An Interview with Matthew Forsythe
We have a very special treat today for you today, because we get to share an interview with one of our very favorite picture book creators - Matthew Forsythe. If you’ve come into our store before, you have likely seen the Pokko and the Drum rug hanging on the wall, and perhaps you’ve even met our bookshop cat Pokko - although admittedly she’s quite good at hiding.
Forsythe has a new picture book coming out next week on August 19th - Aggie and the Ghost - and we’re very honored to help him celebrate this book birthday with a little chat. Aggie is surprised to learn that her house is haunted, and she struggles to get along with the ghost who isn’t following any of her rules. This story basically follows their relationship as they try to coexist, and it is easily one of the very top picture books of 2025.
One thing that Forsythe does very well is dry and absurd humor - and it’s so well-timed. A good example of this is Pokko admonishing the wolf in her band by saying “no more eating band members or you’re out of the band.” He takes the very serious offense of eating someone and addresses it more like a child being scolded with a warning.
Another wonderful example is now found in Aggie and the Ghost, when a ghost says “humans are very bad at tic-tac-toe.” Both jokes have a wonderful deadpan quality to them, and both subvert expectations of the subject matter in a masterful way. In this case, it takes the very light subject matter of a tic-tac-toe game and gives it this comedic gravitas - complete with a brand new mystical character, man-faced owl, coming out of nowhere from on high simply to declare the tie.
Aggie and the Ghost Have an Epic Tic-Tac-Toe Battle
I can already assure you that Aggie and the Ghost will be found on our 2025 Halloween picture book list and in the 2025 Dad Suggests Picture Book Awards come next January. I’m excited about this picture book in that way that usually only happens a few times a year. And we’re excited to share it with you come next Tuesday!
So let’s get on with the interview! And a very big congrats from us at Dad Suggests Books to Matthew Forsythe, Simon & Schuster, and Paula Wiseman Books.
Hey Matthew! Thanks for joining us! I meet a lot of Pokko fans in the shop, and I think the Pokko lovers I chat with are often surprised in a very pleasant way when they hear that you worked as lead designer on Adventure Time. I think there’s a large overlap in the Venn diagram of Pokko appreciation and Adventure Time appreciation. And you recently announced that you’re back with the team designing for an upcoming new season! Congrats!
Please tell us a bit about your work on the show and the role of a designer. For instance, I honestly have no idea if the writing usually comes first or the character art. How is a new character made for example?
Character design is actually highly technical work. The concepts are usually developed by the storyboarders/ writers and the designers clean up and articulate these designs in a way that is useful for overseas studios to animate. I’m also doing a little bit of concept art for the show.
The whole thing is just fun; it’s exciting to work again with a team of brilliant artists and writers - Tom Herpich is back doing character design; much of his art was the DNA for the original show - and also a big reason I got into comics 20 years ago. Jesse Moynihan and Pen Ward have done some boards. The art director is Nick Cross - who art directed Over The Garden Wall and he and his team are really tying everything together in a beautiful way.
What media that you really loved and consumed as a kid or as an adult do you think can really be seen as having an influence on the tone of your picture books and your sense of humor?
I think Roald Dahl and Raymond Briggs had the biggest impact. Roald Dahl’s books are the first books with which I recall being really obsessed.
You know we are very fond of Pokko at Dad Suggests Books, and you mentioned to me recently a bit about how Pokko and the Drum came to be. Would you mind sharing the definitive story of Pokko’s beginnings?
I made a series of little animal paintings for Nucleus Portland’s first “Salut” coaster show a long time ago. When it came time to write my first book I used this frog as the main character. I knew I wanted to make a book about a character who was doing the same thing over and over (drumming) and the world moved around them.
To me, this was an apt metaphor for being an artist. We just keep our heads down and paint pictures and then all these things happen around us. Last month they did a live reading of Pokko on BBC at Glastonbury. She just keeps going.
Matthew Forsythe’s coasters for Nucleus Portland 1st Annual Salut Coaster Show
You also did the art design for Aardman’s Robin Robin, and the work you’ve shared is really spectacular stuff. I think Robin Robin deserves even more love than it gets, and I have to wonder - was it ever talked about behind the scenes to turn your art into another Robin Robin picture book? Surely it was discussed. Is there anyone we can bribe? Can I start the petition? Is there any way this will still happen?
While of course I’m very attached to that world of Mikey and Dan’s, I’m just at a place with my book work where I need to focus on my own writing. They did make a stunning picture book with Briony Smith!
Man-Faced Owl Makes a Surprise Appearance
A very huge congratulations on your new book Aggie and the Ghost - we’re really excited about it. In a previous interview, you said that when making a picture book, at the core, there needs to be some kind of emotional moment, or one thing that each book is about. Please tell us a bit about your new book - and what is at the core of Aggie and the Ghost for you?
Aggie and the Ghost is a book about setting boundaries with your own shadow. There is something both comforting and oppressive about living with our ghosts; and we have to find a way to be kind to them. This was the sort of emotional core for me.
Whether it’s in the world of books or animation - are you able to tell us anything else about any projects already in the pipeline or that you might be working on next? I will accept cryptic hints and vague clues if necessary.
I also have a book out this year that I illustrated called The Grammar of Fantasy. This was a real passion project for me. [This book is super awesome and spectacular and you should read it - Ed.]
Garfield’s Halloween Adventure is Way Ahead in this Competition
This is a question I ask during every interview, and usually it’s very odd and out of place. But you just wrote a picture book about a ghost and we’re starting to approach Halloween, so it actually almost makes sense this time. Do you prefer Garfield’s Halloween Adventure or It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and why?
Garfield. Always Garfield.
A man of culture I see! Thanks a ton for taking the time to answer our questions. And congrats on the wonderful new book!
Thank you!
Aggie and the Ghost hits shelves on Tuesday, August 19th! And The Grammar of Fantasy - a truly spectacular book and guide about the power of storytelling and imagination and how stories are made - is already out now!
