MR. WILLEMS AND MR. WARBURTON AT THE ERIC CARLE MUSEUM

So remember when you said you were

planning on stopping by the

ERIC CARLE PICTURE BOOK MUSEUM

in Amherst, Massachusetts

one of these days?

Well, I've got the

PERFECT

day to do it:

September 23, 2017

That's when 

Mo Willems

and

I

will be there to promote

THIS:

I'm STILL not sure how 

Mo managed to promote

EVERYONE IN THE WORLD

(except me)

to co-author on the front cover.

But I at least got drawn as a pig

on the back cover:

Regardless,

we're gonna be at the museum

from 11:00-3:00

doing readings,

showing films,

hanging out with Elephant and Piggie,

and I'll even be doing a fun 

KND workshop with the kids:

I 

really

really

REALLY 

wanted to do a 

Muppet Babies

presentation.

But Disney PR 

feels it's a 

LITTLE

too early 

to show anything.

So we'll rock KND instead!

And it'll be a blast!

For a complete schedule of all the

Willems/Warburton

action,

head over

HERE!

Hope to see you there!

NOT TO BE A STICKLER...

I don't wanna seem like a 

know-it-all...

But a mistake like this:

... probably shouldn't be in 

a book called this:

Good eye on my nephew Max,

who showed me this at Christmas.

SOMETIMES BOOKS DIE

It's sad.

But some books die before they

even see the light of day.

A while back I showed you the

piece I did for the

Disney TV animation 

Disneyland art show;

a long, long line of all sorts of

 different people waiting in a long, long line.

I got a lot of great reactions to the piece,

and the more I thought about it, 

the more I liked the idea of an ever

 changing line of people.

Perhaps it might make a good idea

 for a picture book?

It was a bit unconventional of an idea.

There's no main character,

and the story is a bit freeform.

But I love,

(as do my children)

a book where you have to look for stuff.

So I started roughing out some ideas:

Eventually I settled on the idea of a  loooong, wiiiiide book

with two page spreads each depicting a different kind of line.

A line for a baseball game...

For ice cream...

A line for the bathroom...

A police line-up...

etc etc etc.

The end of each page would give a hint 

as to what the next line would be.

And there'd be word balloons 

with assorted items that would be 

"lost" within the pages that you could search for.

Since it was a bit of an unconventional idea,

I decided to actually draw out almost the first half of the book.

Check it out:

Here's the cover:

And these are the end papers:

The title page:

Alas,

nothing really happened with this pitch.

I still think it's an awesome idea, though.

How about you?

DEEP DARK FEARS ARE HERE

Remember when I told you all about

Fran Krause's

DEEP DARK FEARS?

And that one day there'd be a 

whole book of them?

Well, it's 

HERE!

And if you were lucky enough to go to

his book signing at 

SKYLIGHT BOOKS

last week,

you could have seen this

sign promoting his

book signing:

And you could have heard Fran talk about his 

(and your)

fears:

You could have seen a whole bunch of his sketchbooks:

And get in line to have him sign a copy of his book:

He would have even drawn you a picture:

And then you could go home and 

read all the awesome new

Deep Dark Fears:

But if you weren't there,

you can just order a copy

over here:

So it's not like you totally missed out.

SICK IN THE HEAD

I read a lot of books.

Recently I read this one because,

well...

JOHN SCALZI!!!

After that I read this series,

which was fun:

But while 

space colonization

and

sadistically evil fallen angels

are awesome,

I'm currently 

obsessed with 

THIS BOOK:

Now I always knew I kinda liked 

writer/director/producer Judd Apatow.

Of the eleventy billion films he's 

written and/or produced 

I've seen:

Bridesmaids

Superbad

Anchorman

The Forty Year Old Virgin

and

Knocked up.

And I absolutely 

LOVED

Trainwreck.

I also watched a couple episodes of

Freaks and Geeks,

which I loved.

I'm not sure why I never 

got around to finishing it.

So yeah,

 I like Mr. Apatow for the funny.

But this book has made me like him

for his unrelenting love of what he does.

Judd always had a passion for comedy.

So a long time ago he decided 

to interview his favorite comedians

 for the radio station he worked at.

Never mind that he was only 15 years old.

Ignore that the radio station

was in his high school.

And forget that most of the interviews 

never went on the radio anyway.

All these funny people expected 

someone from a real radio station.

But instead a kid from Long Island 

shows up with an enormous tape recorder.

To their credit,

everyone was awesome

and indulged young Judd:

Jerry Seinfeld

Garry Shandling

Martin Short

Sandra Bernhard

Steve Allen

Harry Anderson

Jay Leno

and more!

Judd did these interviews to meet his heroes

and find out what made them tick.

To get advice about comedy.

And just to bask in their funny.

And he was 15 years old.

As Mr. Apatow grew to become

a sizable figure in Hollywood comedy,

he continued to interview 

his equally sizable peers, 

his stars and his heroes:

Harold Ramis

Chris Rock

James L. Brooks

Key and Peele

Louis C.K.

Lena Dunham

Jon Stewart

Mel Brooks

Sarah Silverman

Stephen Colbert

Steve Martin

and lots more.

The book is a fascinating look into what drives people to comedy:

Broken families.

Trying to get girls.

Feeling like an outsider.

The ability to control what people are laughing at you about.

It's also a view into Mr. Apatow's thought process.

The best creative-types 

are those that have a pure passion for what they want to do

and they'll do anything to get it.

I mean, this was a guy that audio taped

Saturday Night Live and then transcribed it on paper afterwards

 to study how the whole show worked.

One of the reasons I love this book is because

I did a similar thing:

When I came to NYC in 1990,

I started an interview series for the

ASIFA-EAST newsletter about

animators and animation studios.

Just like Judd,

I wanted to meet the people that did

the stuff I wanted to do.

It was also a great way to get my foot in the door

and get to know people at the studios around town.

I actually ended up getting some jobs out of those contacts.

Anyway,

if you're looking for a wonderful

(and sometimes dark) 

look into the mind of great comedians,

go get

SICK IN THE HEAD.

PLATYPUS POLICE SQUAD

My kids forget.

So I have to remind them 

that I'm

awesome

ALL THE TIME!

Sometimes I remind the boys by

asking sooper pals like

sooper author

Jarrett J. Krosoczka

if he can sign a copy of his 

latest book

to them.

And because he's 

awesome

I got this in the mail:

You probably know 

Mr. Krosoczka

from this book:

And these books:

But now he's doing these:

 And now we've

got a signed edition:

It's filled with 

Jarrett's sooner fun

illustrations:

He even wrote the boys a 

special note on a special

postcard:

Thanks for reminding 'em,

Mr. Krosoczka!

Can't wait to read it!

You rock!