Captain Underpants came to my mind actually in the second grade, and it was a story that I still remember quite vividly. My teacher was talking to the classroom, and we were sitting there listening and looking off into space and for some reason she said the word underwear, and everyone just burst out laughing. And this annoyed her to no end and she was like hey, underwear is not funny, and we just laughed even harder.
And I remember thinking wow, that’s a good idea for, you know, I should do something with that. I should make a book and so I started drawing Captain Underpants that day, and I’ve been drawing him ever since second grade.
I think one of the reasons why Captain Underpants has resonated with so many children is because of the two boys that star in the books, George and Harold. I think that the idea of their friendship and their closeness and also their creativity together — they’re always making comic books and they’re always using their imagination. I think kids really relate to that because in a way everybody likes superheroes, but none of us can fly. But we can all use our imagination and we can all use our creativity. And in a way that’s kind of an attainable super power that we can all have, and I think that’s what kids are drawn to.
One of the things that I hope will come about with my books is that adults and children will read the books together. So I always put little jokes in for the grownups. A lot of times they fly over the kids’ heads, but people my age will get the jokes and they’ll be like ha, ha, ha. And that’s really nice. It’s a good experience for kids and adults to read together. It was one of the things that was really important to me as a child. My parents always read with me. And I think that was another thing that turned me into a reader.
