I'M ALL A TWITTER AND A TUMBLR

ERMAHGERD!

I'm a little late to the party,

but now I'm on this:

(@misterwarburton)

And this:

(warburtonlabs.tumblr.com)

And those are great places 

to tell you about 

THIS:

 

DON'T LET THE PIGEON FINISH THIS ACTIVITY BOOK

has received a

STARRED REVIEW

at Publishers Weekly!

Willems and Codename: Kids Next Door creator Warburton allow readers to really get in touch with Pigeon, Duckling, and other beloved characters in a banter-filled activity book with a hilariously digressive narrative. On each perforated page, the Bus Driver provides instructions for each activity (which include drawing prompts, crafts, games, and more), while Pigeon—no surprise—gently pesters readers (“Now we’re done with this activity book, right?”).

Thanks, PW!

You can read the rest of 

their glowing review

 over

HERE!

And don't be shy 

to follow all things 

warburtonlabs

on both

Twitter

and 

Tumblr!

ASSORTED TABLE DOODLES

Not only can you write on the walls

at Knuffle Manor...

You can draw on the table, too!

You oughta get a roll of paper and 

draw on your table, too.

For reals.

THE CHALKBOARD WALLS OF KNUFFLE MANOR

It's not a visit to Mr. Willems' house without 

defacing the walls!

That's why he's got 

WALLS OF CHALKBOARD!

So when he and his wife decided to throw a party

whislt I was in town,

we all took to the walls:

This one here looks like a Willems:

Mine, I think:

The mighty Scott M. Fisher

Someone making fun of Scott:

Mo's daughter's room even has wall of chalkboard

that Rebecca Guay bombed:

Mr. Fisher struck again as well:

as did

 Hilary Price

(Rhymes With Orange)

Who doesn't love writing on walls?

DINING WITH DiTERLIZZI's

I'm fairly sure you know Tony DiTerlizzi.

He's this guy:

And this guy:

And he's married to this gal:

Angela wrote this:

So yeah. 

Them.

We were all hanging out during a party at Knuffle Manor

(Chateau du Willems)

and I used my Jedi powers to trick Tony and Angela into 

inviting us over to lunch the next day.

Or they used their powers to trick us into coming over

and eating delicious meatballs and sausage 

that Angela cooked up.

Either way...

It was 

DELICIOUS!

But what was even more delicious was 

getting to see Tony's studio:

He even let us rifle through his flat files

which were chock full of

ORIGINAL ART!

Pictures don't do the originals justice.

Seriously...

The detail.

The color.

The way he copies nature into his creatures.

And the clear-coat he uses on top make the paintings leap out at you.

I thought I liked the art in his books.

But the originals put 'em to shame.

Tony and Angela also have an unbelievable collection of original art.

Dr. Suess.

Mary Blair.

Brian Froud.

And a lot of props from the Spiderwick movie:

Tony was also kind enough to throw a couple books at me:

AND

I got a couple classic Magic The Gathering 

proof cards Tony painted.

But that's for another post.

Thanks for an unforgettable afternoon,

 Tony and Angela!

PERPETUAL MOTION PICTURES RETROSPECTIVE RECAP!

Remember when I told you I'd be moderating 

a panel at the ASIFA-EAST 

PERPETUAL MOTION PICTURES

retrospective?

Well, I did!

(would i lie to you?)

The event was held at the School Of Visual Arts' 

Beatrice Theatre on 23rd street:

We had a great turnout of folks 

who worked at PMP during it's 12 year tenure,

some flying in from across the country!

And the panel was top notch:

From right to left:

Russell Calabrese (assistant animator)

J.J. Sedelmaier (assistant animator)

Tommy Schlamme (producer/editor)

Candy Kugel (animation director)

Mordecai Gerstein (designer)

and some nerd with a microphone.

We showed a ton of films broken down into categories

that set the panel off on all kinds of great stories.

Here's a pic of my 'cheat sheet':

The great thing about having a great panel is that, 

as a moderator,

you don't have to do much but set things up.

Just give them a topic and off they went!

They were all funny, informative, and full of history.

There were a lot of fond memories of ,

Hal Silvermintz and Buzz Potamkin,

(the guys who founded the studio)

not to mention animator Vincent Cafarelli,

all of whom passed away in the last 6 months.

The night ended with a screening of

THE LAST TIME, 

a film Candy made in honor of Vince,

her business partner of many decades

and mentor to me and so many other kids 

who dreamed of becoming an animator.

What an honor to host an evening like this.

Thanks to ASIFA-EAST, SVA

and everyone who helped put the event together.

For a more eloquent recap

(and to see where I stole most of these pictures)

go to animator Michael Sporn's splog over

HERE!

PIGEON ACTIVITY BOOK EVENTS PAST

I just got back from a week on the East Coast 

doing sooooooo much awesome stuff

that it's gonna take multiple posts to 

fill you in!

It all started in Boston.

I got in around 6pm.

My luggage didn't.

Which kinda stunk since Mr. Willems 

and I had our first event promoting

DON'T LET THE PIGEON FINISH THIS ACTIVITY BOOK

at 11am the next morning.

Fortunately, my errant luggage turned up around 8am.

So I got dressed, had breakfast with Mo and former 

KND storyboard operative/Bostonian Jesse Schmal,

and then headed over to the Cambridge Public Library.

Twas a good crowd:

Mo got up to read (and dance) his latest Elephant and Piggie book:

LET'S GO FOR A DRIVE!

Then we did a photo shoot together:

Afterwards, we had everyone make Pigeon and Mad Cow finger puppets

and then performed a puppet show together.

 I smell a Tony Award.

Or maybe Mo forgot to wear deodorant.

Finally, we sat down to sign books for the 

fine folks who came to the show.

There were even copies of

1000 TIMES NO on hand!

Some people even bought one!

The next day,

our plush, richly furnished tour bus

(Mo's car)

took us to The Odyssey Bookshop in

South Hadley, MA.

They had copies of 1000 TIMES NO, too!

It was a smaller, but just as fun crowd:

Mo danced.

We had a photo shoot.

We made puppets.

We had FUN!

Massachusetts?

Consider yourself 

ROCKED!