Zen, imagination, top hats and wonder – Frank Beddor and the travels of Hatter Madigan

Crossposted from Blogetary:

 

Frank Beddor's Zen of Wonder comes out this month.

In 2010, I had the unique opportunity of being a moderator on a YA Scifi/Fantasy panel at the West Hollywood Bookfair that included Francesca Lia Block, PJ Haarsma and Frank Beddor. I had a great time interviewing them and didn't think I'd ever get that opportunity again. Then recently, I had the fantastic chance of once again getting to interview Frank Beddor.

Frank Beddor is the author of the Looking Glass Wars trilogy, which tells the true story of Wonderland and Princess Alyss. He also transcribes and documents Hatter Madigan’s journey across the world (in our reality) as M Hatter searched for Princess Alyss.

Click on the pic above to learn more about the Zen of Wonder Kickstarter program.

RVOlivier: So, congratulations on your Kickstarter program being so successful! As of Friday, March 1, your program had attained 112% of its budget and still had 20 days to go. I saw your “Thank You” video to M Hatter fans. Had you any idea your Kickstarter project for the Zen of Wonder would be so successful? And what made you decide to try the Kickstarter program?

FBeddor: I knew the fans were out there waiting for the next volume of Hatter and I felt pretty sure I could run a successful Kickstarter campaign because I had so much great material to offer as rewards — not only books you can still buy online or in stores, but rare editions of books and original art. And that's a big part of it. What are you offering to your backers? It has to be creative and original.

RVO: It is obvious from your “Thank You” video how excited you are about the success of the Zen of Wonder project. Will you be using Kickstarter to also publish and promote the Love of Wonder, the fifth and final book in the M Hatter series?

FB: I think Kickstarter is more than just a place to go for start-up money or when you run low. It feels to me like a method of giving the power to the readers and fans as to what they want to see published. They become like the board of directors and the investors of a company. Their opinion is heard and their money is utilized to create product. So, to answer your question, yes! I intend to return to the fans for support in publishing and promoting the 5th volume, Love of Wonder.

Far from Wonder, formerly Hatter M: The Looking Glass Wars, is volume one of the series.

RVO: Last time I interviewed you, in 2010, ArchEnemy, the last book of the Looking Glass Wars trilogy, had just come out. You’d also just published the first M Hatter graphic novel, The Looking Glass Wars, now retitled Far from Wonder. At that time, had you already worked out that the graphic novel series would be five volumes?

FB: Yes. We have known since we began working the 'volume' format and not the single issue comics — which we did with Ben Templesmith for our first Hatter series — that there would be 5 volumes to take Hatter around the world and back to Wonderland.  Hopefully with Princess Alyss!

“Sometimes… all you can do is LAUGH!”

RVO: Both the YA novel series and the graphic novel series are clever, however I perceive more humor, especially of the “tongue firmly in cheek” variety in the Hatter M graphic novels. Was this on purpose? Or did it come about organically?

FB: Humor is part of life and we like to laugh. Hatter is in a dark place on a lonely mission but as we all know, the absurdities of life have no respect for darkness. In the midst of a crisis the dog will walk by with your bedroom slipper stuck on one paw and everyone will start laughing. That's how it is with Hatter. The characters he meets and mingles with are a lot of oddballs and eccentrics and he is a strange fish out of water himself. So — expect the absurd in the midst of the drama. And that's how the humor could not help but rise. 

Hatter Madigan and an unexpected ally fight off deadly origami.

RVO: You worked with Ben Templesmith on the first two Hatter M novels and then when he needed to move on to other projects you found Sami Makkonen, both excellent artists, but with definitely different styles. Did the differences in their drawing styles influence the telling of Hatter Madigan’s story at all?

FB: Ben Templesmith was the original artist on our first series which became volume 1 now re-issued as Far From Wonder. We started working with Sami beginning with Volume 2 Mad with Wonder. There was enough similarity in their styles — just enough — to make me feel the jump from one artist to the other would not be too jarring for readers. The difference in their styles did not influence the storytelling. As storytellers we probably became more assured by the second volume and having a young artist who was willing to try anything and go anywhere with our imagery gave us a lot more visual ambition. So if anything, having Sami join us made the storytelling bigger.

RVO: Back in 2010 at the YA Scifi/Fantasy panel at the West Hollywood Book Fair, you and PJ Haarsma spoke of starting an online games series connected with your novels (the Looking Glass Wars and the Orbis novels) as a way of getting young boys (and girls) interested in reading more. Get them playing the games, but they would need to read the books to gather key information to advance in the games. I think that’s how I remember it. It’s been three years, so how has that worked so far? Would you call it successful? Have you gotten feedback from your gamers and fans?

FB: Absolutely. We decided to focus our efforts on one game, Rings of Orbis, and really create something special. It's worked. After listening to our fans, both of the game and the books, we revamped the entire Rings of Orbis game and relaunched just before Christmas. We've seen steady growth in revenue every month and the fan base is growing by leaps and bounds. The game has created a unique way for the fans to interact with the world creators and we just love being able to do this. Currently we are developing several new sections on the Rings of Orbis that we'll release over the next few months, so there is lots more coming. 

Hatter Madigan and Nekko race to catch a pirate ship.

RVO: I can see how the Hatter M series could also be used in a similar manner. I noticed reading the series that there’s more of a steampunk/alternate history feel to the graphic novel series that I don’t remember being in the YA novel series. And you take care to note dates, places and what was happening in history during those dates and in those places. Was the series supposed to be another way of raising literacy amongst gamers and graphic novel readers, get them more interested in history? Or was that unintentional? Was that just part of your love of history coming out?

FB: All 3 of your choices have truth in them. Anytime you write for younger readers you have to feel hope that this will encourage kids to read. It's just rooted in writing.  So it is not the 'reason' you do something but you have a sense of responsibility that it might be important to some kids and help them to enjoy reading more.  But also — the history and dates and interface with historical events in the Hatter series is all included to set the 'reality zone' that this man really visited our world and traveled it non-stop for 13 years to locate Wonderland's lost Princess. So we work to ground the reader in reality by adding maps and newspaper articles and connecting the dots to unexplained phenomena of the time that points to Hatter being here in our world.

Hatter Madigan and Nekko take a leap of imagination.

RVO: In mid-February, you and PJ Haarsma also were at a Kids Need to Read presentation. And you were presenting how important not only literacy, but imagination is. While the strength of Alyss’s imagination was important in the YA novel series, it intrigued me how you, or Hatter Madigan, uses imagination – whether Light or Dark – as a guiding influence, much more than I remember Alyss using it. Is that Hatter Madigan? Or is that also a bit of Frank Beddor’s search for truth and imagination coming out?

FB: Imagination is important to everyone.  Artists and writers know this from literally working with their imaginations on a daily basis to 'manifest' reality for others to share — paintings, books, films, drawings….it all starts with the imagination.  But this is true for everyone.  You imagine a cake and what it will taste like — first.  Then you bake it.   Or on the flip side — you hear about the flu and the symptoms — imagine how terrible it must feel — and then you have it.  Or you imagine feeling better — and you start to feel better.  Imagination is so much more powerful than people acknowledge.  Alyss had such a powerful imagination she could manifest 3D objects — that's powerful.  But so can you.  You need a few more steps to get there and cannot do it by virtue of your genetic traits as a Queen of White Imagination — but you can "imagine your life — and then it happens" to quote one of the Witches of Eastwick in John Updike's novel.

RVO: There was a bit of a hiatus between the third novel, Nature of Wonder, and the newly published Zen of Wonder. On your blog you explained that you needed to spend time in a Buddhist monastery to finish the fourth graphic novel. And I see the pictures of Zen Kitty as it visited different places (I almost want a Zen Kitty of my own!). Did it truly take a mountaintop experience to shake loose your imagination and get this most recent graphic novel out there? And, did Zen Kitty help?

FB: It didn't take a mountaintop Zen temple to shake loose my imagination — but rather to focus it.  In the course of researching Hatter's Japan journey we did discover a monastery we believed could be the Happy Cat Monastery Hatter referred to in his journal — or close enough to give us the experience.  Zen Kitty was a gift from the monks at the monastery as a good luck friend to take with us and keep our minds focused on the lightness of life… to remind us not to get too heavy with what we call 'reality'.  Just as Hatter must be reminded by his Zen traveling companion, Nekko throughout volume 4…."It's not a problem!  It's an adventure.!!"

RVO: I hate to ask this because you JUST announced it on your Thank You video, but can you tell us about this new novel, yet? I assume it is a new novel other than the fifth Love of Wonder graphic novel that you have the introduction to at the end of Zen of Wonder?  Is there any inkling as to what it will be about? Will it be more of the world of Alyss and M Hatter? Or will it be a complete departure from that?

FB: It might be too soon to talk about, but this is the general thrust of it— this book will take the story of Alyss and Hatter full circle, linking the Looking Glass Wars novels and the Hatter M graphic novels in an integrated manner. It’s the story told in the graphic novels, but with a wholly different take on the material. There will be new events, characters, and settings, all told within a unique structure. And it will uncover a raft of never before revealed secrets.

RVO: Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to share some of your answers. And congratulations again on such a successful Kickstarter project!

FB: Thank you for all the great questions— I appreciate it.

Frank

You can find out more about Frank Beddor's world of wonder here.