The Stereotypical Freaks Tackles Music, Cancer and Youth Culture

This week, children’s book writer Howard Shapiro will bow The Stereotypical Freaks, a graphic novel he began work on about five years ago and which he worked with for the better part of that time, along with artist Joe Pekar.The story revolves around four characters who take their act to a high-stakes Battle of the Bands, which consumes them even as it seems that one of them has far bigger concerns.A teen drama that deals with a lot of issues and offers a good deal of comic relief as well as ruminations on the power of music, The Stereotypical Freaks is definitely worth a read. Shapiro joined ComicBook.com to discuss the book, which is in stores Wednesday.So, give us the five-cent pitch for the book.I had actually wanted to do something different because I had done kids’ books–three picture books and then a middle-grade novel. So I wanted to stretch out a bit. I was a huge fan of graphic novels and so this idea just came to me.There was a kid named John Challis, just outside of Pittsburgh here who in 2008 or 2009, who had late-stage cancer. He played in his last high school game and he got a hit. So it was a local story and then a national story as sports teams got involved, including the Pirates and the Steelers. He met with A-Rod in New York, Joe Madden from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. So he got some publicity but the thing that was interesting is that he was seventeen when he passed away but he was wise beyond his years. Being a dad myself, it’s kind of heartbreaking to watch and read stories, so I wanted to kind of base a character on him with that kind of courage and that kind of knowledge and wisdom.The two books I had done previously were about hockey, so I wanted to steer away from sports a little bit but I did want to do something that I was still interested in and so I decided to do music, and rock ‘n’ roll specifically. I kind of merged the two ideas where I wanted to have a kid who was like John, but also work in a rock ‘n’ roll kind of story. So the battle of the bands came up and I just kind of used John’s overall story for one of the characters and worked in some life and high school stories. I like high school stories, and I hadn’t done one yet, so I wanted to get that in there as well.I wrote it in about 2008 or 2009, and it took me about two years, almost three years, to illustrate it. It was a fun project, but it took a very long time to do.