Broken Frontier

This is an Inter-Review—a review and an interview in one!

Today we speak with rising-star scrivener Dwight L. MacPherson and artist Worth  Gowell, the team behind the new all-ages mystery adventure book, Kid Houdini and the Silver Dollar Misfits!  Volume 1 was released August 6^th by Viper Comics for a $9.95 cover price, and can be ordered now at Amazon.com.

And be sure to sample the free 22-page preview (that link’s a 7mb PDF download) of the GN!

In PART ONE we discussed the book’s evolution from webcomic to graphic novel, and also of its appeal to both children and all-ages readership. We now delve into the book’s mystery angle and artwork.

Broken Frontier Review: Kid Houdini differentiates itself from all other kid-friendly fare (at least those currently on the racks), by tackling a genre which, in recent years, seems to have dwindled to the point of winking out entirely—the child-sleuth mystery serial. Once upon a time there were hundreds of Hardy Boys (for the boys) and Nancy Drew (for the girls, though I admit I hardly distinguished and read her adventures, too), and no matter that Nancy had a successful movie adaptation only a year ago, the presence of these types of stories on paper are notably non-existent, save for the occasional reprint or attempted continuation of the above mentioned properties, though they’re always short-lived.

Joyously, Kid Houdini does manage to capture the lion’s share of what drew me to such stories when I was young. There’s that ludicrous (to an adult, though for a child, thrilling) notion of kids getting in way over their heads and having to uncover what the adults themselves cannot, due to that horrible reality which children, as children, never quite grasp—that adults are flawed and ignorant and even incompetent. There’s also an underhanded lesson, a broadening of the mind that kids would fight tooth and nail and tooth again, if only they noticed it was happening at all.  Kid Houdini, inbetween its enchanting parts, offers lessons of the world, of people and social skills, ethics, and most heavily history, sugar-coated with a Goonies-like spirit that never allows for the sillier aspects to be questioned, such is the self-fueled enthusiasm of this book’s child-inspired self-confidence. Just the way whoever-it-was that wrote the Hardy Boys used to make ‘em!

BROKEN FRONTIER: Which of the child-sleuth mystery books were your favorites as kids?

DWIGHT MACPHERSON: Oh, wow. I was a huge Hardy Boys fan. Heck, I even loved the Shaun Cassidy/Parker Stevenson Hardy Boys television show! By the time I was a teen, I was reading Sherlock Holmes books, too. So I’d say Hardy Boys and Sherlock Holmes mysteries were my favorites.

WORTH GOWELL: Same here. I loved mysteries. There was a series of books that I would borrow from the school library, called Minute Mysteries. Each book featured little mystery scenarios that the reader had to solve. Then the Hardy Boys, Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie. During the summer, I would stay up all night devouring them.

BF: My own favorite of the time, and a series you’ve referenced before in relation to Kid Houdini, Dwight, were the Encyclopedia Brown books. I absolutely treasured having the chance to figure out the solution to any given mystery before checking the answer in the back of the book. Would you ever consider doing this very specific set-up for a series of Kid Houdini shorts, the way they used to do them with EB? Because my god I’d love to see that!

DM: To be honest, I’ve never read the Encyclopedia Brown books. Then again, I’m a bit older than you. [laughs]

No... I would not be opposed to doing several short stories in one volume. In fact, it’s something Worth and I have discussed. I don’t know when our schedules will allow a follow-up to the first volume, but I won’t rule the format out. We shall see.

BF: In an ideal future, where the book would take off and become a phenomenon, at least of sorts, would the two of you consider leasing out the property to other writers and artists the way the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew were written by dozens of different creators? If so, any names you’d love to see tackle the property?

DM: No. I wouldn’t consider it at this point. When the property gets optioned and translated to other mediums, I won’t have a problem with other writers tackling the characters and story. I enjoy writing these characters, and would like to write many, many more Kid Houdini mysteries.

WG: Taking on a graphic novel is a big undertaking, but right now Dwight and I are having a grand ol’ time with these characters.

BF Review: On the art side of things, illustrator Worth Gowell, best known for his online webstrip Small Wonder, uses a style well suited to Kid Houdini’s world. His characters are adorable and their expressions large, wide-eyed, and effortless to read. There’s an old-school Charlie Brown innocence to every page, and he handles the kid-friendly slapstick as expertly as he does the wild moments of magic and the suspenseful spots of dramatic gravity. Colored by Kevin Conley, Gowell’s artwork comes fully to storybook life, with an animation-quality dynamic, with figures and action that will appeal heavily to fans of cartoons and video game graphics as much as fans of clear-cut comic book illustration.

BF: So tell us a but about your art background, Worth. Self-taught? School trained?  Any other work out there prior to Kid Houdini?

WG: Pretty much self taught. I did take some drawing classes in college with the late Ed Paschke (Chicago artist), but a lot of my influences are the old Warner Brother and Saturday morning cartoons. I loved the feeling that a show like Jonny Quest created on young, impressionable minds—like mine.

BF: What was it about Dwight and the Kid Houdini concept that drew you to it?

WG: Well, Dwight had a lot of kind things to say about my work—that certainly grabbed my attention. And I felt the same about his work. Mutual admiration is a great start. In the early stages as we were discovering and nurturing these characters, the word “no” was not in our vocabulary. We were both very supportive in allowing the creative juices to flow in each other. Collaborating with someone is not easy, but Dwight made it so.

BF: Which scene in Kid Houdini Volume 1 was your favorite to draw?

WG: I loved those scenes that allowed me to evoke a dramatic mood. Scenes in the abandoned/haunted (?) home, the gold mine, and the first scene of Harry running away from home—which, I think, before Dwight started writing the story, I had in the back of my mind. I tried, within the limits of my drawing hand, for a cinematic touch.

BF: And on that topic, is there a scene that you’re most proud of scripting in Kid Houdini, Dwight?

DM: I would have to say my favorite scene is where Kid Houdini—in disguise—bumbles into the sheriff’s office and is subsequently run out of town by the townsfolk who think he’s a ghost. I wish I could say more... but I don’t want to ruin it for readers. When they read the book, they’ll know what I’m talking about. The comedic exchange between the sheriff and the Kid is pretty humorous.

BF Review: So look for Kid Houdini to bring back the thought-provoking, engaging, challenging children’s fiction to shelves starting August 6th. If you’re not a kid, and you don’t have any kids to buy this book for or read this book to, then you can gauge the appeal of Kid Houdini for yourself alone by asking: “Do I like Archie books?  Lions, Tiger, and Bears?  Owly ? The long-running Sonic the Hedgehog?”

Kid Houdini and the Silver Dollar Misfits lies somewhere as a medley of all of the above, plus mystery—don’t forget the mystery!

BF: So what’s next for you two?  And when can we expect more KH?

DM: Well, I’m currently working on several projects. My next book will be the follow-up to the Eagle and Harvey award nominated The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo. That will be hitting comic and bookstores in the next couple weeks. After that, I have a pulp science-fiction adventure (published by Shadowline/Image) titled M-Theory that will be hitting comic shops in September. Besides these two projects, I have several books in various stages of development including a World War 2-era superhero book titled Interagents for Chimaera Studios, an all-ages superhero book and two horror books.

As far as more Kid Houdini, that depends upon our schedules. I will definitely write more Kid mysteries, but it will depend on when I have time to do it. It will also depend on Worth’s schedule. He’s a pretty busy guy, too.

WG: I do have some other things that I am now working on, but I had such a grand time getting to know Harry, Lydia, Hans, Jacques and Joe—that I can’t wait to work with them again.

BF: Awesome.  Thanks for being with us, boys!

###

Volume One of Kid Houdini and the Silver Dollar Misfits can be ordered now at Amazon.com for a cover price of $9.95

Be sure to sample the free 22-page preview (that link is a 7mb PDF download for Adobe Acrobat Reader) and also visit the websites of creators Dwight L. MacPherson and artist Worth Gowell.