Johnnie Christmas, author of Swim Team, returns with Gamerville (HarperAlley, July 16). Christmas’s sophomore graphic novel follows Max Lightning as he tries to escape Camp Reset, where electronics are forbidden, and fulfill his dream of winning the multiplayer video game Lone Wolf of Calamity Bay at the Gamerville championship. 

Christmas, who lives in Vancouver, spoke with Q&Q about the inspiration behind Gamerville, and what he hopes readers take away from the book. 

Can you recall what sparked your interest in illustration? 

I always say that all kids draw; I was just the one that never stopped. I believe that it’s one of the ways kids look to differentiate themselves – the tall one, the fast one, the smart one – and I was the one that was drawing. Every day that another kid stopped was a day that I kept going, so after a year or two I was better than the other kids. Plus, I really loved it. I was always a quiet kid. I love being in my own world, so I can create my own world on paper. 

Were there any graphic novels that inspired you?

When I was in high school, it was a really exciting time for comics. Jim Lee’s artwork on X-Men was the deciding factor for me on wanting to become a professional cartoonist or comic book artist. The uniqueness of his artwork let me know that whatever I was doing creatively, artistically, in terms of the line, could be done. He gave me permission. His run on X-Men was really groundbreaking for me. Then, Lee and a few other comic book artists broke away from Marvel Comics to start Image Comics, and they started doing superhero comics on their own. The fact that they were creating comics that they owned, that they wrote and drew was really big for me. I was like, “Okay, they’re doing it. I want to do that, too.” From that moment on, I didn’t want to work on characters for Marvel or DC, I wanted to create work that was relevant to me.  

What inspired Gamerville? 

As a kid, I was really into video games. I remember how powerfully addictive they were. If I wasn’t prone to motion sickness, I probably wouldn’t now be an artist because I would have fallen right into video games. I was thinking about what would have been the worst thing that could have happened to me at that point in time. And that would have been to be cut off from the games, off in the woods at summer camp. I could imagine my emotional state. It would have been jarring. 

Gamerville touches on the hazards of identifying with something that’s artificial or material. Why was it so important to share this message with young children?

We’re in a time of very addictive technologies. They become habitual. When I was growing up, I was super consumed with video games that, comparatively, were very simple. With video games, social media, and the internet you can fall down all kinds of rabbit holes. I’m looking at the kids in my life wondering, how are they navigating this? I’m watching to see how it all turns out: Are we going to step back from this? Or, is this the dawn of something new? Are we going to keep heading in this direction? I don’t know. That’s why I didn’t want to take a negative approach to the video game world. The book is a story about balance. Max’s reliance on video games goes a little too far. But where’s the line? What’s actually beneficial? I wanted to explore these themes, ask myself the question, and have the audience also ask the question of themselves.

It was incredibly poignant to see fellow camper Dylan, who formerly bullied Ari, talk about being afraid of his anger, of losing control, of what he might be capable of. What made you want to tackle this issue?

I was thinking: What happens when a person ages out of [bullying]? When a person sees the negative consequences of bullying in a really tactile way that shakes them awake? And, then, what do we do with these people after? What’s the road back? Is there justice here? Is there forgiveness or redemption?

When Dylan’s going down that road, there are those moments where he backslides, and times when he can decide on his way out of it. But it’s not that simple, and that’s true for all of us. I don’t recall many stories that have the reformed bully. I wanted to play them on the opposite side. Their better natures, or their true natures, are pulling them in a different direction and, it’s ultimately, the way forward. It was important to me to have a scene of them working together, because you have to do it together. It’s a two-way street, you have to want to be better and your community has to want to forgive you or believe there’s potential for trust.

After Max wins, he has this moment where he realizes that “only minutes later, my once adoring fans are already back on their screens. On to the next thing.” Can you speak about the importance of his realization?

With on-screen entertainment, there’s never an end. You beat one level so it gets you to the next, and that takes you to the level after that. If you beat the entire game, there’ll be another game in the franchise coming out very quickly for you to jump into. [Winning] is Max’s whole reason for being, but for the spectators in the audience the game is another bit of entertainment, it’s about who’s up next. For Max to have that giant realization, after all he went through to reach this moment – this one moment – and then the moment comes and goes, he sees for the first time that once you get to the top of the mountain, there’s more. Middle grade is often about early learning experiences. It’s important to show kids there’s more. No matter how big and how great an accomplishment is, there’s more.

What do you hope readers take away from Gamerville?

I hope they take away a few questions about balance, about their relationship to the natural world, and their relationship to technology. I don’t build these technologies, so I won’t speak to what motivates the people who build them, but it appears to me that one of the main motivations is to keep people in the technology. It’s not to provide something people can take and contemplate, like books, right? I made this book for you to read. You take the metaphor of the book and apply it somewhere, and it’s yours to keep forever. With technology, it’s designed to keep your attention and keep you in that world, and it’s something we need to consider. How do you want to live your life? Every choice is pushing you in a direction, and I think having agency is important. How are you going to spend this next 15 minutes? Because that’s going to lead to the next hour, which is going to lead to the next three days, and are you going to feel awful after bingeing on these technologies? These are all things we have to figure out for ourselves. If we ask these questions, then we can get to what’s good for each of us individually, instead of being caught in the undertow and realizing too late that we’ve been pulled way out from shore.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Photo credit: Amanda Palmer.