Steve Breen has won the Pulitzer Prize, and Emmy Awards, and is a nationally syndicated cartoonist. So naturally, he’s upping the ante with his next book, which teams up a girl and a dinosaur. Sky & Ty 1: Howdy, Partner! finds a girl cowboy discovering a friendly dinosaur, and follows the adventures they go on through two delightful short stories plus bonus material.
But funnily enough, the initial idea didn’t come from Breen… It came from his son, whose drawing of a cowboy riding a dinosaur inspired the whole enterprise.
“As soon as I saw the orange cowboy on the orange dinosaur, I knew there was something interesting there. Kudos again to my talented son,” Breen told Comic Book Club over email. “Like so many kids, he did a lot of drawing and coloring at home during the pandemic. Orange is such a fun color and dinosaurs and cowboys have so much story potential. I decided to make it a little more unique so I changed it into a cowgirl and added a complimentary shade of blue.”
To find out more about the making of the book, and a tease for the second book in the series, read on.
Comic Book Club: Steve, I want to start with a hard-hitting question first… You were inspired by a drawing your then-six-year-old did of a dinosaur and a cowboy. Yet in the picture, the dinosaur seems to be eating ice cream; yet nowhere in the book does Ty eat ice cream. Care to comment?
Steve Breen: Ha! Good eyes. I actually didn’t notice the ice cream and skateboard until after I completed book one. My son, Matthew, had to point them out to me. I managed to work the ice cream into book 2! Maybe the skateboard will make book 3.
More seriously, talk to me about the process of adapting that drawing and fleshing it out into Sky & Ty which – nothing against your kid – has a lot more elements to it.
As soon as I saw the orange cowboy on the orange dinosaur, I knew there was something interesting there. Kudos again to my talented son. Like so many kids, he did a lot of drawing and coloring at home during the pandemic. Orange is such a fun color and dinosaurs and cowboys have so much story potential. I decided to make it a little more unique so I changed it into a cowgirl and added a complimentary shade of blue. Around the same time, we took a family trip to Sedona, AZ , a place I had long wanted to visit. That region of the Western U.S. is truly amazing and it inspired the setting of the Sky & Ty universe. At that point, you just knew it had to be a kids’ book so the questions became, why doesn’t the cowgirl ride a horse and how did she meet this orange dinosaur? Thus the Sky & Ty book one origin story was born.
Both characters have an earnest, can-do attitude… What makes them similar? And what makes them different?
Yes, both are determined individuals. I would say that Sky is analytical and practical, while Ty is more creative and impulsive.
You’ve got a bunch of musical numbers in this book (which I love). What inspired those?
I personally love music of all kinds, for one thing. I also think that showing characters relate to music or express themselves through music and dance makes them more relatable. Not to mention more fun!
There’s a real sense of discovery and play here; to borrow the improv term, Sky and Ty do a lot of “yes and.” Which I assume is part of what you’re trying to impress on kids. Can you talk about the themes you were playing with?
Discovery and play are definitely part of it. Another theme of the book is that things aren’t always what you expect them to be. I also really enjoy the banter and back and forth of two dissimilar characters who are friends: Calvin and Hobbes, Bert and Ernie, Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza, Lucy and Ethel, etc.
General question that, being human, I should know the answer to, but: what do you think causes the universal appeal of dinosaurs?
I think our “lizard brains” are fascinated by a big creature that can eat us. It’s something primal. Also there’s some wish fulfillment explored here: what kid wouldn’t want a dinosaur of their own? That said, this is a kids’ book so I had to make Ty the dinosaur sweet and a little innocent to play against type and increase the humor.
You’ve won two Pulitzer Prizes for Editorial Cartooning. Will you win the Pulitzer Prize for Dinosaur-based Children’s Books for this?
I am asking Columbia University’s paleontology department to team with their journalism department to possibly establish a special category. I would settle for being known as the Michael Crichton of early-reader graphic novels.
There’s a pretty pointed “1” in this title… I assume there are more Sky & Ty adventures in the offing? What can you tease, if so?
Yes, indeed! This is only the beginning of the Sky & Ty saga. So many fun stories to tell. Book two comes out in 2025 and I don’t want to get people too excited but I will reveal that part of the book involves a chicken. Stay tooned!
Sky & Ty 1: Howdy, Partner! is out today in stores from Holiday House.
