In the late 1990s, the Animorphs by KA Applegate became a cult phenomenon. Written by Katherine Applegate and husband Michael Grantand later a team of ghostwriters, the prose series totaled over 60 volumes. Animorphs It was subsequently adapted for television and occupied a significant amount of schoolyard discussion time across the country. And now, Scholastic Graphix is adapting the story is to a series of graphic novels by Chris Grine.
With the next entry in the Animorphs graphic novel series, The Predator: Animorphs #5just around the corner, Comics Beat leapt at the chance to interview Grine over email about bringing the seminal prose series to sequential graphic narrative. And in case you missed it, be sure and check out interview from last week with Applegate and Grant!
AVERY KAPLAN: Can you tell us about how you came to be involved in the Animorphs graphic novel adaptations? Did you have any experience with the series before this?
CHRIS GRINE: I’d just had a book published with Graphix (Time Shifters) in May of that year and was pitching some new ideas to my Editor when they asked if I’d be interested in maybe doing a kind of test run on this older IP they had. Up until that point, I’d only ever worked on my own stories, so this was different for me and I wasn’t sure it was what I wanted to do next. THEN they told me it was Animporphs and I knew I would be insane not at the very least see what it was all about. I guess they liked what I submitted and that’s how it happened. Going into it however, I’d not read the books although I was familiar with the premise and I was excited/terrified to see the fandom was just as strong today as it was in the late 90’s!
KAPLAN: I think it’s safe to say that you have a unique relationship with the Animorphs through adapting the series to graphic novel format. I’m curious, what new insights into the books have you gained through the adaptation? Has your impression of the story changed at all? Is there anything for which you have renewed appreciation?
GRINE: Well, Like I said, prior to this, I’d only read some of book 1 but that was it. Once news broke that they were being adapted, my social media exploded with questions and comments from long-time Animorphs fans. They wanted to know how I was going to do everything! They all had favorite books, favorite scenes, and favorite characters and they ALL wanted it ALL. They still do! In that respect, what I could have easily just accepted as a simple work-for-hire comics job suddenly took on an entirely new face. Their pressure was on, in a positive way, to deliver as much as I could, in the most honest way possible because I knew how much it meant to SO many.
As far as my impression changed, yes it did. Looking mostly just at the crazy morphing covers and knowing kids get the power to change into animals to fight aliens on the surface can sound pretty silly or ridiculous. I was happy to discover right away that the books, although YA, were never written to feel silly or in any way NOT serious with real world stakes. I’ve grown to appreciate it so much more the further I’ve dived into the nostalgia and lore of it all. Anyone who wrote this series off as “just for kids” truly did themselves a disservice.
KAPLAN: What has gone into depicting the spaceships, aliens and morphing technology that defines the Animorphs series? Has anything posed a particular challenge to your adaptation?
GRINE: Honestly, most of that stuff was the reason I took the job in the first place. I LOVE science fiction stories and you tell me there are spaceships to design, alien technology to invent, kids morphing into deadly animals…I’m in!
What turned into the biggest challenge surprisingly was the dialogue balloons. Everyone knows what Normal speech bubbles look like, right? But what happens when each character can only thought-speak while morphed into animals? The voice only be in your head and the heads of whoever you’re speaking to so…no tails pointing in any direction… How do You show that visually? We decided to assign color to the balloons because without tails, it would be impossible to know who was speaking. THEN add the aspect of thought-speak where they can choose to ONLY let certain people hear them and not others. How do you show that? Well, in this case I kinda didn’t because I couldn’t crack that particular nut in any satisfying way.
KAPLAN: Is there anything from the first five volumes that you were particularly eager to depict through your art? What about coming up in future volumes? (I was especially excited about Ax’s food court scene in book 5.)
GRINE: ME, too! I knew Ax was a fan favorite from the gate, and I knew I was gonna need to nail that but I had 4 books to do before I even got there…well, more like 3 3/4. I was eager to get to Ax, but I was also kinda scared because there has been over 20 years of head-cannon and fan-art I would be going up against. One thing on my wish list to get to tackle are FOR SURE is the Ellimist! To me he is such a colossal jerk. He reminds me very much of Q from Star Trek. The David trilogy would also be a highlight but that’s much further down the road.
KAPLAN: Are there any details in the first four volumes that you want to make sure readers don’t overlook?
GRINE: Not really. I hope readers read them in order, but I understand classrooms and libraries may only have part of the series available at any one time. That said, I’m really proud of my terrible running gags throughout the series so far such as Jake and Marco always talking about the lizard morph from book 1, or the constant scares from people suddenly morphing.
KAPLAN: At the Scholastic virtual panel for SDCC 2020, you mentioned running 90s pop culture references past your 12-year-old in order to verify their relevance. I’m curious if you’ve continued this process, and if so, has anything you’ve discovered come especially surprising to you?
GRINE: Not really. I did start that but soon realized it was making me feel old! LOL Besides, it was clear after a few Q&A sessions with my kid that most if not all the specific pop culture references would need to be refined a bit in order to allow them to remain, but to also not confuse new younger readers. For example, instead of mentioning being on The David Letterman ShowI changed it to late night television. I know it’s not ideal, but die-hard fans will know the reference and new readers hopefully won’t stumble over them too much.
KAPLAN: Have you had any memorable interactions with readers who have enjoyed the Animorphs graphic novels that you can share with us?
Oh man, that has been the absolute best part of all of this. Not only are the creators of the series (Applegate and Grant) some of the kindest and warmest people I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet, but the fans are the most welcoming group of people I could ever hope to call friends. I’ve had the opportunity to be a guest on multiple Animorphs related Podcasts where I met some of the most amazing people. That expanded to doing other podcasts with some of the same folks for other topics which was a blast! The fan interactions I’ve had in person at conventions however have been hands-down amazing. I’ve always kinda looked forward to when the tide would turn for me at conventions as far as having people actually attending with the district mission to stop to talk with me, and I’m happy to not only say that because of Animorphs, that has started to happen and it’s been as wonderful as I’d hoped. I love the fans so much.
The graphic novel adaptation of The Predator: Animorphs #5 will arrive at your local bookstore and/or public library beginning on August 20th2024.
