This interview originally appeared in the September/October 2022 Horn Book Magazine as part of the Publishers’ Previews: Fall 2022, an advertising supplement that allows participating publishers a chance to each highlight a book from its current list. They choose the books; we ask the questions.

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ACTION!: How Movies Began traces, from Kinetographs to Black Panther, how ­moviemaking builds on tradition and innovation to make the magic happen.

1. Speaking of influence, whose work can we see in your own?

In college, I was focused on editorial artists doing edgy cartoons. Inspired by the work of Gary Baseman and others, I developed my own cartoons that were simple, eye-catching, and a tad absurd. I was also painting photorealism. Photorealism is hyper-real; it verges on being fake in its attempt to clarify every reflection, ding, and dent, and I find that to be alluring. I never thought my cartoons and realism paintings would meet, but for this book I decided to give it a go.

2. What technical breakthrough in film was the hardest to convey?

Art-wise I’d say it was the films that were dyed. How do I make the images look black and white with tint added? Explaining how an invention like the Kinetograph worked was also tricky.

3. Why do you think 3D movies never really took off?

I think this Roger Ebert quote sums it up: “The notion that we are asked to pay a premium to witness an inferior and inherently brain-confusing image is outrageous.” On a personal note, I tried 3D glasses once and they gave me a migraine. I hope I can make a subsequent book on some of the more unusual parts of movie history and invention, such as 3D glasses. Smell-O-Vision is also on my list of oddities to tackle.

4. Pick one favorite shot from motion picture history. 

Definitely the clock scene in Safety Last! From modern times, I’d choose Mr. Stay-Puft, from Ghostbusters, stomping through Manhattan or the almost laughable Jaws scene where the mechanical shark chomps on a boat.

5. What movie is your guiltiest repeatable pleasure? (Salt, for me.)

I don’t usually rewatch movies; if I do, I’ve had a nibble first, like when The Breakfast Club, The Goonies, or the Rocky series shows up on TV and I happen to catch it. The only movies I’ve gone out of my way to watch multiple times are of the 1970s edgy and sad variety: Taxi Driver, Deliverance, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, etc.

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