Kami Garcia Talks Teen Titans: Robin And Building A Universe

How does it feel to see this universe continue to build out of the events of the last book, "Teen Titans: Beast Boy Loves Raven"?

This one is a direct sequel, so it picks up right after "Beast Boy Loves Raven." It's fun because now we actually have a group assembly. That was always the intent, but it took a few books before we got enough characters to feel like a group. Now it's fun because it feels like a whole "Teen Titans" posse finally coming together, and it's fun to see all the characters together on the page.

This must feel like a culmination of multiple books in the series coming together ...

It's probably been five years because we started a year before "Teen Titans: Raven" came out — almost five and a half, because there was extra lag between "Teen Titans: Beast Boy" and "Teen Titans: Beast Boy Loves Raven." This is the fourth book, but we were working for an entire year before that, and I think even longer. Gabriel [Picolo] and I have known each other for six years now, so it's fun. [From] the second book on, we've had the same layout artist, and the same colorist since the first book. Gabriel and I have been with David [Calderon] since "Raven" and with Rob Haynes and David since "Beast Boy."

It's fun because we have a shorthand. We all know each other, and we feel comfortable with what everyone else brings to the table. It's nice to see that payoff when the books come out and the readers are so excited about them.

What made Robin — both Damian [Wayne] and Dick Grayson — the next characters you wanted to focus on?

In my original pitch, it was a Damian-Robin pitch. Then, once Gabriel was the artist for the project, and we were co-creating together — Dick is his favorite Robin. He saw there was a Robin pitch, but he didn't realize it was Damian. Even though he liked Damian, he was sad and sounded upset. He was like, "I really want to have Dick too." That was complicated because I was planning on one Robin, but then I tried to figure out how would I incorporate both of them since Dick is his favorite and Damian is mine. The idea of a brothers' story came to mind, and that's in line with the series anyway. All of the books are about found family, but they all have different bits of family in them.

In "Raven," you see her foster mom who's about to be her adoptive mom. You see her new mom, which is really her aunt. You see Beast Boy's family in "Beast Boy" and "Beast Boy Loves Raven." I liked the idea of continuing a family theme where you're not only seeing the found family and the Teen Titans group form, but you're also looking at real sibling dynamics. I have four brothers and a sister, so I have a lot of siblings, and it was fun to draw on all that. We were young; we drove each other nuts. It's fun to draw on all those personal experiences, and I'm sure a lot of readers have the same experience.