Q&A with Louie Stowell all about Loki: A Bad God's Guide to Being Good

How do you hope teachers and librarians will engage with Loki: A Bad God’s Guide to Being Good?

I’d be delighted if they’d use it to help children build visual literacy. It’s an essential skill to navigate the world, and I think it makes you a much more sophisticated reader. In my more pretentious moments, I think of this book as being like a medieval illuminated manuscript – something you can read, yes, but also something you see, where words and images intertwine and act as one another’s subtext. I’d like them to reflect on how the words and images work together, and how the images can sometimes go against or add different meanings to the text.

What inspired the idea of Loki keeping a journal?

A mix of things. I’ve kept a diary since I was twelve (no you can’t read it) so it’s a very natural way of writing for me. But I’ve also loved books in diary form for a long time, Adrian Mole especially. That’s why the book is dedicated to him.

When illustrating your version of Loki, did you use any other depictions of Loki as reference or did you rely solely on your own imagination?

I drew Loki as a mortal child first – and the only reference there was Dennis the Menace, whose hair is aspirational. Discovering what he should look like was a gradual process of evolving doodles. But when I came to draw him as an adult god, I looked back at medieval carvings, especially the eighth-century Loki Stone at Kirkby Stephen Church, Cumbria. That shows him with horns and a beard, so I gave him both those things. Also, horns are cool.

Were you a fan of Norse mythology when you were growing up?

Yes! Though I loved all myths, legends and ancient stories. I love oral culture – how it changes over time, retold by different people. Myth is like Loki, always shifting and defying firm boundaries.

Discover Loki: A Bad God’s Guide to Being Good by Louie Stowell published by Walker (3rd February 2022)...