I fully admit that I was a comic book geek (what I could find in my small town) growing up. I also admit that I love all things Marvel. As such, I was thrilled to be able to discuss this newest installment in the Mighty Marvel Team-Up series.
Dean Hale is the New York Times bestselling coauthor (with his wife Shannon Hale) of over 20 books for young readers, including Eisner Award-nominee Rapunzel’s Revenge, popular early chapter book series The Princess in Black, two graphic novels about young Wonder Woman, and two novels about the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. You can follow him on Twitter or BlueSky.
IRON MAN: SOMETHING STRANGE is part of the Mighty Marvel Team-Up series which mashes together incredible creative talents like Dean Hale and Douglas Holgate (i.e., the illustrator of the #1 New York Times bestselling series The Last Kids on Earth from Penguin Kids, now also an Emmy Award-winning Netflix animated series, among many other things). And they get to dabble in the Marvel universe! In this story, Iron Man has to team up with Doctor Strange to solve another alien problem that is putting New York in danger yet again. And it brings up the question of science vs. magic in a delicious way that I think all fans have secretly been waiting for.
Welcome Dean!
Me: It’s very hard to find any bio for you without your other half. For those who might not know much about you, can you tell us a little bit about your own writing journey? When did you start writing before you became published? How has that brought you to writing this book?
Dean: I’ve always loved writing, even as a young child, and in a previous era I had a blog where I posted regular micro-stories into the void of the internet. I never thought I could do it for a living, even with the evidence of my wife’s career staring me in the face. We had co-written a graphic novel (Rapunzel’s Revenge) and I had published a picture book (Scapegoat! -sadly out of print now) before I felt I could make a go of it full-time. In all the years of co-writing with Shannon, especially when it came to comics and graphic novels, I think I made it known to the various editors, agents, and industry people that I was a long-time comic book fan. That’s probably why my name came up when Abrams wanted to start their next wave of “Mighty Marvel Team-Up” books.
Me: I love the idea of a mashup of creative talents working on a series for Marvel characters in picture book form! Was this your idea or were you approached to do this? If you were asked to write the story, were you given free rein to write whatever story you wanted?
Dean: Abrams had previously done three amazing Marvel “Team-Up” books about Spider-Man with Mike Maihack and wanted to continue that idea with some books about Iron Man. They offered me the opportunity to write, and I jumped at the chance! They pretty much let me drive when it came to coming up with ideas, storyline and co-stars! It was great! I love the Marvel universe and being able to play in that sandbox was a real dream of mine.
Me: I love that you include so many of the other characters in the Marvel Universe around Iron Man. There are some surprises that pop up here (I don’t want to spoil them). Were you asked to include certain characters? Or did you want to include them yourself as a Marvel fan?
Dean: They did tell me that cameos were allowed (even encouraged). One of the coolest things about the Marvel Universe is how interconnected it is, and it is so fun, especially as a longtime fane, to be able to pop a few recognizable favorites into the script. I did have to reign myself in a little, though. As much as I might love Moon Knight, for example, I couldn’t really justify including him. In *this* story, at least.
Me: Ha! I could see that. The illustrations by Douglas Holgate are perfect. I love how these characters looked like we’ve come to know them and yet they also looked brand new! Were there any illustration surprises for you? Any favorites?
Dean: Isn’t his work great? I was so excited every time I got to see Doug’s sketches at every step of the process! I, of course, love his characterizations of the main players, but the “villains” of the story make me grin every time I see them.
Me: What is one thing that surprised you in writing this story?
Dean: I think how personally introspective I got was a surprise. Even though this is a quick fun read for young readers, I still got into Tony’s head and kept finding myself wondering what I would have done or felt in his situation. Sometimes it was the same as Iron Man, and sometimes it wasn’t.
Me: Any advice for new picture book writers?
Dean: If you’re just writing, and you’re at the point where you have an illustrator, let them do their magic! Sometimes the artist will produce a slightly different picture/angle/layout than the one in your head. This is good! As long as they understand the story you’re trying to tell, in my experience, 99% of the time what they produce is better than what you imagined.
Me: I love that! You’ve co-written graphic novels with your wife and you’ve co-written comics in the DC world too (i.e., Tales of Titans and Wonder Woman) among many others. This isn’t even your first foray into the Marvel world (as you already worked on Squirrel Girl novels as well). BUT this is your first solo written Marvel universe comic. I read somewhere that you are a huge comic book fan. How does it feel to be able to take this dive into this world (and know that there are more books in this series with Iron Man to come)? Is this a dream come true for you? Or just another amazing writing project in the comic book world?
Dean: Oh this is absolutely a dream come true. If I was able to go back and tell my younger self that I was writing *Iron Man*!? Little me would lose his mind. Big me already has. 🙂
That’s awesome! Congratulations on a dream come true and thank you for stopping by my blog today.
Dear readers, this book is published on June 17th. If you’re a Marvel or Iron Man fan, you’ll definitely want to keep your eyes open for this one. It’s a fun dip into the world and characters we all know and love, but with a few new twists thrown in. You won’t want to miss it!