Aaron Renier Blog

PROCLAMATION!

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:00:00 PST

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.

ANYWHERE AT ONCE

Thu, 19 May 2011 00:00:00 PST

For immediate release!

If you live in Chicago and want to attend an amazing book release, go to the Chase Auditorium this Sunday the 22nd of May at 1 pm.

Anywhere at Once is a novel written by 106 2nd through 8th grade students, in 25 classes in 12 schools throughout the great city of Chicago. It's an epic story that recounts the fantastic adventures of Sam, Ophelia, and a certain learned lizard, Professor Stephen Scalious. And it was illustrated by Ms. Laura Park and myself.

Here is the cover, and a short story of how Laura and I came to be involved:

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.

About two months ago I was asked if I could illustrate a crazy story that was written by 106 second to eighth grade students. One long story, written by 106 students. Wow. They wanted me to do ten interior illustrations and the cover. The whole book was due in a little over a week. I said yes. How could I say no to something so bonkers?

I sat down the next day and started to read the massive 200-something page manuscript and quickly realized that there would be no logical way to illustrate the book with only ten images. Each student tilted the story on it's ear, and deserved to be showcased as much as the last. The book needed over a hundred illustrations.

I met with the editor and told her. She agreed that it made more sense, but that it still needed to be done in the same amount of time. I pictured myself drawing that many images in a week, and I really thought I could do it.

After the first day, finishing 17 drawings, I realized I never could do it. On top of that I was packing up my apartment, and leaving Chicago for the summer. Over 80 illustrations to go, and I had to pack up my place. I was in a panic.

My downstairs neighbor called and asked how everything was going, and I told her I was in it thick, and couldn't even tell her what I talked myself into doing for 826. Somehow she got it out of me. I thought she was going to laugh, and tell me good luck. But to my good fortune my downstairs neighbor asked if she could help, and also to my good fortune my downstairs neighbor was the magical Laura Park.

So together we sat down, and over two crazy days illustrated the whole book.

It was one of those projects where you are so tired that you see stars, and the stars start to talk to you.

But when it was over, not only were we happy to finish, but we were so excited that all of the students would have had a fitting image for their amazing part of the tale. We were also both really happy that we finally had finished a collaborative project before we both left living in the same building. It was a great farewell to 1216 Rockwell.

If you are in Chicago and want to get the book, I highly recommend heading over to 826chi/the Boring Store.

1331 North Milwaukee Avenue

Between Hermitage Avenue & Paulina Street

(773) 772-8108

If you live outside of Chicago you can order it here.

The Center For Cartoon Studies diploma

Mon, 16 May 2011 00:00:00 PST

I was given the opportunity to do the art for the CCS class of 2011's diploma this year. Every year the school asks an artist to do the art, and I was more than thrilled to do it.

I have been thinking about UFOs a lot lately... mostly because of my favorite podcast Mysterious Universe. I also recently watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind (I had forgotten just how good it was) ... and obviously that's where I leapt from. It may be hard to see, but the mascot of CCS is the school's "founder" Inky Solomon. He's wearing a thought projection helmet, where he's seeing a four panel strip about the work of a cartoonist student. The aliens are reinterpreting it the only way they know how.

It was really fun to do, and I'm thrilled to have done such a document for all my friends there in Vermont. Such a great class.

Congratulations 2011!

MATILDA

Fri, 4 Mar 2011 00:00:00 PST

So this is just a short entry to tell people I have a little comic about Roald Dahl's Matilda up on UNSHELVED. Please go check it out!

Also I have an interview up on Inkstuds in Canada. So also listen to me ramble on about myself and drawing. If you are listening with a youngster just know that between 44:30-49:00 minutes in there may be some words and topics you won't want them to listen to. I guess you can swear on the radio in Canada, and that is when I do. Listen here.

I hope everyone is doing well! I will post a much longer piece very soon.

Shiga / Renier West Coast Tour

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 00:00:00 PST

If you live in San Francisco, Portland, Seattle or Vancouver, come hang out with the fantastic Jason Shiga and myself. Jason is amazing and I really can't wait to sit next to him on the Greyhound for hours. I really actually can't.

Here are the details, some are book signings, some are presentations, some are workshops for middle schoolers.

San Francisco:

February 17th: SFPL Bernal Heights Branch, 4:00

Event: workshop for middle grade kids

Bernal Heights / 500 Cortland Street / San Francisco, CA 94110

Event: workshop for middle grade kids

February 17th: Cartoon Art Museum, 7:00

Event: presentation and book signing

Cartoon Art Museum / 655 Misson Street / San Francisco, CA 94105

Portland:

February 19th: Reading Frenzy, 7:00

Event: presentation and book signing

Reading Frenzy / 921 Southwest Oak Street / Portland, OR 97205

Seattle:

February 22nd: Third Place Books, 7:00

Event: presentation and book signing

Third Place Books / 17171 Bothell Way NE / Lake Forest Park, WA 98155

February 23rd: Fantagraphics Bookstore, 6:30

Event: cartoonists in conversation event series, debut event

Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery / 1201 S. Vale Street / Seattle, WA 98108

Vancouver:

February 25th: Strathcona Public Library, 1:15 - 3:00

Event: comics workshop

VPL, Strathcona Branch / 592 East Pender Street / Vancouver, BC V6A 1V5

February 25th: Lucky’s Comics, 8:00 - 10:00

Event: reception and signing

Lucky’s Comics / 3972 Main Street / Vancouver, BC, CA V5V 3P2

No Book Ever Ends

Tue, 8 Feb 2011 00:00:00 PST

On the 19th of February Jason Shiga and I are going to be at Reading Frenzy in Portland... and I just did this poster for them to coincide. Order one if you can! It's HUGE in size. 16"x20". Big big. Also if you are in Portland, come hang out. We'll be there at 7pm.

Here's the write up on Reading Frenzy's site:

Reading Frenzy is thrilled to present the latest installment in our artist's print series ~ No Book Ever Ends by Aaron Renier! This signed, numbered, limited edition two-color silkscreen print captures the feeling of sinking your head into a great book -- that swimming feeling of being there, and how every book you've ever loved is somehow, magically, a part of you now. See if you can pick out the references to classic children's literature from the ones that Aaron made up!

Green Bay Packers win Superbowl XLV!!!

Mon, 7 Feb 2011 00:00:00 PST

Wow. I am typing this from Green Bay, after going to every big Green Bay bar and passing a Lambeau field with fireworks coming out every which way. I have given out so many high fives, and have been yelling at anyone and everyone. It is so amazing to be here. The last time we won, I was in Milwaukee... which was pretty fantastic too (After we won in 97 against the Patriots, I was at a bus stop with people streaking down the snowy roads, getting hugged by a tall toothless man, and somebody from Papa John's giving out free pizza) But being in Titletown tonight was the right place to be. I watched with my family, including my 94 year old Grandpa, and it was breath taking.

Congratulations to my team and to my hometown! World Champions!!! Aaron Rodgers MVP!!!

p.s. has anybody heard Lil' Wayne's "Green and Yellow?" I'm pretty into it... but it's Green and GOLD.

http://youtu.be/MF1nMXXrwjE

The Sendak Fellowship part 1 of 2

Fri, 4 Feb 2011 00:00:00 PST

Hey everybody,

I've been meaning to write about this for a while. I wanted to do a comic about my time there, and I eventually will, but sometimes just typing things out works better. This is a long entry, and the next one will be similar in length. Phew!

Thanks for reading,

Aaron

-------

One hot summer day I checked my mailbox for Netflix and bills, and instead I pulled out a mysterious envelope which was sent from some organization that called itself The Sendak Fellowship. My heart raced a bit, even before I opened the letter. The Sendak Fellowship. What could that mean? I sat down on my apartment building’s staircase and opened the envelope.

The letter began,

Dear Aaron Renier,

The members of the Sendak Fellowship committee have forwarded your name as a finalist for this year’s 2010 Sendak Fellowship. The Sendak Fellowship is a residency program that supports and encourages emerging artists interested in telling stories with illustration.

The Fellowship offers a one-month residency in the early fall for four artists to live and work in a house on Mr. Sendak’s property. Artists will be provided a comfortable room and studio in a natural setting, communal space and kitchen. Fellows will work on their own projects, as well as receive instruction and inspiration and participate in a weekly dialogue with Mr. Sendak and visiting artists and professionals in the field.

The letter went on with finer details about the specifics... but my mind trailed to the end where it asked for a response asking, that if I was interested, I should respond by a given date. Luckily, the woman who wrote the letter, Dona Ann McAdams, included her email address, so I was able to give my response in a matter of minutes. My heart pounded as I raced to my computer to write what I hoped to be a cool and collected response. Only after pressing send, and reading my response twenty times, did I realize how hysterically desperate my response was. I had never heard of this program before, and yet, never in my life had I ever wanted anything this badly.

Time passed. A lot of time passed. Weeks passed with very little response. An occasional date was given, but those came and went. I asked if I could tell people... I was told I could tell my friends, but not to blog about it. I asked if I would be told if I didn’t get it... I was told to calm down and relax.

And then, after weeks of being told I was on a final list, I was informed that I was one of four chosen to be a part of the inaugural year of the Sendak Fellowship. I was going to meet Maurice Sendak. I was going to live on his property. It was a dream come true. I felt like I was Charlie Bucket... I felt like I was Charlie Bucket and that I had been eating a Wonka bar, and nobody told me Golden Tickets even existed. It was just there in my chocolate. It was luck beyond luck.

Shortly after, the four fellows were given each other’s names, and I quickly googled them all; Antoinette Portis, Paul Schmid, Robert Weinstock. I went to bookstores and libraries to familiarize myself with their work. In a few long months, I was going to be living with them and I couldn’t wait. When I thought of Mr. Sendak he felt a bit like a character from a dream. I hoped I would get along with him. I hoped he would like me. I didn’t want to be a Veruca Salt or Mike Teavee.

I don’t want to bore everyone with what happened in between. But, one thing that was big in my life, was the release of my second book The Unsinkable Walker Bean. The fellowship would begin just weeks later, so I made a longer trip out of it. My publisher, First Second, decided to arrange school, library and store visits for me along the east coast. I said goodbye to my dear hound Beluga, and flew back to my old home, New York City. I spent two weeks with my friends in and around the city, in between book signing and talks. It was a great time, but everyday brought me closer and closer to getting on the Greyhound and heading to Mr. Sendak’s house.

I was to get off in a small town near his house where a woman named Lynn was going to pick me up. I had talked to her a few times on the phone, and she felt like someone I had known for a long time.

The trip there was very strange. The bus service overbooked and I sat in two different terminals watching my buses leave without me. I told Lynn from the fellowship that I was running late. I thought initially I’d be an hour or two late, but I ended up being several hours late.

When I finally made it on to my last bus it was after 10 pm, and a strange man was talking to the driver. He was going on and on about his life... talking about how he didn’t have any friends, and that the trip he had just been on to New York, was strictly business. When the bus driver asked him what he did for a living, I could hear his voice shake. He tried to engage the man in friendly banter, but the conversation always came back to how he didn’t have friends, and didn’t need them. There was fear in that bus, and it wasn’t just mine. As I looked around in the dark I could see the other passengers looking at each other, making sure they weren’t alone in feeling a pit in their stomachs.

When I got off the bus, the city was nothing like what I pictured. I seemed to be in some seedy section of town, where people hid in the shadows and stared at you. One man who seemed like an extra from Wild at Heart walked by me several times checking out my one bag of luggage. Even the taco truck that was standing there was foreboding. I stood there asking if they still were making tacos... and the man behind the yellowed screen barely acknowledged my presence. I really wanted a taco.

A young woman who seemed to be from some Scandinavian country, had also just gotten off the bus, and was looking for some directions from a man working at the stop. I propped my suitcase against an outside wall, and used it as a chair as I watched for Lynn to come pick me up. The bus station attendant was tall and skinny and hidden behind dark glasses. He was angular and smoked a cigarette. He pointed at pages in the young woman’s book she was carrying... I assume they were directions in a planner... but the scene made me very uncomfortable. She seemed happy that he was taking an interest in her, but still a little unsure of him. He flagged down a cab and ushered her towards it. He talked awhile with the driver and she got into the back seat. There was already a man in the back and I watched as they silently sat next to one another, occasionally exchanging glances. The station attendant and the cab driver stopped talking but nobody moved. It stayed like this for minutes. Finally, a large man in an even larger Dallas Cowboy’s jersey came staggering drunk down the middle of the street. He stumbled towards the cab and propped himself up next to the driver’s side window. After a short conversation with the driver, the man squeezed in the back on the other side of the woman. The cab driver nodded to the station attendant and took off speeding down the road. I watched the attendant light up another cigarette and watched the car disappear into the dark. He reminded me of the boss man from Cool Hand Luke. It was chilling.

Maybe in some cities cabs don’t drive anywhere unless there is a full cab. I imagine that is true. But it put me on edge.

I sat there for another twenty minutes until a car pulled up again. In the front seat there was a very young round faced boy who was smiling and waving at me. I was so on edge, that I initially thought that it was some weird kid from this strange little town. I looked the other way, and then back. Was this Lynn? There was another woman in back. They all got out of the car, and I heard the voices I had come to recognize from phone conversations. It was Lynn and Dona, and a new character I would come to know; Lynn’s son Nick.

I put my bag in the back seat and I sat shotgun next to Lynn. In the back seat, Nick quickly got back to playing what seemed like a very important game on his iPhone. The next half hour was a bit hazy. I wanted to tell them about that scene back at the bus stop... but it quickly got sucked out of my thoughts. I was being introduced to everyone, joking around in person , and being told that every fellow was late with flight delays, and crazy traffic in New York. I was the first to arrive. We were driving up and down hills, through the pitch black, the only thing visible was the dense woods. I finally let out a deep sigh. I felt like the first time I called a girl in high school, and she answered. She wanted to hang out. It was the same feeling...hanging up the phone and dancing because my parents weren’t home. Finally I was among people that knew what I was about to partake in, and who were going to go through it with me. I instantly felt close to everyone in the car. Even Nick on his iPhone. Everyone was so friendly. They answered every question I asked, and even the biggest one in my head. “When can I meet Mr. Sendak?” I was told I would meet him the following night at dinner.

We pulled into the woods and up a gnarly road. Before me was one of the strangest homes I’d ever seen. It was huge and white and flat, with what seemed like half a bottom story tucked under the hill upon which it was built. It seemed to be built to fit in with some forgotten barn, and at the same time seemed to be made out of windows. Rustic yet modern. I grabbed my bag out of the car, and we all walked the rest of the way to the house together.

Nick led the way inside the house, excited to show me everything. It was amazing. It felt half MTV’s Real World, and half Walden Pond. The building was obviously built many years ago, but it seemed to be the most perfect place for all of my feelings. We walked into the kitchen, and Nick asked if it was me who liked to make pizza. He was corrected by Lynn... it’s Robert who likes to make pizza. As I looked around and rummaged through cabinets, I thought, “I can’t wait to meet Robert... I love to EAT pizza.”

I was shown my room. It was PERFECT. I immediately thought about how I wanted to rearrange the furniture. It had a bed, a dresser, a closet, a drawing table, and a light table that Dona brought, per my request. I opened the drawer of the drafting table and a single marble bounced around and stopped there in front of me. Nobody knew how the marble got there. “Magic,” I whispered.

We walked around a bit more. The artwork on the walls was blowing my mind. Brunhoff, Beatrix Potter, Disney, Bud Fisher, Van Allsburg, and on and on. I was standing in my own private museum. And then Dona said, “Wait’ll you see the McCay.” I jumped a bit and looked at her, she was nodding and her eyes said, “I know.” Somewhere very near by, in Maurice Sendak’s own house, was an original Little Nemo in Slumberland, that I was going to be able to look at. Not to mention that inside that same very house was Mr. Sendak himself. It all became a bit overwhelming.

They told me they’d see me in the morning, and left me behind, alone in this wonderful place. All of the other fellows were somewhere in New York City. Stuck in terrible traffic, or getting ready to leave. For the next hour or so I would have the place to myself. I walked each floor looking at everything, and eventually ended up sitting on the front porch with a fancy bottle of bourbon that I brought to share. I needed a drink in the best sort of way.

Celebrate People's History Poster

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:00:00 PST

I've been a fan of the Celebrate People's History posters, and Justseeds since I moved to Portland in 2000, and since then I've had the privilege of being able to contribute to the series. I had been reading the Black Jacobins (which is a fantastic book not only about the revolution, but about the slave trade and the history of the french colony of Saint Domingue) and decided it was definitely what I wanted to draw. It was ripe with emotions and fantastic visuals. My favorite part of this image is the slicing of the French tricolor, how they very literally took the white out of the flag, to create their own.

Because of the way printing works and printing costs, I finished this drawing 3 months before the disaster happened in Port-au-Prince, and it's printed now. My new hope for this image is just to serve as a reminder of what an amazing history Haiti has, their triumphs and incredible sacrifices to obtain their freedom, and how important it is to help the people now, and not to forget them as more and more tragedies keep erupting all around the world.

You can buy the poster here. It's my second attempt at doing a print with 2 colors and getting as much out of it as possible.

Aaron Renier
The Haitian Revolution
$4

Beginning in 1791 and lasting through 1804, the Haitian Revolution was the only slave revolt in the "New World" to turn into a full blown revolution, and lead the the formation of the first Black republic. One of the main leaders of the revolution was Toussaint L'Ouverture, a former slave, who is pictured in the poster.

2-color offset printed poster
11" x 17"
Unlimited edition

Temptations to Astonish

Sun, 23 May 2010 00:00:00 PST

I reread The Phantom Tollbooth recently, and was taken by the introduction Maurice Sendak wrote in my edition.

An excerpt from Maurice Sendak's appreciation for The Phantom Tollbooth:

"Tollbooth is a product of a time and place that fills me with fierce nostalgia. It was published in New York City in 1961, that golden moment in American children's book publishing when we lucky kids- Norton, Jules, myself and many more-- were all swept up in a publishing adventure full of risks and high jinks that has nearly faded from memory. There were no temptations except to astonish. There were no seductions because there was not much money, and "kiddie books" were firmly nailed to the bottom of the "literary-career totem pole." Simply, it was easy to stay clean and fresh, and wildly ourselves-- a pod of happy baby whales, flipping our lusty flukes and diving deep for gold. Tollbooth is pure gold."

I can't help to feel we who are working on our comics today, will someday look back with the same sort of nostalgia. I know this moment in publishing won't last forever, who knows when the end will be... but I think it's important to realize how amazing things are at the moment, and that we take advantage of it. Sometimes it's difficult to pay the rent, and working on these giant stories becomes overwhelming. So much writing, and drawing. From self publishing to those with big book deals, this is our time for high jinks, and our moment to dive for gold.

I also think picturing myself as a happy baby whale takes some pressure off. That will be my new secret mantra. "I am a happy baby whale. I am a happy baby whale."