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MEET LELAND MYRICK
by Bonnie O'Brian

What books influenced you most when you were growing up?

Leland Myrick

I read very widely as a child. My mother’s taste in literature was a great influence on what I read because early on I mostly picked up the books she finished. She is a great lover of mysteries, so I read all of the Agatha Christie novels, and especially enjoyed the Hercule Poirot stories. And comic books—I loooooved comic books—and still do. The used bookstore where my mother used to shop for mystery novels had a spinner rack of comic books with new issues each week that I gobbled up. I couldn’t get enough comic books. I began to draw comic strips as a kid, and even painted a life-size Ironman on my wall. From there I started reading a lot of science-fiction and fantasy…all of Fritz Lieber, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, and Isaac Asimov.

Did you write stories when you were growing up? at school? Or at home as a hobby? As a young child, or as a teenager, or both?

Both. I enjoyed writing at school, but I also wrote at home and drew comic strips that I kept in notebooks and sometimes tacked up to the inside of my closet door.

When you were a child did you ever have moments when you decided that you were going to be a writer when you grew up?

I decided very early on that I wanted to write and illustrate. By middle school I was quite sure of it. There was never really a time when I wasn’t writing or drawing, and I knew that it was what I wanted to spend all my work time doing.

When you went to college, were you already pursuing a writing career? (or a career in illustrating? or just art in general?)

Yes. I went to the University of Missouri-St. Louis to get a degree in English with an emphasis on writing.

Was your first book accepted immediately? or did you experience a number of rejections?

My first book was a comic book, and I received MANY rejections along the way.

What are the topics are some of your books?

My books have been about many things, everything from quirky love stories to an autobiography of my early life in Missouri.

What gave you the idea for MISSOURI BOY?

I have been writing poems about growing up in Missouri for many years. Most of these poems were only meant to be shared with friends and family and at poetry readings at my house. However, a few years ago I decided to take one of those poems, Paper Airplanes, and turn it into a short comic book story which was published in an anthology by Dark Horse Comics. My wife was the catalyst to take more of the Missouri poems and put them together into a graphic novel autobiography. It was a very interesting experience turning poetry into comic book form. MISSOURI BOY was the result, a series of poems in comic book form that tell one coherent story through short snapshots of life.

Have any of your books earned special recognition?

My earliest work in comic books was nominated for the Ignatz and Harvey awards. MISSOURI BOY was chosen as one of Booklist’s Top Ten Graphic Novels for Youth 2007 and is in the 2009 High School California Collection.

Do you work on more than one book at a time?

No. One book takes up all the energy I have, though sometimes I will do small illustration jobs at the same time, in the evenings.

What are you working on now? When do you expect to start submitting it to publishers

Right now I’m illustrating a biography of the Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman. It was written by my friend Jim Ottaviani. This is the first time I’ve illustrated someone else’s writing, and it has been a very interesting and challenging experience. It will be called FEYNMAN! and has already been purchased by First Second Books.

Do you write every day and do you have set hours that you work?

Yes, I write (or draw) six to seven days a week. I sit down at my desk or drawing board between 7:30 and 8:00 each morning and usually don’t finish until 5 or 6pm., though I take a couple of breaks along the way.

What other jobs you had before you became a writer/illustrator?

I have been a dishwasher, x-ray technician’s assistant, worked in an auto assembly factory on the line, newspaper writer, school teacher, web-programmer, and a technology coordinator.