John Brown Show

The show about the creation of my book, John Brown: His Fight for Freedom, is now up at Subterranean Books, 6275 Delmar, in the U. City Loop. I've got a bunch of sketches, original drawings, a full color proof of the book as well as a display of my process for the cover design.

The show will be up through the end of September, but I'll be having an opening and book signing on September 10th, 2009 at 6pm.As usual, the front window is my favorite part- with a giant JB cover suspended behind an open Bible and bowie knife- slicing a lock and chain in two! I opted not to use the stage blood.

Harry Potter Exhibition!

I was in Chicago over the weekend, for the American Library Association Conference, talking with librarians about my John Brown book. Had a great time and met some amazing artists and writers. Just as great was the trip I took to see the Harry Potter exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry. I spent almost two hours in there, loving the chance to be around such amazing props, costumes and creatures.

Though no less than three guards gave me the stink eye and one asked rather loudly to no one in particular "Can he be drawing in here?" I managed to do a few drawings. When are you going to get a chance to draw Buckbeak and Kreacher from life?

Sketchbook Show at NYT

I've been invited to be in a show with some amazing people called SKETCHBOOK OBSESSIONS-

Sketchbooks from:
Peter Arkle, Karen Barbour, George Bates, Nicholas Blechman, Blex Bolex, Loren Capelli, Josh Cochran, Matt Dorfman, Sara Fanelli, Nicholas Gazin, Steven Guarnaccia, Eric Hanson, John Hendrix, Matthew Hollister, Emma Houlston, Erik T. Johnson, Nora Krug, Pascal Lemaitre, Jason Logan, Ted McGrath, Rick Meyerowitz, Chris Silas Neal, Kate O'Connor, Mike Perry, Leif Parsons, Alain Pilon, Emilano Ponzi, Jason Polan, Brian Rea, Edel Rodriguez, Jonathon Rosen, Leanne Shapton, Seth, Shoboshobo, Rachel Solomon, Tamara Shopsin, Ward Schumaker, Holly Stevenson, Jillian Tamaki, Mark Todd, Aude Van Ryn, Andrea Ventura, Henning Wagenbreth, Esther Pearl Watson, Jeremy Zilar

Thursday July 16, 2009, 7:00-9:00 PM
The New York Times, 620 8th Avenue, 7th FL

RSVP required to: galleryseven@nytimes.com

Someone in the NYC area go and take pictures for me!

It's All Too Much!

You may not know Peter Walsh by name, but I bet your recognize him as the guy on Oprah who counsels chronic pack-rats to get rid of all the junk in their lives. The kind of foul muck he finds under beds and in forgotten closets is astonishing.

I've spend the better part of the last month crashing a book project he wrote for kids about managing their physical space and belongings called "It's All Too Much!" (That there is a need for a book like this is, by itself, a reflection on the problem.) The assignment from Simon and Schuster was to create 93 black and white spot illustrations to go with this text, in four weeks! Wait, how many?

Working in black and white is a kind of rarity in the publishing world these days, outside of the Op-Ed pages and the Progressive. Those of you who Tivo Oprah, (read: andrea) let me know if you see it on the show anytime soon.