Comic & Children’s Book Authors find inspiration in the Adks

by Gary VanRiper

The Adirondacks has proven fertile ground inspiring creatives for decades.

Presently, I have well over one hundred children’s and young adult books set in the region, several dating back to the late 1800s.

So many of the characters my peers and I grew up reading have had adventures here including, The Hardy Boys, Tom Swift and Nancy Drew. Early on, when my son, Justin, and I began writing our own series of chapter book set in the Adirondacks, we discovered the Boxcar Children (who we dubbed, The Refrigerator Kids, for all the times they stopped somewhere in the middle of story for a bite to eat) also had an adventure in the Park.

Having been a comic collector in my younger days, it was also fun to discover classic superheroes have also haunted these mountains.

In April of 1969, (back when comics were only 12 cents!), the Adirondacks get a shout-out in The Amazing Spiderman #71.

In issue #145 of The Uncanny X-Men (1981) an imposing castle originally built by the menacing Dr. Doom was featured that had been converted into an Amusement Park situated on the summit of an Adirondack peak!

Following that 3-issue saga, the X-men found themselves once again in the Adirondacks in April 1987 for yet another short adventure, just three months before the Thunderbolts arrived in issue #4, their Thunder Jet soaring over the Adirondack wilderness area where we see them on page one zeroing in on that popular castle of Dr. Doom.

Inspired by the number and combination of regional, famous and nationally award-winning authors who have penned books set within the Adirondacks’ Blue Line for young readers, I am also (slowly!) working on a non-fiction book to highlight this rich regional literary history.

Because I read to Justin almost every day of life until he was around 12, he also grew up exposed to many of the same characters and stories that I did which had a great influence on the kinds of stories we wanted to tell. And because our home away from home is the Adirondacks, it was natural to combine both sources of inspiration to weave our tales.

For those who have access to public television, Justin and I will be sharing some of the story behind our stories Tuesday, March 14th at 7:30 p.m. on a new show, WPBS-TV Weekly: Inside the Stories, hosted by Joleene DesRosiers. •