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Hey, look! It’s an animated GIF in which debut author-illustrator Zack Rock<\/a><\/strong> is showing us a spread being painted. I hope the animation is working for everyone. <\/p>\n It’s good to have Zack back at 7-Imp. In 2012 (here<\/a><\/strong>), his artwork was featured on one of my Up-and-Coming Illustrators Sunday posts, and now his first book is out with Creative Editions. In fact, if you look again at that post from two years ago, you will see that he included two images from this new book back then. (Also, it’s a fun post to re-read, since he talks about studying at England\u2019s Cambridge School of Art<\/a><\/strong> with scholar Martin Salisbury<\/a><\/strong>. Zack described it as “a no-holds-barred, steel cage death match of mutual respect and encouragement.”)<\/p>\n I’m going to let Zack talk now and share some of his artwork. Enjoy. <\/p>\n p.s. If you visit his 2012 7-Imp post<\/a><\/strong>, you can spot Maurice Sendak, Shaun Tan, and Lisbeth Zwerger in one of the illustrations from this book. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Zack<\/font><\/strong>: Thanks again for having me back aboard the good ship 7-Imp! It was an honor being previously featured as an up-and-coming illustrator<\/a><\/strong> and an absolute joy to return as an arrived-and-here illustrator. I can only hope 7-Imp will continue to record my career in the decades to come, even if it\u2019s only in a Where Are They Now-type feature, far down the road (SPOILER: undefeated tango champion at Deer Glen Assisted Living Facility).<\/p>\n For now, I\u2019m super excited to share my first book, Homer Henry Hudson\u2019s Curio Museum<\/a><\/strong><\/em>! It\u2019s the tale of a globetrotting explorer and the bounty of bizarre bits-and-bobs he collects on his adventures. Part Indiana Jones, part Hoarders<\/em>, but with the one element those series were conspicuously lacking: an elderly, half-blind talking dog.<\/p>\n Starting in the present day with an introduction to the crowded museum, the book then flashes back to the rise and fall of Homer Henry Hudson via the curio descriptions themselves. It was a fun way to narrate his biography and buys the reader a ticket to all the exotic locales HHH has pilfered (as well as a sushi restaurant).<\/p>\n But the big draw for many has been the sm\u00f6rg\u00e5sbord of artifacts in the book. Every drop of my imagination was wrung out to fill the museum, leaving a scoosh over 100 exhibitions in the book. Each has a story, though for the most part I\u2019ve left them for the reader to dream up.<\/p>\n The journey from first draft to final was almost as calamitous as one of H\u00b3\u2019s adventures. The original idea sprawled out to include seven main characters, a trio of taxidermic bulldogs, a pair of dead parents, and one sinister white squid. After some minor retooling (picture an axe-wielding lunatic with a vendetta against paper), I pared it down to only one main character. And only one dead parent.<\/p>\n Working with Creative Editions on the book was beyond wonderful. Tackling a project like this is daunting to say the least, but the dedication Creative\u2019s publisher Tom and art director Rita had to Homer<\/em> carried me through the many harrowing legs of the journey. When I first approached them with my portfolio, I felt like the high school Science Fiction Club president asking the prom queen for a dance, and I\u2019m still stunned by the faith they have in my work.<\/p>\n Sadly, two individuals whose talents helped shape Homer Henry Hudson’s Curio Museum<\/em> passed away before its release: my editor Aaron and printer, Ermanno. Along with writing some of the most engaging titles Creative Editions has released, Aaron\u2019s deft red pen led my original text away from the brink of obscurity. And Ermanno\u2019s genius not only revived the illustrations after my particularly poor scanning job nearly derailed the project, he made them just shine on the page. But beyond their professional abilities, they were a couple of the warmest and kindest people I\u2019ve ever met. The world\u2019s poorer for their absence.<\/p>\n Currently, I\u2019m chiseling away at another book for Creative [pictured above], this time about an acrobatic young pig whose life changes after an encounter with a bookstore. Something about surrounding short, squat little animals with stuff evidently appeals to me. It\u2019s called The Unexpected<\/em>, and you can expect it 2016.<\/p>\n Note for any new readers: 7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome. <\/p>\n Hi, kickers! I’ve missed you the past two weeks. Let’s get caught up … <\/p>\n 1)<\/strong><\/font> It’s really neat to have Zack back at 7-Imp. <\/p>\n 2)<\/strong><\/font> I GOT TO MEET JAMA<\/a><\/strong>, YOU ALL! And her very nice husband. And hang out with her in her beautiful home. I also got to see Sara Lewis Holmes<\/a><\/strong>, though it wasn’t my first time meeting her in person, and meet her husband. I’m lucky to have these people as friends in my life (and I could have spent all day<\/em> talking to them). <\/p>\n 3)<\/strong><\/font> This was all while we were in D.C. last week for vacation, which was a fun trip (“fun AND a lot like Social Studies,” said my 8-year-old). <\/p>\n 4)<\/strong><\/font> There was this Wyeth exhibit<\/a><\/strong> at the National Gallery of Art. Hoo boy, I could have stayed ALL DAY in that one exhibit. <\/p>\n 5)<\/strong><\/font> The book I wrote with Peter Sieruta and Betsy Bird came out on Tuesday of last week! (Should you wanna read it, by chance, here’s<\/a><\/strong> the low-down.) I had a book launch at Parnassus Books, which was fun. A local wine shop manager, Dan Hutchinson at The Wine Shoppe at Green Hills<\/a><\/strong> in Nashville, paired my book with some wines for the event, and he chose The Velvet Devil and Kung-Fu Girl (both from here<\/a><\/strong>). I mean, how wonderful is that<\/em>? I have a video of the talk he gave at my launch, so I’ll try to share it soon. <\/p>\n 6)<\/strong><\/font> People have been very supportive of and generous about the book launch, and I really appreciate it. <\/p>\n 7)<\/strong><\/font> I’m reading this, and I love it thus far. I had to back up and start over (before I had gotten very far at all) just so I could read it with my girls: <\/p>\n I think I used the word “fun” an awful lot in this post, but it’s been a fun couple of weeks, in fact. <\/p>\n What are YOUR<\/font><\/strong> kicks this week? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hey, look! It’s an animated GIF in which debut author-illustrator Zack Rock is showing us a spread being painted. I hope the animation is working for everyone. It’s good to have Zack back at 7-Imp. In 2012 (here), his artwork was featured on one of my Up-and-Coming Illustrators Sunday posts, and now his first book […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/HHHCoversmaller.jpg\")
The new book is called Homer Henry Hudson\u2019s Curio Museum<\/a><\/strong><\/em> and will be released in mid-August. “Everything has a story,” the book opens, and Zack’s is a beguiling one. Henry is a bulldog, who owns a museum of curios from all over the world. He proudly displays several in the book and tells readers about them — from a Conatusaurus Skull from the Late Jurassic Period to a Humble Willow Root Cane. The collection includes delightfully bizarre artifacts, and Homer is a fine storyteller. I like the art in this book (illustrations that the Kirkus<\/em> review describes as possessing “touches of humble elegance”), and the writing is outstanding. (“My job is to keep the place spick-and-span,” Henry says when we first meet him. “My eyesight isn’t what it used to be, but I’m a proper Magellan at nose navigation. You’d be surprised how well a 6th-century Byzantine bedpan keeps its distinctive aroma.”) Zack Rock is one to watch. <\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/HHHFirstSketchessmall.jpg\")
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Zack: “{These are} step-by-steps of an illustration from thumbnail to final illustration.”<\/em>
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(I’m living in Berlin nowadays.) My cat sat right behind me like that for most of the project, kept my posture straight.”<\/em>
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