Aaron Renier

I learned along with everyone yesterday that Maurice Sendak had died. I was blessed to be a member of the Sendak Fellowship, and to spend time with him these last few years. It feels so strange that I'll never see or talk to him again. 

One day I was sitting with him on the porch of a property he owned, trying to pour him tea through a tea strainer while he read the newspaper. He watched me pour water all over the saucer, and make a mess on the table. He huffed and exclaimed that I had no idea what I was doing. I admitted I had never poured through a tea strainer before, and he laughed and apologized after his tea was finally drinkable in his cup. 

We spent the rest of that morning trading parts of the paper, and complaining about the world. We watched the birds, and looked over the most amazing panoramic mountain view I've ever seen in my life. He told me as we marveled at the beauty, that he knew he'd never see that sight again. I was used to his talk about death, and assured him he would of course see these mountains again... but he didn't respond to me, he could barely look at me. He was tearing up, and his frustration was visible. I have no idea what that feels like, to knowingly look upon something beautiful for the last time. 

Most of the articles I've been reading today seem to be written by people who didn't know him. I feel they reduce him into quotes from his books, reduce him into the grumpy old man in the woods. I admit, I barely knew him. I was just getting to know him. But he blessed me with his time, and he did so with so many other young artists these last few years. Allowing me to come over to his house with my family and friends... welcoming them into his home happily, excited to meet them, excited to share his world with them. Sure he was old, and grumpy, but he was also excitable and electrifying. 

He left this world with new work still on his table, a book to be illustrated, thoughts about self publishing another. An artist should be so lucky... to leave with so much left to say. I feel more inspired by him now as an adult, than I ever did when I was a child reading him, and I know through the fellowship and his recent interviews, that I'm not alone. If you haven't seen them, his interviews by Terry Gross and Stephen Colbert and Bill Moyers will inspire. Thank you Maurice for opening up your world. You were loved, and you'll be missed.

So I was recently asked by Kaboom! Studios to do a short piece for the new Adventure Time comic book... based on Adventure Time... the cartoon on Cartoon Network. I started writing and doodling ideas as soon as I got the email. I was so excited... HONORED to be asked. Adventure Time is one of my all time favorite cartoons. EVER. I don’t know many people who would disagree themselves. Pen Ward and his team are pretty fantastic. All of the amazing characters! It is boundless in it’s ability to explore ideas... any ideas... piling weird on top of weird, and then chopping it in half to watch the weirdness ooze out. 

The inaugural issue of Adventure Time is out in comic shops today! Wednesday February 8th! Go pick up a copy from your local comic shop! I just got a box of them in the mail, and I really couldn't be happier with how the whole thing turned out. Ryan North's story with Shelli Paroline's art is SO good. It was like READING a secret Adventure Time episode. I can't wait for issue#2. 

And now that I have said that... phew! (Go buy it.) Here is a little more about my comic.

I was given 7 pages to work with... to focus on any side character... and told not to focus on Finn and Jake. So I picked Tree Trunks. I picked her because I have a fondness for elephants, and she’s so much fun to draw... like a toaster oven sized elephant with oven mitts for ears. This is what most of my rough drafts look like... really quick just trying to get the idea out:

When my story was finally approved I decided I wanted to do it in watercolor... because I wanted to get the bright colors I love about the show, but I also really wanted it to be clear that I wasn’t trying to mimic the art of the show. I wanted it to feel like my comic as well as a tribute to the program. 

I did the line art first, so I could keep my lines pure.

And then painted my watercolors on another sheet at my light table. I had to turn the overhead lights on once in a while to see what I was doing... but I very much painted them in the dark. 

If you want to read the reason I decided to do this, read on.

The reason I didn’t paint on the same paper is because of something called trapping. If you are an artist who works in print you know what I’m talking about... and if you’ve ever seen a color comic printed in a newspaper or a book and there are weird magenta or cyan or yellow shadow around the lines... that’s what I was trying to avoid. It has always confused me how other artists scan watercolors to print. To trap line art on a watercolor, to me is like recording music in mono, and then making it stereo. You just can’t do it. So maybe there was a way to do it that I just didn’t think of. The idea came to me after looking at a Richard Scarry book where they break down his process... and seeing that he painted on paper that didn’t contain the line art made SO much sense to me. So I wanted to try it.

I can say the process was a lot of fun... and when I finally put them into the computer, and laid the color on top of the lines... it was magical. Like watching a photo appear in a developer bath. 

ADVENTURE TIME!

I'm a cartoonist, but some of my published works are chapter books and picture books, so I also see myself as an illustrator, and lover of illustrated books. I strongly endorse this manifesto I signed and everything it says for the form of children's books, and every sentiment can be directly used on graphic novels for younger readers. I hope publishing companies all over the world have this framed on their wall someday, as a reminder of why we do this.

I've been volunteering at 826chi for a few years now, and I would have to say it is one of my top three favorite things about the entire city of Chicago. Everyone there is amazing, and the kids who go there are often times brilliant beyond reason.