Interview: Jon Buller

Jon Buller and his wife Susan Schade are the authors of The Fog Mound: Travels of Thelonious. To learn more about them and their books, visit their website: http://www.bullersooz.com

For those who haven't read your book, can you begin by telling a little about it?

In ancient times human beings ruled the Earth -- at least that's what the old legends claim. But is it true?

Thelonious Chipmunk is a Talker -- an animal who has inherited the gift of language from his ancestors -- and he, for one, believes in humans. Who else could have made the old paper postcard he treasures? Who else could have built the tall building shown on the postcard? His desire to know more about the humans is fulfilled in a surprising and dangerous way when Thelonious is swept down the river into a strange new world -- a world of architectural ruins and puzzling artifacts, where gangs and warlords prowl amongst the crumbling remains of civilization.

With three new companions -- a bear, a porcupine, and a small brown lizard -- Thelonious embarks on a search for the far-off Fog Mound. It is a journey that becomes nothing less than a quest to uncover the secrets of Earth's past.

(That's a quotation taken from the inside flap of the book jacket.)

How did you get the idea for The Fog Mound: Travels of Thelonious?

Susan's grandmother owned a house and some land in Connecticut. As each of her daughters grew up, they moved to New York City, to explore the world and to make a living. Things often didn't work out as planned in New York. But when things got really bad Susan's mother and her two aunts could always move back home to the house in Connecticut, where life wasn't so threatening and competitive. So on one level at least, The Fog Mound is based on Susan's family.

How did you decide to make the book a graphic novel hybrid?

Our first idea was to make The Fog Mound a conventional novel, with illustrations. Susan wrote the text and then handed it to me to provide some illustrations. But at some point, while doing the illustrations, I got the idea that some chapters would work better if they were entirely done in cartoon format. It seemed a good way to draw people into the story. Other parts of the book, like those parts with long conversations or explanations, seemed like they would work better as prose. So we decided to go back and forth, alternating cartoon chapters with prose chapters.

What authors have inspired you the most in your writing?

Margery Sharp, who wrote THE RESCUERS. Mary Norton, who wrote THE BORROWERS. E. B. White's STUART LITTLE. LITTLE LULU comics. Jill Barklem's BRAMBLY HEDGE books. Philip Pullman. J. K. Rowling.

What illustrators have inspired you most in your artwork?

Ernest Shepherd. Walt Kelly. Bill Griffith. Edward Gorey. Ed Dodd, who drew the comic strip MARK TRAIL from 1946 to 1976.

What is your writing process like?

Susan and I have worked together as a writer/illustrator team for the past twenty years or so. She does most of the writing, and I do most of the illustrating, but we both do some of each. Sometimes I come up with the basic idea for the book, and sometimes Susan does. The idea for THE FOG MOUND was Susan's.

What is your illustrating process like?

For the first draft, I do very sketchy drawings in pencil, and show them to Susan to see what she thinks. She usually has comments and suggestions for improvements. After changing the drawings to accommodate her suggestions we send them to our editor at Simon and Schuster. who has comments of her own. Finally, when everybody is happy with the story and the illustrations, I draw the final illustrations on bristol board in pencil. When I am happy with how they look in pencil I go over the drawings with black ink. Then the original pencil is erased. The drawings are then scanned into our computer, and color is added with Photoshop.

Which of the characters were your favorite to write about and illustrate? (My favorite to read about was Thelonious, although I got a kick out of Billy, too.)

I suppose I would say Olive. I have always had a fondness for bears.

How long did it take you to write Travels of Thelonious?

Probably four or five years passed between Susan's first idea for the story and the version we eventually sold to Simon and Schuster. But we worked on many other things besides The Fog Mound during those years, so it is difficult to say exactly how long it took.

Can you tell us anything about your next book, The Fog Mound: Faradawn?

In Book II the animals continue their travels, leaving the Fog Mound and sailing down the river in a specially designed boat. They are trying to get to the island of Faradawn, where they hope to find some more information about what happened to the humans.

To close, what's your favorite thing about being a writing couple?

It's a really nice feeling when we manage to come up with something that we think is better than either one of us could have done by ourselves. We feel this way about THE FOG MOUND.

Thank you very much, Mr. Buller. I really had fun with your book!