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By Jack Brittle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Chris Boucher worked as a personal fitness trainer for most of his life. But over the pandemic, he embarked on an unlikely secondary profession: children’s author.

Boucher is the author of the Gib’s Adventure series, which chronicles the exploits of a creature of an unidentified species as he travels to space, prehistoric times, and his own backyard.

Gib is characterized by his active imagination, as the mundane becomes fantastic through his eyes.

“Where we see a backyard slide, he sees a rushing waterfall,” Boucher said. “[He sees] snakes hanging from a tree, we just see a swing set.”

In 1987, Boucher attended Algonquin College, where he enrolled in a cartooning course. There, he created the first incarnation of Gib for an assignment where he had to come up with an original idea.

During Covid, Boucher was unable to visit his clients for his personal training job, so to fill the time, he came back to Gib.

Boucher’s first forays into publishing were activity books, where readers could learn the alphabet, complete word searches, and colour in Boucher’s drawings. Eventually, he began writing adventure books as well.

Boucher said that he was inspired to write a book after his family was continually impressed with his drawings throughout the years.

“I just did random drawings over the years for fun, not really thinking of anything,” Boucher said. “But then as I was drawing them and I’d be showing friends and family, they started saying, ‘Well, can I get one of those for my kids, nephew or niece?’”

Boucher is currently self-publishing his books and spoke about the pros and cons of this method of distribution.

“I like having 100% control over everything, and I already have a printer,” Boucher said. “I’m in the Burlington Library, I’m in consignment in a couple of stores, I have the Instagram account, I’m propelling myself forward to hopefully getting into some schools. I have a contact for doing the French versions and then going into French schools.”

“So everything that I found that these publishers were going to help me with, I’m already doing that,” Boucher said. “So to just give you $500 to do what I’m already doing, I didn’t really feel like that’s [a good idea].”

Boucher said that the only downside to self-publishing is that the only way he can sell his books across Canada is through Amazon, which he says is a lot more costly than he would like.

Boucher also said that he utilizes some of the skills that he uses as a personal trainer in his books, to help kids to learn in a positive way.

“If it’s a negative word, your brain is going to take that negative word and slow your body down and become defensive,” Boucher said. “So when you have something that’s positive, you say, ‘Oh, I’m excited to do that,’ as opposed to ‘I don’t know if I want to do that.’”

Boucher said that he is often asked what kind of creature Gib is, and he says he doesn’t actually have an answer.

“[People say] ‘What is that, a rooster, a turtle, is it a dinosaur,’” Boucher said. “I mean, I never thought of that when I first came up with it 30-some years ago. And yeah, it’s just a creature with no legs.”

Boucher said that when people ask him now, he just says that he’s an alien.

“People like aliens,” Boucher said.

Boucher said that his success story is proof that you can always go back to something you love, no matter how long it has been.

“Especially if you enjoy what you were doing, it’s never too late to go back to it,” Boucher said. When it comes to a hobby or something that you enjoyed doing before, I’m sure you’ll still enjoy doing it. It just has to be the right time.”

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