Imagine two alligators working as investigators using the latest spy technology to solve mysteries 和 you would have an idea of what you’ll find in one of John Patrick Green’s 调查人员 漫画小说.

较低的学校 作者访问 are Back!

较低的学校 librarian 克里斯汀罗伯 was thrilled to welcome Grades 2, 3, 和 4 to the 跳舞 Studio for the first Author Visit in a long time 和 the students, some wearing fancy chapeaus for Crazy Hat Day, were eager to hear about Green’s writing career.

Green is also the artist 和 co-creator of the graphic novel 系列 青少年的船!, with writer 戴夫罗马. Green, who grew up on Long Isl和, now lives in Brooklyn.

Love of Comics 和 Storytelling Becomes Green’s Calling

Green began by sharing his own “origin story.” Because he had asthma 和 allergies as a young child, he missed many days of school. There was no Zoom or Internet then for him to take part in class, so he spent his time at home reading, 画, 和 making up stories. He loved comic strips such as 加菲尔德、花生、 和 加尔文和霍布斯 和 taught himself how to draw Garfield. He demonstrated on an art easel for the Poly students.

A comic strip is essentially made of three panels with the beginning, 中间, 和 end of a story or a joke, 格林解释说. When he returned to school in third grade, friends noticed that he was very good at 画 Garfield. Soon they were paying him a dollar for a Garfield picture. But his friends were using their lunch money to buy the pictures 和 their parents complained, so the principal called his mother. His mom said he had a right to “earn a living.” But, there was also the problem that the image of Garfield was copyrighted. 所以“J.P.,” as he was known then, had to create his own characters.

By fourth grade, Green had come up with the “Footsies,” people with very large feet. J.P. drew three-panel strips 和 photocopied them 和 sold them to friends, though not taking their lunch money. 最终, by the time he was in Grades 5-9, he created “comic 书” of the Footsies’ adventures modeled on action adventures such as Spiderman 和 X-Men 和 sold these to friends.

By the time he went to college, Green wanted to explore different aspects of art at the School of 视觉艺术. 在那里他遇见了 戴夫罗马, later the author of the 宇航员学院 系列. (Robb noted that Roman was a past 较低的学校 guest author.) Green 和 Roman had similar origin stories 和 began working on comic 书 together, sometimes alternating in the roles of artist 和 writer, or writing the good guy versus bad guy roles.

大学毕业后, Roman got a job working for Nickelodeon 和 Green went to work for Disney where he stayed for 10 years.  But the two friends continue to collaborate on projects now with Roman acting as Green’s editor.

调查人员 苏醒

Through his work at Disney, Green met people in publishing 和 had contacts for when he was ready to go out on his own. He began with ideas for animals who had “human jobs” like the Kitten Construction Company. He found that animals wearing clothes was funny. And people related to stories about jobs as “very relatable.”

It occurred to him, “What do you call an alligator who solves crimes?“调查员! And they can also go undercover! This led to his two main characters, Mango 和 Brash, 和 their arch rival, Crackerdile. A student held up her copy of one of the 调查员 书. The 系列 now has six editions, with the most recent being 捉迷藏. But Green told the students that he is already working on the next episode in the adventures of Mango 和 Brash!

在一个简短的Q之后&A, some students chatted with their favorite author.

Watch 调查人员 animated shorts.