Aaron Renier

I just wanted to say thank you to my new friend Oprah Winfrey for putting Gerald Morris' book The Adventures of Sir Lancelot the Great on her kid's reading list. I don't know if she READ it... our g-chat got cut off... buuuut... even if she flipped through it, it'd be pretty rad that she looked at my illustrations. 

So I just wrapped up my first picture book called

It was written by Alice Schertle

Frame: Digby falls into water.

Narrative strip (use graphically): SPLASH!!

Frame: Digby underwater, putting on swim fins.

Narrative strip: Digby kept his head. Luckily…

Digby dialog balloon (thinking): I knew these would come in handy some day!

Frame: Digby swimming upward, 5 crocs on his heels.

Narrative strip: Digby, an excellent swimmer, kicked for the surface. Five crocodiles, even better swimmers, followed him up.

Frame: Digby swimming up, crocs passing him by.

Narrative strip: As luck would have it, the crocodiles had just eaten a small rowboat and weren’t hungry.

Dialog balloon, one croc: burp!

Frame: Anaconda, in water, wrapping itself around Digby.

Narrative strip: The anaconda, however, hadn’t eaten a thing.

So... Then after reading that I submitted my take on it like this. I tried omitting things that seemed redundant and just quickly concerning myself with layout and gestures:

My editor really liked the way it was going and let me go to pencils. It was then that I realized I could have a little more voice in this project if I introduced another character to the story, so I gave Digby a little frog that would follow him around. It's never mentioned in the type... but it's my little voice in the story.

I did change some sound effects that the author wrote... I'm not sure if it was necessary... but I wanted the book to finally come out looking like something I had worked on, so I made changes as I saw fit hoping the editor would see what I saw.

So, this is the pretty close to final version after I inked and Alec colored. The editor and author were both really happy with the final project.

The day after Alec and I finished Digby, Alec drove off to White River Junction. He's going to be the fellow alongside Chris Wright this year. He's going to be working on finishing his magnum opus BASEWOOD... and growing out his hair. He is going to be missed here in Brooklyn.

Tonight I'm going to see my amazing friend Alex Holden be on of the 88 drummers in the Boredom's 88 BoaDrum show. I really have no idea what to expect... but with all of these members of all of these amazing bands... well... I'm hoping it'll be amazing.

Speaking of amazing, my good friend Gabrielle Bell has been away to Tokyo and Paris for the premieres of the movie she made with the imaginative director Michel Gondry. It's one of three Short films in TOKYO! It's Gabrielle's comic from Kramer's Ergot, Cecil and Jordan, which has been transformed into the short film Interior Design. Watch the trailer HERE. AND check out the amazing 3d flash website based on Gabrielle's drawing HERE.

I'm so excited to see it when it plays in the United States.

I think that is it! Walker Bean! Onward HO!

So MoCCA Art Festival is this weekend... and I will try to get in and walk around and pretend I shouldn't be at home drawing. I'm looking forward to seeing everybody. Liz Prince and Nate Beaty will be crashing on my floor.

Craig recently put up a comic we started to do together... so I thought I should add a little bit to that. Here are some frames I like that he didn't post on his blog.

The reason it didn't work is that we are both working on our own projects... and what started out as a fun game, became a chore. I would love to do something with him when we live in the same city again. Somebody on his blog said our work goes together like peanut butter and chocolate... and that made me really happy. There was such a long time that I was so influenced by him, and compaired to him, that I feared I wouldn't continue on to find my own voice. I feel like I have, and when Walker Bean comes out other's will realize this as well... but I loved that I could still be complementary of him, since he is not only a very good friend, but one of my favorite artists.

On a last note, my comic book cover for Nickelodeon Magazine is out.... it's hidden inside the Indiana Jones issue... so if you get a chance take a look while you are grocery shopping.

I hope everyone is doing well! 

So my first book project since Spiral-Bound is out in stores. You can order it here at amazon. It's part of a series of books called The Knights Tales by Gerald Morris. There is at least one more to follow that I have already finished. I hope it does well, because that means I can continue drawing and getting better at drawing knights, and horses and hopefully dragons. My dream is that more and more of these types of projects can happen, and people will seek out my other work, and then eventually I can just be doing my own books. I'm very glad to be a part of this series though. The author is also from Wisconsin, and for some reason, I feel like it's this that makes our work fit together.

Almost 90% of my friends are in Portland Oregon for Stumptown comic fest. My biggest regret is not being there for the unveiling of BFF by my good friend Nate Beaty. I wish I was there, but I'm also glad to be home drawing my book for First Second. I just need to focus on my hermitdom. Here is a panel from the book that I really like.

It's a junk shop called The Armed Junk & Thrift in a town called Spit Head. You can see a slightly bigger version here. The owner's name is Taro Tung, and the characters entering are Shiv, his dog Perrogi, and Walker Bean. Huddled in the corner is a shadowy character known as Dr. Patches. These are not the real colors it will be printed in... I will leave that to the amazing Alec Longstreth.

And on a quick note... speaking of amazing people in my life, Nicole Joanne Georges has a new book of Invincible Summer out for sale. I had the privilege of hanging out with her for the last couple days, running around the Natural History Museum, and eating chocolate with hints of sesame and leather. Anyway, check it out here.

I hope everybody is having a great spring! The weather in New York is perfect for staying inside and drinking coffee... which I am drinking out of my new novelty mug that I think is depressing and hilarious at the same time.

This coming Saturday I will be drawing at Jim Hanley's with a bunch of really amazing cartoonists for kids. I'm going to be there earlier in the day with Sara Varon, and Geoffrey Hayes. The event promises to be an extravaganza of comics, cookies, and creativity... obviously I am going for the cookies, everything else is bonus. I'm really excited, if you are in the NY area and have children, please stop by!

Here's the lineup:

10-12: Sara Varon , Geoffrey Hayes, and me
12-2: Misako Rocks!, Kevin Pyle, and Fred Van Lente
2-4: Dave Roman, Raina Telgemeier, Frank Cammuso, and Jay Lynch
4-6: George O'Connor, and Nick Bertozzi 

I will also be up in the Bronx this Wednesday, in a program between the New York Comic Con, and the New York Public Library. It's a two hour program for children, the first hour I will be discussing my work, and how I write, and the second hour the kids will be making their own comics. So if you're a patron of the Westchester Square Library, I will see you there at 4.

I also just discovered that you can read part of my first book on google book search. Do they actually have somebody scan in all those drawings? I'm sorry, for whoever had to do that. That must have been a pain. I could have sent you jpegs.

Other than that, I'm just drawing the Unsinkable Walker Bean. It's going well, and has a new publisher. I'm now proudly working with Mark Seigel at First Second. So far it's a match made in heaven. I'm very excited to have this project back on the font burner.

More Soon.