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A book party, my agent, Japanese subtitles, and a missing page

The ravaging of Casa De Santat continues...

I attended Lisa Yee's book opening for Absolutely, Maybe on Sunday...

So I just wanted to warn you all, that if you see images of me floating around on the internet looking like this. Let the truth be told that that man in the picture is an impostor.

I did get to see my agent at the book signing though. Here's me and Jodi Reamer. Everyone calls her "THE REAMER" because she's so tough.

OK, I lied, no one else calls her "The Reamer"... In fact, I've never even said it to her face because I'm so intimidated by her....

...Please don't tell her I blogged about this...

...seriously....She's also lawyer AND has a black belt in Hapkido...

In other news, I finished the dummy book for "Oh No" and recently turned it in to the editor at Hyperion who seemed to really dig it. As some of you may know from previous blogs posted about this book I was heavily influenced by my childhood love for Japanese monster flicks.

 What some of you may NOT know is that I had a friend of mine (from France of all places) translate all the text for me into Japanese so that the book has Japanese subtitles and it seems to be OK with the editor!

Chalk one up for me and author Mac Barnett! (Hi-Fiving myself)

I recently got my ARC's of Bobby VS. Girls (Accidentally). It feels so quick considering I turned in the final art about 3 weeks ago, but I learned that author, Lisa Yee, (see above) did NOT receive her copies in the mail.

So I taunted her via email....

....She was not amused.... I had one of my copies sent over to her house and minutes later Lisa had informed me that the last page of text was MISSING!

We informed the editor and they are now reprinting all of the ARCs all over again. YAY for print!

Lastly, I made this video of my darling friend Amy Goldman Koss to help promote her books....

and SPEAKING of promotion. Since I have a little down time in between projects (not really but I'm a little sick right now so I'm procrastinating) I'm currently working on a trailer for "Always Lots of Heinies at the Zoo" but even better is that I discovered that STERLING PUBLISHING is recording an original song for CHICKEN DANCE and offering up a contest on Youtube for people to enter and win prizes! Now THAT is the way a publisher should treat a book. Let me just also add from a book creator to a publisher, If you give a little love to your product, then the people who generate the content will return that love back two fold.

Or at least I will.

I'm fine. What's new with you?

Last Friday night I participated in a book reading at Sherman Oaks Elementary School. I read "The Secret Life of Walter Kitty" and even gave them a special first reading of "Always Lots of Heinies At the Zoo" which was an absolute hit. Then I drew several animals and their heinies on a drawing pad with a sharpie pen (which I can't do very well) One parent even wanted to by my only copy from me. Needless to say, it made me feel very good inside and I can't wait for "Heinies" to come out in May.

One of the folks who also read at the school was the amazing Pseudonomous Bosch  the best selling author of books such as "The Name of This Book is....: and "If You're Reading This It's Too Late" They are wonderfully written and the premise is seriously just oustanding. Just a very well thought out book idea from the very beginning. Here's a picture of me with the infamous PB...

In other news, construction is still going on at my house.

A few complications came up here and there. Mainly issues with updating my house to meet city standards (my house was built in 1929)

Meanwhile, I'll be wrapping up one of the tightest dummy books I've ever completed in the next few days. I seriously never put this much love into the preliminary stages of a project but I have to say that after all the drawing I did for "Bobby VS. Girls (Accidentally)" My drawing chops have come back in full force.

 Here are a few more samples....

My, editor notified that I should be getting my final notes for my graphic novel early next week or so. Then I'll be starting that and you won't hear me stop talking about that.

I for one am so excited it hurts. 

As the House Unfolds

As you can see in the photo above, I work in a garage now.

Just yesterday the construction guys opened up the back wall to my studio and made the garage operational by installing hinges and springs. The bad part was that it was distracting. The good part is that now they are done with all that work and I was able to move all my junk back into it's proper place and I have my whole studio/garage again.

In the back yard they are tearing up the concrete, redoing the plumbing, and preparing to lay down the foundation..

 
Yesterday, the water was shut off all day and I ventured into the Port-O-Potty (as you recall, conveniently located in the front of my house) when I had to go. I saw the port o potty guy come yesterday morning to "service" the restroom and he looked like he knew his choice of occupation was 'poopie'

Meanwhile, I continue on with the book sketches for "OH NO"....

I will say this book is shaping up to be my hands down favorite book I have ever done. Not to take away from the other projects that I've done, but COME ON! Doing illustrations of robots trouncing a city is probably every guys fantasy job.  I have noticed that this book has a definite Japanese manga comic feel to it which I also think is exciting. This is unlike any picture book I have ever illustrated and could possibly be a redefining moment in my growth as an artist.

Oh, and let's not forget I'm speaking at the Sherman Oaks Elementary School tonight at 6PM. Be there or be square

Sherman Oaks Elementary School this FRIDAY

If you happen to be in the Sherman Oaks area then why not head down to the Sherman Oaks Elementary School at 6PM this Friday to hear me read books, give a presentation, and sign a few books? I guarantee you'll have a cracking good time.

Speaking of cracking good times. I'm having fun working on my new picture book. Here, take yet another gander...

I find myself in sort of a steady pattern in between projects right now so I'm managing to put quite a bit of love into this book, which, I might add, is also a lot of fun. Here's a scene of a science fair which made me think back to all the fun I had in 5th and 6th grade. Here you can see various experiments which I know you all must have seen at your own science fairs. There's the soda bottle tornado experiment, a volcano, the piece on the solar system, and even for you slackers who woke up that morning on the day of the science fair realizing you had nothing there is the "cup of dirt".

When I generally start a new book project I tend to give myself a little goal so that each new book I do I try to make it better than the previous one. Looking back, I've suddenly realized that I don't push the humor in my books as much as I know I can, and so for this project I have made an emphasis on being funny. I like to think I'm a funny person. Heck, if people laugh at Howie Mandel then I KNOW I'm a funny person.

The beauty of this current manuscript is the simplicity. (I believe the text is literally 120 words or so) For some reason, that helped it became more apparent to me how much the illustrator plays a role in helping with the storytelling and how much an illustrator can even ADD to the story. It's all well and good when an illustrator can illustrate the text given, but I believe there is an place where you can transcend just dictating the text and adding more personality and heart to a tale with use of the visual medium (I've been reading a lot of David Weisner to my son lately so it has been somewhat of an education to me in terms of the illustrated picture book)

We'll see if this is a hit or miss for me. I'm sure many of the jokes will go over the heads children, but I'm sure the parents who read the book will get them, and perhaps even more jokes will be seen by my fellow nerdlings (especially the connoisseurs of Godzilla movies)

Luckless Gulch wins a Bronze Medal

I got some wonderful news over the weekend. It turns out THE GHOSTS OF LUCKLESS GULCH is a Bronze Medal winner for the 2009 Los Angeles, Society of Illustrators juried competition in the "Book" category.

This is a great honor and I will keep you all posted on the upcoming Society of Illustrators show which will be featuring this and other works from the book at the Nucleus Gallery in Los Angeles.

In other news, I finished Bobby VS. Girls (Accidentally). I'm quite proud of the finishes. Chapter book work is awesome. If there's an art director or editor out there reading this right now. I love this work. I could do it all day.

Here's another sample, and, a personal favorite of the author, Lisa Yee....

Here's what I'm working on now.... We'll talk more about that later...

Lastly, here's a cute story you might all like and have a good chuckle about.

So my parents vacationed for three weeks in New Zealand. Generally, they like to come back with souvenirs for the family.

But this?.....

This is basically how the conversation went with my mother....

MOM: I got you a shirt. Take a look and see if you like it. I know you like cartoons and it says "New Zealand" on it.

(DAN takes the shirt and looks at it. Upon closer inspection he is somewhat puzzled)

DAN: Uh, why did you get this shirt, Mom?

MOM: You don't like it?

DAN: Oh no, it's not that. I just don't understand why you would buy this for me?

(My wife leans over to look at the shirt. She laughs hysterically)

MOM: Well, because it has a cartoon on it and it says "New Zealand" on it. Why? What's wrong with it?

DAN: Sheep Shagger?!

MOM: Yeah, what does that mean?

(DAN holds the shirt closely to his mother's eyes)

DAN: What do you think that kiwi bird is doing to that sheep?!?!

(MOM laughs out loud)

MOM: HA HA Is that what 'shagging' means?

DAN: Did you not consider that minor detail when you bought this shirt?! You just grabbed a shirt and said "This is for Dan"?

MOM: So you don't like it?

DAN: Oh no, I'll take it.... I'm gonna tell the WORLD about this silly story!

Later on my father came home and we shared the same story about the shirt. Apparently, my father ALSO didn't know what "Sheep  Shagger" was, but upon closer inspection of the artwork he also had a good laugh.

Apparently the imagery escaped the both of them.

Now, I think I'll have to wear this shirt every time I take a picture of myself for this blog.

Hysterical.

This is not at all inconvenient...

Hey, would you look at that? Someone got a Port-O-Potty installed on their front lawn. Hey wait! That's MY HOUSE!

GAAAAH!

Thus begins day two of my home addition.

If you have been following my blog you may or may not know that I have been in the long process of trying to add an extra room and bathroom to our home. As much as my wife and I would love to pack up and move into a nice school district for the kids it's unfortunate to say that homes in Southern California exist in the price median of about $420,000 and you can look upwards to a median of about $650,000 or more for a home in a good school district. Coupled with the fact that homes are not selling in this economy we decided we would add to our home and take our chances with private school (which is also astronomically high priced)

I hate California...

So here's the current state of my studio...

As I write this I've got two guys tearing out the drywall right behind me. Why you ask? Well in my stupid town the city regulations state that every home HAS to have a functional garage. When I first bought this home the garage was already converted into a studio, and that was one of the appealing things I liked about the place. The fact is that in order for us to build onto our house our home has to be brought up to code, meaning, that my wall has to be torn down so that the garage on the other side can open and close. When you make a city approved addition to your home a city inspector has to come and inspect the construction site during various stages of development to make sure everything is up to code. In order for a city inspector to approve of any of the construction work involved your house to be up to code. That means I have to have a garage....

So, I work in a garage.... for now...

Getting a building permit from the city was a whole other headache in itself. I won't go into details but it isn't cheap and it took over eight months to obtain. The original idea was that we would have this addition so that we could accommodate our kids and I could still have my studio.

The first step in all this is demolition and tearing down all the junk we need to get rid of. Since this is an addition (and not a remodel) there's not going to be that much demo work involved but here's what they've done so far with a 60 lb jackhammer.

They have to tear out the concrete in our yard because the addition is coming out 17 feet from the existing home. That also involves moving plants, and the sprinkler system.... It's a headache.

Oh, did I mention this should all take about six months to complete? (We're shooting for four)

I'll be sharing this whole process with all of you as I go along because misery loves company.

Take one last look at the back of this house because hopefully by July/August it will be all over....

Some Dan Gutman Covers

Remember this cover from last year?

Well, it got nixed (apparently it was deemed too scary by book stores) and they asked me to redo the cover a few weeks ago (for a fee of course) and so I came up with this new one, which, aside from the poor lighting job I did on the kid in the foreground I'm pretty proud of. I personally think it's actually a step up from the original...

Then on top of all that they asked me to illustrate Dan Gutman's next book as well and I banged this cover out in about a day and a half....

I've never been so happy with a cover final before. I have to say this is probably my most favorite cover finish of my career so far. There' something about working on black and white art that I think lends itself to improving one's ability to render tone and see contrast better. I've been doing so much on Bobby VS. Girls (Accidentally) lately that I think it has helped me see details much better. There would be periods when I was in art school where I would take a class but my hands would learn the lessons quicker than my brain. It was a weird phenomenon. One day you can't draw something very well and literally, the next day you would draw it in amazing detail. It just solidifies my belief that anyone can draw if they commit themselves to it. I think it attests to Malcolm Gladwell's theory of the "10,000 hour rule" which states that if you do anything for 10,000 hours you can get good at it. Of course you have to keep practicing in order to maintain your sharpness (like drawing)

I'll be doing some interiors for this last Gutman book next, meanwhile, I'm wrapping up Bobby VS. Girls (Accidentally) with spot art and should be done by the end of this week or before. Here's a taste of some spot art....

Carry on!

The Domesticated Four Development V-Blog

I'm going to be revving up on the finals to my graphic novel fairly soon and I will be starting up a video development blog for all of you to see. This graphic novel is my baby. My dream project which I have been thinking about for years and, hopefully, it will be completed before the end of this year.

Enjoy!

Filling up my time

In the next few weeks I'll be revving up on my graphic novel once again. Meanwhile, I'm wrapping up Bobby VS. Girls (Accidentally) Here is yet another image.

With all the bad news you hear about the publishing industry these days it's hard for someone like myself to stay focused (I'm a constant worrier) so I try to stay busy on whatever I can. Today, I'll be filming my friend and author Amy Goldman Koss  to make a promotional video for her books (video editing and motion graphics is a growing hobby of mine) I'm also working on a video trailer for "Always Lots of Heinies at the Zoo" and a couple gallery paintings for a few shows coming up in a couple months.

In tough times, It's always good to keep the mind busy.

Mystery drawing completed?

I think it's done? It's nice to have a good amount of time to work on a single piece. Artist/author/friend Tony Diterlizzi asked me if I would be one of many artists to contribute a drawing to a Spiderwick Chronicles box set. How could I say no? The honor was all mine.

Hope you liked watching the process.

Here, again, was the progression.