Fiction Feature: Giants Beware by Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado

For this Fiction Feature, we have an interview with Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado, the author and illustrator of Giants Beware.

What was the hardest thing about writing/drawing this book?

RAFAEL: Horses and buildings! Those are hard to draw. Our story takes place in medieval France and even though our focus wasn’t historical accuracy, I wanted to be in the ballpark. So I had to do a lot of research to get the architecture to feel like it could be of that era.
JORGE: This is the first graphic novel I’ve written, and just getting the mechanics down was difficult. You have to pick what’s the minimum amount of action or information you need to convey on a shot-by-shot basis. And getting the script-to-art page count right was challenging. I was waaaay off in the beginning. Also, I wanted a cavalry of horses...
RAFAEL: But like I said, horses are hard to draw. So we settled on one horse. We ended up cutting a lot of script out of the first Act. The script-to-art page count got better as we got used to working in this format and working together. I think by the end, I was drawing like 1.5 pages for every 1 page Jorge wrote.

Which of your characters can you relate to the most?

JORGE: Gaston is an awkward perfectionist, and our wives would probably describe us that way.
RAFAEL: And Gaston is the kind of kid who when he grows up, he’ll be excited to go to work every day because he’ll pick a job that he’s passionate about. I relate to that. 

Which part of the book was the easiest to write/draw?

RAFAEL: The giant at the end of the book was probably the easiest thing to draw in the book. Mostly because I was happy with the design of the character. It always brought a smile to my face.
JORGE: None of it was easy for me. All of it was difficult to write. But all of it was a blast to write. If it were easy, it wouldn’t be so rewarding.

Which songs would be on the soundtrack of the movie version of the book? 

RAFAEL: Something orchestral. Like The Planets by Gustav Holst, or Bernard Herrmann’s score for The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad.
JORGE: I picture John Williams circa Superman I, Star Wars IV, Raiders. A good orchestral sound track never goes out of style.

Any future books in the works?

JORGE/RAFAEL: Yes! There will be at least one more book in the Chronicles of Claudette, but we hope there will be several more. In book two, Claudette, Gaston, and Marie will face some very old and very powerful enemies of Mont Petit Pierre.

ABOUT GIANTS BEWARE:

Make way for Claudette the giant slayer in this delightful, fantastical adventure!

Claudette’s fondest wish is to slay a giant. But her village is so safe and quiet! What’s a future giant slayer to do?

With her best friend Marie (an aspiring princess), and her brother Gaston (a pastry-chef-to-be), Claudette embarks on a super-secret quest to find a giant—without parental permission. Can they find and defeat the giant before their parents find them and drag them back home?

Giants Beware! offers up a wondrous, self-contained world in the tradition of the very best of Pixar. Claudette and her friends will have you laughing out loud from page one.

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