Old Joe Clark

Black Eyed Susie

I've been picking up the banjo again which means I've been listening to a lot of old-timey banjo music, those songs are so rich with "colorful characters" and "depressing scenarios" i thought it might be fun to draw a few.

Monday morning.

Here's a story Mia told me this morning.

and then there's this.

A couple times a week.

Look!! 2 books this year!!
"OH, NUTS!"
written by Tammi Sauer
illustrated by Me
Available September 2012!

One of the sad things about illustrating children's books is when one of them gets held back a year as was the case with "Skeleton Cat" last year. It was supposed to come out for Halloween in 2011 but they had too many Halloween books that year so it got put on 2012's list. It takes soooo unbelievably, hard to describidly long to do a book, then once you turn it in with all the revisions, title pages, spine art etc. etc. it takes 2 or 3 more eternities for it to actually be printed, shipped halfway across the world, put in bookstores across the country and eventually be released into the wild so it seems like you're working working working your life away and nothing ever comes out, it's really very sad. BUT, the upside of that equation is that it does eventually come out and the upside to one be being held back a year is that you can have 2 come out in one year which for me is what 2012 is all about. So now, listed on Amazon's website and with an official ISBN# which as far as i'm concerned is proof that it will eventually be in the world is... "OH, NUTS!"
More to come closer to the release date on what it's all about and why you must have it and how it will change your life, but for now just know that it is alive and start saving up your $16.99
Thanks!!

I just started another audiobook that I'm already enjoying a lot right off the bat. It's called "The Witch's Boy" written by Michael Gruber and in the first 2:00 minutes of it a witch who lives in the woods stumbles on the world's ugliest baby in a basket left for her with a note saying "The devil's child for the devil's wife".

"Well well..." she said to herself. "Let us see what some rude person has left." She opened the basket and looked in "Gasp... Oh My!" she said aloud as she beheld the ugliest baby boy that she and perhaps anybody had ever seen. He had a piggish snout (i love those) and close set eyes of a peculiar yellowish color, his mouth wide and floppy was already full of square little grinders. He was covered in coarse dark hair resembling the bristles of a hog and his ears were huge and pointed like a bats. His body was also oddly shaped, like a sack of stones and his feet were far too large. Of all his features his hands alone might be called 'good' their long delicate fingers flexing as the stubby arms waved."

I really enjoy books that give good physical descriptions of the characters, so much fun to draw.

Here's the link to the "Yirdswine" piece up for auction through Drawing Dreams, the charity that provides art supplies for hospitalized children. give til it hurts!

Drawing Dreams.org

Grocery Store #2 of 5,000. gender confusion.

Going to the grocery store with Mia #1 of 5,000.

Frankenstein is my very favorite story and I just started listening to it once again on audiobook and all i can say is... it's still my very favorite story. Nice work 18 year old Mary Shelley.


It's one of those books where you're so familiar with the story from all of the movie versions that you think you know inside and out what it's all about, then you read it and see it couldn't be more completely different. For anyone who hasn't read it yet I won't ruin it by telling you what it's really like, but i will say he doesn't walk around slowly, grunting like a zombie.

Here's a shot from the very beginning where Dr. Frankenstein is pursuing his demon creation literally to the ends of the earth, up on the North Pole, where he is on death's door and happens upon a ship very coincidentally exploring the north pole. He's down to his last sled dog and almost frozen to death and the ship's captain asks him if he wants a ride but instead of saying "sure that would be great, i'm almost dead" he says "mmm, i dunno. it depends which way you're going. 'cause i made this demon creation and i'm really into catching and destroying him" but he says it in that old-timey eloquent way people used to talk back then that's super cool.

and that's just the beginning. I love this book.

And here's a little animated diddy i whipped up for the occasion.

LOOK OUT!! A CREEPY SPOOKY SKELETON CAT IS COMING IN JULY!!!

How many times have you been reading some lame picture book to your kid about green eggs and ham or a boy playing on an island with a bunch of monsters and thought "this is Ok, but what I'd really like to be reading is a story about a dead cat who is struck by lightning and comes back to life to pursue his unfulfilled ambition of being a famous drummer in a rock band. And oh yeah... I'd like it to rhyme"
Well... I can't tell you how many times I've thought that same thought, which is why when the opportunity to illustrate Kristyn Crow's delightful "Skeleton Cat" manuscript (published by Scholastic) came up I jumped at it!

So for those of you who have been walking around all this time with a sad, empty, hollow, miserable, dead kind of feeling inside because of your inability to read a story such as this, I have this to say to you. It's time for you to turn your life around and be happy again by clicking the link here and buying this book. And for those of you who have been wishing for the same kind of story except one that features a zombie hedgehog instead of a cat, you might as well go ahead and buy this one because that's kind of ridiculous and no one is ever going to put out a book like that and this is probably as close as you're going to get, plus there are a few hedgehogs in it too so it's almost the same thing.

I am now pleased to present to you, coming soon to book stores and book clubs, wittily written by Kristyn Crow, lovingly painted in Photoshop by yours truly and published in lush, flexi-plyable paperback by Scholastic. SKELETON CAT!!! available July 1st 2012.

I've been really enjoying this audiobook called "Skullduggery Pleasant", it's a kid's novel about a skeleton detective and a preteen girl who solve supernatural mysteries. It has kind of a zoot suit vibe to it which is a bit of a bummer for me, but if you aren't bothered by that kind of thing or can look past it, the dialogue and interaction between the girl and the skeleton has a very funny, dry wit to it and they go on a reasonably good adventure. It's also an Irish book and the audiobook is read in all Irish accents which is kind of fun.

This is just a re-post from CartoonBrew, but it's the coolest thing I've seen in a very long time.
The Hobbit by Gene Deitch
In fact i think it's the coolest thing since this
or this.

Here's a little gnome enjoying a good read and a puff on his pipe.