Stitches

Just one more quick word about David Small. I just finished reading an advance copy of his new graphic memoir, Stitches. It is as good as graphic storytelling gets, told with breathtaking precision and, of course, masterful drawing. It comes out in September.

I Came, I Saw, I Bid Successfully...

...woohoo!!!!

Thanks to all the wonderful booksellers that I met at last night's ABC silent auction. You folks know how to throw a fine shindig.

ABC Auction!

I've donated this bookish little fella for the Association of Booksellers for Children's annual auction shindig. This year they've put all of the auction items online for your viewing pleasure. I'll be at the auction, so if you see me, be sure to say howdy.

Will Draw For...

I'll apologize once more for my lack of recent posts. I had two book deadlines one after another and I'm just now coming up for air. Unfortunately for the blog, that means that I did very little drawing over the last 2 months that was not for a book (can't show you that stuff quite yet).

I did however take a smidgen of time to draw this ukulele lady for a uke festival poster competition. The prize was a shiny new Ohana ukulele. Alas, I didn't win but here's my entry. I made the drawing with a port inktense pencil (seemed appropriate).


And then I gussied it up in Photoshop. She's supposed to be sitting on grapes since we're talking wine country here.

There are no sour grapes on the Planet Ham, so if you are in that neck of the Northern CA woods, check out the fest. I'm sure it'll be fun. And if you'd like to commission me in exchange for a nice ukulele, apparently I will consider it.

Spells!

I'm very excited to be involved with the Spells Writing Center in Philadelphia. It's based on (but not officially affiliated with) the 826 Valencia centers. I'll be posting more and more about this venture in the future. In the meantime, zip over to their site and check out the upcoming events (including the Zombie Fundraiser, of course).

p.s. The Indefatigable Brian Biggs did the lettering for the above postcard image. The Incombustible Adam Rex is also rumored to be lurking about Spells Headquarters.

Madame Collara

Apology/PSA

This baby eagle is here to tell you that despite appearances, I have not abandoned my blog. April was a deadline month, and I was feverishly at work finishing a new picture book (more on that later). But I promise to start posting regularly again ... with some big stuff coming up.

Until then, if you are anywhere within a reasonable distance of Philadelphia, you should get down to the Rosenbach Museum to catch the extraordinary Sendak exhibit that closes on Sunday! Go, go! It's rainy today so there really is no better time to go to a museum, right? Right-ho.