Moose Kiss

Happy Birthday, Dad!

My father celebrates a big birthday today, June 2oth. I'll take this minute to honor it the best way I know how, with an image of him the way I remember him, growing up. This is my dad circa 1978, the year I was born. A few things have changed since then ... the big glasses have made way for contacts, that rockin' 70's mustache shaved, the fro a distant memory.

But the important stuff never changed: This is a guy younger at heart than most of the people I know. His love of the music he grew up with is so much a part of his life that he can't help but share it with me, and I've been introduced to more great music through him than I can recall. He wears his heart on his sleeve. The advice he's given me, whatever the topic, sticks. I'm glad it does because it's good. I have a lot of pride in the relationship I have with him.

Happy Birthday, Dad. 60 ain't nuttin'.

Wild Thang

I recently found Terrible Yellow Eyes, a collection of works inspired by the beloved classic, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. It's my hope to submit an illustration to Cory Godbey, the sites' administrator in hopes of joining the gallery. Here's the first half of the sketch so far, and I'll be posting the finished product soon.

Springtime!

Here's the finished image. Why a big hairy brute daintily admiring a flower? No idea. Nothing prompted it it whatsoever. Nothing. Nope, not a thi- ... okay fine, I'm shamelessly trying to get into Toon Club's weekly topic based cartooning/sketch club. Their topics are great and it's a great reason to draw.

Hope everybody had a great holiday weekend.

Springtime Progression

Here's a little sample of the process I used to create an image of a hulking terror stopping to smell the flowers.

Swordfish

On their way to Cape Cod. Apparently they need a map.

Bass

The road-tripping Bass from "The Cods of Cape Cod"

Latest Shirt Designs

Here are this weeks new shirt designs!
http://www.cafepress.com/swellbot

Be sure to check out the "kids" shop as well!

The Cods Have Arrived!

Available where fine fish are sold!

Eden Wild Reading Room Visit

C.H.I.L.D., Inc., a Verona non-profit organization, will be sponsoring my visit to the Eden Wild Outdoor Reading Room located in the children’s garden in Verona Park on Sunday, May 31, 2009 from 2-4 p.m.

The first 15 children to arrive will receive a free autographed book from Ed Shankman and I. Ed will be reading to the children from “I Met a Moose in Maine One Day” and “The Boston Balloonies” and I'll be drawing with the kids in the garden.

In the event of rain, the event will be held indoors at the Verona Park Boathouse. Watchung Booksellers from Montclair will be on hand to sell additional books.

New shirt designs

Here are this weeks new shirt designs!
http://www.cafepress.com/swellbot

T-shirt featured on cafepress.com!

Well, I was going to wait until the shop was stocked with more designs, but it looks like the fine folks over at Cafepress.com love one of designs so much, they placed it on their homepage under "hot new designs!" Woo hoo!

So which design is it? Why, "I believe in uni-corns" of course!

That said, I'm happy to announce the opening of "SWELL-BOT INDUSTRIES", my very own merch shop on cafepress. Check it out here: www.cafepress.com/swellbot

Well, well, well ... Wookie here.

Here's an image from a set that I'm developing for a merchandise shop on CafePress.com. I figured I'd post it here since it was pulled down because of "copyright laws" or something. hahahaha ... Hey, I tried.



I'll post the shop logo and link in a about a week when it's done.

Paper Toy

With inspiration from the extraordinary Matt Hawkins over at Custom Paper Toys, I've tried my hand at a home made paper toy of Moose. Check out Matt's stuff and try your hand at some of his free downloads like "Build Obama". Really great stuff.

The Cods Cover

Here's an image of what the next book cover will look like. Only thing that might change is the title treatment, but that's up to the book designer.

Here come the Cods!

Something fishy.

Now that "The Cods of Cape Cod" is wrapping up (just finishing up the cover now) I thought I'd post some old doodles and color tests I found in the dusty corners of ye olde PCe. Yea, aging computers get the old-timey "e" as they slow down. It's just part of growing up and getting olde.

Anyway, here's a shark that actually doesn't appear in the book at all, and a fish that I think I drew so that I could try my hand at sand.

"Boston Balloonies arrived in Holland"

When we met Greet and Ineke from Amsterdam during our Blackstone's visit in Boston, they promised to write us and send along a photo. Wel, they did! The Balloonies have found a happy home in Holland as a memory of their trip to America. Happy to be part of that, Greet and Ineke.

Below is the message we recieved:

"Dear David and Ed,

The Boston Balloonies did arrive in Holland safely! We enjoyed reading it and it will be a nice rememberance to a wonderful visit. We had a great time. Not only in Boston but also in the whole of New England. We made this tour heading north to Portland, west to Lincoln and Stowe and south to Springfield and Cape Cod. How lovely this area is, we wish we could have stayed longer.

We hope the book signing worked out well. We wish you all the success of the world.

Kind regards,

Greet and Ineke
Amsterdam, Holland

Boston wrap-up!

With a successful and extremely enjoyable Boston Balloony book-tour weekend behind us, I'm sending thanks to our amazing new friends at Blackstone's on Beacon Hill, The Old North Church Gift Shop, and the Bostonian Society for being such great hosts to Ed and I.

At Blackstone's, a portion of the proceeds went to the Max Warburg Courage Curriculum. (Click here to donate) Representatives from the Max Warburg Courage Curriculum were on hand to answer questions and supply us with cookies.

Perfect fall weather, hot coffee, welcoming hosts and an invigorating buzz around the success of Balloonies ... a solid trip!

In a store window near you

The marketing goes on ...

And if you're in Montclair on October 18th ...

Come on out to one of this area's greatest book stores, Watchung Booksellers, and join Ed and I for a read and a friendly sign'n.

If you're in Boston on October 4th ...

... stop by Blackstone's at Beacon Hill! Ed and I will be there reading and signing "Balloonies." We may or may not also teach you how to fly. Fingers crossed for good weather!

The Lost Balloony?

This image was apparently taken outside of Boston's well-known giftshop "Blackstone's" on Beacon Hill. Balloonies have been seen around the area quite a bit lately. The question is ... why? hmmmm ...

Doodles From the Dark Times 4

Hear that Bowser? Those little jerks aren't going to take it anymore.

Doodles From the Dark Times 3

"Excuse me ... my uh ... my chain is uhm ... ah never mind."

Doodles From the Dark Times 2

Tiny hat.

Doodles From the Dark Times

Balloony Sighting

If you are a reader who has befriended the Balloonies on Myspace, you've probably seen this image, but for everyone else, check it out! A Boston resident sent this image taken on what he decribes as a Balloony-sighting-photo-safari.

"We figured we'd go out to Boston Common to see if we could see any Balloonies live and in action, and to our surprise we did! But they were so fast and bouncy, this was the only picture we could snap."

Good luck folks ... those guys are HARD to photograph, trust me.

Local article

I woke up yesterday to a swell article on Baristanet.com, a local website serving Montclair, Bloomfield, Glenridge and Verona. They give our books a great review.

http://www.baristanet.com/2008/07/youll_want_to_meet_this_moose.php

Moose Sighting

The Boston Balloonies on Myspace

The Boston Balloonies can now be found on Myspace.
Don't look at me. They did it.

Be floating, flying friends with the buoyant Balloonies at http://www.myspace.com/bostonballoonies

Update: Looks like everybody is getting in on it.

Befriend a Moose on Myspace today.

http://www.myspace.com/imetamooseinmaineoneday

THANK YOU!

We sign things. Books, too.



More signing ...



REAL moose cake. Many thanks to Stacy Duffy of South Portland for creating this wonderful little piece of awesomeness.

Is that not the coolest thing you've ever seen?

Toby Lightman sings about us.

(disclaimer: Toby Lightman did not really sing about us)


A big BIG thanks to everyone who came out to Freeport's L.L.Bean today to visit Ed and I for our launch of "Moose!" The day was a HUGE success, and we have no one to thank but you!

Also, we'll be starting up Ed's author blog this week, so stop by again to get the link.

Thanks again, Freeport. It's been an amazing experience!

Chocolate Moose Cake

Mmmm ...

It's a good day in bookville.

They're here! Two big boxes arrived today. What does that mean for you? If you ordered from Commonwealtheditions.com, you will get them very soon! If you ordered from Amazon.com, no worries, you should start seeing them in your homes by the first week of July!

L.L. Cool Beans!

Here's the ad for the big launch weekend.
Click to biggify.

Remember your childhood sticker books?

I wish I still had mine. I'm sure there were pages dedicated strictly to He-Man, and pages set aside for the rare "scratch and sniff" leaving your book smelling like some bizarre mix of fruit, glue and Smurfs (Smurfs, I'm guessing, smell like candy and shitaki mushrooms.) I'm positive that back then my favorites were on the pages overrun with Thundercats, Super Mario and those fat bubbly stickers that made your book thrice the thickness. Today, however, I think my favorites would be these little babies created by the events team over at L.L. Bean. Rumor has it they will be part of a goody bag for the kids who attend the "I Met a Moose in Maine One Day" book signing on July 5th in Freeport. If they were scratch and sniff, they would smell like fun I bet.

Big 'ol Book Cover Friday

The cover to our second book, "I Met a Moose in Maine One Day" has appeared online for the first time on the publisher's website. While the place holder exists on Amazon and a hand full of other online retailers, this image should soon post there as well.

One fish, two fish, cool fish, bioluminescent Fish

The third book I'm working on keeps me in the "life aquatic" so I thought I'd share some of the background characters.

"Draw Yourself as a Teen"

"Drawn" posted a challenge today hosted by someone on LiveJournal, so I thought I'd join in. The task was to "draw your teenage self."

Pretty scary stuff. The Warner Brothers Studio Store pretty made bank on my coin alone. As the illustration shows, I didn't date much. Anyway, here's what I added.

"Hey Chief. I'm being printed."

As exclaimed by a moose on a napkin.