He heard the voices of two men talking over the sound of water running in the sink.
Posted by: Phil McAndrew
Book: From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (purchase on Amazon
Jamie stood on the toilet seat waiting. He leaned his head against the wall of the booth and braced himself for what would happen next. The guard would come in and make a quick check of his station. Jamie still felt a ping during that short inspection; that was the only part that still wasn’t quite routine, and that’s why he braced himself. Then the lights would be turned out. Jamie would wait twelve minutes (lag time, Claudia called it) and emerge from hiding.
Except.
Except the guard didn’t come, and Jamie couldn’t relax until after he felt that final ping. And the lights stayed on, stayed on. Jamie checked his watch ten times within five minutes; he shook his arm and held the watch up to his ear. It was ticking slower than his heart and much more softly. What was wrong? They had caught Claudia! Now they would look for him! He’d pretend he didn’t speak English. He wouldn’t answer any questions.
Jamie and Claudia hide in the museum bathrooms every night when the guards are closing up the museum for the night. On this particular night, something was awry! Eventually two guards come into the very bathroom Jamie is hiding in…
He heard the voices of two men talking over the sound of water running in the sink.
“Yeah. Two feet of marble. What do you figure it weighs?”
“I dunno. Whatever it weighs, it has to be handled delicate. Like it was a real angel.”
“C’mon. They probably have the new pedestal ready. We can start.”
They were moving Angel. The angel statue that was possibly the work of Michelangelo! The angel statue that Jamie and Claudia had become obsessed with!
Later Jamie and Claudia manage to examine the angel statue’s former pedestal. Upon close inspection, they make a discovery! A discovery that they decide to anonymously tell the museum about via a letter that they type up on a typewriter outside of a typewriter store on Fifth Avenue.
1 comment August 26, 2010
Short Reports: Marika McCoola vs. Matilda.
Hello! Israel’s informed me he’s a little behind on his newest piece for Where the Red Fern Grows, so today we’ll drop in with another Short Report, this time visiting another well-loved Roald Dahl book with Marika McCoola. Enjoy!
I love the dark quirkiness of Dahl’s stories. His characters are at once ridiculous and so detailed that they must actually exist. Last year I worked on a series of illustrations for Edward Lear’s limericks, which share a strange sensibility with Dahl’s work. I enjoyed working with Lear’s texts and found myself thinking about Dahl as I worked. Wanting to work with a longer piece than one of Dahl’s poems, and fondly remembering Matilda, I decided to pick it up again. The dark, very British humor and ridiculous events tend to make me grin with glee and I can’t help but love characters who are enamored of books….
Chapter 1: The Reader of Books
‘Did you know,’ Mrs Phelps said, ‘that public libraries like this allow you to borrow books and take them home?’‘I didn’t know that,’ Matilda said. ‘Could I do it?’
‘Of course,’ Mrs Phelps said. ‘When you have chosen the book you want, bring it to me so I can make a note of it and it’s yours for two weeks. You can take more than one if you wish.’
Chapter 2: The Ghost
‘I’m fed up with your reading anyway. Go and find yourself something useful to do.’ With frightening suddenness he [Mr Wormwood] now began ripping the pages out of the book in handfuls and throwing them in the waste-paper basket.Matilda froze in horror. The father kept going. There seemed little doubt that the man felt some kind of jealousy. How dare she, he seemed to be saying with each rip of a page, how dare she enjoy reading books when he couldn’t? How dare she?
‘That’s a library book! Matilda cried. ‘It doesn’t belong to me! I have to return it to Mrs. Phelps!’
There are many books in this world I do not agree with and hope no one ever reads, but the idea of directing violence toward a book is unthinkable, as it rends not just thoughts, but, in the case of fiction, entire worlds. Though we as readers already dislike Mr. Wormwood, this scene establishes Matilda’s father as a truly horrid man and enables us to laugh at him later when Matilda exacts her devious revenge.
Marika McCoola holds a BFA in illustration from the Maryland Institute College of Art and currently manages the children’s section of the Odyssey Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley (a magical place where authors and illustrators seem to grow on trees). She once hoped to limit her book collection but finds that every time she turns around the stacks have multiplied. Marika will begin her MFA in writing and illustrating for children at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in the fall. You can see more of Marika’s work on her website, www.marikamccoola.com, and her blog, http://mmccoola.blogspot.com, and read her book reviews on http://readingofquality.blogspot.com.
3 comments August 24, 2010
“Red Fern” Sketch
I’m sorry everyone, but I just wasn’t able to get an illustration done this time. I’ll be back next month to pick up where I left off with the story, Billy recovers from Rubin’s death and the dogs are entered into the biggest hunting contest in the state. See you then!
4 comments August 24, 2010
You are tearing me apart Vera!
“I hate Mrs. Harding, Mack; why don’t you call me Vera?”
The drawing above is based on a very short scene from the book. Dale Harding’s wife, Vera, visits the ward. While the patients are spending some time in the hospital’s library, all heads turn as Vera enters the room and blows a kiss to one of the orderlies. Harding invites McMurphy over to meet her. As Harding tells his wife about McMurphy, he gets very excited, starts to flail his hands around in a very flamboyant way. Vera and McMurphy are watching his hands when he quickly realizes what he is doing and quickly hides them between his legs. Vera asks for a cigarette and when Harding doesn’t have one to give, she begins to belittle him. She comments, “Oh Dale, you never do have enough, do you?”
She eventually gets one from McMurphy and continues to insinuate how Dale is a homosexual. She leaves and Harding asks McMurphy for an analysis of his wife. McMurphy, fed up with how Vera treated Harding, flips out and demands for everyone to leave him alone. He yells, “I’ve got worries of my own without getting hooked with yours [...] Alla you! Quit bugging me, goddammit!“
He later apologizes for yelling at everyone and explains that he’s having a bad week.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy!
Posted by: PMurphy
Book: One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (purchase on Amazon)
Add comment August 20, 2010
The Neverending Story, part IV
Last time we saw him Atreyu was on his way to see the Southern Oracle to find out if she knows the cure for the Childlike Empress. She tells him, after he passes through the magic gates and comes face to face with Bastian in the mirror gate, that only a child from the real world can cure the Empress by giving her a new name, and thus restoring Fantasia.
When Atreyu returns from his visit with her, a visit that is cut short when the nothing swallows the temple Uyulala resides and silences her voice that was also her entire corporeal body, he sets out with Falcor to find the border of Fantasia and beyond it: the real world.
Finally here’s Falcor the luck dragon, he’s probably the most iconic character from the book and the films. Though why they decided he had to look like that in the films I’ll never understand.
This drawing was sort of inevitable therefore, one can’t not decide to draw the Neverending Story and not have Atreyu riding Falcor. Not quite sure if this is exactly what it should have been, but here you go!
7 comments August 18, 2010
The crest of Lord Greystoke
Book: Tarzan of the Apes
Posted by: Andrea Kalfas
Picking it up to examine it, Clayton gave a cry of astonishment, for the ring bore the crest of the house of Greystoke.
As they were preparing the skeleton of the man for burial, Cayton discovered a massive ring which had evidently encircled the man’s finger at the time of his death, for one of the slender bones of the hand still lay within the golden bauble.
After, they’re marooned on Tarzan’s beach, Jane Porter and William Cecil Clayton (who happens to be Tarzan’s cousin), discover how the late Greystokes, Tarzan’s parents, met their end.
“…here,” he replied gravely, “is the great ring of the house of Greystoke which has been lost since my uncle, John Clayton, the former Lord Greystoke, disappeared, presumably lost at sea”
“But how do you account for these things being here in this savage African jungle?” exclaimed the girl.
“There is but one way to account for it, Miss Porter,” said Clayton. “The late Lord Greystoke was not drowned. He died here in this cabin and this poor thing upon the floor is all that is mortal of him.”
There’s no description in any of the Tarzan books of the crest of Greystoke so…..I made it up! Hope it looks acceptable!
2 comments August 17, 2010
Here Comes Charlie
Book: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Posted by: John Martz
I’m away from home so much this month, it’s another quickie from me this time. But, it’s one that allows me to introduce my next series of illustrations.
Having exhausted all I wanted to do with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I’m moving on to another favourite childhood book: Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
So here is its bookplate.
And Grandpa Joe said, “You mean to say I’ve never told you about Mr. Willy Wonka and his factory?”
“Never,” answered little Charlie.
“Good heavens above! I don’t know what’s the matter with me!”
It’s not much, but hopefully it whets your appetite for when I dive head-first into the book.
6 comments August 13, 2010
Short Reports: Rodrigo Avilés vs. One Hundred Years of Solitude
Sorry for the silence, folks! Here is a Short Report coming all the way from Chile– meet Rodrigo Avilés, and then scope out his lovely portfolio and blog. He has chosen the classic novel by Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude.
(click to enlarge)
They were new gypsies, young men and women who knew only their own language, handsome specimens with oily skins and intelligent hands, whose dances and music sowed a panic of uproarious joy through the streets, with parrots painted all colors reciting Italian arias, and a hen who laid a hundred golden eggs to the sound of a tambourine, and a trained monkey who read minds, and the multi-use machine that could be used at the same time to sew on buttons and reduce fevers, and the apparatus to make a person forget his bad memories, and a poultice to lose time, and a thousand more inventions so ingenious and unusual that José Arcadio Buendía must have wanted to invent a memory machine so that he could remember them all. In an instant they transformed the village. The inhabitants of Macondo found themselves lost in their own streets, confused by the crowded fair.
This scene is when José Arcadio Buendía, the founder of Macondo, tries to see his friend Melquiades the gypsy again. Gypsies had always visited Macondo and introduced the population to many wonders; this time José Arcadio and his sons discover the existence of Ice, considered by him as “the great invention of our time.”
I chose One Hundred Years of Solitude because it is a story that reflects the human condition very well, through the story of the village of Macondo and the genealogy of the Buendia family (through its miracles, obsessions, tragedies, adulteries and discoveries). The book has the essence of old oral narrative: unbelievable things are told as something mundane or real at the time, in an aesthetic known as “magic realism”. They are great characters, and the story can be interpreted as a metaphor of the South American history.
I’m Rodrigo Avilés, an illustrator and comic artist from the small city of Melipilla, Chile. I’ve worked coloring comics for various publications here in my country, but I also color some graphic novels for Image Comics. I want to start working on my own comics too! Aside from comics, I like editorial, children and fantasy illustration. For this illustration I did the drawing on paper, inked it on Manga Studio and colored in Photoshop. I usually experiment with styles and jump between traditional and digital media.
5 comments August 12, 2010
Advice from a Caterpillar.
Posted by: Meg Hunt
Book: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (purchase on Amazon)
(click to enlarge)
The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.
Who are YOU? said the Caterpillar.
This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation.
So apologies for the out of order posting–this illustration directly precedes last month’s. I’m a little behind schedule but more Alice is always a good thing!
In tackling the scene with the caterpillar, it was very hard not to fall on established imagery for the Caterpillar. (Indeed, I drew a lot of sketches of caterpillars and it took quite a while to come up with its look. The first time I tried including it in the project , which you can sort of see at the lower left here, I made it a little too close in relation to the original Tenniel illustration. Not to mention the scene– Disney of course did a delightful thing with the smoke as letters imagery, and it was tempting to revisit that idea but I decided to nix it in the end. And of course every illustration with the Caterpillar illustrates Alice on her tiptoes peeking up at it, so maybe I’m being a little less traditional here. But I always find this scene kind of interesting, as Alice tries again to make sense of her surroundings and gets very flabbergasted in the process. Even well known rhymes tumble out wrong, perhaps from Wonderland or even perhaps from the smoke. The Caterpillar is a haughty, opinionated creature, and I liked the idea of Alice trying to keep her head afloat both in the conversation and quite literally in the plumes of smoke it spins about her.
But for all its annoyed tone, I don’t really find the Caterpillar to be mean; I don’t think it really cares all that much about her as an entity. In the beginning, it is not unlike the smoke from its hookah– slow, eloquent but a bit rude all the same. But of course where there’s smoke there’s fire, and Alice eventually sets the Caterpillar off by insulting their mutual height of merely three inches.
Next month we’ll be getting back into full color (don’t worry, there will be more illustrations in this palette soon too) and experiencing the after-effects of Alice’s nibbling upon the mushroom. Three inches no longer, but she still manages to ruffle a few feathers in the process! Thanks as always for spending time in Wonderland with us and do check back throughout the week for more scenes from our lovely contributors!
3 comments August 9, 2010
Short Reports: Corey Thompson vs. Egg Monsters from Mars
Last post this week is from Corey Thompson, be sure to check out his portfolio too. Monday starts the serialized contributions again, so keep your eyes peeled!
“The yellow blob throbbed. It made sick, wet sucking sounds.
It turned slowly. And I saw round black eyes on top of the lumpy yellow body.”
This scene takes place just after the egg monster from Mars hatches. It is morning time and Dana wakes up to find his egg hatching in his sock drawer.
I didn’t read much as a kid, but I owned a ton of Goosebumps books mainly because of the rad cover art by Tim Jacobus. Anyways when picking a book I narrowed it down to three books, and Goosebumps stood out the most. I picked Egg Monsters From Mars, because it was one of the first Goosebumps books I owned and one of the few I read.
I’m Corey Thompson, a freelance maker of things, anything from a one page zine to an identity for an apparel designer. Some clients include: Grenade, YouWorkForThem, HP, and LiveNow. I also post daily doodles on my personal site. Other things I dig: the Trail Blazers, warm weather, X-Files, and Stargate SG-1.
1 comment August 6, 2010
