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— Spread (without text) from <\/em>Blizzard
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Today, John is sharing some early drawings from the book, as well as some final art and a couple of other surprises. To boot, he’s throwing in four of his paintings from Rick Riordan’s<\/a><\/strong> Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, released by Disney-Hyperion in August. <\/p>\n Enjoy the art … John<\/font><\/strong>: The two watercolor textures seen here were created by doing a wash of color and then spraying them with a water bottle from about 10 feet away. My daughter and I created about 50 of these images one afternoon, and I used them throughout the book. <\/p>\n The ink splatter was done with black ink (borrowed from Sergio Ruzzier<\/a><\/strong>) and flicked onto the paper using an old toothbrush. I ended up doing about 50 of these as well, which I then would invert and use as the snowflakes throughout. John<\/font><\/strong>: [This book] is over 300 glossy pages and weighs just over four pounds! It has about 60 full-color paintings that were a herculean task. And this beautiful book is only $25! That’s right, only $25.<\/p>\n I guess you could say I am pretty excited about this book. The printing quality and the physicality of this book are above and beyond what I had hoped for and I am really proud of it.<\/a>
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How bad could the humans have been?”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center><\/p>\nPictured right is author-illustrator John Rocco<\/a><\/strong> in 1971. With him is his sister, Denise, and their dog, Toby-Tyler. This photo is the inspiration for John’s newest picture book, Blizzard<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (Disney-Hyperion), which will be released at the end of October. Blizzard<\/em> tells the true story of John’s winter of 1978, when New England, as he explains in a closing author’s note, was slammed with one of the biggest snowstorms in its history. At first, it was all a bit thrilling and fun—we’re talkin’ school lets out early, snowdrifts cover doors, and tunnels and secret rooms are dug under piles of snow—and much hot cocoa (with milk!) was consumed. Then, things started to get a bit scary, but the young boy in the tale (John himself) heads out bravely to gather groceries for his family, as well as his neighbors, since as you can see above, he was “the only one light enough to walk on top of the snow.” It’s an adventure tale with cheer and heart, and at its core it’s a story about the resiliency and bravery of children.<\/p>\n
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By the time my sister and I got home, the snow was already over our boots.”<\/em>
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<\/em>Family Circus<\/a><\/strong> comic strip that I grew up on.”<\/em>
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<\/em>Then he sang a song about his awesomeness.”<\/em>
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