dantat.com: OH NO! (a jacket - a poster

I think I'm on a roll?

I FEEL like I'm on a roll.

I just recently discovered that CHICKEN DANCE made it into the Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators in New York. Now, it's not the first time I've been in the show, but I have to be honest with you, I was truly bitter when I learned that THE GHOSTS OF LUCKLESS GULCH was excluded from last years show. With that said, if OH NO doesn't make it into next year's Original Art Show I will feel truly jaded.

In any case, I wanted to share the cover for OH NO with you all because it will be relevant to my next blog, which will come later on in the week(s)

A while back I blogged about this great book my parents got for me while they were in Thailand. It was a book about old movie posters. Stuff like this...

I just loved the rough painterly feel of old pulp retro posters. OH NO was one of those projects that I felt lended itself to that feel so I modeled it after an old 1960's Japanese Monster Movie Poster such as this...

and especially these...

See the influences? I hope it translates well into a children's book...

(click on all images to see a larger version)

I'll walk you through a few details....

First of all, the jacket as a whole may look a little busy, but if you look at it as parts of a whole then it makes more sense.

Here's the cover...

I thought the single image of a girl standing in front of a city in carnage would stand out on a bookshelf. Then upon closer inspection you would notice that in her glasses you can see the reflection of a giant robot and a giant frog preparing to fight. The art director and I decided that the paper should be matte (or satin finish) and that the glasses would be spot glossed to give it that reflective feel.

The back of the book continues on with the whole retro feel. The robot is a dominant shape in the background which is predominantly red/orange. I also gave him a speech bubble where the book bar code would be placed as if the robot were talking and I included a 'Presented in Retrovision' and 'Color by Colorflux' ads which were later removed before printing. Also note the rough painted edge over the white border. The large signwritten in Japanese literally translates to "OH NO" in Japanese. For the longest time I was trying to convince the folks at Hyperion to include Japanese in the title and in the text. We ended up settling on a middle ground.

The about the author/illustrator section is also part of the whole retro feel of the jacket. Here is an image of the author, Mac Barnett and I running away from the monster (in classic sci-fi poster form). I added an eye patch to myself as an homage to to some of the old mad scientist villains you would see in the Bond movies and so forth. It almost rings synonymous with the goatee in Star Trek that automatically signified Spock as being evil. It was as if to say a prerequisite to being evil in the 60's was that you had to have lost an eye. Oh those silly 60's...

But wait that's not all... Take off the jacket and turn it over. What's this? A door poster?!

The art director and editor were awesome enough to let me include a movie poster that kids can hang up on their wall. It comes complete with tag lines and movie credits which include the names of the art director and editor as well.

BUT WAIT DAN! HOLD ON! If my kid hangs this book poster on his door then he's gonna have a book with no jacket on it. What good is that?!

Ah, never fear. The hardcover is decorated, as well, as you can see here...

It's supposed to be the science notebook of the girl in the book. The coffee stains were supposed to be tinted to more of a chocolate milk sort of feel but I think it failed. There was originally more stuff on it to begin with but Mac and the editor felt it was best to simplify it and keep it minimal.

OK. I'll concede on that one...

17 Comments

I'm totally buying this book the minute it's available.

Posted by: Boni Ashburn | August 26, 2009 at 10:45 AM

This is freaking fantastic.

Posted by: tammi | August 26, 2009 at 11:39 AM

So coool! Can't wait to get this :). Looks like a lot of fun!

Posted by: David Miles | August 26, 2009 at 11:54 AM

Awesome job, Dan! It's so cool that your had an input on jacket designs like gloss varnish, doing the poster as an interior of the cover, etc.

Posted by: Shiho Nakaza | August 26, 2009 at 01:38 PM

Thanks everyone you're all too kind!

Posted by: dsantat | August 26, 2009 at 03:33 PM

Sweet cover Dan! As luck would have it, I'll be joining you at the Orange County Book Festival's Jacketflap Booth -- where I'll expect a clinic on Chicken Dancing, and look forward to meeting you and a handful of other excellent author/illustrator folk.

Posted by: Erik | August 27, 2009 at 07:44 AM

I'm so excited for OH NO! Especially the cover and all the pages in between.

Posted by: Jaime | August 31, 2009 at 07:28 AM