Middle Grade Ninja Episode 174: Author Mat Heagerty and Illustrator Sam Owen

To watch new episodes as they air, go to my YouTube channel and subscribe.

For shorter clips, subscribe to the Middle Grade Ninja YouTube channel.

Middle Grade Ninja is available on Anchor, Spotify,  Stitcher, Amazon, itunes, Podbean, RadioPublic,  Listen Notes, and many other fine locations.

Mat Heagerty, Sam Owen, and I discuss the process for their collaboration on their new graphic novel, LUMBERJACKULA. We talk about scripting and paneling, how they make creative suggestions for revision without overstepping, and how publishing with a larger traditional publisher differs from a small, independent press. We also discuss how they got their start in comics, how to encourage children without pressuring them, some favorite graphic novels, a haunted storeroom, Garfield as a Dune character, and so much more.

Mat Heagerty is a comic book writer, rad dad, and all around chipper dude living in Boise, ID. Mat’s dyslexic, and struggled a bunch in school, but now he writes rad comics like 'Lumberjackula' (Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers), ‘Martian Ghost Centaur' (Oni Press ), ‘Unplugged and Unpopular' (Oni Press) and the forthcoming graphic novels... 'Jaywalker' (Oni Press 2022), and 'Indoor Kid' (Oni Press 2023). 

Sam Owen is a freelance comic artist and character designer with a focus on making fantasy and science-fiction art geared towards young adults and kids. He’s also the artist for Lumberjackula, a middle-grade graphic novel coming July 2022 from Simon Kids.

http://www.matheagerty.com/

https://dsoart.com/