Keep Your Head on a Swivel: An Endless Game Interview with J.D. Amato

Graphic novels for kids have historically faced an uphill battle with librarians. They weren’t exactly respected as literature (to put it mildly). Yet as we enter into 2026, look at how much has changed in the last 100 years! ALA is now giving out graphic novel awards. Librarians not only embrace the form but many of them grew up with them as well. It’s a brand new day for sequential art, my friends.

Of course, with so many graphic novels now coming out, we’ve a whole new problem not faced before: How do you find just the good stuff? I’m not talking the decent comics. I’m talking the legitimately best of the best of the best stuff out there.

Well, at least today, I have the pleasure of speaking to the man behind what I believe to be one of the greatest, grandest comics of the year. The Endless Game is out April 28th, and I went into this book understanding that comedy television writer, showrunner, and producer J.D. Amato was a local (to me) guy. I was unprepared for how much I was going to enjoy his book, though. Here’s the plot description from the publisher:

A middle school boy gets drawn into his new town’s intense summer game of capture the flag in this adventurous slice-of-life graphic novel debut perfect for fans of The Cardboard Kingdom and Craig of the Creek.

When Fred Townsend and his family move to Lakeside, Illinois, Fred is inducted into a game of capture the flag that has split the entire town in two. But this isn’t a normal game. It’s been going on for decades and has been passed down from generation to generation. It has its own history, laws, and institutions, with elaborate castle-like bases, dreary prisons, kid-run saloons, and even a council of home-schooled kids that preside over the rules of the game.

But for Fred, and all of Lakeside’s kids, this unending war is not just about winning—it’s also about learning how you want to fit into the world, the power of friendship, and making sure this summer is one they will never forget.

Questions? I got ’em.

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Betsy Bird: Well hello, J.D! Such a pleasure to meet a fellow native of the North Shore. I’m more of an Evanstonian myself, but Wilmette is just next door. When I’d heard you’d constructed a graphic novel based on the area I knew I had to get my hands on it, and by gum it’s one of the finest I’ve read in a LONG time. Lots of folks who work in comedy and TV think about making books for kids but almost none of them go the graphic novel route. Please give us the 411 on how precisely this book came to be and why you opted for comics as your medium.

J.D. Amato: Oh wow, it’s so nice to meet you and thank you so much for the kind words! It’s so fun that you are in Evanston… shout out to the Wildkits! This story was definitely inspired by my own childhood experience of moving to the Chicago suburbs and making friends for the first time. But, even if you didn’t grow up in that time or place, I wanted to tell a story about the childhood experience of processing identity while also processing social structures.

And, while I typically work in television, I was excited to get this story directly into the hands of kids, specifically because I didn’t have middle grade graphic novels when I was growing up. So, I really wanted to make this book for my fellow (maybe reluctant) readers, who might be intimidated by straight prose, but who were eager and ready for multi-layered stories with complex characters.

BB: That’s a smart move. Now as I mentioned before, Wilmette served as a bit of an inspiration for “Lakeside, IL” in this story. Talk to me a bit about 90s Wilmette and some of the locations you worked in here. What did you include and why?

JD: Well, shortly after our family moved to the Chicago suburbs, a pack of local kids came to our door and said they heard kids had moved in and asked my parents if we could come play. From that point forward, the neighborhood became our playground– and in the 90s suburbs, it was more commonplace for kids on bikes to be able to explore their surroundings untethered from supervision. Sophie Morse, who illustrated the book, had very similar experiences in suburban Boston. So, the book is really an amalgam of the Boston and Chicago suburbs.

For me, there are some obvious references. I lived several blocks from Mallinckrodt in Wilmette– a large plot of land that was a convent turned all-girls schools. But, by the time the late 90s rolled around its fate was in limbo so it stood ominously as this massive abandoned religiously-adorned building surrounded by beautiful gardens. So, as kids, it felt natural to utilize it for games and adventures, quite like the kids of The Endless Game taking over abandoned structures to form their bases.

Similarly, Gilson Beach served as its own staging ground–  beaches, hills, woods, bushes, and playgrounds… it had everything. To this day, I could walk you to the exact bushes by the Wallace Bowl that we used as our headquarters for capture the flag.

One town over was also the Skokie Lagoons– a swampy forest preserve with various rivers and streams that was so big in scale (to a kid) that it made us feel like bad things could happen if we didn’t keep our head on a swivel.

There’s dozens more, but I don’t want to overstay my welcome here!

BB: Not possible, but kind of you. Did fixing the location of this book help you envision the storyline a bit better?

JD: Absolutely! For me, being inspired by the specificity of real life makes it so much easier to find and choose unique elements without them feeling discordant. It also helps focus characters and give them challenges and lives that feel three dimensional.

BB: So this book kind of reminded me of some of my favorite episodes of the show Community, where a game can take on a reality entirely of its own. Your book so beautifully taps into that feeling kids get when a game can feel like life or death, you’re so into it. Games in the summer have a magic of their own too. Did you have any inspirations, conscious or unconscious, as you wrote this?

JD: Growing up in the 90s (with spillover from the 80s), there was a cultural theme of kids fending for themselves that was extremely present. Whether it was the Boxcar Children (my sister’s favorite), The Goonies, Explorers, Hook, Recess, Hey Arnold, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, or countless others — there was a palpable 90s dream of kids building their own societies and sorting things out on their own. So, I think that always lit up my brain!

BB: Like how you worked in Hey, Arnold in there. Tell us a little bit about the writing process. Did you know from the start precisely how the book would go, or did elements surprise you as you went? And was there anything you wished you could have included that ultimately got cut?

JD: There were two goals that Sophie and I used to really drive both the story and illustration: First, we wanted to tell a story where the main character wasn’t the hero. Second, we wanted every character to feel important to the story-world so that a reader would be rewarded no matter who they gravitated towards. Beyond those guiding principles, I sort of let the world and characters surprise me as I wrote.

It’s also worth noting that I’ve heard that sometimes the writer and illustrator can have very compartmentalized roles. But, for Sophie and I, that was not the case. We worked very closely on every step of the process. So, I would call her and talk out story beats and likewise she would send me sketches and talk out the visual language. A fun side effect of this is that characters Sophie loved, like Silent Sarah, ended up more present in the book. It was also our editor, Krista’s, pitch to include a competition of some sort in the middle of the book. That became the bike race and was a lovely way to explore the lives and worlds of other characters. Coming from the television world, I’m really used to collaboration so it felt natural to work together.

BB: Speaking of which (and you’ve answered a little of this already), you were paired with the artist Sophie Morse for this book. Were you at all aware of Sophie’s work prior to this book? What do you think about the final product? And did you send her any visuals for reference at all?

JD: Sophie was recommended by one of her colleagues and I am so grateful we found each other. Sophie is an immense talent with a huge heart and an amazing collaborator. I also think this being a “double debut” made this process really special. We shared a boundless enthusiasm (bordering on naivete) for the project that I think made both of us do our best work. Also, we crafted our own unique collaborative workflow that was unencumbered by expectations.

While Sophie pulled some inspiration from other artists, I also inundated her with tons of reference photos. Also, in the same way that I would sometimes talk out difficult script moments with her, she would occasionally want to talk out blocking and staging with me.

The final artwork is absolutely astounding. Sophie also enlisted Sara Calhoun to do the coloring– another incredible artist. The finished effect of all of it is better than I could have imagined. It really feels so alive!

BB: Excellent shouting out of both your artist and your colorist. Okay, this is just wishful thinking on my part, but did Evanston figure into this book at all? I mean, you’ve got the Downhill Castle which looks a LOT like the Harley Clarke mansion and accompanying lighthouse. Maybe? Eh? Eh?

JD: It’s funny you mention the Harley Clarke mansion!!! Not only was it one of a few inspirations for the Downhill castle, but in some ways was proto-inspiration for my whole creative career. The Harley Clarke mansion used to be the home of the Evanston Art Center and is where I took my first ever drawing and painting classes as a kid. Getting to walk into what seemed like a literal castle and sit side-by-side with adults and hone an artistic craft was an instrumental step in my development. So, I have a huge place in my heart for that mansion and light house!!!

BB: Yessss! Finally, any chance for a sequel at all? I mean, you’ve worked out this whole world so beautifully. Seems a shame not to see more of it.

JD: We would LOVE to make a sequel. We have a few books worth of sequel ideas floating around in our heads. Here’s hoping readers love this first one and we get the chance to keep telling these stories!

Thanks for much for the time!!

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Big thanks to J.D. for answering all my questions here today (and for confirming my theory about the Harley Clarke Mansion, of course). Thanks too to Hannah Boardman and the team at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers for assisting with this interview. As I mentioned before, The Endless Game is on shelves April 28th. I highly recommend that you give it a peek.

Filed under: Best Books, Best Books of 2026, Interviews