Thomas Flintham’s Press Start series is bright and bold and a suitable as an addition to lower primary graphic novel collections.
Inviting readers into the feel and look of a video game in a book, Press Start is a series written by a video game lover for video game lovers (and everyone else!).
With the newest title in the series Super Rabbit All-Stars! publishing shortly, author and illustrator Thomas has very kindly written for us about where the inspiration for Press Start! came from, how he used illustration to both represent video games in a different format and differentiate the two worlds of Press Start! and what game references readers might find when reading the series…
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Hello there! My name is Thomas Flintham and I am the illustrator and author of the ‘PRESS START!’ series of books. Each book follows the latest adventures of Super Rabbit Boy, the hero of a series of video games, and Sunny, the young boy that plays the different games that feature in each book.
On Christmas Day 1991, when I was 9 years old, I was given a Nintendo Entertainment System with the first Super Mario Bros game. From that day onwards I was Nintendo and video game crazy. It is now over 30 years later and nothing has changed, I even got the newest Super Mario game for Christmas last year! When I started working on the ‘PRESS START!’ books I was excited to have the opportunity to draw on my many years playing video games. It is a subject I have been enjoying, researching and thinking about most of my life, so I had a lot of experience to take inspiration from.
I was particularly keen to explore and celebrate what it really feels like to play a video game. The special way the real world and the virtual world are connected through the controller. I was sure it was something that video game playing readers would relate to. When I was a kid playing the latest Mario game I’d be in control of the action but I’d also be watching the latest adventure unfold on the screen. I’d use my imagination to take the basic graphics and addictive gameplay and create an epic story in a vivid world. Not long after that fateful Christmas I even wrote a full novelisation of that first Super Mario game!
Each ‘PRESS START!’ book starts in the real world with Sunny grabbing a controller and pressing the start button. Then we jump to the game world, where Super Rabbit Boy’s latest adventure has begun. Throughout the story we jump back and forth between the game world and the real world. Both realities are separate, but also connected. If Sunny gets stuck playing the game, Super Rabbit Boy’s adventure comes to a halt. If big, bad King Viking is on the attack then Sunny feels the pressure. I wanted the connection between Sunny and Super Rabbit Boy’s worlds to be fun, but also realistic and recognisable to the reader. It isn’t fantastical or science fiction, its very real and one of my favourite things about playing video games. It’s real, but it can feel magical!
To help separate the two worlds when writing and illustrating the stories I decided to approach them both differently. Sunny’s world is expressed visually, shown completely in comic form with panels and speech bubbles telling the story. In contrast, while Super Rabbit Boy’s world is fully illustrated and has speech bubbles, the story is driven by a written narration. The story is told through both words and pictures. It’s written in a neutral voice but the narrative text is Sunny’s interpretation of the action happening in the game as he plays.
Sunny and his friends and family are drawn with soft rounded shapes, their world is detailed and three dimensional, with shadows and texture bringing it to life. Super Rabbit Boy and his world are bright, flat and pixelated. Every character and place is built from squares and rectangles, blocks and straight lines, To convey movement and character the hand drawn art isn’t too rigid, I bend and stretch the shapes when I want to, but everything is depicted in a sharp and angular style.
When creating the game world’s visual style I drew inspiration from the bright pixelated graphics of 80’s and 90’s video games. I wanted to make sure it looked super video-gamey. It is what games look liked when I was a kid, but luckily the blocky graphics of the ever popular (and ever awesome!) Minecraft made me confident that it’d be a style that resonated with young readers too.
The main drive of each book is Super Rabbit Boy’s adventure but it’s always enjoyable to think of fun ways for Sunny’s life to effect and be effected by the game. When I start writing a new book I’ll often have the seeds of ideas for new Super Rabbit Boy adventures, and some real gaming experiences to use as inspiration for a new Sunny story. Finding a Super Rabbit Boy idea that fits with a Sunny idea can sometimes be tricky, but as soon as I match the right two together I find they can quickly combine and become inseparable.
I’ve had a lot of fun drawing inspiration from the games I’ve loved and enjoyed over the years. For example, I’m a big fan of the Mario Kart series of games which inspired the racing story that appeared in book 3, ‘Super Rabbit Racers’. I also enjoy filling the books with small references to many different games when creating the game world and its characters. Some are more obvious than others, such as a super fast blue hedgehog, but I hope the readers, and their parents, have fun spotting the more obscure references. It’s also been enjoyable creating video game characters and ideas for games of my own, I just wish I could really play them!
For me ‘PRESS START!’ is the culmination of a life spent playing games, drawing comics, doodling characters and thinking up stories. It’s a genuine and heartfelt celebration of video games that I hope resonates with game loving readers. That might encourage them to take a break, pause their game for a moment and grab a book. I hope it’s funny, exciting and silly enough to entertain non gamers too. Maybe it could inspire them to grab a controller and press start, beginning a new gaming adventure that will entertain and inspire them for a lifetime too!
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Many thanks to Thomas for writing about Press Start! for us. Have a look below to find out more about the titles in this series, including the newest title Press Start! Super Rabbit All-Stars!
