Avengers

Daniel Kibblesmith won the commission I donated to 826CHI, and asked if I'd write a story about seeing the new Avengers movie. I met Daniel after appearing on The Late Live Show, where I made a joke about 3D movies and why I don't want to see them. I decided I should go see the Avengers in 3D, of course.

Dinosaurs

It's going to be a busy summer for me, as I'm starting to work on three books, all very different and hopefully I'll be able to talk more about them soon. I'll also be doing a ton of travel to promote Darth Vader and son, including some San Francisco events next week. Check out the left side for updates on where I'll be when. As a result of all this busy-ness I'm going to take the summer off from commission drawings, except for a few I already committed too. Above is an unused version of a dinosaur tattoo I made, and another commission I'll be doing was auctioned off to support 826CHI. There's one more commission I'll do, and that one is part of the Reading With Pictures kickstarter campaign. If you miss out on the commission from me, though, you can also fund the RWP kickstarter and get a customized action figure made by my brother.

THE ONLY POWER IN THE WORLD

They won't be available until May, but I drew this postcard to support 826CHI, the non-profit writing and tutoring center. Each postcard features text written by one of the students who's participated in programs at 826CHI, which are then illustrated by various artists. When I was in elementary school I had the opportunity to attend a few writing workshops (including one where the guest speaker was author/artist Tomie dePaola. It had a big impact on me, and is part of why I write and draw books now. You'll be able to buy the postcards to support 826CHI soon, but if you're really ambitious (and in Chicago) you can pick up tickets to the upcoming People Eating & Giving fundraiser, or PEG.

Steven The Extraordinary Dinosaur

I'm getting more and more used to teaching college students at The School of the Art Institute, but last Friday I got to try something new for me - working with second graders. 826CHI is the local chapter of 826 National, an organization that works with students age 6 to 18 to improve and inspire their writing. One activity is the Field Trip, where a class comes to 826CHI and writes a story together, guided by volunteers. While one volunteer leads as the storyteller, another acts as the illustrator, creating two drawings the students can see on an overhead projector. After writing a few pages together, students each write the next page of the story, which is then bound in a little book along with a blank page to add their own drawing. This is one of the drawings I made of Steven the Extraordinary Dinosaur, who likes to wear underwear on his head and sells chocolate and underwear door to door with his talking rocket Rocky.