Interview: J. Torres
On May 4th through 6th, 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, exhibit halls are crazy loud and crazy busy (even when they’re held in a library), 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.
Here’s the thing about J. Torres. The guy is everywhere. He’s done superheroes. He’s done high school comedies. He’s done moody atmospheric ghost stories. He’s even humanized Big Foot. As if this weren’t enough, he’s got three new books either out or about to be out. J. Torres is like the Nora Roberts of kids graphic novels! (Okay, that might be pushing it, but seriously, the guy has written a LOT of books.) He carved out time to come to TCAF, where I grabbed the chance to talk with him. I got lucky, because the next day he came down with a horrible case of Con Crud. I just hope it wasn’t my fault…
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Books mentioned in this video:
- Smile, by Raina Telgemeier
- Astronaut Academy, by Dave Roman (see Raina’s and Dave’s interview here)
- Friends With Boys, by Faith Erin Hicks
- Level Up, by Gene Luen Yang and Thien Pham (see Gene’s and Thien’s interview here)
- The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, by Bill Watterson
Filed under: Interviews

About Eva Volin
Eva Volin is the Supervising Children's Librarian for the Alameda Free Library in California. She has written about graphic novels for such publications as Booklist, Library Journal, ICv2, Graphic Novel Reporter, and Children & Libraries. She has served on several awards committees including the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Michael L. Printz Award, and the Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics. She served on YALSA's Great Graphic Novels for Teens committee for three years and is currently serving on ALSC's Notable Books for Children committee.
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