Graphic novels are like comic books; the vivid images do the talking. David Small has illustrated more than 40 books, many of them for children, often in collaboration with his wife, author Sarah Stewart. You may have seen his work in the New York Times or in The New Yorker. His graphic memoir, Stitches, was a New York Times bestseller. Now Small has a new graphic novel off the presses: Home After Dark (Liveright, 2018).
Small says the idea for the book was born by listening to the eye-popping stories told by his friend, Mike.
“Mike was telling me these stories, in particular about this wonderful summer that he had spent with two buddies, free of parental control,” Small says. “They built a tree house in the woods, and up there they did guy things. They were 13 years old. They smoked their first cigarettes, got drunk for the first time, speculated endlessly about sex, and made frequent forays down to the soda joint on the highway where they would watch the older teens.”
Small transformed his friend’s stories into images, moving his young characters through their poignant and sometimes dark adventures. But he found that something was still missing.
“I couldn’t put my finger on why it wasn’t working,” Small says. “My agent told me why. 'David,' she said, 'I love what you’re doing, but it’s not your voice. I love the artwork, but the voice is not yours.' I knew this was right, why this thing felt cold.”
Small says books must have something of their author in them, so he reworked his images and text, found his voice, and continued with the work. The finished book is once again gaining critical acclaim. Critics liken it to the classic, Lord of the Flies. The main character, 13- year-old Russell Pruitt, is left alone with his father after his mother abandons the family. His father doesn’t seem to pay much attention to the boy. They take off across the country to a new life in California but once there, fast sinking into poverty, the father also disappears.
Small takes on heavy subjects in his work: immigration and racism, adolescent cruelty and molestation, and a search for gender identity. But he does it with vivid imagery and spare words that cut to the bone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JTR0StawuM
David Small is the recipient of the Caldecott Medal, the Christopher Medal, and the E.B. White Award, among other honors.
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