THE DEVIL YOU KNOW the Movie

I haven't blogged about this before, but movie rights for my first picture book, THE DEVIL YOU KNOW were optioned back in 2007 by Fox, with Shawn Levy, director of NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM in the producer's seat. It was all very exciting. Shawn Levy even called me to say congratulations. Wild huh?

Well, the option was renewed last week. And yesterday I found out a little more about the script from a New York Magazine "Culture" interview (see the whole article here.) The interview is with Thomas Lennon, one of the script writers, (and one of my all time favorite comedians, remember MTV's "The State?" My family has a worn VHS tape recorded back in the mid-90's which we know ALL the lines to. Monkey Torture, Porcupine Racetrack--even Froggy Jamboree, the skit so bad it had to be placed under the credits--we LOVE you Thomas! We want YOU to play the role of the little devil!) anyway, as the script writer, he says:

"The Devil You Know is based on a children’s book by Nathan Hale, about an American family that buys this house in Galway and it’s got this horrifying little goblin that lives in it. They hire this Irish nanny, a kind of fairy godmother, and it turns out she’s much much worse than the goblin — hence the title."

This is my first peek into how they are approaching the story (sounds fun!) I wish I could be a fly on the wall and hear all the screenwriting ideas. I'm always interested to see what movie studios do to turn a 32 page picture book into a full length movie. The Ireland angle is something I didn't expect, but it makes sense. I'll let you know if I find any more news.

Gurney Journey

Sorry for the delay--I haven't posted in some time. I've been catching up on all the work I let pile up while I was finishing CALAMITY JACK. (also I went to Disneyland.)

I wish I were a better blogger. My blogging hero is James Gurney, the great illustrator/author of the DINOTOPIA books. His blog is called Gurney Journey and he posts on it nearly every day. The posts are always interesting tips and facts about academic painting. Honestly, I have no idea how he gets anything else done, his blog could be a full time job--that's how good it is.

RAPUNZEL is Nom-nom-nominated for an EISNER!

Big news everyone, RAPUNZEL'S REVENGE just got nominated for an EISNER Award!

Eisner Award modeled here by 2006 Winner OWLY--if you haven't checked out OWLY and you have very young readers, go to Amazon NOW and buy it. Adorable!

For those of you new to comics, the Eisners are "The Oscars of Comics." It's a giant honor, voted on by pros from the comics industry. Rapunzel is nominated in the "Best Publication For Teens/Tweens" category. Look at the fantastic company we're in:

Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, adapted by P. Craig Russell (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Crogan's Vengeance, by Chris Schweizer (Oni)

The Good Neighbors, Book 1: Kin, by Holly Black and Ted Naifeh (Scholastic Graphix)

Rapunzel's Revenge, by Shannon and Dean Hale and Nathan Hale (Bloomsbury Children's Books)

Skim, by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

The awards will be announced in July at Comic-Con--so you guessed it, we're going to Comic-Con! I'll make sure to shoot a lot of photos for the blog. Great news! And  to the nomination committee and Eisner Judges, THANK YOU!

CALAMITY Covers

I'm now painting the cover for Calamity Jack. It should be finished tomorrow, and while I can't show you what the final cover will look like, I can show you some cover concepts that weren't chosen.

These are all quick color sketches. This is the only one that actually had the title sketched in.

The theme is fairly similar, Jack, Rapunzel, a guy with goggles and a flying green dress in a snowy, crumbling city-scape.

This pose is really goofy, but I like the perspective on the buildings below.

This one's a little different, just showing Jack and a random dwarf character on some kind of train-track contraption.

What do you think? Any favorites?

Ghost Mysteries

A few months ago I did a bunch of spooky illustrations for a book called Ghost Mysteries: Unraveling the World's Most Mysterious Hauntings. To my surprise, it's now listed on Amazon, although it doesn't come out until August. It usually takes a lot longer for a book to appear--Jack probably won't pop up for months and months.

When I do illustrations for non-fiction books, I get really caught up in the research. This book had so many interesting stories, I may have spent as much time reading articles online as I did drawing the pictures. 

Here's a sample.

The Gift of Slime

Soon after I finished Rapunzel's Revenge, I got a package in the mail. It was from the Rapunzel authors, Shannon and Dean Hale. They sent me a nice big Amazon box full of graphic novels. They sent RUNAWAYS, Joss Whedon's X-men, and Volume 1 of INVINCIBLE (geez I wish I could draw action as clean and sharp as Cory Walker on INVINCIBLE--wow!) I looked at those drawings a lot while I worked on book 2.

So I finished Calamity Jack this week, and yesterday I got another Amazon box. No comics this time. This time, I got a slime gun.

Modeled here by my son Ulysses.

...and my daughter Lucy.

Here's me looking amused. "This will be delightful."

"It shoots WHAT?"

"Kids, don't point that at me. Hey, I mean it---splaaat!" 

Fire one Uly!

Drip. Fire two Lucy. Drip.

Dean, Shannon, I don't know how to thank you (as Kermit the Frog would say, "I don't know why to thank you.") But I'm bringing the slime gun to our next meeting. I won't point it at you, I'll let your son Max do that. Bring goggles.

CALAMITY JACK--Sneak Preview of the ENTIRE book!!

Would you like to see the ENTIRE manuscript of CALAMITY JACK? Right now? The drawings, the full color files--the WHOLE thing, months and months before it even comes out? Well, here's your chance! Get ready to see THE ENTIRE BOOK!

This is the most exciting internet leak since the Stephanie Meyer scandal, or the photos of the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom LEGO set (Coming next Fall!) 

You have to see this before the police or the publishers make me take it down! I mean, it's the COMPLETE book!

Get ready...

Here it is....

The whole book! 

Taa-daa! All 144 drawn pages, and the hard drive with the complete color files!

CALAMITY JACK is finished!

CALAMITY JACK, the sequel to RAPUNZEL'S REVENGE, is now finished! (Well, except for the cover.) The entire book is now in the publisher's hands. I can't wait to see some printed pages. Let the wait for printing begin.

I'd like to thank Mindy for being a great letterer and color mapper--she worked very hard, right up to the end on this book, while juggling the house, the kids, the huge dog, and the cranky illustrator in the basement (me.) She deserves a vacation/prize package/giant novelty check for $700,000.00 . Love ya Min!

Special thanks to the other 'mappers, Lindsay, Layna, Lauren and Yodit--they did months of labor intensive work--and did a fantastic job. Patrick, a freelance designer in New York, who Bloomsbury has working hard on the design aspects of the book, as well as the "BOOM!, WHAAM!, CRUNCH!" sound effects. The hardworking folks at Bloomsbury. And, of course, Shannon and Dean for writing a great story.

It's in the can! Wahoooooooo!