What happens when fandoms collide? You get a comic picture book set in the Marvel universe!

Dan Santat probably doesn’t need a bio. Everyone in the kidlit world knows who he is and is familiar with his incredibly prolific work. AND YET, I share one here for anyone who might not know.

He is the Caldecott Medal–winning and New York Times–bestselling author and illustrator of The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend, and the road trip/time travel adventure Are We There Yet? His artwork is also featured in numerous picture books, chapter books, and middle-grade novels, including Dav Pilkey’s Ricky Ricotta series. Dan lives in Southern California with his wife, two kids, and many, many pets. You can learn more about him at his blog, his shop, or follow him on Instagram, Twitter, BlueSky, or Facebook.

ALL THE HULK FEELS is his author-illustrator debut in the Marvel universe with the very first comic picture book in Abrams’ Fanfare line. This tells the story of Hulk and his alter-ego Bruce Banner dealing with anger. That might sound like every Hulk story, but wait! It isn’t! You see, in this story Bruce explodes over all sorts of little things: songs on the radio that he can’t stand, pickles in his hamburger, etc. That is funny right there by itself. BUT to add another layer to the story, Bruce and Hulk communicate about what’s going on through letters left in the pocket of their purple pants. I honestly have never seen them communicate with each other in any way in any version of their story. That is intriguing! There’s also villainous plots to add humor and a deeper conversation about anger.  All of this adds up to an incredible picture book that I suspect will be on every savvy classroom teacher’s wishlist who works with littles on dealing with their emotions. I know it’s on mine!

Welcome Dan!

Me: I can’t imagine for the life of me that anyone isn’t familiar with your work, but, just in case, can you tell us a little bit about your creative journey? When did you start drawing and/or writing? How did that lead to where you are now as the author and illustrator of this book? 

Dan: My dad wanted me to be a doctor so my parents never really encouraged me to participate in the arts. It was this passion of mine that I did mainly as a hobby and my mom knew it made me happy so she would buy me markers and pencils and have me participate in the local county fair etc. I went off to college and got a Microbiology degree and was heading to dental school until my college roommates intervened and told me I was making a huge mistake because they all knew how much I loved art. They encouraged me to apply to art school “just to see if I could get in” and so I did and I never looked back.

I went to college and worked in video games for seven years, I also had my own cartoon show on the Disney Channel which ran for three seasons (The Replacements) but my real passion had always been in children’s book publishing. I got my first two book deal a year out of art school and after 21 years in publishing, I have worked with lots of extremely talented people along the way. I won the Randolph Caldecott Medal in 2015 and the National Book Award in 2023. Marvel Approached me way back in 2019 about doing a book for them and then after a long bout of Covid they came back to me in 2022. They gave me the opportunity to launch their new Marvel picture book series and now here we are.

Me: I love the idea of Marvel characters and stories 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 any character in whatever story you wanted? If you could pick any character, why the Hulk above all others?

Dan: Marvel and Abrams approached me to do this project. I’m not usually one to work on huge intellectual properties. Years ago, it felt like everyone I knew was working on a Star Wars IP. I was even asked, but I felt like so many of those stories were published that they all mostly got ignored. I don’t like working where I feel like I’m being hovered over by a committee. This didn’t feel like that and they told me that I would be the first to start this Marvel picture book series. They gave me freedom to pick any character and any story that I wanted. This story I wrote about Bruce Banner turning into the Hulk for small silly reasons was something I would joke to my friends about for years. I’d hear a song I hated and I’d say, “‘I’m Hukling out” or if a food I wanted at a restaurant was all sold out I’d say, “Hulk not pleased!” When the opportunity presented itself for me to turn the idea into book form I jumped at the chance. I didn’t know if they would go along with the idea but I was thrilled that they did.

Me: Your approach to Hulk is brilliant. I can’t believe no one has ever thought to explore Hulk’s emotions like this for kids before! It makes perfect sense for such an emotional character. And as a classroom teacher for younger students, this book will be a perfect introduction to talk about emotions. What gave you the idea for Hulk and Bruce to communicate about their feelings through letters?

Dan: For years I would read Hulk comics and understood that both Hulk and Bruce were aware of one another but they never had a chance to speak to each other. I always thought of it as two roommates living in a house, but neither of them interacted with one another because maybe they worked different shifts, or maybe they prefered their privacy etc. The thing is that there would still be elements of the house that could possibly feel different in the spaces that they shared. You would probably leave a note saying something like “You left the milk out last night.” or “Do you mind keeping the noise down in your room?”

Bruce and Hulk always felt like two roommates sharing one body and the purple pants. For the life of me, I can’t imagine who on Earth would ever wear purple pants?! Not only that but Hulk is huge and Bruce is much smaller so I would assume the pants are sweatpants with an elastic waistband. These are the things we comic book fans think about all the time! It’s the pants that are the one unifying thing that they both have in common. It’s the mailbox they can use to exchange these letters.

Me: I shouldn’t be surprised that such a talented illustrator as yourself thinks of depth, humor, and “other plots” happening in the background of your story. Yet I was! Delightfully so! I laughed at some of the first background shenanigans I was seeing and wondered if the characters were ever going to clue in. Were those always part of the story? Did some of the layers (either in writing or illustrating) of this story come together as you were creating the first versions of it? Or was this story a gift from the Muse that came with all parts there from the beginning?

Dan: The Leader was the one thing that I didn’t originally have in the story. My initial focus was going to be just Hulk and Bruce having this deep discussion about anger. I thought there was enough humor in the idea that Bruce was getting upset over little things and Hulk would find himself as a huge hulking monster in these harmless situations. The publisher wanted some sort of villain in the story so I introduced The Leader into the plot. I don’t think many people are familiar with The Leader. Hulk’s arch nemeses are not as well known as Dr Octopus or Magneto but I still made it work. I simply added the idea that it was The Leader who was quietly trying to aggravate Bruce into these moments of rage which would lead Bruce and Hulk into a heated argument distracting them from Leader’s shenanigans behind the scenes.

Me: I’m a huge fan of Marvel and love every expansion of the Marvel universe. Were you elated to be able to dabble creatively in this world? Do you plan to return to it again? Can we hope for more stories like this (please say yes!)?

Dan: If offered the opportunity again I’d consider it, but the right story would have to come to mind. I have some ideas. Meanwhile, I’ve got a lot of other projects on my plate and the Marvel world is vast.

Me: That is certainly true. At this stage of the game, is there anything left that surprises you? Was there anything that surprised you in creating this story?

Dan: If anything, I was shocked that no one had thought of this story idea sooner.

Me: Any advice for new picture book writers and illustrators?

Dan: Making it in this business is 90% work and 10% talent.

That is very true Dan. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today.

Dear readers, today is this book’s publishing birthday. It’s funny, touching, and comic book genius in picture book form. Trust me when I say you won’t want to miss it.