Will you visit my school or library?

Yes! Please contact: requests@authorsunbound.com

What was your inspiration for Swim Team?

The inspiration for Swim Team is when I was a kid, I fell into a pool and I almost drowned. That event stayed with me, and it affected the way I relate to swimming, water, pools, beaches to this day. So, years ago, I started making a comic about it.

Almost drowned? Sounds scary. How come you didn’t know how to swim?

Well, when I was a young kid, I thought it was my fault or my personal failing that I couldn’t swim. I didn’t realize that there were actually no swimming pools in my neighborhood. It was an access problem, and access is fundamental to this issue because when you’re five years old, you don't build swimming pools. You don’t have a say in where they’re put and if there’s one in your neighborhood or not. 64% of Black kids can’t swim because they just don’t have access, and parents who don’t know how to swim are less likely to teach their kids how to swim. So, it becomes an endless cycle.

So, you wanted to show Bree breaking that cycle?

Yep! With the help of her community.

But Bree had to work really hard too, right?

Of course. That’s another thing I learned later in life. Like, I was really bad at math when I was a kid, and I just thought, “Oh, I’m bad at math, and that’s just how it is.” It wasn’t until high school or college that I realized math is like any other skill that you have to work on to improve.

So you’re good at math now?

Well, I’m okay. I’m better at making comics. It’s easier to work really hard at something you love doing.

Like Max in Gamerville, too. He likes gaming, so it's easy for him to spend all his time doing it, right?

True! But I think that Max's reliance on video games goes a little too far. With video games, social media, and technology in general, it’s designed to keep your attention and keep you in that world. I think it's good to be aware of that and to make sure we're choosing what we do with our time.

Are you one of those people who hates video games?

No, not at all! The reason I wrote Gamerville was because, as a kid, I was really into video games. I was thinking about what would have been the worst thing that could have happened to me at that point in time. And that would have been to be cut off from the games, off in the woods at summer camp.

So you hate the woods?

No!! What I'm saying is it's about balance. Of course, play the video games you enjoy. But there's a lot of world out there and there's a lot to discover, too. If you go down the street and you go for a long walk with your friends, there ain't no telling what you're going to bump into. There's no telling who you're going to meet. There's no telling what you're going to discover.

Okay, but what video games do you play?

When I was younger, I played a lot of the Zelda games, Mario games. I loved expansive adventure-action games. Sometimes the shooter games or Grand Theft Auto, games where there’s a nice story arc with action and adventure. Now I’m playing mostly word games, like Wordle and Connections.

You used to make comics for adults. What made you want to make stuff for a younger audience?

I started making comics when I was really young, so I’d write and draw the things that my friends and I liked reading. And I just kept doing that as I got older. I’d write for my own demographic, but I always had ideas for stories for that younger version of myself. I’m glad I have the opportunity to share them now.

What were some of your favorite comics or graphic novels when you were young?

Calvin & Hobbes, for sure, was huge for me. I liked Peanuts a lot. There was this one, Curtis. I dug Curtis quite a bit. It was the only newspaper strip that I saw with a Black kid in it, and I thought that was really cool. It wasn’t the general topics that seemed to be the ones that Black protagonists are featured in, like crime or violence or something like that. It was just this kid just doing his thing, you know?

What are you working on now?

More middle grade books!

Can you tell me more?

All I can say is that I’ve always really loved basketball…