Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Seven points if you got the Simpsons reference in that post title.

Yup, it’s kind of a crazy week around here, particularly given that this week Betsy and Peter and I are wrapping up our manuscript to be sent off once and for all to our editor. I hope to be back later this week with some 7-Imp content, but for now (and as alluded to in that post title), I decided to bring you—instead of silence and nothing-ness—a 7-Imp Clip Show. [Insert laugh track here. And that image is from “Lisa’s Pony,” episode 8, season 3, which is referenced in The Simpson’s first-ever clip show. *COUGH* NERD.]

And what do I bring you in 7-Imp’s first-ever clip show? I bring you seven of my favorite posts from the past five years. Just to pass the time. If you’re so inclined, go read or skim each OR you can even print them all and laminate them and use them for, I dunno, placemats to make your meals more art-filled. But it’s about all I can do this week until I get caught up on my own writing.

Enjoy.

* Because they just won Silver Medals in the recent Society of Illustrators’ 2011 Original Art award, I bring you my 2008 interview with Kadir Nelson and my 2008 interview with Lane Smith (even if, tragically, those interviews were before I learned how to right-align images in a post).

* Because she collects pictures of the backs of people’s heads, not to mention Depression-era dolls and various bits of animals, and because I like her art work, I bring you my 2008 interview with then illustrator (but now author/illustrator) Sophie Blackall. (I’d like to note that Sophie also assembles those dolls and bits of animals into “funny, unsettling creatures,” and for that reason, could have, at any time, a deer hoof or a bird wing at her feet. Don’t you just want to hang out with her? I do.)

* Because Beware of the Frog is still one of my favorite weird-ass picture books, I bring you my 2008 interview with the guy who puts the very quirk in “quirky,” British author/illustrator William Bee. (When, I wonder, will we see another title from him?)

* For lots of reasons, but mostly because I think she’s brilliant, I bring you my 2008 interview with South Korean author/illustrator Suzy Lee. (That’s her illustration of the young girl, pictured left and re-printed from that interview.)

* Because she’s a class act, I bring you this year’s interview with author/illustrator Claire A. Nivola.

* Because it’s cause for great excitement in my world when she releases a book and AND because she introduced me to the existence of Chocolate Guinness cake, I bring you my 2009 interview with British author/illustrator Emily Gravett.

* Because he is so talented IT MUST HURT and because he sent lots and lots of art (the best way to win over this blogger), I bring you my 2009 interview with British illustrator Dave McKean (for which some friends helped me compose questions and to which they contributed to the interview’s introduction). Also, come to think of it, with regard to the talented and he-sent-lots-of-art parts, ditto for my 2009 interview with illustrator Sean Qualls.

* I’m going to pretend you aren’t really counting those asterisks and cheat by adding two more. (When it comes to picture books, narrowing is sometimes difficult for me.) I bring you my 2009 interview with author/illustrator D.B. Johnson and last year’s interview with Amy Schwartz, two of my very favorite illustrators.

(Oh, and because he’s exceedingly talented and pictured here holding my disembodied head, I bring you the 7-Imp 2007 interview with M.T. Anderson.)