Wednesday, October 29, 2008


Meet Vincent X. Kirsch

Saturday, November 8 2008
Books of Wonder, 18 West 18th Street New York City
Noon-2:00PM

Saturday, November 22 2008
Barnes & Noble Children's Department, 86th Street & Second Avenue
11:00AM

Saturday, December 20 2008
Where The Sidewalk Ends Bookstore, Chatham, Massachusetts
2-4:00PM

Alexander Calder:


The Paris Years

"Few exhibitions have focused so intently on one artist’s child within as “Alexander Calder: The Paris Years, 1926-1933” at the Whitney Museum of American Art." Librado Romero/The New York Times

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Here's a little movie showing Calder's circus in action.
Joel Stewart
Catia Chien's sea serpent.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Pudding, Themeless and Magic

Winston Churchill once called a waiter to his table during dessert and said, "Pray sir, take away this pudding. It has no theme."

Lately political pundits and bloggers are saying that the McCain campaign has no central narrative, and that it's a themeless pudding.

It’s such a great phrase that could apply to so much (of my) writing.
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Now keeping with the theme of pudding (but not themeless pudding), here’s a link to a short video about Norman Lindsay, author and illustrator of The Magic Pudding.

(There is a shell of a website called this pudding has no theme. What's that about?)

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Mad Madame Mim

Here’s a small bit of the Mad Madame Mim as animated by Frank Thomas. Thanks to Michael Sporn.

David Costello teamed up with students to make a picture book called Mr. Allgunky and the Missing Monster. See videos of the story coming to life, here.

Rabbit Hill

Because I suffer from amotivational syndrome (that’s a fancy way of saying that I’m lazy), I'm going to link here to Stacy Mozer’s nice notes about a fantastic event that I attended yesterday. (Thank you, Stacy. And thanks Jennifer!)

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Want pie? Or a plate of buffalo wings?


Two art directors wanted to work together and make a little extra money. If they wanted to make enough to buy a plate of buffalo wings at Le Figaro Cafe (now defunct) on Bleecker Street, they would render a plate a buffalo wings and charge $12.70. If they wanted a Wii, they would paint one and charge $270.92.

They made a first batch of 13 paintings about a year ago and built a Web site called wantsforsale.com.
(illustration by Crockett Johnson)

Friday, October 17, 2008

An author, an illustrator, and a librarian walk into a bar...


not really. They were at The Bank Street Center for Children's Literature

Raw Junior sent me three new easy reader graphic novels and they are mighty impressive. The high production value is evident in the sophisticated color, the heavy paper and color saturation, and the old-fashioned endpapers. Visually, they’re real gems. And I have no doubt that kids will be drawn in, and willing to follow the visual clues when/if the text is too advanced.

Both MO AND JO FIGHTING TOGETHER FOREVER, and STINKY are in portrait format -- a good draw for a beginning reader who wants a book with a more “advanced reader” look. (Judging by my own kids, the cover and format are important.)

I loved both the pictures and plot of STINKY by Eleanor Davis. Stinky is a swamp monster who likes everything smelly and slimy, and believes that kids “don’t like mucky mud, slimy slugs or smelly monsters…” until he (or she? Is Stinky Seymour gender neutral?) meets a boy named Nick. STINKY is rich in detail, including funny forest animals with clothespins on their noses, and a map of the swamp. And the friendship between Nick and Stinky is sweet without being sentimental.


A first glance of Spiegelman’s JACK AND THE BOX tells you that it is for the youngest reader. It’s in a landscape/picture book format, the vocabulary is the most limited of the three books, and the protagonist, Jack, is a boy-bunny.

Jack receives a talking toy Zack-in-the-box. Zack comes completely out of his box, and sprouts (from the top of his head) a guy named Mack. Mack has a pet duck. And the duck has lots and lots of little ducks, which all leads to havoc, CAT IN THE HAT style.

Near the end of the story, Zack is back in his box and quiet (he doesn’t talk when adults are around). And Mack and his ducks are safely out of sight. Jack proclaims Zack to be just a silly toy. But on the final page, Mack and the ducks are back, and Zack looks like the lunatic loose cannon that he is.

Can Zack really talk? Or is that just Jack's imagination? Some kids will find Zack scary/cool, and some kids will find Zack simply scary.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Halloween Costumes


Gentleman Jim

by Raymond Briggs, is the story of Jim Bloggs, an imaginative toilet cleaner who, dissatisfied with his station in life, devotes his time to envisioning a world beyond it. His walls are lined with books like Out in the Silver West, The Boys Book of Pirates and Executive Opportunities, which provide fodder for his ruminations on career change.

See a Preview (PDF via Drawn and Quarterly)


The Wise Little Hen

published by Whitman in 1935, is a good example of some early merchandising by the Disney brothers.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Friday, October 10, 2008

Beat the Slush?

Authonomy is an online literary community service provided by HarperCollins Publishers that allows you to share, review and promote your writing. This term of use agreement (‘agreement’) contains the legally binding terms for your use of the Website http://www.authonomy.com/.

"...the idea of making the slush pile public and asking the people in the slush to determine which manuscripts are worth reading sounded to me like asking the guy with one leg and three fingers about how to use a chain saw." Editorial Anonymous
Kathy Osborn
(jpeg lifted from Paul Pincus)

Halloween


at Comics Should Be Good

Monday, October 06, 2008