Poo Crew Adventures Q&A
We love a Q&A on the FCBG blog, especially when both author and illustrator get involved. James Turner and Steve May are the duo behind Poo Crew Adventures, a new graphic novel series and we are so pleased they found time to answer our questions.
Steve: Well, because poo is the most important thing in the world OBVIOUSLY! I was actually approached by the publisher to draw the book & my initial reaction was “You want me to draw a book about WHAT?!?!” But upon seeing James’ (Turner – the writer) brilliant initial text I realised how much fun we could have doing the book! It’s also something that secretly everyone’s inner child finds funny – something that you’re not usually supposed to mention which adds to the fun. The attraction of books like this (& something like Fungus the Bogeyman when I was a kid) is the slightly forbidden nature of the subject which makes it much funnier!
James: I think books that are all facts can be a bit boring, so I made it a rule – for every fact there has to be at least one joke! And with Ploppy’s mischievous character it was always easy to think of a silly thing for him to say every time the professor tries to be serious!
Steve: I think the joke / fact content works perfectly – you enjoy the story & the hilarious situations so much that you completely forget that you’re actually LEARNING THINGS! There was a balance between when I could just go crazy with the drawings & occasionally draw something approaching a proper diagram.
James: Graphic novels can be a great stepping stone for struggling readers because all the images help you understand the action even if you’re having difficulty with the words – and then that helps and encourages them to understand what the words are saying!
Steve: There’s something immediate about graphic novels, & for less confident readers even if you can’t read every word you can still usually follow & enjoy the stories. The pictures draw you in & encourage you to want to read more. I started off reading Batman comics when I could barely read but I loved the comics so much it made me really WANT to be able to read more!
Steve: What’s great about these characters is that Professor Poo & Ploppy could go ANYWHERE – so who knows (but we do have some dinosaurs at the end of the book which would be rather fun to draw!)
Steve: I was quite lazy & left James & the rest of the gang to most of the reference but there were lots of visual things I needed to do reference on. I know a 1975 Armitage Shanks toilet when I see one now!
Steve; Possibly that wombats do SQUARE poos! How cool is that?!?!
Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Federation.