Local illo drops a new kids’ book

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You’ve illustrated children’s books before. How did you decide to add writing to the mix for The Search for the Slimy Space Slugs?
A few years ago I was asked by Workman Publishing to write and illustrate a calendar that had puzzles and activities for kids. I mostly knew that publisher from those Brain Quest flash cards that have been around forever. I started working with them and immediately knew that they were the perfect fit for my sense of humor and sensibilities. They like interactive stuff and they kept pushing to make the calendar more unexpected, which ended up making it a lot funnier.

So, a while later when I had an idea for a book that would combine drawing, and a really weird choose-your-own-adventure-style story about a duck that goes into space looking for a slug emperor, I knew they where the best fit. The original idea was that it would be just a series of prompts that went in a row to complete a story, but the more we worked on it, the more it turned into a graphic novel with spaces for the reader to pitch in.

How did your daughter inspire the book? Your style is unabashedly twee and adorable. Surely she has some sway across the board with your illustration work.
My kid’s super power is sarcasm and the ability to form and understand jokes. I still really have a hard time interacting with other people’s kids because my daughter is so good at making jokes. When she was little I was making a lot of books for babies in hopes that she’d think it was cute, but now I’m just trying to write jokes that she would laugh at, I guess.

How has fatherhood informed your projects and overall style?
I’ve always liked drawing cute-ish stuff, I think because I wanted to work on light-hearted projects. I didn’t start drawing books for children because of her, but maybe now I have a sounding board with stuff that I’m writing. Like I mentioned before, I definitely try and make her laugh with my projects, so maybe that’s a big part of it.

Tell me more about how The Search is interactive. How do you ideally see readers utilizing the book?
The book is sort of a doodle book, but sort of just a long comic. You could read it all the way through without doing any drawing at all, but you’re really encouraged to sit and draw some stuff to add to the story. There are spots that you have to jump in and draw a way to get over a river of slime or a perfect birthday present for a slug emperor. In the end, you get a full story that you can read through OR give to someone else to read. Unlike a typical “doodle book” you end up with something you want to hold onto. That’s why we gave it a hard cover and nice paper. We’ve even talked with some school libraries that are going to let a few kids fill them out and then keep them in the permanent collection for other kids to check out to read.
Why is it important to make beautiful art specifically for children?
I guess it’s just important to put as much effort into making something for kids as we do for adults. Maybe. I’m not really sure who gets to call something “beautiful,” but I try to make stuff that kids will and adults will both like and can enjoy together.

How is making work for a kids’ book different from, say, an exhaustive beer facts poster?
That poster in particular came from a series of drawings that came right out of my sketchbook. Sometimes its really hard to get started in the mornings with work, so a lot of artists give themselves little warm up tasks that don’t require a lot of thought. I had the idea a while back to start drawing weird facts that I found. They were originally just for me, but I started posting them and got a good response so I just kept them going. I try to do one a day.

A piece like that is easy. I write out the text and then just start drawing, most of the time straight to ink. A kids’ book is totally different. It requires a LOT of planning, writing, revisions, drawing, more revisions, etc. You end up getting into these long relationships with a project like that, and it can have its ups and downs.

What are you working on next?
The second doodle adventures book (The Pursuit of the Pesky Pizza Pirate) comes out in the fall and a book collecting that series of random illustrated facts book (also from Workman) is in the works for early 2017. Oh! And I’m working on an all pork belly food truck design! 

The Search for the Slimy Space Slugs. Workman Publishing. 112 pages.