Margaret Ferguson Books
Text copyright © 2020 by Claudia Mills
Pictures copyright © 2020 by Grace Zong
All Rights Reserved
HOLIDAY HOUSE is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
www.holidayhouse.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Mills, Claudia, author. | Zong, Grace, illustrator.
Title: Vera Vance, comics star / Claudia Mills; pictures by Grace Zong.
Description: First edition. | New York : Holiday House, [2020]
Series: After-School Super Stars | Summary: Third-grader Vera, a budding artist, loves every minute of her after-school comic-book camp, but searches for a way to convince her mother to allow her to attend the camp’s final field trip to Comic-Con.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018060601 | ISBN 9780823440948 (hardcover)
Subjects: | CYAC: Cartoons and comics—Fiction. Authorship—Fiction. | Camps—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.M63963 Ve 2020 | DDC [Fic]—dc22
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018060601
Ebook ISBN 9780823446353
v5.4
a
For Jeannie Mobley,
with thanks for the joy of writing
in your sunroom together
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Some of Vera’s Favorite Comics and Graphic Novels
Acknowledgments
About the Author
one
BAM! BOOM! KAPOW!
Vera Vance let go of her bowling ball, hoping this time to hear ten pins exploding into the air. But her ball rolled so slowly and crookedly down the lane again that only one pin, on the far left, wobbled for a second before toppling over.
“Hooray!” Nixie Ness shouted, pumping her fist.
Vera didn’t have a lot of friends yet. She and her mother had moved to Longwood for her mother’s new job right before school began two months ago. But she and Nixie had just finished being in an after-school cooking camp together, and now Nixie had invited her to come bowling on Saturday afternoon.
Vera stared at Nixie. “Hooray?”
“You got a point! Your first point!”
“You’re starting to figure it out,” Nixie’s father chimed in, sounding almost as enthusiastic as Nixie herself.
Vera couldn’t help laughing. So far the only thing she had figured out in her first time ever bowling was that she was terrible at it. Nixie was almost as bad at bowling as Vera. The difference between Vera and Nixie was that when Nixie knocked down a single pin, she started talking about how she was going to be the third-grade bowling champion of the world. Vera just saw the other nine pins still standing.
“Roll again,” Nixie’s father told her. “You have another roll coming to you.”
This time, to Vera’s astonishment, four more pins went down.
“See!” Nixie squealed. “Didn’t I tell you you’d be great at bowling?”
Vera felt herself beaming. She could imagine drawing a comic of the bowling pins flying into the air with surprised expressions on their faces. All Vera could think about these days was making comics: on Monday, the After-School Superstars program she and Nixie attended was starting a four-week comic-book camp.
As Nixie readied herself for her next turn, Vera wondered whether the bowling pins should look sad instead of surprised when they got smashed by the bowling ball. It was hard not to feel sorry for the poor bowling pins, standing up straight and proud one moment, then clobbered the next.
No, Vera decided. Right this minute—bowling with Nixie and looking forward to comic-book camp together—she wasn’t going to think sad thoughts about anything.
* * *
The next day, Nixie came over to Vera’s house after lunch. They had never had a playdate before, and now they were having two in the same weekend. Once Nixie’s family had invited Vera to go bowling, Vera’s mother had immediately issued an invitation of their own to Nixie. She called it “reciprocating.” Vera knew her mother liked to get “reciprocating” over with as soon as possible.
“What do you want to do?” Vera asked as soon as her mother had welcomed Nixie and then tactfully disappeared into the home office where she did stuff for her job as a financial planner.
“I don’t know. What do you want to do?” Nixie replied.
Vera felt a twinge of nervousness. It was easier to go bowling with a friend because then it was obvious what you were supposed to do: bowl! For an at-home playdate you were supposed to play. But what if the other person didn’t like playing the same things you did?
“I know!” Nixie said. Vera relaxed. “Show me your room! Didn’t you tell me you were making a comic book about animals? I love animals! Well, dogs mainly. Not cats. But if there are cats in your book, that’s okay, too.”
Half an hour later the girls were lying on Vera’s neatly made bed, side by side, drawing dogs. Vera’s dogs looked more like dogs than Nixie’s did, because Vera borrowed details from her big animal encyclopedia, while Nixie just made them up out of her head. But Nixie was great at thinking of funny things for the dogs to be doing and saying.
“How about they go to a doggie school?” Nixie suggested. “Like maybe it’s called Bow-Wow Elementary.”
Vera thought for a moment. “Or Mistress Barker’s Bow-Wow Academy.”
“Yes! That’s perfect!” Nixie shouted. “What street should it be on?”
The answer came to Vera instantly. “Wag-a-Tail Lane.”
Nixie tossed a fistful of colored pencils into the air in clear appreciation of Vera’s brilliance. The pencils clattered onto the hardwood floor.
Just then Vera’s mother poked her head into the room. “It sounds like you two are having fun,” she said.
“Are we making too much noise?” Vera asked.
“No, not at all,” her mother said. “Well, maybe a tiny bit.” She smiled when she said it. Vera knew her mother wanted her to have friends in Longwood as much as she did.
“Vera is a great draw-er,” Nixie said.
“Nixie is a terrific artist, too,” Vera said in return.
Nixie’s face lit up. “If we get to have partners in comic-book camp, let’s work together. Our comic book will totally be the best! We could make a whole Bow-Wow Academy comic, with the dogs as superheroes, each one with a different superpower. Not just superbarking, or superbiting, or super-peeing-on-fire-hydrants, but really cool superpowers, like turning into other animals—like maybe one dog turns into an elephant and can spray water from her trunk to put out fires!”
If they had to have comic-book partners, of course Vera wanted Nixie for hers. But part of Vera hoped they’d get to work alone. What if she and Nixie disagreed on ideas? So far they had agreed on everything about Mistress Barker’s Bow-Wow Academy. But in the space of a minute Nixie had already gone ahead and practically planned out the whole book.
Before Vera could think of how to reply to Nixie, her mother said, “I’m not sure Vera’s doing the comic-book camp.”
No! Not that again! Vera’s mother had been talking about hiring a sitter to drive Vera
to some other enrichment activity instead, like the kids’ Science Discovery class at the university. She always told Vera comics weren’t “real literature,” but Vera devoured comics and graphic novels in the library at school. She loved everything about them—the way she could be swept along in the story by the words and the pictures and feel like she was right there having adventures side by side with kids so much braver than she could ever be.
The camp was starting tomorrow! Her mother couldn’t change her mind about it one day before the most wonderful camp in the world was going to begin.
Could she?
Nixie opened her mouth as if she was about to explain to Mrs. Vance how Vera had to be in the comic-book camp, she just had to. But then Nixie’s mouth closed again. It was clear Vera’s mother wasn’t someone who could be told what she had to do.
“I want to go to the comic-book camp,” Vera said in a small voice.
“I know you do,” her mom replied. “But why would a school enrichment program devote an entire camp to comic books when there are so many other truly important things in the world to learn about?”
Vera stared down silently at the dog pictures she and Nixie had drawn. If only Nixie hadn’t mentioned dogs peeing on fire hydrants! That was exactly the kind of thing her mother didn’t like.
Her mother sighed. “Honey, I’m willing to give the comic-book camp a try for now. But if you’re bored because it’s not challenging enough, we can make whatever changes in your schedule we need to. All right, girls, I’ll let you go back to your fun.”
Vera’s mother gave both girls a smile before heading downstairs again.
After a moment of silence, Nixie said, “She did say you could do the camp.”
“She said I could do it for now.”
“Can you talk to your dad?”
Vera took a deep breath. “I don’t have a dad. He died in a car accident when I was two.”
Nixie’s face crumpled. “I shouldn’t have…I mean…I didn’t know. I’m sorry, Vera.”
“That’s okay.” Vera was used to answering questions about her dad in a matter-of-fact voice without making the other person feel bad for having asked. But this time her voice had come out shakier than usual. “Well, let’s draw some more.”
“I’m tired of drawing.”
Vera knew Nixie hadn’t been the tiniest bit tired of drawing before her mother had come into the room.
“I have an idea!” Nixie said. “Let’s look at animal pictures in your encyclopedia and each pick out the top ten animals we’d adopt if our parents let us have pets.”
“Okay,” Vera agreed.
But she didn’t care if her mother might someday let her have a dog, or an elephant, or a pygmy three-toed sloth. She only cared whether her mother would let her keep going to comic-book camp after school every single day for a whole entire month.
two
The first thing Vera noticed when she and Nixie came into the Longwood Elementary School library on Monday afternoon with the rest of the third-grade after-school comic-book campers was that both comic-book camp teachers had tattoos.
Big tattoos.
Bright tattoos.
Lots of tattoos. Covering their arms and what she could see of their legs, as if they were walking, talking comic books themselves.
Vera felt a prickle of worry. What if her mother saw these teachers and their big, bright tattoos? Vera’s mother did not approve of tattoos. By tomorrow, Vera could be whisked off to a science class instead.
Colleen, the head camp lady, checked everyone in on her attendance sheet. Colleen had run the cooking camp, too. She wasn’t a cook or a comic-book artist herself; she was the person who kept everything and everybody organized and orderly. It was comforting to see her taking charge again here.
“Grab a snack and sit anywhere,” Colleen told them.
Vera and Nixie found seats at a table near the window next to Nolan Nanda and Boogie Bass, who had been their cooking teammates at the last camp. Nolan was serious like Vera and full of fascinating facts about everything. He was already telling Boogie that Superman was invented by two high-school kids who sold their idea to a big comics company for only $130. Boogie was the opposite of serious—funny in a klutzy, good-natured way.
“All right, campers,” Colleen said, once everyone was seated at a library table. “I’d like to introduce our comic-book teachers, Brian and Bee. They’ve collaborated on fifteen comic books and right now they’re making a new one for kids about…yes…how to make comic books! Can you give them your best After-School Superstars welcome?”
Vera joined in the enthusiastic applause, and the two comic-book teachers each waved a tattooed arm and smiled.
Brian had a thin gray ponytail hanging halfway down his back. Bee’s hair was short: green-tinted spikes like newly mown grass growing out of her head.
Vera’s fingers itched to try drawing Bee. What would be a good name for Bee if she was a comic-book character? Maybe Buzz-Bee. Was it mean to give someone a comic-book name and draw her head looking like a bowling ball with grass sprouting on top? Probably not, Vera concluded. Not in a comic-book camp.
Brian spoke first. “We could start by telling you the long history of blah-blah-blah, and the seven most important rules for blah-blah-blah, then more stuff about comic-book blah-blah-blah, or we could jump right in and draw a bunch of cool stuff. Who wants to draw?”
The other fifteen campers cheered their approval. Vera must have been the only one who wanted to know: Well, how did comic books get started? And what were the seven most important rules for making them? Maybe Nolan already knew those things and could tell her later.
Brian and Buzz-Bee took their places in front of two easels, each bearing an oversized pad of paper. Without a word, they started making bold black marks on each blank page. And then Vera didn’t care about anything else.
Two dots became eyes. Two squiggly lines became eyebrows. Noses, chins, a few tufts of fur appeared, until suddenly a mischievous squirrel popped out from Brian’s easel and a shy bunny peeked out from Buzz-Bee’s.
How did they do that?
How could so few lines, drawn so fast, make something so alive and so real?
The other campers burst into applause as Brian and Buzz-Bee laid down their markers and gave their bows. Vera was too amazed to do anything but stare.
“Okay,” Buzz-Bee said. “Your turn.”
Colleen passed out sheets of paper and dropped a handful of markers on each table.
“Later on, we’ll talk about creating your own characters,” Buzz-Bee said. “First we just want to get your hands moving over the page so you’ll see for yourselves how the simplest lines can express every feeling known to humankind—or squirrel-kind or bunny-kind. The simpler the drawing, the more everyone can look at that character and see themselves there.”
Brian ripped the squirrel from his pad of paper and let the page flutter to the floor like a piece of litter. Vera thought it should be framed and put in a museum of the world’s best squirrel pictures.
He turned to the new blank page. “Start with two dots, like this, for the squirrel’s eyes.”
Vera tried to copy his dots, but before she could check if hers were spaced too far apart on her small sheet of paper compared to his eyes on the big sheet of easel paper, he was already on to the nose, mouth, and eyebrow squiggles. Eyebrow squiggles were hard. The slightest difference in a squiggle turned excitement into fear, or fear into irritation.
Wait! she wanted to call out.
All around her, the others were drawing ten times faster than she was. Nolan copied every stroke of Brian’s marker as if he were a photocopy machine. Vera could already see Nixie’s cartoon eyes were too far apart, but Nixie didn’t seem to care. Boogie’s eyebrows made his cartoon squirrel look as if it had been electrocuted. The other two kids at their table, who were fr
om the other two third-grade classes—a girl named Harper and a boy named James—seemed to be keeping up just fine. Only Vera was still agonizing over how to draw the eyebrows while Brian was already sketching the two curvy lines that caused a squirrel’s tail to spring into existence.
“Is everyone with me?” Brian finally asked, laying down his marker for a minute.
No! Vera wanted to cry, but she couldn’t bear to be the only one admitting defeat.
Buzz-Bee and Brian started circulating from table to table to check everybody’s squirrels so far. Vera had no squirrel, no anything, just two eyes and a nose she wasn’t sure were exactly like they were supposed to be.
As Buzz-Bee approached Vera’s table, Vera felt herself stiffening with dread.
“Nice,” Buzz-Bee said to Nolan.
“My nose looks weird,” Nixie complained to Buzz-Bee.
Buzz-Bee studied it. “Let’s try adding another line, like this.” Sure enough, with one stroke of Buzz-Bee’s marker, Nixie’s nose looked much much more nose-like.
“Your little fellow had quite a scare!” was all she said to Boogie.
To James she gave a nod of approval. To Harper, whose squirrel looked the most squirrelly of all, she said, “You’ve done some drawing like this before, haven’t you?” In reply, Harper gave a shrug.
Vera wanted to cover hers up so Buzz-Bee couldn’t see it, but she knew she couldn’t do that, so she just sat completely still, sick with shame.
“You froze up,” Buzz-Bee said matter-of-factly. “It happens.”
“He went so fast,” Vera managed to say.
“Fast is good,” Buzz-Bee told her. “Turn off your brain. Let your eyes and hand do their thing.”
Buzz-Bee stood waiting, for what Vera didn’t know.
“Remember: don’t think,” Buzz-Bee said. “Just draw.”
“Now?” Vera asked.
“Now.”
But they were all staring at her—Nixie, Nolan, Boogie, Harper, and James, who seemed to be hiding a grin at Vera’s predicament.
Vera Vance: Comics Star Page 1
