Continuing our coverage of the upcoming “Howtoons [Re]ignition” from Image Comics, we have a conversation with writer Fred Van Lente and artist Tom Fowler about everything [Re]ignition. Spinning out of the educational science web-comic “Howtoons” from Nick Dragotta, Joost Bonsen, Ingrid Dragotta and Saul Griffith, [Re]ignition pairs Van Lente and Fowler with colorist Jordie Bellaire and letterer Rus Wooten to take the world of “HowToons” and blow it up into a full story while still incorporating all of the scientific wonder from “HowToons” proper.
It’s an amazing looking book, and Van Lente and Fowler give us some insight into what we might be able to expect from this mini-series. Take a look, and make sure to pre-order this book when you get the chance.
HowToons is a brilliant endeavor that is incredibly unique, and I love that it teaches people of all ages about science in a very visual, fun way. For the two of you, what appealed to you about the project, and how did the idea of bringing it to print at Image first come together?
FVL: This has been a passion project of Nick’s and his wife, Ingrid’s, as well as Saul Griffith’s, for many years now — I think it predates even Nick’s work for Marvel and DC.
After that foray into mainstream comics, Nick really wanted to get HowToons up and running, and felt like bringing in an outside writer would be helpful. We had great fun doing Marvel Zombies and Web of Spider-Man and other comics together, and so he and Ingrid asked if I’d be involved. I love non-fiction comics — as anyone who’s read me and Ryan’s Action Philosophers, Action Presidents and Comic Book History of Comics knows — and I had never done anything with the sciences, and I jumped at the opportunity to work with Nick again.
They flew me out to San Francisco, where Saul Griffith’s think tank has this amazing laboratory in an old 19th century organ factory (as in pipe factory) in a quiet neighborhood downtown. Talk about bringing HowToons to life — they had a water laser there that cut through six inches of steel, and robots made of cardboard and small connecting cyber-parts could carry around in Leifeldian belt pouches and all sorts of other crazy stuff.
The four of us sat in Saul’s office and hashed out what became the (Re)Ignition storyline over a couple days, hitting all the points of the story, and all the projects and aspects of energy literacy we wanted the reader to absorb. Really the whole story came together in the better part of the week.
At the time, Nick was finishing Marvel’s FF, but said there was a creator-owned project Jonathan Hickman wanted him to do, a science fiction thing. And once East of West hit big, that kind of monopolized all of Nick’s time, and HowToons got put on the back burner, which, of course, I totally understood.
And I guess I’ll let Tom take the story from there….?
TF: I guess I first heard about HowToons from Nick and Ingrid the night i met them/crashed on their sofa after I’d flown to San Francisco for a signing, having not set up anywhere to stay that night. Over the next couple of years, I kept running into Nick at conventions and we’d casually talk about maybe me doing 8 pages here and there.
I’d always say: “hey, call me”, but Nick and I would both get busy and not really pursue it.
In the closing moments NYCC this last year, we were walking past each other (coincidentally as Nick was leaving the show and I was reentering to collect Fred for dinner) and I brought it up again. By this point, it’d become kind of a casual joke between us. “Hey, let me know if you ever want me to do one of those educational books.”
Nick stopped, and with a crooked smile said: “you know, how’d you like to do a graphic novel?”
He pitched it to me right there and I took the job. Fred filled me in on all the story details later that night over dinner. It was all one of those weird little magical moments that make comic conventions still worth going to.
Continued below
Digitally, HowToons were one page comics that found Celine and Tucker walking readers how to do any number of fun, science-y things. [re]ignition is going to expand on the idea greatly into a full print comic. What can we expect from this book, and how are you expanding the world of HowToons into a full comic?
FVL: In (Re)Ignition Tuck and Celine’s parents anticipate a coming ecological apocalypse and put their family to sleep deep underground with the hopes of riding it out. At some unspecified point in the future they wake up when their bunker runs out of power — and their parents have mysteriously disappeared. So these two kids have to embark on a quest through the brave and dangerous new world they find to be reunited with their mom and dad — and they have to use the gadgeteering and project-making skills to survive and battle the many strange things and people they encounter. And the reader can make those very same projects at home!
TF: Fred’s script is fantastic. It’s just everything I wanted it to be when he and Nick were filling me in on the plot. My work now is to, as seamlessly as possible, work the projects into the layouts. I think we’ve found a neat way to do it. Keeping them readable but still working them into the excitement of the narrative.
Rest assured, though, every experiment and project will get thoroughly vetted by my six year old son.
This isn’t always the best question for all-ages comics, as it’s not like there is a magical formula to making them work, but how does your approach change when you’re working on something like HowToons, especially when you’re factoring in the more educational aspects of the book?
FVL: Oh, it doesn’t vary all that much. Kids want to be entertained, they don’t want to be talked down to. They appreciate humor maybe a little more than their adult counterparts… Too many grownups identify comedy with un-seriousness, but children know better. That’s going to help us quite a bit conveying some of the messages we need to in HowToons.
TF: I tend to approach every project the same way, which is to try and translate the material as clearly as possible to the readers. In this case the characters and situations are a bit broader so I can slide my scale in that direction to make everything hit the way it’s supposed to, but also keep all the detail necessary to sell the projects within the book. It’s a fun balancing act. For the most part I’m going back and looking at the books that informed my comics development when I was a kid, most notably ASTERIX. I’ve been talking to Jordie about keeping things fresh and simple to further that goal.
Tuck and Celine are very fun and engaging leads, but they’ve never really had the chance to be really developed given the nature of HowToons. When it comes to developing them into more fully realized characters, how did you work with the rest of the HowToons team in doing that? Was that mostly on you, or was that part of the powwow you had mentioned before?
FVL: It’s definitely something we talked about as a group, but it was something that never really coalesced for me — and it never does — until I had to write lines for them. Celine is older, expected to be more practical and responsible, but has a bit of a temper. Tuck’s “on” switch is permanently jammed open, and he’s constantly making bad, impulsive decisions, but he has a creativity that that lets him come up with instantly novel solutions to problems. They’re a great, fun, bickering contrast — as siblings often are!
Tom, we’ve seen your character sketches for Tuck and Celine, and I love the look of them, as they fit into your strengths of making very real characters who feel expressive and energetic without falling into caricature. Obviously Fred is a great character writer. How does working with two characters like Tuck and Celine, as well as a writer like Fred, play to your strengths as an artist, as well as challenge you?
Continued belowTF: Well, as I mentioned, it’s really that balancing act of keeping them fairly broad and yet maintaining all the detail in the world surrounding them, so that everything still feels more genuine to the reader. I was lucky to have my first real introduction to the characters be Fred’s script. they’re pretty much all there. All I have to do is add a little flourish.
I know Saul, for one, was an MIT student that Nick had met, and that Nick himself had a lot of interest in the sciences. For you, what was your science background? Just a general enthusiast, or is it something you have more background with? Is your full title secretly Dr. Fred Van Lente?
FVL: That is, actually, my father’s full name — he was a biochemist; his father was a chemist. So science is something that runs in my family, even though I’m all thumbs when it comes to a microscope…
What about you Tom? Are you a science fiend as well, or are you having to pick up a lot as you’re working on the series?
TF: Not a fiend, but certainly an admirer. I love seeing news articles about hidden arctic lakes, South American crystal caverns, working laboratory grown ears, etc…there’s so much exciting, neat stuff out there. I’m just happy to hopefully be taking part in sparking that interest in the kids who’ll read this book.
One of the biggest difficulties (I have to imagine) – and most unique properties – of this project is integrating projects and experiments into the storytelling. How much does that change your approach on this versus other books you’ve worked on, and for the both of you, how thrilling is it to bring something like that to life with your work? It seems like it would be a really rewarding experience as a creator.
FVL: Well, here the plot we’ve chosen is one that really helps us out. One of the hallmarks of the post-apocalypse genre is characters scraping by using the detritus of society, and so many of the How Toons projects involve re-constituting PVC pipe, old soda bottles, pieces-parts from other electronics, and so on … so really incorporating these projects into this particular storyline has been a breeze.
TF: I’ve always said that all art is problem solving. I’m eager to get into the mechanics of the book and the narrative to find ways to integrate the projects, but keep them relevant to the narrative and keep the flow of the book moving. The actual project diagrams worry me a little, but Nick is going to be there to help out and hold my hand throughout.
