Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

 
Last week, I chatted here at Kirkus with Antoine Revoy. We discussed his eerie debut graphic novel, Animus (First Second, May 2018).

Today here at 7-Imp, I’m following up with some art from the book.

Until tomorrow …

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“I love working in full color, but I considered that this story would be better told in black and white, because it would give more emphasis to textures. Animus is about looking at things which are very familiar more closely, or in a different way (tree bark, stones, insects), so this was both a practical and esthetic choice. ”

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Over at Kirkus today, I talk with Antoine Revoy about his debut graphic novel, Animus.

That is here, and next week here at 7-Imp, I’ll follow up with some more images from the book.

Until tomorrow …

“For a while, I’d wanted to write a story about a character whose super power was making clothes that transformed the wearer. I couldn’t think of a premise that fit until I was watching RuPaul’s Drag Race one day, and suddenly everything clicked. I’ve also wanted to do something fun, like a Disney princess movie but with more queer themes attached, and everything fell in line perfectly from there.”

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Over at Kirkus today, I talk with Jen Wang, pictured here, about her new graphic novel, The Prince and the Dressmaker (First Second, February 2018).

The Q&A is here. Next week, I’ll follow up here at 7-Imp with a bit more art from the book.

Until tomorrow …

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Photo of Jen Wang taken by Ye Rin Mok.

“… I am no longer a girl / weary with disappointment.
I have become rock / and wind and fiery sea.”
(Click image to enlarge and read poem in its entirety)

 
Last week at Kirkus, I talked here with author-illustrator Lita Judge about her newest book, Mary’s Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein (Roaring Brook, January 2018).

I’m following up today with art from the book. (Please note: I’m quoting from a galley of the book. It’s possible some of the text has changed in final publication.)

Until tomorrow. …

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“I wanted to write about Mary Shelley for over a decade after I learned that she was a pregnant teenage run-away when she wrote her novel, Frankenstein. That blew me away. Why did I not know more about her life when she should have been an incredible role model to young women? We’ve all heard the popular myth that Frankenstein was conceived spontaneously on a stormy night when the poet Lord Byron dared a small party of fellow expatriates to write ghost stories. But the myth strips away the identity of the brilliant young woman who wrote one of the most influential novels of the Romantic era and places credit for its inspiration in the hands of a man. Countless events in Mary’s life before and after that evening played a much greater role in the horror novel’s creation.”

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Over at Kirkus today, I talk with author-illustrator Lita Judge, pictured here, about her new book about Mary Shelley (and her first YA book), which she describes as “part biography, part visual fantasy, and part feminist allegory.” Mary’s Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein (Roaring Brook Press) hits shelves this month.

The Q&A is here. Next week, I’ll follow up here at 7-Imp with some art from the book.

Until tomorrow …

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Photo of Lita Judge taken by Ben Conant.

— From Thi Bui’s The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir

 


“The streetlights look brighter and the roads aren’t so busy before the sun comes up.
Dad turns on the heater and tells me stories. A kid at my school said my dad’s English sounds like a thick, dirty river. But to me his English sounds like gentle rain.”
— From Bao Phi’s A Different Pond, illustrated by Thi Bui
(Click to enlarge spread)

 

Last week over at Kirkus, author and poet Bao Phi and I talked here about his debut picture book, A Different Pond (Capstone, August 2017), illustrated by Thi Bui.

In March of this year, Thi also released her debut graphic novel, The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir (Abrams), the story of her family’s escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s and the rebuilding of their lives in America.

I’ve got art here at 7-Imp today from both books.

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“I thought I knew everything about Vincent, but then I was in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in the summer of 2011, and I saw a mention of Theo. Next to a painting, it said something about how Theo supported Vincent. I was bowled over. I probably gasped. I had forgotten he had a brother, and I had no idea that Theo had supported him. I knew right away that I wanted to write a book about the brothers someday.”

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What’s that? You want a recommendation for a great book? I’ve got one: Deborah Heiligman’s Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers, published by Henry Holt in April, a book officially geared at the late middle-grade/YA crowd but which I say is for all ages. It’s the best book I’ve read this year, and I’m pleased that Deborah chatted with me about the book over at Kirkus. I enjoyed our conversation.

That is here today.

Until tomorrow …

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Photo of Deborah taken by Matt Peyton.

(Click to enlarge and see page in its entirety)

 
Last week at Kirkus, I talked to author Adam Rapp (here) about his new graphic novel, Decelerate Blue (First Second, February 2017). Today, I’m following up with some art from the book, which was illustrated by Mike Cavallaro.

Enjoy.

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“[O]ne day I saw this older Asian man walking very slowly in the Astor Place area. If a fellow pedestrian came toward him—while engaged with their smartphone, head down, thumbs pummeling their smartphone screen—the Asian man would wave his hand right in front of their face. It was startling, but it actually forced people to look up and consider where they were going and whom they might be walking toward. I thought the guy was a genius. He was starting a revolution of sorts. Stop. Look up. Consider another human being. Connect. I think that was the moment when the idea for the book came to me.”

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Today over Kirkus, I talk with Adam Rapp about his new YA graphic novel, Decelerate Blue (First Second, February 2017), illustrated by Mike Cavallaro.

That Q&A is here this morning.

I’ll have art from the book here at 7-Imp next week.

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Photo of Adam Rapp taken by Sham Hinchey.

From John Lewis’s and Andrew Aydin’s March: Book Two,
illustrated by Nate Powell
(Click to enlarge)

 


“‘IT WAS ONE OF THE MOST ELOQUENT PROFOUND AND UNEQUIVOCAL PLEAS FOR JUSTICE AND THE FREEDOM OF ALL MEN EVER MADE BY ANY PRESIDENT,’ telegrammed Dr. King as soon as the speech was over.”
— From Shana Corey’s A Time to Act: John F. Kennedy’s Big Speech,
illustrated by R. Gregory Christie

 

From Carmen Agra Deedy’s The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet!,
illustrated by Eugene Yelchin
(Click to enlarge)

 
This morning over at Kirkus, I’ve got three new picture books that make me wish I could snap my fingers and be in an elementary language arts classroom right about now. That is here.

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Last week, I wrote here about the third book in John Lewis’s and Andrew Aydin’s March trilogy (Top Shelf Productions), released last year and illustrated by Nate Powell; Carmen Agra Deedy’s The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet! (Scholastic, January 2017), illustrated by Eugene Yelchin; and Shana Corey’s A Time to Act: John F. Kennedy’s Big Speech, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie and coming to shelves from NorthSouth Books in April.

Today, I’ve got art from all three books in the March trilogy, as well as art from Yelchin and Christie.

Until Sunday …

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