posted: February 19, 2013

Those online games and their sneaky online marketing! You can't let those game makers out of your sight for a second.

Enticed by the lure of playing online games with their favorite cartoon characters, kids are logging on to online games like crazy. Once the gamer is logged in they are a captive audience to pop up ads and logos that are woven into the graphics. In short - lots of advertising per computer screen square inch. None of this is against the law. There is very little hard sell but there is a ceaseless opportunity grab to foster brand loyalty. I am getting dangerously close to talking marketese so I'll stop here. The key is to educate your kids as to why they are seeing ads and logos and why these games sites are free when others require payment. Explain that "sneak previews" and "exclusive video clips" are essentially ads. We can arm our kids with knowledge by teaching them to play "guess what they're selling".

This 1/2 page illustration was created for the February issue of School Library Journal under the benevolent and wise stewardship of art director, Mark Tuchman.

 

posted: January 28, 2013

Ten years.

That is how long Dan Gutman and I have been working on the MY Weird School book series. And I have loved it. Before the folks at HarperCollins called and asked if I wanted to be the illustrator for a new series about a school-hating second grader and his weird teachers I had always wanted to work on a chapter book series. My admiration for The Time Warp Trio series by Jon Scieszka was mostly because of the terrific artwork created by Lane Smith and Adam McCauley. And before that our kids and I would read Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey because we loved the goofy, pointless stories and artwork. Goofy and pointless - I wouldn't mind having that on my headstone when my time comes.

In the ten years that Dan and I have been working on the My Weird School series we have seen the kids in the books go from 2nd to 3rd grade. Teachers come and go, marry each other and try in vain to teach the same math lesson book after book. We now have 40 books in print and another half dozen or so are planned over the next couple of years. The artwork in the series is now at a point that I am pretty happy. The characters have grown into their roles and the stories are more funny and more unpredictable than ever before. That is a surprise to me - that after forty books the art and stories have improved.

A few years ago Dan and I both admitted to each other that we figured the series would be a success if we could just reach 8-10 books. That would be good, we thought. That would be enough. But the series has been a bigger hit than we imagined. Dan created My Weird School to be a goofy series that would turn on reluctant readers and in that regard it has been an olympic sized success. We both receive letters from kids and happy parents that the My Weird School books have made their kids love to read. Dan often visits schools to read and talk to kids about reading and I visit schools to draw and talk with kids about the importance of reading and creativity. A pretty fun way to spend a morning is drawing with seventy 3rd and 4th graders while trying to make each other laugh.

The question I am most asked by parents is, "don't you get tired of drawing the same characters over and over?". No, not a bit. And that surprises even me since I have the attention span of a gibbon. The question that kids usually ask is, "who is your favorite character in the book?". A.J., the flawed but lovable kid who is also the narrator in the series.

Here are some of the more recent book covers in the series.

 In 2010, I created a piece for an article in School Library Journal. The piece, "How I corrupted The Youth of America", was about censorship and parental reaction (and hyper over-reaction) to some kids books. In this case - the My Weird School books.

posted: November 5, 2012

This piece is about letting go. It's also about the lifetime journeys we take with family, friends and by ourselves. After we leave this life do we say good-bye forever or will we later see and embrace the people that have made deep, lasting impressions in our lives?

Some of the imagery here is about past friendships and unrealized dreams. But it is also about unlikely relationships and the love that helps to make friendships happen.

Or, to some, perhaps this piece is about a flying popsicle.

posted: August 28, 2012

It's been of summer of zigs and zags and starts and stops. I try to keep some balance between fun time and work time but the last few months have been a challenge.

The gallery show, Slightly Strange, at The Powerhouse Arena (Brooklyn) is still up for one more week. My family and I went to New York for the opening reception and had a terrific time. Besides making a few new friends we also got to spend some time with Mike Moran and his delightful family of trained humans. After a family vote we have decided to adopt them. After the opening night of the show we spent a few days exploring the city. If you have never been to New York you should try it. It's a quiet little place. Teeming with people who are generally serene and patient and move at an easy, relaxed pace. Riding cabs and subways turned out to be a favorite place to unwind and get in touch with meditative thoughts and good feelings toward our fellow humans. We came back home rested and contemplative.

The rest of the summer has been a series of sprints to opportunities and deadlines. I'd like to say its winding down but this fall is shaping up to be as busy as ever. Of course thats good news to any freelancer but it also means we'll have to scramble to make some free time for more family fun.