Top Ten (January 2010)

That time again. My favorite things from the month previous.



1. BOB DYLAN: BEHIND THE SHADES REVISITED. From what I can tell this is the most comprehensive and accurate bio on the man who is well-known to not like to be well-known. It's very dense (long) but was quite the page turner. I mean, you gotta like you some Dylan to want to turn these pages, and I really liked it. As my pal and fellow Dylanologist, James Preller said, "it helps connect the dots." My favorite period remains the controversial "going electric" one. Coming to a loud, loud crash with the world tour of '66.

While I'm on topic, I just discovered this nasty, nasty performance from the '02 Grammy Awards. Circa Love and Theft. Freakin amazing.




2. LATE NIGHT WARS. I'm not much on Late Night TV these days. And I'm not much on bickering matches (especially in this political climate). But I have to say I was entertained by what went on this past month. I think it peaked when Jimmy Kimmel soundly eviscerated Leno at his own table. Oomph.






3. SESAME STREET: A CELEBRATION OF 40 YEARS OF LIFE ON THE STREET. This book was one that I got for xmas but had not yet cracked til a week or so ago. They did an AMAZING job with this. The amount of detail, history, behind-the-scenes info is incredible. Ever wonder how Big Bird is brought to life? You'd be amazed. Anybody who grew up with SESAME would find it hard not to get a little misty when thumbing through this beautifully illustrated document. Especially in the Mr. Hooper section. Sniff.


4. THE DAY AFTER RECOVERING FROM STOMACH FLU. Act I: day of getting hammered in the stomach for hours accompanied by unspeakable acts of purging. Act II: it abruptly ends and you discover what it is to "have your health" again. Being of sound health the very day after being ill--It is a beautiful reminder that even the worst days of some (stomach flu) will never be as bad as the best days of others (serious illness, poverty, famine...). As the late great Mr. Rogers used to say, "It's such a good feeling to know you're alive." Straight truth.




5. MOON MAN. Phaidon is reprinting a lot of classic Tomi Ungerer picture books. I say they're classic cause this one is from 1966. Not that I'd ever heard of them or him. But I have now, and I've started with MOON MAN, and I am impressed. I don't know if it's any relation, but it has that whole Yellow Submarine vibe to the art. Loose pen and ink line and wash. Very nice.




6. MEZZETTA GARLIC AND DILL GOLDEN GREEK PEPPERONCINI. I love salty foods. I love salty, pickled foods. I love salty, spicy, pickled foods. I love salty, spicy foods pickled with garlic and dill.




7. MUPPET WHAT NOT. I am, it seems, some kinda Henson nut. I mean, somewhat yes. But mostly, there's just been a lot of it going around with Sesame's 40th. But a while back, Julie discovered that FAO Schwarz offers a build-your-own Muppet program (much like the more commercial Bear Workshop out there). How amazing is this? If you can't get to NYC to do it in person (which, by the way, looks awesome!), you can assemble and order the whole thing online. For Romy's Xmas/Hanukkah gift, we got her one of these. Well, it's supposed to be for her.




8. 100 SCOPE NOTES. This blog, by Travis Jonker, is one of a handful of kidlit blogs that are constant abuzz. I really like the tone of it and Trav always finds new and creative ways to present himself (e.g., he sometimes reviews in the form of a comic strip). I actually met Travis at an ALA Conference (he's also a librarian) not too long ago in Chicago. A very nice guy.




9. GIBBY from iCARLY. Now that we have cable television, I've become a bit of a connoisseur of the tween comedy. I don't like much of what Disney has to offer, except Wizards of Waverly Place is pretty funny despite it's shameless hopping on of bandwagon. iCarly trumps them all. There's this old jaded codger side of me that cringes from time to time when they get all tweeny but I'm not exactly the intended audience. Anyways, the best part of the show is this kid Gibby, a secondary player. He is positively built for physical comedy (no offense, Gibbs). Man, that dude is funny.




10. MAN V. FOOD. Another recent cable TV fascination. This time from the Travel Channel. A dude goes around the country taking up local restaurants on insane eating challenges. Like, "eat this gigantic steak in under an hour and you get a free t-shirt." Or, "eat this disturbingly spicy sandwich (made with "ghost" peppers...?!) and you get a free t-shirt." If it sounds ridiculous, it is. And it is also both disgusting and appetizing at the same time. Weird.

From Korea with Love

Just got wind of this. TROUBLE GUM is gonna get a Korean edition, from one of their publishers, Forever Books! How awesome is that? I think it's especially cool since not too long ago, one of my earlier pic books, RIGHTY AND LEFTY (written by Ms. Rachel Vail) also got a pick-up from a Korean pub. Cool, cool.

(I did a quick online translation of TROUBLE GUM from English to Korean. Below. I doubt it's an accurate trans, seeing as TROUBLE GUM is my made up thing, and those online translators usually end up being wack. Hopefully this ain't nothing too vulgar, at least.)

More About Me.

Ever wonder what nibs I use? What I collect? My pre-drawing rituals? Favorite comic strip? Musical instrument I play?

I have answered these questions and many more here, at David-Wasting-Paper, the blog of cartoonist/cartoon enthusiast David Paccia. David has sought out and Q/A'd some of the coolest in the cartoon/illustration biz. Bob Staake, Bill Griffith, Shannon Wheeler, and fellow Feiwel and Friends illustrator, Greg Ruth (also a fellow James Preller collaborator) to name a few.

Not sure what his motivation is, but he's getting some cool people to contribute. Thanks for including me, David.

(Up next is Rick Geary. Nice!)

TROUBLE GUM studies, etc. at new MacKids blog

Macmillan Children's has an awesome new blog up. It's a lot of behind-the-curtain type of stuff played out by various Macmillan Children's personnel. And for those not in the know, Macmillan is the great big pub that's home to imprints Feiwel and Friends, Henry Holt, Roaring Brook, Priddy, First Second, Roaring Brook, and Square Fish.

Already, I've read a cool piece by Nicole Moulaison, Production Manager for F+F and Squarefish, about color-correcting scanned art for print. And another cool piece by Reka Simonsen, Senior Editor, Henry Holt Books for Young Readers. A "what's on my desk" fun one.

For my part, I was asked to send in some early stuff I did for TROUBLE GUM. Not finished art, but just sketches, thought process, color study work I did before the final art came around (like the drawing I did way back when, below, as a color test). Please do have a look at this, and please do have a look at this hip new blog!

The Letterman

I suppose it's the fact that my BFA was made in design, but I love hand-lettering. In some (most?) cases, I prefer it. For any readers who have seen any of my previous book covers, you may have noticed some bit of hand-lettering going on--or not, depending on how much you appreciate such a thing.

It's fun to draw letters. I guess, in part, it's cause they don't judge. A "T" is a T. Just cause you draw it one way or another, doesn't make it not a T. I think, from now on, when someone asks what is my favorite thing to draw, I will say "Letters.". So, there.

Below are some sketches I whipped up for possible hand drawn title treatments for author Rachel Vail's and my forthcoming middle-grade one.

Below, below, is the standing font treatment. We'll see what happens.

Top Ten (December 2009)

1. GOOGLE'S HOMAGE TO E.C. SEGAR. Someone at Google has good taste. First they get it with Sesame Street, now they mark Segar's b-day (115!) with this one. Nice job.




2. RICHARD THOMPSON'S ANECDOTE REGARDING BRANT PARKER. I really enjoyed reading this blog post from the great Richard Thompson about when he was a young, aspiring writer/cartoonist and he met cartoonist Brant Paker--creator of THE WIZARD OF ID. A very vivid memory. Just cool.




3. GRIT COOKBOOK. The Grit, in Athens, GA, is the best vegetarian restaurant that I've never been to. (Whatever that means.) I got this cookbook for xmas and it's got some cool, savory stuff to do with tofu. Some of it looks fancy-complicated, but I'm game. We kicked it off with a dang tasty tofu ruben sandwich last week.




4. JOHN BURNINGHAM. Genius, genius, genius. How have I gone this long without knowing about the children's books of John Burningham? All I can say is this guy has got GUTS.




5. GOOGLE IMAGES. Just finished drawings for a pic book, and Google Images was with me all the way (apologies for two Google endorsements in one Ten). Whenever I need an image ref, Google Images is the place to go.

6. FROM THE MOUTHS OF BABES BY OLD CALIFORNIO. A Facebook friend posted this video. I had never heard of Old Californio, but it seems that they are an up-and-coming CA band. This song--I like it.




7. MAP OF MY HEART. John Porcellino's King Cat is the king of the zine and mini-comic. When I first moved to Chicago in '99, I discovered his books at Quimby's. His drawings are so elegant, and his observations just sweet, simple, and often heartbreaking. Drawn and Quarterly has been so good as to reprint King Cat in book form. This is the second collection of such.




8. STONEWALL'S JERQUEE. Who'd a thunk it? Vegetarian "beef" jerky that actually tastes like beef jerky. I was a fool for some jerky growing up. But once I hit 18, I went vegetarian and never touched the stuff. When I turned a ripe 34, I started eating the occasional bit of bird. No beef, no pork, no fish. As weird as it sounds, this stuff is good (and frighteningly addictive).




9. WHALE TALK. Julie gave me a stack of YA novels to read recently-- one of which was this one from Chris Crutcher. My first Chris Crutcher. Very intense story about swimming, bullying, racism, and tearing stereotype to shreds. Really good. Hurts to read something like this, but it's good to hurt sometimes.




10. ROMY'S EVER-EXPANDING VOCAB. Hi, light, bottle, night-night, Mama, Dada, girl, good girl, num-num, bye-bye, more, more please, purse, wow, cat. And she's a heck of a mimicker. Babies are cool, man.

ring-a-ding-ding.

Let's ring in 2010, here on the blog, with a little bit of "whatchu know good?". Down south, where I'm from, that roughly translates to "what's the good word?". Here's some latest and greatest in word.



1. Just finished finals (all but jacket) on my latest illustrated picture book. Titled LEAP FROG. Written by Lauren Thompson, illo'd by yours true. I'm quite happy with the end drawings. A very sweet book, this one, and thrilled to have been invited.

2. Julie's new one, INTO THE WILD NERD YONDER, just got short-listed for the CYBILS (Children's and Young Adult Bloggers Literary Awards) best YA fiction. Only a handful left in the running, in this category, and I think my babe should win. Git er done, CYBs?



3. One of my previous collaborative pic books, RIGHTY AND LEFTY, (written by my pal, Rachel Vail--we also recently teamed up on her über-cool forthcoming middle-grade novel, JUSTIN CASE) just got picked up by a Korean publisher. Which means it'll be getting some fancy Korean type-treatment for this foreign release. Can't wait to get a look at this!

4. Currently kicked into high gear for my next author/illustrator picture book. The text is mainly wrapped. Just a few tweaks left to tweak. Which means now I'm off and into sketches. Super-psyched here. Pumped.

These are the highlights of the moment. Shall we start this new year? We shall, and right. Onward, folks!

Happy Holidays!

Julie, Romy, and I are about to head down south for some holiday festivity. For those who do not know, my people are from South Carolina. We were planning on boarding a flight that left Chicago this afternoon, but it's been canceled due to some snow. A white Christmas cancels flights, people.

But looking forward to a fried turkey and various other southern-style (probably not good for my cholesterol issues) sides and desserts.

Happy Holidays to all, and to all a great 2010!

Bookpage: Best Picture Books of '09!

This just in! TROUBLE GUM was selected by BookPage for a short list of this year's best picture books. In case you missed it, I was in the magazine back in September for their supercool "Meet the Illustrator" column. Check that out here.

Thanks, BookPage!

Top Ten (November 2009)–Addendum!

I forgot. Make it Top 11 this time. A Facebook friend posted this earlier this month (and another posted just now and I remembered...), and all I could say was "wow". Up for auction is original art by the greats. William Steig, James Marshall, Maurice Sendak, and many more. All you can do is salivate, cause you know you can't afford these pups. But a girl can dream, can't she? By all means, go crack this catalog and dream.