ALU Summer Book Club: An interview with Richard Van Camp, author of Wheetago War: Roth

Award-winning author Richard Van Camp’s graphic novel Roth throws readers headfirst into the Wheetago War. The first installment in the series, the novel introduces readers to what was meant to stay undisturbed and scattered beneath the permafrost. Unearthed by the greed of industry, the Wheetago have returned, bringing back ancient horrors long thought banished. In their wake, a group of unlikely allies stumble across the Child Finder, a once-revered hero now fighting to cling to his humanity after surviving a Wheetago attack. Together, they must save him, survive the returning terrors, and come to terms with what’s been unleashed.

Buy your own copy here on All Lit Up for 15% off (or find a copy from your local indie using our Shop Local finder).

Read on for our interview with the author.

ALL LIT UP: Thanks for taking time to talk to us about Roth! The legend of the wheetago has been part of Indigenous storytelling in many different forms for generations. What drew you to telling this particular version of the story, and why did it feel like the right time to bring it into a graphic novel?

RICHARD VAN CAMP: I think we live in the time of the wheetago because we live in a time of insatiable greed. The wheetago is no legend. We actually do not say this word out loud unless there is snow on the ground out of fear it will give them more power and more reach.

I’ve been collecting comics for 45 years and writing comics for 20. I love illustrated literature so much, and I wanted an action-packed comic showing their brutal power, and I wanted a man—a protector like “Ross,” the Child Finder, to fight them while being half wheetago himself.

ALU: Ross is known to many as the Child Finder, a revered hero, yet in this story he’s fighting to hold onto his own humanity. How did you approach writing that internal war between protector and monster?

RICHARD: I think the theme of this story is about fatherhood and being a parent and what you would do to save your own family, especially armed with new strength, but, at the same time, knowing that if you drop that ratroot you were holding onto when you were bit, that you would turn full wheetago and eat your own family and everyone you loved and you would not stop there.

ALU: What does the graphic novel medium let you do with this story that traditional prose might not have allowed, especially when it comes to conveying an atmosphere?

RICHARD: What I love about comics is the emotion that you can’t capture with prose. Look at all the raw emotion on the faces of the characters in Wheetago War: Roth. That’s the alchemy of Christopher Shy. I wanted to work with Christopher for 15 years before we sent him the script. I am the luckiest guy in the world because we text, we message—and I get to see his thumbnail sketches before he fleshes them out. I get to watch a master artist work on my vision, and we work with one of the greatest comic book editors and publishers of our time: Alexander Finbow of Renegade Arts Entertainment in Canmore, Alberta. All of this is a dream come true for me, and please know that we have three more books coming out in this series!

ALU: The artwork carries so much of the story’s doom and gloom. How closely did you and Christopher Shy work together to find that visual tone, and how did that collaboration shape the way you wrote (or rewrote) certain scenes?

RICHARD: I discovered his graphic novel Pathfinder a few days after I watched the movie in Vancouver, BC, and lost my mind with his style. I ended up contacting him and purchasing every book he has out. Through the years, we kept in touch, and I started working on the scripts for the series. When Alexander Finbow contacted me about who the artist could be, I was very clear that Christopher Shy was my dream artist, and it’s been a magic carpet ride ever since 🙂.

ALU: There’s a lot of trust required in bringing a graphic novel to life with a publisher, editor, and illustrator all shaping the final vision. How did you go about building that trust with your team on this project?

RICHARD: I was told a long time ago that collaborating is a dance of trust and that, as a writer, you have to let go and let the artist do what they were born to do. I always find that it’s my publishers, my editors, and the artists that I am so, so blessed to work with—it’s always the dream team that helps me reach a level in my own craft that I could never reach alone. 

ALU: The characters in this story—a mother, her son, and a band of convicts—make for an unlikely alliance. What interested you about throwing together individuals who may not normally trust one another?

RICHARD: I wanted a dynamic of a group of people forced together to have to trust one another in order to survive. 

ALU: At its core, this feels like a story about self-preservation and about what people are willing to do to keep the ones they love safe. Was that the emotional centre you were writing toward from the beginning, or did you have a different goal in mind?

RICHARD: Not only is Wheetago War: Roth about parenthood and fatherhood, I wanted to explore the dynamic with Ross and his wife. In the story, Ross has just learned that his wife may have had an affair with a family friend. Book two is about their marriage. Do they call it quits or choose to forgive during a time of the return of the wheetago?

Richard Van Camp is a proud Tlicho Dene from Fort Smith, NWT. He is the author of 24 books in just about every genre. His novel, The Lesser Blessed, is now a feature film with First Generation Films and his graphic novel with Scott Henderson, A Blanket of Butterflies, was nominated for an Eisner Award in 2016. You can visit Richard on Facebook, Twitter and at richardvancamp.com.

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Thanks to Richard for answering our questions! Get Roth here on All Lit Up for 15% off (discount code SUMMEROFSTRANGE), all summer long. And join us next Tuesday when the team gets together to chat about our reactions to the book!

Keep on top of all summer book club happenings here.