Marlow and Carter Wright kneel beside each other at the dining table, drawing their cartoon characters on a giant piece of cardboard.<\/p>\n
This is where the young brothers’ initial idea for their books usually starts.<\/p>\n
Currently working on book three in a series of six, Marlow, nine, and Carter, 10, never actually set out to write a comic book.<\/p>\n
“We were reading lots of comics and graphic novels from our school library and then decided that we wanted to write a book,” Carter said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
From the initial idea to the published work. (Supplied: Maddi Wright)<\/p>\n
Their mum, Maddi Wright, was happy to support their dream but made an agreement with them that they had to stick it out to the end.<\/p>\n
She has now turned their ideas into hardcover, self-published comic books, printing 5,000 copies of their first book and 2,000 copies of the second.<\/p>\n
They have sold more than 2,500 books and donated 500 to school libraries, hospitals and an aged care home.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Illustrations of a work in progress. (Supplied: Stu Thornton)<\/p>\n
It is no wonder the books resonate with kids: the stories are full of fart jokes, snot balls, undead monster sharks, stink-eyed butt dragons, smelly armpits, quicksand and treasure maps.<\/p>\n
Nearly all the characters have unusual superpowers, such as chilli farts or an electric-shock jock, and the places have cool names, like Diarrhoea Darklands, Venom Valley and The Donut Desert.<\/p>\n
“I often hear the boys giggling with their mates when they read it,” Maddi said.<\/p>\n
“Basically, it’s written by kids, for kids.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Marlow interacts with customers for his books at a market stall. (Supplied: Maddi Wright)<\/p>\n
Turning an idea into reality<\/p>\n
Wanting to turn Carter and Marlow’s drawings into a real comic book, Maddi went in search of a professional comic book artist.<\/p>\n
Stu Thornton from 4th Monkey answered the call and is now the official illustrator of the Poo Head books.<\/p>\n
“Maddi has a huge following on social media, and my wife is one of her followers,” he said.<\/p>\n
“She saw that Maddi was looking for a cartoonist on Facebook and told me to contact her, so I did.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Poo Heads illustrator and cartoonist, Stu Thornton, loves the boys’ imagination. (Supplied: Stu Thornton)<\/p>\n
Carter and Marlow send pages over as soon as they draw them, and Stu sends them back the next morning to edit and approve.<\/p>\n
Maddi then sticks each page to their hallway wall, creating a work-in-progress storyboard of their current book.<\/p>\n
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“I stuck the pages on the wall so the boys would see it every time they walked past and be reminded to work on it,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I print off the finished page Stu sends and swap it with their hand-drawn page so they can see the book develop.”<\/p>\n
Maddi said the storyboard had been a real motivator for the boys.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The storyboard in the hallway as the latest book develops. (Supplied: Maddi Wright)<\/p>\n
What’s in a name?<\/p>\n
Being a NewsCorp News Award finalist three times and a winner once for Headline of the Year while working for newspapers, Stu said the importance of a headline or title could not be underestimated.<\/p>\n
He said the book Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey resonated with young readers because of the catchy name, so he encouraged Carter and Marlow to choose a fun name for their book.<\/p>\n
The boys chose Poo Heads, and kids seem to love it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Marlow draws a character before Stu brings the characters to life. (Supplied: Maddi Wright)<\/p>\n
Their main characters are a bat called Tab, a seagull called Gully and a human called Lloyd, named after their dad.<\/p>\n
And there are all sorts of other weird and wonderful characters that pop up.<\/p>\n
Young readers around Australia are clearly loving the characters. So much so that many dressed as characters from the Poo Heads books for Book Week this year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Publishing their own comic books has been a great experience for the family. (Supplied: Maddi Wright)<\/p>\n
Maddi said it had been heartwarming to receive such positive feedback since publishing the books.<\/p>\n
“I’ve had teachers, parents and speech pathologists reach out and say our books have encouraged struggling readers to start reading,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t realise the impact we would have.”<\/p>\n
The appeal of comics<\/p>\n
David Blumenstein, the deputy president of the Australian Cartoonist Association, agrees that comic books are attractive to kids because they are visually appealing.<\/p>\n
“Most kids often draw in the back of their school books when people are not watching them anyway,” he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
David Blumenstein from the Australian Cartoonist Association says comics have a wide appeal. (Supplied: David Blumenstein)<\/p>\n
He was encouraged to hear of kids like Carter and Marlow creating their own comic books and said that, with the rise of AI, there was a need for illustrators who still created comics rather than just becoming AI manipulators.<\/p>\n
“We are actually seeing more people read comics now because they’re being published by book publishers and you don’t have to go to a comic shop to buy them,” he said.<\/p>\n
Maddi said while book publishing was a new venture for their family, it had given her a chance to teach the boys about business.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Maddi Wright packs books to send to Poo Heads customers. (Supplied: Maddi Wright)<\/p>\n
They have learned about customer service, public speaking, doing interviews, running workshops, book signings, and attending book festivals and markets.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think the boys understand the gravity and impact they’re having on other kids,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Maybe, when they are older, they will look back and think, ‘We did that.'”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marlow and Carter Wright kneel beside each other at the dining table, drawing their cartoon characters on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,157124,157125,5591,134,157130,157126,157129,157128,43431,157127],"class_list":["post-269996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-comic-book","tag-comic-book-artist","tag-comics","tag-entertainment","tag-kids-author","tag-kids-book","tag-maddi-wright","tag-poo-heads","tag-storytelling","tag-the-wright-brothers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}