Latest / Book Flood Podcast / Adam Wallenta on "Punk Taco" & Graphic Novels (E60)
Transcript
- Tom Nixon: Welcome to the Book Flood podcast. I am your host, Tom Nixon. My guest this week is Adam Wallenta. Adam is an author and illustrator of Punk Taco, the graphic novel series and other series, a professional recording artist and the winner of the Ringo Award for best kids comic or graphic novel. Welcome Adam. Adam Wallenta: Thank you for having me. Tom Nixon: Absolutely. you tell us a little bit about your career trajectory? How did you get to here? Adam Wallenta: there's a lot of ⁓ and downs, but I've been an artist all life. Ever since was very little, I'd been writing and drawing my own stories. And so after high school, I went to Pratt in Brooklyn, New York ⁓ to study illustration. And I was there, I ⁓ got an internship Marvel where I quickly started actually getting to be a professional colorist and I would also freelance as an editor when other editors would take a vacation or need a day off and I would help out. From there, ⁓ graduating college, ⁓ started my own publishing company called Mule Entertainment and we published a wide of independent comics and graphic novels over the years, including the ⁓ Official Public Enemy graphic novel, is based on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band. And this was years Kickstarter or any types of on-demand, you know, printing was available. So this was the time when you actually had to, ⁓ you know, invest own money ⁓ and do all marketing everything yourself. So I did that for many years. ⁓ In between, I would freelance in the music industry, illustrating album covers and other people's books. I have a teaching degree, excuse me, and I teach art at various schools over the years. And then a few years ago, while I was in the middle of teaching K through six grade art, I got a call from an Marvel friend mine ⁓ who is the editor in chief at Mad Cave Studios and they own paper cuts and he offered me a job at paper cuts offered to have me interview. Excuse ⁓ And was pretty torn because I really love teaching ⁓ and I a school ⁓ that was very at the time and my kids were at the school as well. But the opportunity to help fellow creators, writers and authors bring their projects to life was kind of a great opportunity for me because I love helping other people and bringing, know, being that foot in the door for people who are both new to the industry as well as people who may have, know, ⁓ maybe older and not getting opportunities ⁓ you know, they've been a long time. happens a lot. So after it with my family and ⁓ weighing pros and cons, I came back to the publishing world ⁓ full ⁓ and I'm senior editor at Papercuts ⁓ and yeah 30 years in a few minutes. There's a lot of things that happened ups and downs but that's the overall history there. Tom Nixon: always ups and downs. Adam Wallenta: Always, it's life, it's a journey and you have to make decisions based on the best information you have and do your best with that. So it's been a good journey so far. Tom Nixon: Right. do you self-identify? You wear an amazing number of hats. If someone asks you what you do, author, illustrator, editor, something else? Adam Wallenta: That's a great question. Nine to five, I definitely wear my editor hat. I as dad first, always. First and foremost, that's the most important thing to me. even, I always put my kids first, ⁓ and no what job I'm working, that's ⁓ always I to operate. ⁓ After that, I consider a creator. So whether it's an editor or an author or illustrator, create things from my own imagination ⁓ I collaborate with others or help other creators bring creations to life. So creator is kind of like encompasses it all. ⁓ I would to say I only one thing, but like you said, there's so many hats to wear, especially in publishing. And once get into the editorial role, There's even within that role, there's many other smaller roles that people don't realize. So of my hours in my are ⁓ spent helping which I love, but I also working with my kids as well as other kids to bring ideas to life. I mentor young students at my son's school as well. And outside of school, I have other students that I used to teach and I mentor them, as well as all the creators that I work with at Papercuts. I just try to balance all of that and sometimes it's but ⁓ I doing it. And sometimes I'm in the foreground where I'm the artist or I'm the author and then other times I'm in the background where I'm just helping other people. like I said, it's just juggling all of that all at once. Tom Nixon: Hmm. Adam Wallenta: But I actually really enjoy that juggling process and it keeps everything exciting and I never get bored, ever. Tom Nixon: Mm. Which that's the trick for sure is do stuff that never makes you bored. Adam Wallenta: Yeah, it's a lot of fun because I work in almost a constant state of chaos, which I've always operated pretty well in. And so whether I'm working on my own projects or helping other people bring theirs to life, there's always challenges, there's always hiccups and unexpected things pop up and you have to problem solve and figure out. ⁓ process of ⁓ storytelling as well as the art and and everything that goes into making a book. So it's a lot of fun. Tom Nixon: What can you share with us about your work at Papercuts? Adam Wallenta: I'm a senior editor. I work on books such as The Smurfs and Geronimo Stilton, Flash Gordon Adventures, Harrow Bear and the Kid, Three Thieves, a series called The Secret Steam Society, and a lot of others. actually have about, I think I just counted today, I think I have 32 titles that I'm working on. So it ranges anywhere between 28 and 35 titles at a time. But I think today, Today's count was 32, which is, each book is between 64 and 200 plus pages of story and art. Some of the work I do is very obvious, like grammar and punctuation, but there's, depending on the, when the book comes to us, where it's at in its development stage. I'm involved in the story development process, the art and design, hiring artists if there's no artist attached to the story, quality control with the art and making sure that art is consistent throughout the whole book, writing cover copy and solicitations for marketing and sales, ⁓ promotion. Like I said, scheduling is a big thing and lots of and multitasking. There's a lot that goes into it. Like I said, behind the scenes ⁓ I get to work with some amazing creators. Some of are brand new and I get to work with them on their first book and see that excitement. ⁓ And then get to work with seasoned pros who have hundreds of books under their belt. And sometimes I get sit back and ⁓ let them do thing. ⁓ you know, it's... that makes the job a lot easier you're working with someone that knows exactly what they're doing and you're just there for support and them pretty much get things over the finish line. So it's a lot of fun. Tom Nixon: Mm. I hope you realize, and it sounds like you do, that you were living the dream for so many people, for so many students that I had when I was a teacher even. Adam Wallenta: Yeah, love books. I'm a huge book collector, a big reader, ⁓ I just love the physical product. Digital reading is fine, but there's nothing holding a book in your hand for me. And helping other creators bring their projects to life is a great feeling. Tom Nixon: creators at papercuts get to keep their Why that important? Adam Wallenta: There's a lot of great, a lot of reasons. The biggest one is that companies come and go and a creator, author, artist should always maintain ownership ⁓ their work. If it's a partnership and come to the company, that's always great ⁓ because usually ⁓ already have relationship. Sometimes we get authors that come ⁓ to us and don't have an artist and I try to team them up with somebody that ⁓ they really get along with because they're going to be sharing this forever, hopefully. And I always try to make sure that everybody involved ownership in the book. Because even after the ⁓ publishers come and go, I said, ⁓ and they can take work elsewhere, they can self-publish, but they can continue to... monetize their work live off of it and it down to ⁓ family and kids even. So sometimes we sign deals as creators and that companies aren't doing their job. And as long as you own your property and have rights, it may be like a deal. ⁓ so if it does turn to be a bad experience ⁓ for the the authors and illustrators. sometimes that happens. At least they know in like five years, everything reverts to them and they can take it elsewhere or they can do whatever they want with it. having that ownership really important for financial reasons as ⁓ well as your own spirit, Authors and illustrators create these things and they put their hearts and their souls into them. And the last thing you want to do is hand that over to someone that may do nothing with it or may profit off of it while you're still struggling. So I always encourage ownership of everything that the artists and authors do. Tom Nixon: punk taco adventures come about. Adam Wallenta: Punk taco adventures. Well, it was originally just punk taco and my son and I self-published two volumes started when he was ⁓ years old and just started from I was fortunate enough to be a freelancer at the time ⁓ and I was a stay-at-home dad when my kids were young and my firstborn McCona and I were hanging out playing with toys and Legos and everything else and, excuse me, and had this name rattling around in my head for a long time, Punk Taco. I didn't know what it was or what could be ⁓ and I actually in the middle ⁓ of another novel. had 200 pages written and drawn. I was inking and coloring it at the same time and I mentioned name to him and my son thought it was really funny and he thought he started coming up with ideas ⁓ and we were back. back and forth, had ideas for who the character was and his friends and the band and he was creating drawings ⁓ just having a great time hanging out, doing things that we normally do every day, know, play, come up with ideas, draw and saw the excitement in his eyes ⁓ and we having such a good time that I put the other project on the shelf and I haven't... touched it since and that was in 2018. He had so many ideas, I was recording them, I was writing them down. I was basically taking everything that we would talk about and trying to put it in a structured format that could turn into a story and then I would take his drawings and I would develop them more. I was trying to decide whether I publish it myself through our family publishing company or if I take it to another publisher and deal with all of that. in the end I decided because I've been in the business for a long time, I know the process of pitching and there always be rejections. It could take forever for a book to actually come to print with different And I wanted capture that moment in time with my son. For anyone that has kids, everyone knows that it goes by really quick. They grow up so fast and like I said, we're having such a good time and the energy was right. So I said, you know what? I'm going to invest my time, my money and all my energy into making this happen And so ⁓ were a lot of ideas that didn't make it into the first book and kind of put those on the side and we the first volume and it Tom Nixon: It does. Adam Wallenta: sold out. And then, ⁓ and the funny thing was, I had distribution for all my other books that I had published in the past. And to this was my best work. I kind of worked with the printer that I was working with at the time and kind of set everything up. And then afterwards, I found out that my distributor didn't want to distribute this book. So ⁓ Tom Nixon: Nice. Adam Wallenta: So I had a lot of books and no distributor at the time. And were able to, luckily, sell out of them at conventions and festivals. And from we saw that there was an audience and people were really enjoying it. So we started to first lay the foundation for the second volume. ⁓ And then started to submit Punk Taco to awards. And ⁓ to our we... ⁓ got nominated for a Kids Comics Award, which was at the Ann Arbor Comic Arts Festival. And then we got nominated like a few weeks later or a month later for the Ringo Award. again, to our surprise, we actually won both of them, which ⁓ amazing because ⁓ the other nominees from like Scholastic and For A Second and really big publishers. And here we are just this little, you know, family self-published company. And so we decided to do book two and we started to Punk Taco around to see if there were other publishers interested before we did the second volume. And the time, nobody was interested. So we just continued to do it ourselves until recently when I came to Papercuts, I pitched them the idea. ⁓ and I still had to go through the whole process and we they decided that ⁓ wanted to invest in it. And rebranded as Punk Taco Adventures where we take some of the self-published stories ⁓ as as new material and we put it all together in new volumes. ⁓ And the first time we offer paperbacks as as hardcovers. We've always done hardcover. ⁓ But yeah, now we have paperbacks which is good for a lower price point. Tom Nixon: Hmm. Adam Wallenta: for people that don't want to spend on hardcovers. But yeah, that's kind of like the journey, ⁓ with my son and now my youngest, is, ⁓ McCunn is now 14. ⁓ when I said time goes by quick, it does. But he contributes and we write stories together. And my youngest son also helps write stories and contributes a bunch of artwork. So it's been a lot of fun. ⁓ And I've even able to get some of my students ⁓ and ⁓ them as well in the first volume of Punk Taco Adventures. And then I have a brand new student that I just met this year that I've been working with ⁓ and publishing a five page story in Punk Taco Adventures volume two. So now get to work with my kids now, I get to work with other young artists and authors and ⁓ help get afoot in the door at a very early age. Tom Nixon: What have sales been like? Adam Wallenta: For Punk Taco Adventures, it's never as good as you want. We're doing but there's ⁓ huge audience there for it and ⁓ I don't think even scratched the surface. We're not a New York Times bestseller by any means. For that you have to sell between like five ⁓ 10,000 copies in like the first week or two. We reached anywhere near that level yet. But ⁓ you we keep pushing ⁓ and like said, for the original first printing, that was like 2000 copies. Between 1500 2000 copies I think I printed up. And we sold of that and then the same thing we reprinted. and we were almost sold out of the second printing of the first volume and the same thing with the second volume, the original self-published stuff. We just have a few scattered copies left. And now for Punk Talk with Ventures. I wanna say the print run is somewhere between the trade paperback and the hardcover. I think the first printing for each is somewhere between the 2000 and 2500. units they do a first printing. So we're getting close to actually selling of those from what I understand. And then we'll reprint. ⁓ But I believe there's a huge audience out there based on what buy as fans of books. And I see all these amazing books out there. And know that there's kids buying books and parents buying it for them. So I'm hoping that we can break through and reach a wider audience eventually. Tom Nixon: So I'm sure it'll happen with something like this that is so clearly meant to be a series. Takes a little bit. The people who read graphic novels and manga, they're in it for the series. Adam Wallenta: It really seems like that. Yeah, we tried to make each story There's multiple stories in each book and we try to make the main story still self-contained, but there are continuation little things like, ⁓ like could buy, ⁓ if found volume two and didn't find volume one, you'll be able to read it and enjoy it. But if you start with volume one, you have something to look forward to with volume two because there is character development and. ⁓ an ongoing story arc. we didn't want to alienate anybody that just finds volume two, because sometimes that happens in stores where they don't have volume one and they only have the second one. But yeah, I'm hoping that we can continue and do more and ⁓ keeps building. Tom Nixon: Is there a particular work of which you are most proud? Adam Wallenta: Punk taco, absolutely. Working with my son and both sons actually now, it's something, I it's my best work creatively, but also the experience that I've had ⁓ and the connecting with fans who enjoy it and teachers and librarians and seeing it in libraries, which was so important to us, excuse me, which is we did it in this. larger format and hardcover because we wanted it to be something that could be on the library shelves and kids, ⁓ they could be pretty rough with books sometimes. So we wanted it to last. And course, winning the Ringo Award, you know, I went many, many years ⁓ as a publisher and artist and author and ⁓ never those types of experiences. And then, you know, to get to share them with my son, like the Kids Comics Award, we won that on a Sunday, which was Father's Day, coincidentally. So to share that moment with my son and to have like Richard and Wendy Penny there who created ElfQuest and they were big inspirations for me as an independent author and illustrator growing up, that amazing. And then ⁓ to a Ringo Award and to be there surrounded by all these amazing creators was also really amazing. Tom Nixon: Nice. Adam Wallenta: But I'm proud of all my work. I've been very fortunate to do album covers for musicians that I've been a fan of, like Public Enemy and ⁓ Premier and work with them. I also realized that there are a lot of artists and authors out there and there are a lot of really great ones and we don't all get to work. Not everybody gets published. Not everybody gets to see their know, artwork in a record store on the walls or anything. any of that, like I'm proud of just being able to be fortunate enough to work in these industries and have people value my artwork. So I'm very grateful for all of that. Tom Nixon: What would our listeners and watchers be most surprised to learn about you? Adam Wallenta: I don't drink coffee and I never have. And always find that weird. I ⁓ I it as weird too because I think most people do drink coffee. Also, I'm an avid gardener and I love growing trees. I have like a little mini orchard of fruit trees in my yard that I planted. So. Anytime when I'm not in front of the computer or the drawing table working or doing something for my kids, I like to be outside in the yard and trying to grow some food. Tom Nixon: So I saw as I was cyber stalking you that you like Legos. Are you working on something now? Adam Wallenta: Yeah, my whole family is we're kind of big Lego fans Right now the big Lego project is actually organizing my kids Lego Which it sounds tedious and some of my friends are like you're what are you doing? But I it actually relaxes me to find you know We have like these big bins of loose pieces, and I I've been taking them and putting them in individual. You know finding all the various pieces and putting them in smaller bins. So then youngest son who loves creating original now he sees where all the pieces are and he's going back to creating again for a while. think he was away because he couldn't find everything. So I was like, I actually organizing them my plan was to do one of these ⁓ I've seen them on Instagram, these mashup builds where it's a Millennium Falcon, but they use just random pieces. So it's all colorful. It's not like, you know, authentic, you know, Millennium Falcon colors or anything like that. It's every color that you could find. ⁓ my original intent was to do that and I wanted to separate all the pieces so I could find them easily. ⁓ yeah, it's a lot of fun. It's a way for me to relax and ⁓ more time to spend with my kids and share fun experience. Tom Nixon: projects are you working on now? Adam Wallenta: I'm working on Punk Taco. I'm about to send Punk Taco Adventures volume two to the printer within a week or so. working on volume three, which actually end up being three and four, It's much longer than first two. ⁓ So we break it up into two different volumes. And then I all my paper cuts books that I'm responsible for. Like I said, there's ⁓ something like 32. Individual books now which you know and some of those are series so they have multiple books One of some of my favorites we are wrapping up the three thieves series, which is by Scott Chandler We just sent the sixth book to the printer and we're gonna we're working on the seventh book now Hero bear which is another favorite of mine we just sent the third book to the printer and we're getting ready to do book four and Probably lots of things I'm not supposed to talk about yet because of launch dates and ⁓ they ⁓ things out ⁓ press. But sometimes I reveal things too early. But yeah, lots of projects. But besides my paper cuts responsibilities, Punk Taco 3 ⁓ is my creative focus outside of that. Excuse me. Tom Nixon: ⁓ for sure. Is there a book or a series of books from your childhood that still resonates with you? Adam Wallenta: ⁓ a lot. There's, that's tough because this point I'm thinking like my child is, I'm thinking back to my teens now, right? Cause like a very significant part of my childhood. ⁓ so novels like Watchmen ⁓ and having grown up in the early eighties ⁓ and Tom Nixon: Hmm. Adam Wallenta: you know, the Cold War and remembering when Watchmen was just single floppy comics coming out as a limited series and then it would later be collected as a graphic novel. That book a lot to me and I ⁓ probably have been reading it at the age I read it. I was still, I don't know, 11 or 12? I can't remember the exact age, but I was young. But I think the whole Cold War paranoia thing kind of stuck with me, you know, being there were so many movies like that, Red Dawn and all these other Cold War style movies that affected me and probably had an effect on me politically. X-Men books by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, which I think I started reading just kind of at the tail end of John Byrne's run, but I really loved his artwork. Classic novels like Grapes of Wrath or something that have always resonated with me and I still love and I reread few years. My son recently read of the Flies and I reread that as well. ⁓ And that's one that I love, The Outsiders. And then ⁓ I was to someone else about this the other day. I still really love children's picture books ⁓ as an as well as just a reader. Tom Nixon: Mm. Yeah. Adam Wallenta: Like there's something very pure about them and enjoyable. Silverstein books ⁓ A Light in the Attic or The Given Tree. Even though my kids are ⁓ older we still read things like that from time to time together. Books by Chris Van Dusen and Bob Stakey are also favorites in our house. I love to look at their illustrations. Tom Nixon: Mm. Adam Wallenta: So yeah, there's a wide variety of books from various stages in my life that ⁓ enjoy and I think they all still resonate in some way and inspire me. Tom Nixon: are you reading now? Adam Wallenta: of scripts. Endless of scripts. When I get to read for myself, I do try to keep up with the middle grade market. So I'm always at the library or buying my kids new books. And we either read them together or they read them and then they say, hey, this is really great. You should read it. And ⁓ then I'll read them I like to know what... you know, my peers are doing what the competition is doing and really, you know, keep my finger on the pulse. But when I get to read just for myself, and it's been really slow going, is I've been reading, ⁓ like to read biographies. ⁓ I've been picking away at this John Adams ⁓ by David McCullough. And I find pretty fascinating. Tom Nixon: Mm. Adam Wallenta: John Adams is, I just find him kind of fascinating. I've been really enjoying that ⁓ And it's a little bit older, but I found a copy at the Strand bookstore and I've been picking away at it, but it's like a million pages. ⁓ those types of books, while I read for a living, I consider myself somewhat of a slow reader. ⁓ always have, I find myself, you know, Tom Nixon: It is, it is. Adam Wallenta: rereading when I start again. So I'll read a couple chapters and then I have to go to bed or do something and then I have to at least go back a little bit and remember what I just read. So I'm always going back and forth, but it's a great book and there's a lot that I didn't know and I'm learning and I love that. Have you read it or are you interested in that type of stuff? Tom Nixon: ⁓ I actually, I read a lot of different things. I have not read that one yet, but I'm certainly aware of it. I read a lot of biography, autobiography, but a lot of graphic novels, a lot of everything. ⁓ Adam Wallenta: Yeah, yeah, same. Maybe after offline you can give me some biography recommendations that you like. Tom Nixon: Well, I want to thank you so much, Adam, for being on the show. For our listeners and watchers, please come find us at Bookfloodpodcast.com. Again, thank you, Adam. Adam Wallenta: Thank you for having me. Thank you to your listeners for listening and hearing me babble, and I appreciate it. Enjoy. Tom Nixon: Thank you so much.