super sticky buttercream to glue my enemies to the floor, and cookie cutter ninja stars. I think I need to illustrate this now……
Bin Boy is available now from all book retailers for £7.99. It is published by Scholastic UK.
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!