Not one, but two graphic novels for young readers are getting the red carpet treatment this weekend at the 96th annual Academy Awards. The film adaptations of Nimona by ND Stevenson and Robot Dreams by Sara Varon are both nominated in the Animated Feature category. Ahead of their big Oscar night, we asked Stevenson and Varon to discuss their book-to-screen journeys and the surprises along the way.

Sara Varon: Hello!

ND Stevenson: Hi!!!

I have a lot of questions for you… It is extremely cool that both of our comics are up for such a major award and that feels like a very big deal.

Varon: I agree—it’s a huge deal that two indie-ish comics artists have Oscar-nominated movies! I don’t know how often that has happened. (Although I do remember Graham Annable’s Boxtrolls got nominated a few years back.) Also, I just watched your movie like three hours ago, and read most of your book over the weekend, so I have tons of questions for you too!!

Stevenson: Awesome! I’ve read your book, but I haven’t seen the film yet, sorry!! I’m very excited to watch it, though, and I loved the book like crazy. Someone mentioned that Robot Dreams began as a webcomic, but I’m not sure if that’s true. Was it a book or a webcomic first?

Varon: It was definitely a book. I am 100% a print person—I don’t think I’ve ever made a webcomic! Other than posting a few comic panels on IG, if that counts. Did I read that Nimona was either a webcomic or else released in installments? The book definitely reads like it was designed as a book.

Stevenson: It was actually a webcomic first! I’m glad it reads well as a graphic novel, though. I didn’t really have a concept of what it would be like in print when I started.

When you first set out to make Robot Dreams, what was the seed of the idea that got your wheels turning?

Varon: Well, to start, I just wanted to make a story about a robot, because someone I knew was making an anthology of robot stories. It seemed like a good experiment because I’d never drawn a robot character. It began as an eight-page story, with the dog building a robot and abandoning him at the beach. I didn’t think about it too much, but in hindsight, I’d recently put my dog to sleep and I felt really horrible about it, like I’d abandoned her. So I think that feeling of abandoning a good friend was at the core if it. But as it turned into a full-length book, it became something else. I didn’t know how the story would end but I knew they (spoiler alert!) wouldn’t get back together.

Stevenson: I really love that. I was taken by these intersecting worlds between the characters and the way they all needed that companionship, but often ended up hurting each other as a result. It feels very true to the nature of friendships where we’re kind of coming and going from each other’s worlds.

Varon: Yes, in the book—which is slightly different than the movie—a lot of the characters hurt each other but it is never intentional/malicious.

Stevenson: Yeah, I found the ending so beautiful because it felt like a bit of an acceptance of that. The characters aren’t coming back together, but they can have this last little interaction that lets go of the hurt/betrayal the robot would have a good reason to feel.

I’m really curious if there were any changes in the movie that went against your knowledge of the characters/world, or, alternately, if any of the changes made you think differently about the choices you made for the book.

Varon: I have the same question for you because it seems to me that the story in your book and movie are so different and I was wondering how you got from one to another. For me, I think that [the director] Pablo Berger did an amazing job. I don’t feel like he so much changed the story, but he added a ton of details. I loved all the details he added. There are a lot of great jokes and the backgrounds (which are my big weakness) are absolutely amazing. Also, he set it in N.Y.C., whereas the book didn’t really have a specific location. I would say, since I mentioned the characters were a little different, they are slightly meaner and a little more adult in the movie, but I don’t have a problem with that. Also, in the book, everybody is completely genderless, which I liked because I felt like ageless and genderless characters were maybe a little more relatable to a wider audience. I don’t really mind how they changed, though, and I think the character designer in the movie also did an amazing job.

What about in the Nimona movie?

Stevenson: Yeah, you’re right, there are a ton of changes between the book and the movie. Overall, I think the biggest difference is tonally: the book ends on this very bittersweet/neutral note where the relationship between Nimona and Ballister can’t be totally repaired, but there’s a little bit of hope that a cycle has been broken and that healing, in the long term, is possible. The movie takes a much more optimistic look at that. I find it very interesting because it was easier for me to have these more pessimistic outlooks, because I related to the character so much, and then the filmmakers were seeing what was loveable about her and making the story about that. Like, she deserves love, to be believed in, friendship. And I think when I was first writing the comic, I didn’t believe I deserved those things. It’s cool to see how the story has changed based on context since then. And the trans themes being more obvious in hindsight meant that some of that self-brutalization wasn’t the best choice for a family movie. I love them both differently and the book is always going to be a time capsule from a specific time for me, but I love the hopeful outlook of the movie and I think it’s a big deal for trans kids and their families especially.

Varon: I love that! And it seems especially important right now that it should be nominated for an Oscar with all the anti-trans laws and things happening right now in a lot of states.

Stevenson: One thing that jumped out right away to me is that both Nimona and Robot Dreams have this very simple style, for lack of a better word. What I really love about that is the negative space it brings, and it requires the audience to fill that in with their own thoughts. To me, it’s one of the coolest things about comics, and the fact that it led to these two movies that surprise you with their complexity feels very true to the spirit of comics.

I love the way you draw the world in these broad strokes, and then occasionally get more detailed to represent the dream world and the robot’s wonder. I also struggle with setting and backgrounds, but I kind of think that’s a strength in comics. Do you have thoughts on that?

Varon: Hmm, I think I’m just really bad at drawing backgrounds! Ha! But you’re right that keeping things simple does leave more room for the reader to imagine. Ooo, I absolutely loved the style of the Nimona book: I love that flat, simple, comic book style, and I wondered how you got to the style of the characters in the movie? Was that your design? Or did you work with the design team?

Stevenson: I’m also bad at backgrounds!! In my head, I think it’s always this very fleshed-out cinematic movie, and then my style just doesn’t do that, and that tension is always in my work. But then there’s this whole team of production designers and they’re designing this extremely cool and detailed sci-fi world, and I like that I can set up that playground for them to have fun. And then they can draw all the flying cars that I am incapable of drawing, hahaha. So overall, I was very supportive of the style changes because I liked that it set the movie apart from the book and they could be these two very different things… as long as they stayed true to the heart of the book, which in the end they did!

Varon: Oh, that’s cool! I’m glad to hear you were happy with the changes made. Oh, two things: 1) Did you also work on the movie, because you also work in animation? And 2) as someone who works on projects entirely alone, it is amazing to see what a whole team of people, each with a specialized skill, can make happen. Like in Robot Dreams, there are (obviously) people who only draw backgrounds and they are all so good! Like it would take me forever to draw some of the things they drew!

Stevenson: Yeah, I work in animation as well, but I’m very much not an animator myself! I don’t really conceive of shapes in three dimensions very well, honestly; it always comes out as kind of a paper cutout in my art. But I did lend a hand on the movie, and I was very grateful that the filmmakers let me feel like a part of the crew. I think lots of people dread working with the creator of the original work, but at the end of the day, we all wanted the movie to be the best it could be, and so having my insight be valued meant so, so much to me. I love animation because of the collaborative element! And I love comics because of how much it gives you a glimpse into an individual’s mind!

What about you? What was your involvement like on the movie?

Varon: I think my involvement was primarily as cheerleader? This didn’t seem terribly important, but the director said it was really helpful. I did concept art in the beginning, and, actually, I was really happy to be able to redraw the characters and backgrounds because I did the original art about 20 years ago, and I would like to think that I’ve improved a little. And then that was really it. I kind of think that if I had been faster (I work at a sloth-like pace) he might’ve asked me to be part of the production team, but I think it’s better that I wasn’t, because I love the vision he had for the story, and there might’ve been places where I would’ve been like, “Well, that’s not how the story goes.”

Stevenson: I know what you mean!! I definitely had a few times where the movie was taking off in this totally different direction, and I was like, “I’m not against this, but I don’t think it’s the best idea for me to be a part of this version of the story.” Like at a certain point, your expertise on the world and the characters doesn’t really help when things are taking on a new direction, and there are lots of incredible adaptions that are really different from the source material, and I wanted it to be the best it could be whether or not I was working closely on it. I do think I’m pretty good at setting aside the characters as I know them for something new and exciting in the adaptation, though, and in the end, I think I’ve ended up with twice as many characters to love. They’re so different, but still familiar.

Relating to the adaptation process: comics can be so personal that having them adapted can feel like people are playing in your own personal worlds, your own imagination. You mentioned being a cheerleader, but it’s also like you’re the key to the world and that’s such an integral part of any adaptation. It’s so amazing how they kept your style and the feel of the world intact while building on that to make it its own thing.

How does it feel to have others trying to tap into your psyche to capture the magic that made the book so special?

Varon: Oh, that’s a good question. It is really personal. In a way, even though the story of Robot Dreams is totally unrealistic, all the things in the story somehow relate to my life, and the first time I saw the movie, I felt really exposed in a weird way. But in terms of keeping the style, I think I was really lucky. Pablo bought all my books for the studio, and especially the character designer. I have about a dozen, and the worlds all kind of exist on the same plane, so I think there was a lot to draw from. He definitely pulled characters from some of the other books, like Dog’s neighbors are Chicken and Cat (who are from a picture book called, surprise, Chicken and Cat) and there are other characters as well, like there’s a line of schoolkids at some point who are from Hold Hands.

Stevenson: OMG that’s amazing. I love the idea of this shared world. It definitely feels like this very real, fleshed-out place where the characters are wandering in and out of each other’s stories.

Varon: Oh, yeah, they literally are!

I wish I could keep asking you questions. You’ll be at the Oscars, right?

ND: I will! You??

Varon: Yes!!! I’m super-excited! I hope to find you there!! And huge congratulations!!!!!

Stevenson: You too!! See you at the Oscars!!!!!

Varon: Ha! Yes, see you at the Oscars! What a cool thing to be able to say!

Nimona by ND Stevenson. HarperTeen, $17.99 2015 ISBN 978-0-06-227823-4

Robot Dreams by Sara Varon. First Second, $16.95 2007 ISBN 978-1-59643-108-9