Paul Tobin’s ONI Press series I Was the Cat is about Burma, a megalomaniacal feline who relates the story of his journey throughout history and how he spent his nine lives attempting to take over the world. Here in the real world, the numbers of lives Paul’s writing career has had puts Burma’s puny nine lives to shame. Paul has written titles such as Marvel Adventures, Legends of the Dark Knight, Angry Birds, Plants vs. Zombies, Falling Skies, Predators, Savage Sword, and Prometheus. His creator-owned work includes the series Colder, and numerous collaborations with his wife artist Colleen Coover, including Bandette, Gingerbread Girl and Banana Sunday.

Cat was edited by ONI’s Robin Herrera (following Jill Beaton). In addition to editing other ONI titles such as Letter 44 and Invader ZIM, Robin is an author in her own right; her middle-readers novel Hope is a Ferris Wheel was recently published by Amulet Press.

Paul and Robin joined us to talk to about how their respective grandmothers (and Madonna) helped to inspire their interest in storytelling, what appeals to them about writing for younger audiences and how the input of editors can be essential to help writers bring a comic book project to fruition.

Paul also shares with us what role good ol’ fashioned belligerence plays in motivating him to write.

For more on their work and upcoming appearances, you should check out Paul’s website, paultobin.net and Robin’s website, robinherrera.com. You can also follow them on Twitter @paultobin and @herreracus.