Amazing Australia - The Inside Story!

Ever wondered how a kid's book actually makes it onto the bookstore shelves? To the uninitiated, it might seem a mysterious process, but to anyone who's ever worked on children's books will tell you, the main ingredients are an uncertain mix of good ideas, hard work and a generous dollop of good luck thrown in for good measure!

Each book takes a different path on its journey from abstract idea to printed reality. We can't speak on behalf of other authors and their books, but if you've ever wanted to know how the Amazing Australia series came into being, then check out the following article which appeared in the August 2008 edition of Reading Time, the official journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia.

Oh, and just in case you're wondering, the accompanying illustration shows an early cover design for Airborne Australia which Doug prepared during the course of the series. Enjoy!

Airborne Australia - By Kevin Patrick

The idea for Airborne Australia was borne out of a long drive through country Victoria I took with my wife sometime back in 2004. I can’t recall what prompted our discussion, but we were talking about the teaching of Australian history in schools, and recalling some of the bizarre and entertaining historical anecdotes our teachers used to tell us.

I wondered aloud if kids today were being taught any of this stuff, at which point my wife said I should write a book about it. ‘That’ll teach you to open your trap’, I thought to myself. But she was right – I could write a book about the hidden nooks ‘n’ crannies of Australian history, because there’d certainly be enough material to fill a book.

But I didn’t want to sit down and slog over a dry and musty textbook. I figured if I got bored writing it, then chances are kids would go to sleep reading it, too. Having worked in bookstores on and off over the years, though, I recalled just how popular the Horrible Histories series was, with their quirky facts and grisly anecdotes, punctuated by cartoons. Although they were utterly Euro-centric, they did provide a possible template for a comparable series of kids’ books dedicated to Australian history.

With this in mind, I hammered out a proposal outlining a new series titled Amazing Australia, with each volume examining a different aspect of Australian history, from sport and inventions, to dinosaurs and warfare. In my mind’s eye, I could see each book packed with illustrations, little ‘factoid’ break-out boxes – maybe even a comic strip?

It all sounded great on paper, but there was one tiny problem – I was a writer, not an artist. And so began my quest to find an illustrator who’d be willing to sign-up for the Amazing Australia adventure.

I first met Doug Holgate at the Supanova comic convention in Sydney, back in 2001, after he’d just finished illustrating a horror comic, Dunwich. Our paths would occasionally cross at subsequent conventions, but it wasn’t until I was casting around for a possible illustrator that I really began to notice Doug’s artwork.

Some idle internet browsing took me to Doug’s online folio, which proved to be a pleasant surprise. During the intervening years, Doug had developed a unique drawing style, blending ‘cartoony’ caricature with a strong storytelling sensibility. Just as importantly, Doug’s folio showed he could draw more than just comics, with samples ranging from portraiture to palaeontological illustrations of dinosaurs.

Convinced that I had found the ideal illustrator for Amazing Australia, I contacted Doug and explained my harebrained scheme. Thankfully, he didn’t hang up the phone on me and we eventually sat down to assemble some sample pages for what would become Airborne Australia.

Putting those pages together pretty much laid down the collaborative process we’ve follow for the entire series so far. Doug and I would discuss the people, places and events we’d both want to see in the book – not only because they held personal appeal for each of us, but also because we felt that their inclusion was essential to the overall story being told in each book.

In most cases, it was simply a matter of me researching and writing each section of the book, then forwarding on the text to Doug, along with any visual reference material I thought he might need.

Doug would then retreat to his studio and, some time later, I’d get a scan of the completed artwork emailed to me. Often Doug would nail it the first time ‘round, but other times we’d email each other back and forth with changes and corrections, until we were both happy with the result – or simply too exhausted to look at it any further!

Occasionally, though, Doug and I would have to sit down and try and ‘nut out’ a solution to a particularly tricky ‘visual’ sequence, such as a puzzle, maze or activity page.

This was especially true of ‘Target: Darwin’, the comic strip featured in Airborne Australia, which recounts the Japanese bombing of Darwin in 1942. Not only was there a good deal more research involved, but trying to convey the details of this complex event, without impeding the action, was a real challenge. As a writer, I had to give Doug the room he needed to let his artwork tell the story, and resist the urge to weigh down each panel with reams of wordy exposition.

I should stress that Doug’s role in the book went beyond just furnishing the illustrations themselves. He designed the graphic motifs which introduced each section of the book, such as stopwatch image for the ‘Record Breakers’ page, and (my personal favourite) the floating brain wearing the flying goggles on the ‘Brain Busters’ page. Doug also designed the page headings, typeset my original text and composed the page layouts, as well. In this area, he was amply assisted by Random House Australia’s in-house designer, Anna Warren.

Once we were both satisfied with each sequence, we’d pass them on to our editor at Random House Australia, Brandon Van Over, who really helped us pull the book together in its final stages. Not only would he pick up any historical or factual errors I’d made, but more importantly, he’d occasionally challenge us to rethink some sequences in the book which just fell short from the rest of the book’s overall quality. Although Doug and I were, by this time, suffering from deadline-itis, I think that last round of revision and correction Brandon made us do really strengthened the book’s overall look ‘n’ feel.

The level of interest in Airborne Australia since its release tells us that this book, like its predecessor, Prehistoric Australia, might be filling a valuable niche in the children’s book market. By revealing these overlooked aspects of our nation’s history, and telling these stories in ways that engage the reader’s imagination, our goal is to make them curious enough about their own country to want to know more.