Squirrel Girl creators’ new graphic novel is full of danger and good dogs

Summary Danger and other unknown risksIt is difficult. It’s truly one of those stories that has everything: Magic, time travel, Y2k, the apocalypse, a chosen hero. But to artist Erica Henderson and writer Ryan North, who joined Polygon on a recent Zoom call in anticipation of the graphic novel’s release, the most important thing might have been the dog.

“Every time we came up with a story idea, you were like And also there’s a talking dog,” Henderson told North over video chat, when I asked about how the book came to be. “And I was like, Okay, these stories don’t work with talking dogs. Let’s make one that does.”

“I have no memory of that,” North admitted, “but it absolutely sounds like something I would be doing.”

Image: Erica Henderson/Marvel Comics

North and Henderson were the unexpectedly and wildly successful couple who created their names. Incredible Squirrel GirlMarvel Comics has entered the post-acquisition phase.Squirrel era. The graphic novel is their first independent, creator-owned tale made together — which should interest any Squirrel GirlMarvel Comics fans loved how the comic was boldly and lovingly different from their usual fare. From Squirrel Girl’s emphasis on the power of connection and friendship, fans might also appreciate that Danger didn’t start with any particular idea or pitch.

“It started with Erica saying, Hey, let’s do a book. What do we do a book about?” North said. “And I was like, Yes, let’s do a book, what should it be about?”

A conversation between the Canadian North and the American Henderson about the U.S.’ obsession with chosen-one narratives eventually turned into the colorful, magical post-apocalypse of Dangerous and Unknown Risques.

North hesitated after waxing on the bizarre American instinct to reject the divine rights of kings, but also loving a story about a person destined for greatness from birth. “This also makes it sound like the book is very serious […] but it’s also a book about a young woman and her talking dog going on an adventure. That’s the heart of it.”

“It is about friendship and adventure,” Henderson jumped in. “And also about rejecting the idea that there’s nothing you can do about an impossible future.”

Polygon would like to share a preview of twelve pages of stunning art and adventure with our readers in the near future. Danger, with Henderson and North’s commentary.

Henderson: This is basically a “going from place to place” adventure, and we decided to excise the Tolkien part and just arrive at each place at the start of each chapter. Which was one, fun, because you don’t have a lot of the walking. It also gives us the opportunity to make every chapter completely unique. You’re just somewhere else now, and we’re in a magic world, so all the colors are different.

I don’t have a color version of the book yet, but I feel like you could open it to any part and based on the colors you’re seeing, know what chapter you’re in. That makes me happy. This makes me happy on an aesthetic level.

Polygon: The book has less dialogue and is more laid back than the previous. Squirrel GirlIs that an evolutionary change in your processes or a decision made specifically? Danger?

North: I think this is like a Marshall McLuhan “Medium is the message” thing. When you’re doing a monthly comic, it’s four bucks plus per month. It’s a very expensive thing to read comics on a monthly basis. This is what I was intentionally trying to look like. Is it possible to include as many jokes here as we can? Let’s make it as dense a read as we can. This allowed us to feel like there was more room for growth and didn’t have to keep it as dense. Squirrel Girl.

So it’s got a lot of the same flavor, but we have room to let moments breathe that you can’t really do in a superhero comic coming out once a month, when you’re stuck to those 20 pages, and you want to get to a beat that makes it feel like it was worth your four or five bucks that month. Putting it in the graphic novel format gave us space to not feel like we’re rushing towards the finish line all the time.

Henderson:The topic of what breed of dog is best was the subject of long discussions. [Daisy]Would be.

North:We had lots of discussions about whether small dogs are better or larger. It was just a matter of speculating on breeds. Erica, I believe the decision was made. What would you find the most enjoyable to draw?

Henderson:You can have different stories with smaller or larger dogs. So we had figured that part out, and then later on I just picked a chow, partly because they’re fun, partly because they’re a breed has that instinctive — they’re guard dogs, right? They’re protective and they really, really latch on to one person.

I think around the time we were trying to figure it out, Daisy, a friend of mine who studied archaeology, was talking about another friend of hers who had spent time in Mongolia, and just talked about how there are these villages where the chow chows are — they’re not feral, but they don’t belong to anyone and they just move around the village eating scraps, but also fighting off predators. Then I thought, That’s a cool dog. That’s a big, floofy boy that is cool.

Are you a fan of a particular dog drawing?

Henderson: Actually the page we’re looking at, 68, where he’s all scrunched down on the ground staring at the frog.

North:The book begins with the assumption that January 1, 2000 is the date. [the day after] New Year’s Eve 1999, magic comes back to the world suddenly and catastrophically. Magic is one reason. [is in the story]This idea that everyone should be preparing for Y2K was very appealing to me.

When I was there I was helping with emergency preparation in Canada. I was just a teenage boy who was traveling the country updating computers and was so ready for this date rollover. I didn’t think it was possible for something so unexpected to prove more devastating than a date bug. It was just a small kernel that would help me start my story.

Henderson: There’s all these stories about how people deal with major changes — chaotic changes, civilization-destroying changes. And they’re always like, Well, everyone’s gonna beat each other up and eat each other. And we’ve [had castastrophes] a lot in human history, and we didn’t all beat each other up and end things. We’re here now because people kept rebuilding. That was an important thing. [I wanted to have in the book]. I’m tired of Oh, things went bad, so now we’re all just murderers.

North:Marguerite is a young lady who was born with the intention of saving the world. So for her, this is gonna be great, this is what she’s been ready for. It’s a grand adventure. And here at this giant big box store, she meets Jacin who is this — you know, dead-end security job working at a Walmart-type place on New Year’s Eve, 1999. Nobody wants to do that; bottom of the totem pole; she’s not super thrilled with how her life is going or what the world has been giving her.

Seeing this impossible woman and this talking dog show up, that’s a spark of magic that she’s big into; a window to escape into a world that for her has always been fictional. It’s like the world of games and stories and D&D and stuff; for her it’s like a capital A adventure, It’s going to be amazing. For Marguerite it’s more like Yeah, it’s gonna be an adventure, but it’s also like, you know, fate of the world. There’s some serious stuff here, never forget that.

Henderson: And we have Daisy, who’s just very loyal.

North: Oh, yes, Daisy, I can’t forget Daisy. Daisy, the dog. Daisy the dog is very loyal and sensible. Great dog.

North: [Danger and Other Unknown Risks]It’s as if you took the Squirrel Girl team and you say “If you could do anything in the world, what would you do?” And then you get this book out the other end of it. I’m really proud of it, and I don’t normally say that about books that I’m involved with, because it feels egotistical to be like, You know what? It’s pretty great!!

However, I was able to have that same experience while I was doing the Vonnegut Slaughterhouse FiveVonnegut created it and Albert did the drawing. It felt like I wasn’t a big person there, I [just]I was a part. And because Erica and I collaborated so closely on this, it feels like it’s this work of this entity called “Erica and Ryan” that is somehow different from Ryan North and Erica Henderson.

Henderson: I would agree with that last part especially — I mean, I’m also proud of it [laughs] — I really feel like the completely insane way we wrote this, where, literally, we were just going over each other’s scripts and crossing out chunks and putting in different stuff. We trust one another so it can only be possible.

North: Oh, yeah, you couldn’t do that with someone you didn’t trust.

Henderson: That’s not a thing I would do with most people. Trusting someone fully is essential.

So if you’re a fan of Squirrel Girl, it’s as if these two creators that collaborated to make this thing you really like, have Voltron-ed even harder together.

North: [laughs] That’s the line, exactly.

Henderson: It’s very Blade, in the sense that we really tried to negate each other’s worst instincts. It’s like, All of their strengths and none of their flaws. [both laugh]

North: That’s what we should put on the book, “All of the strengths, none of the weaknesses.”

Danger and other unknown risksOn April 4, it will be available on shelves