1. What initially drew you to comics?
Like many kids back in the pre-internet, prehistoric era of the 1970s, I honed my reading skills through ravenous devouring of the daily and Sunday ‘funny pages’ and comic books. So when I first picked up a pencil, what in our wide, inspiring world did I want to draw? Superheroes and characters of course! I don’t have much art from my youth, but luckily my mom saved some of my attempts at Batman from when I was 5 or 6.
2. What do comics allow you to do as a storyteller?
I can literally create worlds! Well, fictional planets at least, as in my upcoming series ROVER AND SPECK (Kids Can Press). Both for interest’s sake, and for educational variety (shh, don’t tell kids that they may learn a thing or two), my roving explorers visit a new, very different imagined planet in each book. In book one, they encounter stone-creatures on a rocky setting inspired by Mars. In book 2, they’ll be splashing down on a water world. And in book 3, I’m trying something more novel, and having them encounter life on a gas giant (inspired by a wild hypothesis by Carl Sagan). Luckily, no matter how exotic the setting or how complicated the effects, an entire world in comics can be budgeted for the price of some pencils and paper.
3. Please tell us about your creative process.
Unlike many illustrators and cartoonists, I do all the writing (text and dialogue) first. This seems to be my pattern for not just for my graphic novels, but my chapter book series BEEP AND BOB (Aladdin/Simon & Schuster) and a picture book I’m currently working on as well. Stories and characters come to me in words. I don’t even do character sketches until late in the game! Once the text is set, though, I have a lot of fun with layout and visually bringing the characters to life.
4. Where can we find more information about your work?
At www.beepandbob.com (which also directs from www.jonathan-roth.com). I also love to talk about my creative process at schools, libraries and festivals (inquiries to speak always welcome!)
5. Would you like to highlight any particular work to tell us about?
Book 1 of ROVER AND SPECK comes out this October 4 and I hope kids like it! I’m also having a ball working on a picture book that ties into my usual space theme but is very different than anything I’ve done (non-fiction, drawing over historical photos). This one hasn’t been officially announced yet, but once it is I’ll be able to share more.
Thank you so much for giving me a chance to talk shop!
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