How a Vancouver children’s graphic novel series became a global success story
To date, the PAWS series set in the Cedar Cottage neighbourhood of east Vancouver has been translated into 13 languages
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Nathan Fairbairn co-created a hit Vancouver children’s graphic novel series after being irked that his daughter was a big fan of comics by other artists — but didn’t care about any of his award-winning work.
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“I promised myself my next project would be one that would interest her, and I came up with five ideas that I pitched to her just like you would to an executive,” the well-established comic book artist, who has worked on such fan favourite titles as Spider-Man, Batman, Invincible and Scott Pilgrim, said. “She was harsh, shooting me down four-for-four right out of the gate.”
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But his daughter did like one.
“She liked the fifth, least developed, idea about a group of girls who all wanted pets but lived in rentals where they couldn’t have them so they start a dog walkers club,” Fairbairn said.
That idea became PAWS, a Vancouver-created graphic novel series that centres around the Pretty Awesome Walkers (PAWS) dog-walking service and is aimed toward readers ages 8 to 12.
It was a case of life imitating art as the Fairbairns lived in a no-pets rental house and moving to a place that would allow pets was a frequent family dinner topic. He knew he needed a collaborator who could help achieve his artistic vision. Michele Assarasakorn, who had recently moved to Vancouver from Toronto, had been in contact.
“The idea wasn’t to mention the concept after a few meetings,” he said. “I didn’t last 15 minutes before asking, ‘Want to draw my kid’s comic book?’”
For her part, Assarasakorn had never drawn any kind of comic save for a few small, multi-frame strips developed around her and her husband’s travels. After viewing a few of these, Fairbairn figured Michele was the one for the job.
“Honestly, the story grabbed me right away, as I knew the whole child longing for a pet experience,” said Assarasakorn. “Growing up in Thailand, we weren’t allowed to have dogs either. I really liked the story, but I hadn’t ever even drawn a dog.”
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Beginning with 2022’s Gabby Gets It Together, the books published by Penguin Random House imprint G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, have been compared to the massively successful The Baby-Sitters Club series.
Not only are the stories of Gabby and her best friends running PAWS full of adorable pups, they have tackled tough topics such as cellphone addiction and urban relocation with honesty and fairness, imparting positive educational messages into their entertaining content. PAWS titles are regularly picked by booksellers and parent’s groups as good reads.
To date, the series set in the Cedar Cottage neighbourhood of east Vancouver has been translated into 13 languages with repeat print runs in all of them.
From Canada Council grants to interested publishers, the pages all fell into place in making Gabby Gets It Together. The multi-title brand came from the publishers.
“We pitched one book and the publisher said, ‘We love it, but don’t want it, unless you want to give us three or more,’” said Fairbairn. “So I took that back to Michele.”
“I wasn’t sure, since the original story was self-contained,” said Assarasakorn. “But I had faith that Nathan would come up with more ideas. He did.”
Through a process of observing his daughter and her friends, spying on dog park goings on and brainstorming, storylines kept coming. With every subsequent book, Assarasakorn’s cinematic illustrations make PAWS as much fun to look at as to read: “She draws incredible dogs now.”
The fifth title in the series, PAWS: The Trouble With Leo, was released this month.
In the latest edition, Gabby has a run-in with school nemesis Leo, which leads to the formation of a rival dog-walking team titled SCAMPS. The competition between the two crews quickly grows into a much larger conflict of values and relationships. How will the characters resolve the conflict remains to be seen.
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After the release of PAWS: The Trouble With Leo, Assarasakorn is taking full control over the project for a few books as Fairbairn is heading back into the world of older kids’ comics for a while.
Neither creator discounts the possibility of a PAWS animated series, although nothing is in the works at the moment. For now, Assarasakorn says the sixth title in the series is about halfway completed.
