[Interview] 'Science Comics: Volcanoes' writer Jon Chad explains his process and more

Hey everybody, it's Dalkey with AIPT, still at New York Comic Con 2016, and I am here with..

John Chad. John Chad, who is doing something for the First and Second Press Science Comics

We've shown their books to you before here on the site, and his book is called Volcano

Why don't you tell us all about it, John? So, I've been working with First, Second, and Third for a number of years, and I've

been doing science comics with them. Previously, I did one about geology, and I did one about astronomy, and it seemed like

kind of a logical leap to go from like general geology to more specific geology, and ask

me if I wanted to tackle volcanoes. And at first, I think I had to come to terms with how little I ultimately knew about volcanoes

and like, you know, everybody can draw volcanoes, and everybody knows what lava is, everybody

knows that Mario dies in lava, that like the floor is made of lava

There's these amorphous ideas about volcanoes that we generally know that are floating around

there, and so I then had to kind of like dig deeper into my own personal well, and like

do the research, and I had to like do the homework. I got to talk to geologists

But ultimately, I think I made like a really fun book that uses a fictional setting to

kind of transmit a lot of very truthful facts about volcanoes. So do you have any kind of a scientific background yourself

No, no I don't. I studied art in college. Did you say that you had an interest in science

Oh absolutely, absolutely. My lifelong fascination is with machines. There's all these whole videos of me on like rides where I refused to look at my cards

I would instead look for machines that was driving me around, driving me around

And I think that that's kind of like part of the reason why I love science and science

like being able to capture, observe, replicate the way that the world looks around us

Both in very like big, flashy ways like volcanoes, but also like small, delicate ways. Right

In volcanoes, you're doing that in both words and pictures you're writing and illustrating

Yes, yes. Writing is not my strong suit. I think in pictures

So luckily, they didn't ask me to write a script. I was able to just like draw it out on index cards and then the computer just put it in

So you're more used to working with collaborators? No, it just takes me a lot longer to do the writing process

But this time, I was great to have collaborators. I had two scientists from the Midwest who were professors of geology

I met them at a friend's wedding and then years later, to do this, I was like

oh, they could probably really help me. So volcanoes again is part of the science books series for a second

obviously directed towards children. But it's not just facts and numbers and things like that

There's a narrative built into this. Why don't you tell us a little bit about their narrative

and who made the decision to kind of build that in? That's always been a passion of mine

I think that there's a lot of really unique learning moments that are available

when you kind of take the learning out of the classroom or lecture hall setting

even in comics, and then transmit it into a story. I can cite several times in my youth when I have learned the fact about science

from a non-fiction source. So yeah, the story is about this group of kids led by an adult

who are rolling through some puckered, frozen wasteland. Their world is totally riddled with this new ice age that's a very tough world to live in

But this one girl finds out about volcanoes through books that they find at a library

as they're looking for fuel to burn to keep their tribe alive

And she just continues to push this knowledge about volcanoes. She continues to ask questions

And ultimately they try to find the source of fuel for the Earth

like the fire of the Earth that's built there. And yeah, the kind of force for that narrative really came from me

the push for that. It's when they asked me for different ideas for volcanoes

It's a race of dinosaur people who live in the future and live near volcanoes

As long as you're truthful with the fiction, with the facts, and as long as you're also up front with the kids

I don't want to ever make kids or adults think that everything in that book is science

They need to know where the line is drawn. As long as you can establish that line, I think you can have fun

I've got a little bit of a thornier question here. So you're talking about the hard science

And theoretically, without spoiling too much, if people want to read the book on their own

this global ice age that you set up, this is something that could happen

But at the same time, it's also more likely that we're going to continue on

to the global warming trend. And sadly there are a lot of people who deny that fact

In the world today, people of influence. Do you think that there's any danger in presenting this naturalistic

which again, could completely happen, this naturalistic new ice age? No, I don't think so

And I give a reference to it. You're right, while we're dealing with climate change, weather, climate

In this book, I make reference to the fact that volcanoes actually

can change global temperatures based on the amount of SO4, the sulfur dioxide, sulfur dioxide

When that goes up into the atmosphere, it can form a veil over the Earth

I don't see a trouble with that. I know it's a difficult question

It's fiction, it's obviously fiction. It's obviously fiction. But in my case, I'm not presenting it as fiction, or as fact

I'm not saying this is going to happen if volcanoes keep erupting

But I can provide a couple of examples where I'm giving the inspiration for

the fantasy world. And that's part of the line I'm drawing in the sand

Where it's like, okay, obviously this is an extreme example. But, you know, when Mount Toba erupts in 1904, I think

global temperatures go back by 3 degrees. It is something I know

Okay, great. Do you have anything else coming up for first sighting

I don't think they've announced it yet, so I can't say. But I'm going to keep on working on science books for them

And the Volcanoes book comes out? Early next month. Thank you so much

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