coyote

true story

I'm getting married in just over a week, so things have been pretty hectic, lately. On top of the typical wedding stuff that most couples have to deal with, Jodi and I are doing the design and signage work for the whole event, ourselves. Okay, Jodi's doing most of the design work. Okay, all of the design work. But I am contributing the cover of our ceremony program, a comic stip relating the bizarre but true story of how we met. It's a little ditty I call "Modern Love".

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double date

Last Wednesday, I drove down to Chicago to meet with Aaron Reynolds, who's writing the next book I'm illustrating, The Carnivore Club. We had a serious discussion about, among other things, animals wearing hats, and the comedic principle that a shark getting wheeled around in a bathtub is funnier than a shark walking on its fins (originally proposed by Sid Caesar, I believe), before heading out for dinner at a place called Carnivale. I always have a tough time distinguishing between various Latin cuisines, but the abundance of plantain and pork products on the menu clued me in that restaurant was probably Cuban-themed. In any case, they made the best raspberry mojito I've ever tasted. Yum.

The following Saturday, I was in the car again, this time heading to the fabled Brat Stop, where, for the second time, I lunched with my boy Matt Cordell. He brought along a couple of books by Saul Steinberg and Jean-Jacques Sempé that were just jaw-dropping, along with some samples of his own work which are nothing to sneeze at, either. Here's an image from his upcoming picture book, TOOT! TOOT! ZOOM! (written by Phyllis Root, to be published by Candlewick in the Spring of 2009):

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reggie veggie head

Here's a little picture that slipped through the cracks during the whole Omro Oeuvre thing. My apologies to Mr. Wrage.

next

The Boys is in the can. My vacation is over. Work beckons. And now that contracts have been signed, I can finally talk about what's on my "to do" list for the next several months (and beyond).

First up is a picture book called The Carnivore Club. It's about a self-loathing trio of meat-eaters (including the Timber Wolf, below) that band together to confront their secret shame. I'm sure I'm making it sound funnier than it is.



Aaron Reynolds (Chicks and Salsa) is writing it, I'm (Hippo! No, Rhino) drawing it, and Chronicle Books is ponying up the cash to bind it all together in a flippable format. I'll be heading down to Chicago next week to meet the author for the first time (a rare opportunity in this business, especially when you live in the Midwest), so I'll be sure to report back on how it went.

After that comes my second book with Simon & Schuster (publisher of The Boys), which will either be called It's Mouse in the Morning...Starring Mouse!, or What's That Up Ahead?, depending on which idea gets the thumbs up from my editor. On the other hand, he could squash both of them, and send me back to the drawing board. But as I'm legally required to make another book for S&S, you can count on seeing something in the intervening years between now and the end of my life.

Last but not least, I'll be illustrating Joseph Bruchac's Rabbit's Snow Dance for Dial. Everything I know about this book I learned from the plot summary on my contract (it's the story of how the rabbit got its fluffy tail), which goes to show you the level of discrimination I exhibit when selecting jobs. Still, I hear the author's good, and snow is easy to paint.

More news as it develops.

steven l. 9

joker

nice try, roscoe jenkins

Thursday was Saint Valentine's Day here in the Milwaukee, and perhaps where you live, as well. It was also the day that I mailed off the illustrations for my third picture book, The Boys, and the day I did not see box office sensation Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins.

Now, you might be asking yourself, "How can he equate the achievement of completing a book to the achievement of not seeing box office sensation Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins?" To which I might respond "I didn't. That's why I mentioned Roscoe Jenkins second."

Look, I am definitely more proud of finishing the book than not seeing Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins. The Boys took four years of my life to complete. It just so happens that on the last day of those four years, something else of note didn't happen. And why shouldn't I be proud of that? I mean, have you seen the ads for this thing? If you can resist the wild-eyed antics of funnyman Martin Lawrence, then you would have been a better man than me had I not also resisted the wild-eyed antics of funnyman Martin Lawrence.

But don't for a moment think that I think not seeing Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins is as noteworthy an event as turning in my book. It was a much more rewarding experience in just about every way imaginable, except in the way that it was not another potentially hilarious movie in which Mo'Nique slaps some fool for disrespecting her I didn't see, despite commercials compelling me to do otherwise. And I'm going to celebrate by taking the entire day I didn't see Big Momma's House 2* off.

*formerly President's Day.

hot poop 2

What, whaaat? The second episode of Hot Poop, the Internet's eight-hundred and forty-second celebrity commentary show, is now ready to pop up out your hamper, and make y'all scamper. Get familiar by clicking on the link.

hot poop 2

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lion

condiments

we wish you a very special blog post

Happy New Year, everyone.

Firstly, I want to apologize for not being around, lately. And secondly, I want to apologize for apologizing for that. It seems to me that when people apologize for not keeping up to date on their blog, that apology post is sometimes their last. I assure you that won't be the case, here, even though I've just undermined that sentiment by writing an apology post. Which means this may or not be my last post, although I can give you a guarantee of questionable merit that it won't be.

The third and final order of business is to announce the winner of the latest The Great Shroogly-Dunk Giveaway: it's Missy from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and The [Prefix]iest Thing I Saw Today! As with all but one of the previous Giveaways, the winner was also the sole entrant, proving conclusively that it's almost impossible to lose this contest, so much so that it actually makes me angry at you—yes, all of you—for not winning in the past, and pre-angry at you for not winning in the future. If you are a future winner, please e-mail me at jeff@newmanpictures.com, to let me know if we come out on top in the coming robot war, or if, in a cruel twist, we become servants to the machines that once served us.

fun with mad libs

the brat stop

Yesterday, I drove thirty miles south to Kenosha, Wisconsin to have lunch with Matthew Cordell, an author and illustrator from Gurnee, Illinois, and a fellow contributor to this year's Robert's Snow: For Cancer's Cure, at a place just off Highway 94 called The Brat Stop. As you may or may not be aware, the frequency with which bratwurst is consumed in the upper Midwest is alarming, hence a restaurant named for the sausage, and this picture I took in a gas station parking lot last summer:



But I digress.

Matt and I had a great time talking shop (which I don't get to do nearly enough). You can check out some of his fantastic work here.

pencilchutes

night of the living great shroogly-dunk giveaway

I've been away. We'll get into it later. Or not.

At any rate, I'm back, and I want to give you two Shroogly-Dunks.

What are Shroogly-Dunks, you ask? Well, once upon an altered reality, they were known as Shrinky-Dinks. But there was...an incident, and now they've always been Shroogly-Dunks. It's a long story. All you really need to know is that they're little plastic chips with drawings on them.

In order to receive said Shroogly-Dunks, you must be the first person with a valid mailing address to send an e-mail, with the subject line "dink", to jeff@newmanpictures.com. You must not be someone who could describe my face to a police sketch artist without referring to a photograph, or someone who's won this contest before (thanks for the reminder, Kyle). If this turns out to be you, then two weeks after your email is received (longer if you reside outside the United States), an envelope will arrive at your residence. Whatever you do, do not open this envelope. The following day, another envelope will be delivered. That's the one carrying your Shroogly-Dunks. You'll know you've opened the wrong one if you explode.

Newmanpicturesblog is in no way affiliated with Shroogly-Dunks or K & B Innovations, Inc., and does not account for the aesthetic tastes of any potential entrant when crafting prizes.

vampire