about the book
A red-haired toddler nestles secretly in the dusty equipment beneath the bleak factory floor, the only alternative to the costly day care her mother cannot afford.
MT Industries is a huge automated manufacturing facility, filled with sophisticated robotic gizmos and deadly machinery. Few humans are needed, though malfunctions have been occurring with greater and greater frequency. The workers blame gremlins, little green creatures who relish destroying machines. When her station rumbles to a stop, the mother works to free the jammed gears only to have her long red tresses caught. She dies horrifically and her unattended child is orphaned.
When she realizes that she has been abandoned, the toddler climbs from beneath the floor. Wandering the huge building at night, she realizes that the robots speak their own language and that they recognize her. Assembly Unit 1004, fresh from the box and driven by the imperative First Robotic Law, this diligently takes over the care of the little one.
Over time, she names herself Veda, because that is what is stitched on the oversized coveralls she wears. She learns to fix the machines and to communicate with them, translating their clever symbols into her own unique sounds. Under the tutelage of Assembly 1004, she discovers that the robots have a whole society, friends, conflict, and laws by which they govern themselves.
There are three unbreakable laws: 1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders will conflict with the First Law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
It is the secret fourth law that is the most important. 4. Avoid the Gremlin.
As the years pass, Veda becomes more curious and far too rebellious, and the thought of seeing the Gremlin leads Veda down a dangerous path. When she meets the deceptive creature, he insinuates that the machines killed her mother on purpose and are secretly plotting to take over the factory. What’s worse, the Gremlin infects Veda with a mutating disease…one that will turn her into a Gremlin, too! Eventually Veda argues with Assembly 1004 and betrays the robots.
about the author
Born in 1981, Samuel Teer was raised outside St. Louis, Missouri, by his dad, a deaf maintenance worker, and his mother, a Guatemalan immigrant. She basically learned to read and write English right alongside Sam as he grew up. Most of those reading lessons came from the closed captions on the family’s television set. Though Sam hears fine, to this day, he can’t watch TV without the words scrolling underneath!
The other place he learned to read was in comic books. When he was growing up, they were everywhere. While his mother shopped at the grocery store or the drug store, Sam and his brother perused the spinners, looking for the best issues. Not only did they help him learn the words, they helped him read faster and absorb information quicker. He also became an adept visual learner.
His mother was instrumental in another way. Every night while she made dinner, he would sit in the kitchen telling her a story he had made up that day. At the end of the tale, she always told him to go write it down. In fifth grade, when his parents separated, his family life became very stressful and he was forced to transfer to a new school. It wasn’t easy. He read far beyond his grade and was hyper verbal.
He did find new nerdy friends who also enjoyed comics, and they always sat right up front behind the bus driver. Their conversations always centered around comics. One day when Sam was the first to board the bus, the driver handed him a color galley of the Doomsday issue where Superman dies. Her husband worked for DC, and the bus driver let Sam read it. It was the most awesome thing ever, getting to see that famous issue before it was published. At that moment, Sam realized that people actually made the comics. He decided right then and there on the bus that that was exactly what he was going to do!
Sam has always been a visual thinker. He sees the characters, the plot, the scenery, the action, the whole story in his mind. He claims that he would never be good at writing a prose; it’s always been about the comics! Veda: Assembly Required is his first published work.
Sam currently lives outside of Denver, Colorado, with his wife Andrea, a teacher, and their two dogs, Roxie and Olive.
Sources:
Author website
Author biography: Amazon
Author interview: Random Thoughts of Troy Rivera
about the illustrator
Hyeondo Park’s story begins just outside Seoul, South Korea. As a youngster, he became interested in comics, spending his allowance on new issues as soon as they came out. Besides comics, he also followed the manga magazines because they offered both Japanese and Korean stories. His favorite was Dragon Ball. Inspired by the comics he collected, he began drawing his own panels. At first they were just doodles on his homework, but after his father brought him a full set of colored pencils from a business trip to America, Hyeondo took his art far more seriously.
When he was 11, his father’s job took the family to the United States. Although the adjustment was hard, he loved the American comics. He studied them closely and eventually combined what he learned with the manga style he already knew, developing a distinctly shojo flavor. Encouraged to push his skills further, Hyeondo took a few classes at a local technical college where his professors suggested that he could make a living with his skills. He took the advice to heart and majored in cartooning at New York City’s School of Visual Arts.
During his senior year, one of his professors told him about an opportunity. Wiley, a large publisher, was looking for people to help create manga adaptations of the works of Shakespeare. Hyeondo applied and found himself bringing Julius Caesar to life. The publishers were so pleased with the final product they asked him to adapt Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn.
Not wanting to pigeonhole himself as a manga artist, he took commissions which required other styles. One was working with Jim Dougan on the modern day “mythical” tale called Sam and Kilah. It was such a success that Dougan turned more story line control and writing over to Hyeondo. They are still working today on the on-going project!
Although much of Hyeondo’s work until now has been related to comics, he still considers himself an artist in transition adjusting his styles, techniques, and viewpoints. He’s hoping to establish a foothold in other artistic fields in the future.
Here are a few other things Hyeondo is passionate about: the word “nifty,” the movie Hackers, and the television show Project Runway!
Source:
Illustrator biography: Anime News Network
Also by Hyeondo Park:
My Boyfriend Is a Monster : 4 : Under His Spell by Marie P. Croall. Graphic Universe. 2011.
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