Here’s one I loved . . .
Hi,
My mom dug out some of my old books from when I was a kid, and I got my old copy of Maxx Trax: Avalanche Rescue back. I remember loving this book when I was a kid, I was really into the artwork. I remember seeing another book in the Maxx Trax series at some point, but can’t remember what it was called. How many books were in this series? The art is really great, very eighties in its sensibility. I was reading through the book and got the impression that the trucks were left behind after an armageddon, since there were no humans, and the trucks had to cross over a pile of abandoned cars, and the snow seemed to indicate a nuclear winter. I was just curious about your take and inspirations for these books, I am an artist myself now, and appreciate the vehicle designs, and interested in the origins of one of my favorite books when I was a kid.
Thanks!Eli
I replied:
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Eli! Thanks so much for that letter. Maxx Trax: Avalanche Rescue was my first published book, back in 1986 when I was a mere pup, 25 years old — and that was the little book that launched this Incredible (Unstoppable! Unflappable!) Publishing Empire.-Thank you, thank you very much (in Elvis voice).--Actually, I have great fondness for that book. It’s been out-of-print for decades, but when it was first offered on Scholastic Book Clubs, they put it on the front cover of SeeSaw Book Club and it sold through the roof. It eventually sold more than 1,000,000 copies. Crazy, I know. But because I was a chump with no leverage in contract negotiations, I was paid a flat fee, no royalties, so I only earned $2,500 on the deal. But I’m not bitter! They were doing me a favor, you see.--The book began with a Star Wars-inspired introduction, epic and overblown.It’s sort of embarrassing, but also absolutely right: it set the right tone.-Even worse, when it came time for the sequel, Scholastic inexplicably fired the original illustrator, Joe Lapinski, who did such an amazing, pitch-perfect job on the original. I suspect that he wanted more money for the next book, and corporate had other ideas.-
