We were at a beach watching how seagulls act. They’re funny, relentless and super obnoxious. We saw them act as a gang to try and get food. We were talking about old time gangsters, and when Bugsy Siegel came up, it hit us Siegel / Seagull. Instead of Bugsy, we came up with Birdsy. After that it was too fun to stop so we kept running with it.

Jeff Sikatis and Jake Wheeler – 30 June 2023

The Back Flap

“It’s The Sopranos for 7-year-olds.” — Anselmo “Sweat Beak” Rossi

A misfit mafia of seagulls try to stay the top birds in Shoretown despite their many blunders and bonehead decisions.

The Gullfather, Birdsy Seagull, rules the roost with a fistful of feathers. And with a little help, but not much, from his ragtag crew—the salty-mouthed Joey “One-Wing,” the handsome slacker Vinny, the glamorous and dangerous Birdabella, and Birdsy’s well-fed enforcer, Quack Quack.

They say they will stop at nothing to be the top crime birds on the boardwalk, but they pretty much stop at everything, snack time, nap time, or any other reason, much to Birdsy’s ire. Well, actually, Birdabella will stop at nothing, and that is a bit of a problem in the other direction.

In “A Seahawk Situation,” Birdsy and his crew are at war with the owners of the boardwalk eatery, Zen and Out, after they erect a wooden security seahawk to scare the gulls of Shoretown. Things escalate quickly after One-Wing battles Seymour the Wooden Seahawk and Vinny starts an indoor fireworks display. In retaliation, One-Wing gets birdnapped, and Vinny is almost made into curry, but just when Birdsy has nowhere left to turn, Birdabella, the wild card, enters. Will Birdsy remain “king of the boardwalk” or will the humans get the upper hand and start to encroach on the empire he and NonnaBird built?

The first book in this new series, The Gullfather is filled with absurdity, action, silliness and adventure—and characters young readers can’t get enough of. Central to the story, however, is the heart of an oddball family, all brought to life in a dynamic, arresting visual graphic novel format. The book will appeal to readers of Bad Guys, Last Kids On Earth and Dogman.

About the book

What is the book about?

“It’s The Sopranos for 7 year olds.” – Anselmo “Sweat Beak” Rossi

A misfit mafia of seagulls try to stay the top birds in Shoretown despite their many blunders and bonehead decisions.

When did you start writing the book?

We started writing the book in February 2020.  We conceived the idea in January and as we started workshopping the idea, we knew we had something so we just went into warp speed. You know that line in old tv shows, “it’s so crazy, it just might work”? It was kind of like that. It started, like most of our things, with an amusing and absurd core nugget: a crime family of seagulls. Something we could have fun kicking around ourselves. Then as we unpacked it, we saw we could make a story, one that would have the humor and action for a more reluctant reader, but in leaning on some of our sitcom story work, we thought we could elevate it a bit for more dedicated readers.

How long did it take you to write it?

It only took us a few months to write and edit the manuscript and then in terms of finished graphic novel we had a final illustrated volume one in September. But life and other projects came up and we sat on it, not intentionally but just because we couldn’t give the launch the focus and energy it deserved. Then at the beginning of this year, we decided it was time – time to introduce Birdsy and crew to readers.

Where did you get the idea from?

We were at a beach watching how seagulls act. They’re funny, relentless and super obnoxious. We saw them act as a gang to try and get food. We were talking about old time gangsters, and when Bugsy Siegel came up, it hit us Siegel / Seagull. Instead of Bugsy, we came up with Birdsy. After that it was too fun to stop so we kept running with it. It was one of those moments for us where the environment just slowed down and we are able to see these different seagull interactions play out in front of us (a seagull stealing a snack, two other seagulls squawking at each other, another seagull on his perch watching all the madness ensue) and we were just entertained by these mob-like gulls.

Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?

We spent a lot of time building out the world, the characters, the tone and outlining volume one. So by the time we had that all fleshed out, it really flowed. And we felt like with every re-write it got stronger. And then we added the visual layer and it got stronger and funnier.

With our process, every layer needs to pass the “Still Funny” test. And as we move from idea to bible, to outline to draft, to storyboard to draft graphic novel – it was not only “Still Funny” but “Funnier” each time.

What came easily?

The dialogue. We are dialogue writers and love voicing the dialogue and putting our character hats on. And we could tell pretty quickly when something felt authentic to the character when we did our improv/dialogue exchanges.

Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?

Our characters are fictitious BUT like any strong characters they have layers and traits which are pulled from people we have encountered throughout our lives. We wanted to create a cast of characters that each had nods to the mafia genre but also exhibited certain quirks and eccentricities that would appeal to the middle-grade reader.

Also it’s a new story-verse that hasn’t been explored for kids. We find many parts of the genre from the characters, the food, the clothing and especially the nicknames – one of the most underrated parts of the mafia genre lend themselves well to humor. We think we have some great characters with some very sticky nicknames – Sweet Beak, Quack Quack, One-Wing and so many others.

We all know how important it is for writers to read. Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write and, if so, how have they influenced you?

We are big fans of Caveboy Dave – it has a great blend of smart and silly and is so layered. And on a recent trip to England we were introduced to the stories of David Walliams and Gangsta Granny – and we loved the humor and heart in that. And then of course we are big fans of Andy Griffiths (Tree House Books), Dan Pilkey (Captain Underpants) and Lincoln Pierce (Big Nate). They were all just great bars for us in terms of how can you create great kids entertainment in book form.

Do you have a target reader?

Birdsy is for middle-grade readers. We think is broadly appealing and for any reader that  wants to laugh, be entertained, be pulled in by great story and powerful visuals.

About Writing

Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it?

In the early early stages it’s just, “is this fun, funny, could this work?” Then if it feels like it has some legs we ask, “who are these birds, what do they want and need broadly speaking and what roles do they play in their world and in their group?” In terms of the first book, it then becomes, “ok, what is the particular problem, how do they respond, how do their personalities make the problem better or worse?” In parallel there’s the visual development, first at the character level, then the overall tone of the world, landscape and settings. How to evoke the timeless gangster touchstones and yet create freshness. As it comes together there’s adjustment on the story level and the page level. Then there’s the logistical process of getting it into the publishing workflow, which is another whole thing.

Do you outline? If so, do you do so extensively or just chapter headings and a couple of sentences?

We are big believers in outlining and ensuring we have our story beats figured out as well as some of the anchor comedic moments. We like to create a pretty defined scene sandbox and then as we get into the writing start with that sandbox but then be open to what flows and where lines, jokes and actions can organically head when we are synchronously writing.  Flexible frameworks is what we strive for in the outlining process.

Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?

We are always in editing mode. And being a team, what we will do is write a few scenes, and then one of us will do some edits, tightenings and tweaks and then pass it back to the other one and they will then continue the editing process. So we are editing throughout the draft process and then again after we have completed a draft. That’s one of the advantages of co-writing.

Did you hire a professional editor?

Yes. We hired a copy editor. Just to get another set of eyes and ensure everything was clicking the way we wanted it to.

Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what gets the fingers tapping?

No music for us. We like to jump off and test the dialogue so our writing sessions are pretty lively and a cross between writing session and improv.

About Publishing

Did you submit your work to Agents?

No. For our debut book we wanted complete creative control.

What made you decide to go Indie, whether self-publishing or with an indie publisher? Was it a particular event or a gradual process?

I think almost all writers envision being picked up by a publisher as the goal, as it imparts a bit of the validation writers crave, not to mention an advance. However, that itself can be it’s own fight, just getting there, in addition to the creative work. For us, because we’ve worked across different formats, and we creative direct the illustration on our own, and also because we envision this as a property on the screen as well as other places, it just made more sense to create our own strategy not only for the book launch, but as to how we’re planning to develop the IP across different avenues. The traditional publisher route felt a little narrow for us on this particular project.

Did you get your book cover professionally done or did you do it yourself?

Our illustrator did our book cover as well. He created the visual language so we felt like he was the right person for the cover.

Do you have a marketing plan for the book or are you just winging it?

We have a marketing plan that is going to lean heavy on digital, influencers and reaching Moms and parents in modern media channels.

About You

What would you like readers to know about you?

Jeff Sikaitis and Jake Wheeler are storytellers across a wide variety of formats from original
series, branded content, physical product and publishing. Jeff won an Emmy for his work on the interactive documentary, The And. Jake helped develop the new show Rennervations with Jeremy Renner on Disney+. They have won a number of advertising awards and have created content for Comedy Central, Sports Illustrated, Viacom and hundreds of blue chip brands. Birdsy Seagull: The Gullfather is their debut graphic novel.

What are you working on now?

Much like Simon & Garfunkel, we have a number of projects both collaborative and solo efforts. Jeff has recently finished another graphic novel series The Magic Paper Society and a recently released kids franchise, Oddfsh, as well as picture book series My Funtastic Neighborhood. Jake is developing for the screen both unscripted and scripted, currently shopping a comedic sci-fi pilot called The Earth Is Nice This Time of Year. On the book front he just finished a picture book called Grumble Dawg, and the first two installments of a picture book series, Winnie & Walloughby.

End of Interview:

Get your copy of The Gullfather: Birdsy Seagull (Vol 1. a Seahawk Situation) from Amazon US or Amazon UK.