Pumpkinheads Read online

  So that’s my memory of how we first met, but I’m trying to remember how you first got the idea to do a graphic novel. I think our publisher, First Second, saw that you were a comics fan and approached you. Is that correct?

  Rainbow: (((

  You know, I think I connected with First Second on Twitter, too! Yeah, because I was a comics fan. Our editor, Calista Brill, was the person who suggested that you and I work together,

  and that immediately seemed like a good fit. I could see a lot of resonance between the types of stories that we both like to tell. All your books are very character driven and expressive, and you’re especially good at capturing moments, I think. I felt like I could write a story that would feel like both of us.

  Though I did initially pitch a totally different story!

  Faith: The magic of the internet, haha. Just on a side note: I remember the story you originally pitched, and it was fascinating, but I also remember it had a lot of animals in it. I remember thinking, Oh no, now I have to learn how to draw all these different animals!

  Pumpkinheads has a few animals (one in particular who plays a prominent role), but not nearly as many as your original story. So I was a bit relieved you changed your mind about what story you wanted to write, as I’m not great at drawing animals!

  Rainbow: Ha, that’s right. I’d forgotten about the animals! I had a few other story ideas that I played with for a while, too . . . To be honest, I was really sick at the time, and the other scripts I worked on reflected that; they were very heavy and blue, and I felt very heavy when I was working on them. I kept stalling out. Eventually, I decided that I needed to put my brain in a light and joyful place.

  I had been hoarding this pumpkin patch setting for a few years. Like, I knew I wanted to do something with kids who work at a pumpkin patch. I broke the emergency glass on that idea, and the Pumpkinheads script came together so much more fluidly.

  Faith: You sent me the script and I read it, and there was a part at the end where I totally teared up. And then drawing that scene was super emotional for me, as well! I don’t normally think of myself as the kind of person who gets emotional over comic scripts, so having this reaction, I knew Pumpkinheads was special. I immediately sat down and did some rough sketches of Deja and Josiah. I was so eager to get them out of

  my head and on paper. It’s funny looking back at those sketches now because the characters ended up looking so different in the book, but those awkward, early drawings are part of the development process. As characters they just leapt off the page at me. I immediately fell in love with both of them.

  Rainbow: I was so relieved that they clicked with you right away. We’d agreed to work together before we had anything locked down—what if this script hadn’t connected with you at all? What if you hated pumpkins, Faith?

  Now that I’ve worked with a few other comic artists, I’ve noticed how I write differently depending on the artist, and depending on how well I know the artist. I was glad that I was familiar with your work, because it meant I could write with a lot of trust and confidence. I knew you’d bring so much chemistry to Deja and Josiah’s relationship. And I knew that you’d just nail the pacing. (Which you did!)

  Faith: Thank you! I was delighted with how you chose to write the script because you basically gave me a screenplay with dialogue, action, and emotional beats—but I got to do my own paneling and pacing for the comic. It’s personally what I prefer, as I have Strong Opinions on paneling in comics, and how best to draw emotion out of the story. So that was something I really appreciated about collaborating with you on this story. You trusted me to do my thing.

  Rainbow: But I did beg you to come to Omaha to visit my favorite pumpkin patch.

  Faith: That was a really important trip for me. I don’t think I’d have been able to draw the Patch as well as I did without that visit. I got to see the pumpkin patch as a real, lived-in place, full of people and delicious food.

  Rainbow: It was very important for

  you to try Frito pie!

  Faith: The Frito pie was very confusing for me at first! I have family in the States, but they’re in the south, so I’m not familiar with Nebraska traditions. I was expecting this pie with, like, chips on top of it? And Frito pie is definitely not that. It’s cheese and chips and other stuff in this little bag and you eat it with a fork. I remember asking, “When does it turn into pie?” Very confusing for the Canadian!

  Rainbow: I think that trip really put us on the same page. We got to walk in Josiah and Deja’s footsteps. Also, the script is set in an idealized, fictional pumpkin patch—like the Disneyland of pumpkin patches. So it helped to be in a similar environment and deciding, “Like this!” or “Not like this!” That’s also where we had our first conversation about how important color would be in the book.

  Thank you for making the trip. I owe you a trip to Canada. (

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  Faith: These are the very first sketches of Deja and Josiah. They look so

  different here! We decided that they looked much too young in these early

  sketches, so I went back to the drawing board.

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  Rainbow: Look at these cuties! My script described Josiah as looking like

  Paul McCartney, and you can really see Faith trying that here. (I always think

  of Paul McCartney as having such a kind, gentle face!) Deja was described as

  “super-cute, like a chubby Gabrielle Union.”

  Rainbow: The main thing we talked about at this stage was making Josie

  and Deja look a little older. And I really wanted them to be close to the same

  height. I wanted to push back on the idea that a girl needs to be small and

  petite to be completely adorable.

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  Faith: I think of the character design process as a journey you go on with

  the characters: In the beginning you’re trying to get to know them, who

  they are, and how best to draw them so their personalities comes through

  visually. And by time you’ve drawn the last page in their graphic novel, these

  characters are your best friends. You know them intimately as people, and

  that affects how you draw them.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Faith and I would like to thank...

  Everyone who helped us bring this book to life (and made the process an unusually joyful one!):

  The biggest, shiniest thank-you to my best friend, Danielle Henderson, for inspiring all of Deja’s most luminous moments.

  And thank you to Leigh Bardugo and Samantha Irby for reading and discussing and actually coming to visit me in Omaha. (I owe you both infinite favors and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.)

  Thank you to Christopher Schelling, who still has not come to Omaha, but provided as much encouragement and good advice as he could from Connecticut.

  Thank you like whoa to Faith’s remarkable agent, Bernadette Baker-Baughman; to our editor, Calista Brill, and the crackerjack team at First Second Books; to Sarah Stern, whose colors made this the most beautiful pumpkin patch in the world; and especially to the scrupulous Rachel Stark, who came along just when we needed her.

  The pumpkin patch in this book is fictional, but Omaha really does have the best pumpkin patches in the world (Faith can attest to this!), and I sincerely hope you get to visit one someday.

  (

  Rainbow

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  Text copyright © 2019 by Rainbow Rowell

  Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Faith Erin Hicks

  Don’t miss your next favorite book from First Second!

  For the latest updates go to firstsecondnewsletter.com and sign up for our enewsletter.

  Published by First Second

  First Second is an imprint of Roaring Brook Press,

  a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership

  120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271

  All rights reserved

  Our eBooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or

  business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and

  Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, ext.5442, or by

  e-mail at [email protected].

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2018944911

  eISBN: 978-1-250-26906-5

  First edition, 2019

  Edited by Calista Brill and Rachel Stark

  Book design by Molly Johanson

  Interior color by Sarah Stern

  Color assistance by K Uvick and Sammy Savos

  Cover color by Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb

  Penciled digitally in Manga Studio on a Wacom Cintiq.

  Inked traditionally with a Raphaël Kolinsky watercolor brush.

  Colored digitally in Photoshop.

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