Cedar Rapids author’s ‘Sort of Super’ series continues

Comic books are episodic. Graphic novels tell an entire story. But sometimes it’s not that simple.

Eric Gapstur’s latest graphic novel — “Sort of Super: The Magma Cup” — is the second in a “Super” series aimed for middle-grade and older readers, yet represents one episode in the story of the author and illustrator’s career.

And even though the sort-of-superhero, Wyatt Flynn, isn’t based on Gapstur’s life, the graphic novel’s message captures his own career trajectory and philosophy.

“The overarching theme is hope — especially the series is hope and not giving up,” Gapstur, 40, of Cedar Rapids, said. “It’s kind of reflective … because I’ve been working on it for 17-odd years, and a career in the arts, in general, can be really rough and discouraging.”

But he’s kept going, weaving that can-do attitude into his stories, the most recent of which goes on sale July 18. “The Magma Cup” will be the focus of several local book signings and events, beginning with a free comic art workshop for grades 3 to 6, from 4 to 5 p.m. Thursday, July 13, 2023, at the Iowa City Public Library.

Synopsis

Gapstur introduced readers to Wyatt, 11, and his “supersmart” sister, Adeline, 9, in the first graphic novel, “Sort of Super,” published in 2022. In the origin story, readers learn that Wyatt and Adeline’s father is a sheriff, and the super-adventure begins when Wyatt gets lost in his father’s evidence room one day.

Gapstur said that for “the bumbling kid” who “really means well, but is mistake-prone and accident-prone,” it’s a day that will change his life.

“He accidentally picks up a glowing space rock and gets hit in the face with cosmic dust, then walks backwards and trips over a vat of glowing radioactive waste. And then with that oil drum on his head, he saunters unknowingly into a light socket and gets (zapped). It plays on all those tropes and superhero origins. … And that’s how he thinks he gets superpowers,” Gapstur said.

Alas, Wyatt isn’t very good at using them. It doesn’t help that his father thinks he’s too young to use them, and should keep his superpowers under wraps. But Adeline convinces her brother that what their father doesn’t know won’t hurt him, so they form a crime-fighting duo, “solving all kinds of problems that come their way — sort of.”

The drama ramps up several notches when Adeline suspects this new development is connected to a family mystery.

  Buy Photo

The suspense builds up in the next installment, “The Magma Cup.” Adeline believes an extinct volcano hundreds of miles from home holds the key — or at least a clue — to their mother’s disappearance years ago.

But how are they going to convince their father that they need to go there? Voila! A summer camp is conveniently located near the volcano, so off they go, with their friends Beto and Nara. And maybe, just maybe, they can win a series of contests leading up to an overnight scavenger hunt on the volcano. The trick is that Wyatt can’t use his tricks to gain an advantage.

A third installment already is in the works, but mum’s the word. Gapstur does run his stories by his wife, a teacher, but their sons, ages 9 and 5, are miffed that they can’t get a sneak peek into what happens next.

His origin story

Superheroes and Superman reeled Gapstur into the comics realm in his youth, and from there, he made the leap from reader to writer in a single bound — sort of.

“I've been devouring comic books and comic strips since I read the first one in the third grade,” he said. That was “Spider-Man 350,” and he hasn’t “missed an issue of Spider-Man ever since,” adding that he reads “tons of other ones, as well.”

  Buy Photo

From an early age, he wanted to create stories and comic strips, and earned a BFA in art design from Iowa State University in Ames to help pull it all together.

His earliest favorites also helped inform his “Sort of Super” graphic novels.

“I really fell in love with comic strips like ‘Calvin and Hobbes.’ So, when I came up with this (“Sort of Super”) idea, I thought it would be a great idea to have a kid superhero,” Gapstur said. “I knew there wasn't much plot with comic strips — they’re more character studies — and I just thought it would be a fun idea to explore that world.”

These graphic novels, however, were a long time coming, germinating since 2003. In the meantime, he pursued comic strips until about 2017, before pivoting toward penciling and inking other people’s comics.

Then he discovered Jason Platt’s “Middle School Misadventures” graphic novels, which debuted in 2019.

“Once I was aware of that market, I took all the ideas I had for a comic strip, and started thinking about it in terms of the graphic novel,” Gapstur said.

And he was off in a new direction.

“I got to play with all these themes,” he said. “It’s kind of a love letter to the comic strips — all the whimsy and humor of comic strips I grew up really loving, and all the action and adventure of comic books, and all of the drama in those that I really enjoyed.”

When shaping Wyatt, Gapstur “thought it would be fun to play with a character that, like Superman, had a lot of power but didn't really know how to use it. I thought that was just perfect for the kind of audience I was looking for.”

Getting the word out

He pitched the idea to his agents in 2019, and they agreed. Typically, the process involves sending a query letter summarizing the book in three or four lines, to get the agents’ attention.

“But then you also have to have a synopsis, and I had about a chapter’s worth of art — about 12 pages — but it varies, depending on who you’re sending it to.”

Finding his readers has taken him out of his home base and into schools and libraries, talking to all ages, from kindergarten to high school.

“Middle-grade readers are not on social media,” he noted, but he is. Gapstur uses social media to reach “the gatekeepers of most readers, like parents and librarians,” and in-person events to reach his target audience.

He loves talking to kids about graphic novels in general, and how to make them, and is heartened to see the growing popularity of this genre among girls, too.

“For me, I did not meet a professional cartoonist until I was in college,” he said. “But it would have been so energizing and exciting to meet someone who did what I wanted to do.”

Now, he wants to be that person for kids.

“Graphic novels are huge,” he said. “In every group of kids I talk to, the first question I ask is, ‘Who in here has read a graphic novel?’ There's rarely a time when a hand doesn't go up. It's awesome.”

Getting “in front of readers and meeting them personally — that's really, really gratifying.”

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com