The Cardboard Kingdom

Chad Sell currently lives in Chicago with his husband and cats, but he grew up in a small Wisconsin town similar to the one depicted in The Cardboard Kingdom. During his childhood, he occupied himself by creating costumes and playing imaginative games with his neighborhood friends. He also drew characters with a diverse range of backgrounds, interests, and desires. As a child, Sell was most powerfully drawn toward villainous characters, partly because such figures are often misunderstood, but also because they are powerful, confident, and the best-dressed.

The first story written for The Cardboard Kingdom, “The Sorceress,” was written in collaboration with cartoonist Jay Fuller and is based on Sell’s childhood experiences. Like Sell, Jack (the Sorceress) feels most comfortable as a villain, feels misunderstood, and eventually explains to his mom that being the Sorceress makes him feel powerful. To build on this story, Sell sought out other writers to help him populate the rest of the Cardboard Kingdom. He eventually organized a team of 10 writers who contributed stories and characters based on their own childhood experiences. The full list of collaborators and their contributions can be found at the back of the novel (278-81), but examples include David Demeo, who based “The Huntress” on his experience of babysitting his unruly brothers; Manuel Betancourt, who worked on “The Prince” and was inspired by his childhood crushes on fairy-tale heroes; and Cloud Jacobs, who based Professor Everything on his socially awkward childhood, which he spent reading while everyone else played sports.