Interview: Eric Wight

On Sunday, May 8th, while attending the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, I ran around to as many of my favorite kids comics creators as I could and asked them all the exact same questions.  Keep in mind, conventions are crazy loud and crazy busy, so there is a lot of background noise.  Let me know in the comments if you have trouble hearing anything and I’ll translate for you.

The first Eric Wight book I read was My Dead Girlfriend.  I didn’t expect to like it.  I am a snob after all, and a cartoony, horrorish romance about an undead significant other?  Been there, done that.   (And this was before the Twilight machine was fully in motion.)   But My Dead Girlfriend was cute!  And funny!  And kind of horrorish!  And how tragic that the Tokyopop OEL manga program disappeared before we got book two.

But all is not lost!  Eric has a new series about Frankie Pickle, imaginator extraordinaire.  Esther reviewed the first two books in this comics/prose hybrid series.  As for me, and this is a true story, I had a mom literally stop me on the street (no, really, she put out her hand and forced me to halt) to tell me how much her son loved the Frankie Pickle books.  She wanted to know when the next book would be out.  Date and time, people.  She wanted the date and time.  I smiled weakly, told her I’d get back to her, and sent Eric a message.  (The release date for Frankie Pickle and the Mathematical Menace is July 26.  Times may vary.)

Books mentioned in this video:

• Sidekicks, by Dan Santat
• Lunch Lady series, by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
• Babymouse: Cupcake Tycoon, by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm
• Storm in the Barn, by Matt Phelan
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon

Filed under: Interviews, Uncategorized