The celebrated author of The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl (Houghton Mifflin, ISBN: 9780618916528) and Boy Toy (Houghton Mifflin, ISBN: 9780618723935) has created a prose novel for middle-grade readers about fan favorite X-Man Wolverine. With illustrations culled from over 30 years of Wolverine and X-Men comics, the book nicely bridges graphic novels and prose, and is sure to appeal to readers anticipating the upcoming X-Men Origins:Wolverine movie, due for release on May 1^st, 2009. We spoke to Barry Lyga about Wolverine: Worst Day Ever, superheroes in prose and how to approach veteran tough-guy Wolverine from a young adult perspective.

BookShelf: Tell me a little bit about Wolverine: Worst Day Ever. How did you get involved in this project?

Barry Lyga: Pretty simple, actually - Marvel asked! I was just innocently playing Xbox one day when Marvel got in touch and said, "We'd like you to write a Wolverine book for us." Since I'm not known for middle grade fiction or superhero stories, my first reaction was, "Are you sure?" They told me they were and the rest is history!

BookShelf: In Wolverine: Worst Day Ever, Wolverine is a central character, but only as described from an outsider's perspective. Your main protagonist is a brand new character and not a superhero either.  What informed your decision to approach the story this way?

Barry Lyga: Well, Wolverine just didn't seem like the kind of character to comment a lot on things that would interest a middle grade reader. I felt like I needed to have someone that the reader could identify with, someone who could be surprised and amazed by the things he sees. Wolverine is a grizzled veteran - nothing shocks him any more. I wanted a narrator who could be blown away by what he sees, and that couldn't be Wolverine. It had to be a new character so that everything would be new and different and unexpected to the narrator's eye.

BookShelf: How might this book appeal to readers with different levels of familiarity with Wolverine and the Marvel universe?

Barry Lyga: I really tried very hard to build the story in such a way that you could enjoy it no matter what your level of familiarity with Wolverine or the X-Men or the Marvel Universe in general. If you've never read an X-Men comic book before, you'll get all the information you need to understand the story within the story itself. If you're an old hand at Marvel and you know Wolverine's backstory like your own phone number, you'll see lots of fun little in-jokes and references to continuity that will, I hope, make you smile. So there's something for everyone. I didn't want anyone to look at the book and think, "This isn't for me." It's for everyone.

BookShelf: You have written successful prose novels for young adults before. What do you need to take into account when writing for young readers?

Barry Lyga: Obviously, there are all sorts of issues with vocabulary. But also there are issues with structure. I would never try something like the flashback/flicker structure I used in Boy Toy with a younger audience. I think they would just get frustrated. Or, worse, bored. There's a fair amount of flashbacks early in the Wolverine book, but I tried to make it very clear what was a flashback and what was in the present.

I think you also have to take into account that younger readers enjoy being challenged, to a degree. When you're that age, your skills are increasing with every single piece of literature you read. So I put some words and some ideas into the story that might be a little challenging because I think it's cool when you maybe go check out a word in the dictionary or pick it up from context.

BookShelf: How does depicting action in prose differ from the way it is depicted in a comic book? It seems like it would be a neat exercise to translate from one to the other.

Barry Lyga: In comics, you have this great, awesome crutch called an artist! You can say, "And then Wolverine beats up Sabretooth" and the artist will just make it look cool for you. Very nice! In prose, you have to pick the right action details that will make the reader fill in the blanks, hopefully in a way that ends up being just as cool. Also, you have to find a balance in terms of how long to stretch out the action. You COULD describe every jump, snarl, punch, feint, dodge, block, etc. But that can get tedious. So you have to decide when to come in close and give the nitty-gritty details and when to pull back and just say "And then they fought." In a comic book, as long as the artist makes it look energetic and exciting, no one will care if the action scene goes on for five pages. In prose, five pages might get boring, so you have to be careful. I really strived for a balance between humor, angst, and action, constantly switching them up so that you're never in one "zone" for too long.

BookShelf: Wolverine is one of Marvel's most popular characters. What do you see as his appeal? What aspects of his character did you choose to focus on in Wolverine: Worst Day Ever?

Barry Lyga: I think when the character first had his debut, the appeal was that he was so anti-social and willing to be violent. That was very unlike most of the characters of the day. Nowadays, those aren't unique characteristics any more. I think now the appeal of the character is his longevity - he's been around for a long time and had so many experiences that he's sort of a walking history of comic book adventures. He's fought ninjas and aliens. He's been a soldier, a vigilante, a leader, a follower. You name it, he's done it and experienced it. So that makes him a very versatile canvas!

For the book, I focused on Wolverine as the loner who clings to his surrogate family, despite his own desires to be alone. I thought that was something the readers could identify with. Kids that age love their families, but they are also sort of endlessly annoyed by them. They're beginning to chafe at the restrictions placed on them. Wolverine is this rebellious character who lashes out and goes off on his, but he always comes home. I thought that was a great metaphor for growing up.

Wolverine: Worst Day Ever
Marvel Comics
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3757-3