Recent Reviews of "How To Train With a T. Rex"

First book sighting at Barnes & Noble, June 6th, 2009.


Saw it at Powell's about a week and a half later.

The book's been out for over a month now, so to pass the time, I've gathered a few reviews of the book. There's not many, but I'm hoping that'll change throughout the course of the summer. I was told that Michael Phelps himself will do a PR run (morning and late shows, etc.), but that hasn't happened yet. Looks like the summer is a busy time for the Olympian with all those swimming competitions. Each time I check to see what the guy's doing, he's always in some city swimming in some 'nationals', or breaking world records, or something. But hey, the guy's gotta do what he's gotta do!

Here are a couple of reviews, for the curious:

Publisher's Weekly:
"Swimming champ Phelps provides a playful account of what his preparation for the Beijing Olympics entailed. The text jumps from one analogy to the next, beginning with the six years he trained: “That's a kindergartener's whole life! That's the same as 42 dog years!” Some comparisons wow more than others, as when Phelps equates the 12,480 miles he swam while training to swimming the full length of the Great Wall of China three times (“Perfect! Now do it two more times,” says his coach in the accompanying illustration, which shows the Great Wall as a pool that zigzags across mountains into the distance). Humorous but less compelling spreads demonstrate the time he spent napping during these training years. Many of the comparisons are downright silly, including the one that inspires the book's title, in which Phelps tallies the number of dinosaurs he could hypothetically leg-press in a single workout (nine tons worth). Debut illustrator Jenkins's digital cartoons comically mine this and other quirky references, depicting Phelps as a cheerful, larger-than-life caricature. Sports fans with a love of statistics should be both amused and impressed. Ages 4–8. (June)"

Pretty happy with this review from Publishers Weekly. A big time site on everything about the publishing industry. Quite an honor to get a decent mention! I, of course, bolded that part about me. Sorry. I like that they mention the Bob Bowman gag. That was not part of the text—it was something that I added into the book myself. Nice!

Barnes & Noble: Kirkus Reviews:
"The titular T. Rex only puts in a cameo but readers will still be wowed as super-swimmer Phelps recaps the six-year regimen that put him in shape to win a record eight Golds at the last Summer Olympics. He livens his recitation of laps and reps considerably with comparisons-"I trained for six years! That's a kindergartener's whole life! That's the same as 42 dog years!"-and after swimming 17 races in nine days to reach the finals won the 100-Meter Butterfly by 1/100th of a second: "about the length of a fingernail." In blocky digital paintings Jenkins stacks up pizza boxes, whole sports teams, Washington Monuments and herds of dinosaurs to back up the claims about distances run, calories consumed and weights lifted, and closes with a view of the athlete lounging on a sofa, holding a bowl of broccoli and thinking up new goals. (Perhaps appropriately for the audience but possibly compromising the book's timeliness, the athlete's suspension for smoking pot goes without mention.) Motivational and self-aggrandizing, like most of its ilk, but not too heavy-handed with the Message. (Informational picture book. 6-9)"

Okay, this one baffled me. Why ON EARTH would we even mention the suspension??? First of all, the book was done at least a month before The Photo was leaked to the press. Secondly, it's a KID'S BOOK. It's ludicrous to think that something of that nature would even be mentioned in a children's book! Third...well, there's no third. That's all I got, but it's enough to go on. No more explaining needs to be done, don't you think? I know that the reviewer was probably trying to make a joke, but still. The last line is nice, though. Have to give 'em credit for that.

Booklist Online:
"Gold medalist Phelps takes readers through the regimen he kept for six years that eventually led him to eight gold-medal victories at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Digitally rendered cartoon-style artwork depicts Phelps going through his training activities juxtaposed with the representations of comparable activities and measurements. This puts his activities into terms that young children can understand: six years equals a kindergartner’s whole life; his daily three-hour nap equals three whole summer vacations; and so forth. The title and the cover, showing Phelps working out with a dinosaur, are misleading, as the T. rex is only mentioned as a comparison to show the strength of Phelps’ legs: “I could leg-press a Tyrannosaurus Rex and 10 velociraptors!” This will not win any medals, but it is deserving of an audience. Share with children who enjoy How Much Is a Million? by David M. Schwartz (1985), or Mount Olympus Basketball, by Kevin O’Malley (2003)." — Randall Enos

Baltimore Sun's Kevin Van Valkenburg has the best one I think so far:
8 gold medals not child's play, but Phelps' tome for tots is.

The entire review is a little long, so here are some excerpts:

"I wanted to make a bunch of jokes about a cartoon version of Phelps telling a cartoon Ms. California that everyone deserves the right to get married, and reminding kids that cell phone cameras will be confiscated every time he and his cartoon posse walk into a room.

But the truth is - and maybe this is the result of having a kid of my own on the way - I kind of liked it. There isn't exactly a narrative there, and the inclusion of a Tyrannosaurus Rex makes very little sense, even in the illogical world of children's books. But it has a nice message and some cool illustrations by Ward Jenkins."

WOOT!

One of the things I've noticed is that the first thing most people do when they see the book is make fun of it. I mean, c'mon—it's a joke waiting to happen. (Even Conan mentioned the book in his monologue!) But then they end up liking it because of the message and (hopefully) the artwork. Interestingly enough, Kevin's review goes on to talk about Michael's dedication to children & fans. Because he's from Baltimore, the reviewer has a chance to see this first-hand:

"All that said, Phelps does genuinely care about kids. I've seen him sign autographs for junior swimmers at meets for more than an hour, even though he was exhausted from a day of competition. And at Meadowbrook Aquatic Center in Mount Washington, he is famous for his patience with kids who want to take his picture or tug on his sleeve and ask for an autograph. So while I'm a natural cynic, I'm also inclined to believe there are sincere motives behind this book."

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I'm behind on a lot of things right now. Namely, my site. I need to update it to include a page solely devoted to How To Train With a T. Rex And Win 8 Gold Medals. Also thinking I need a mention of the book on the intro page, as well. Also thinking that I need to basically redesign & tweak the entire site while I'm at it. Ah, details. They'll be the end of me, I'm sure.

More photos from the first sighting:

Hey it's me with that book.


It was wild to see it up there on the wall with all these other books. Wild, I tell ya!


Showing Ava the dedication page. Aww.


My eyes hurted after this.

If you haven't bought the book yet, then what are you waiting for? Support your favorite blogger! I'll be solely dedicated to you from here on out, I promise.

I'm currently gathering sketches and drawings together and will post some behind-the-scenes stuff on the making of the book. How does that sound? Actually, before I do that, I'll probably be featured on a children's book illustrator blog coming up. I'll keep you posted.

The Art & Life of Abner Graboff Part 2

Concluding my interview with Jon Graboff, artist and illustrator Abner Graboff's son, we talk about animation, the numbers game, and music:


W: I'm curious, do you know if your father did any work in animation? Abner's work would've fit in perfectly with various studios that were producing interesting work during the 50's, especially UPA Studios. Do you know if he had any connections in the animation industry?

J: Anyone old enough to remember the Danny Kaye Show during the 1960’s might remember my dad’s animation of a cartoon marching band parading along the bottom of the screen at the beginning and end of the show. I asked him once why he didn’t do more animation and he said, with pained look “it was too time consuming” and that he didn’t want to draw the same character over and over with an arm, here then there and so on!

UPDATE: Stu Shostack of Shokus Video has found the animated opening of The Danny Kaye Show and graciously uploaded it for all to see on YouTube! The segment that Jon speaks of, the marching band of people, doesn't appear until around :40, and is cut off, but it's still cool to see Abner's characters in action. Big thanks to Stu for doing this for us! See for yourself:




Top and above: great photos of Abner in his studio, 1951.

W: Ha! Yes, animation can be quite tedious. I'd love to see this opening, if possible.

Back to books, I have a 8 year-old daughter and a 5 year-old son. I recently released my very first children's book. What was it like to grow up with your father creating children's books and working as an artist? Any interesting stories to tell?

J: I remember the numbers game. My brothers and I would write a number down on a piece of paper and my dad would work it into a drawing… it’s kinda hard to describe. And dad making roman style armor out of yellow flexible art cards. A painting of a cowboy on the inside of my brother Mike’s closet and the barrels of the six shooters had clothes hooks screwed into them. My father restored an old snow sled and stenciled rocket on it. It was pretty cool. The funny thing about growing up with a book illustrator is that we knew virtually nothing of other well known children’s books. I didn’t know anything about Potter or Sendak until much later in life!

It’s funny that you mentioned “Dick and Jane” style illustrations because I remember elementary school, and using the “Dick and Jane” stories when we were learning to read, and thinking that they were very lame compared to dad’s work!

I think the enduring interest in my father’s illustrations comes down to one very important thing. They were fun and they were funny! He loved kids and had a big heart and a keen sense of humor and those qualities always came through.






From Mrs. McGarrity's Peppermint Sweater, 1966.




From Something For You, Something For Me, 1960.

W: Did he have any musical interests, and/or musical talent? If so, did he influence you as a musician?

J: Here’s an amazing memory. My mother was a very talented violinist and there was always music in the house and my brothers and I took up band instruments in elementary school. Michael learned the trumpet, I played the French horn and my other brother Paul played the clarinet. Paul only seemed to be able to create one sound on his clarinet, which was reminiscent of a higher pitched foghorn… way off in the distance… whooooo. One night, we were sitting around the living room watching television and suddenly heard real clarinet playing from somewhere in the house. We looked around at each other with puzzled looks and realized that dad wasn’t there. We all bounded up the stairs, threw a bedroom door open and found dad playing the clarinet… and rather well. We all expressed our astonishment because he’d never even hinted at knowing how to play an instrument! He bashfully explained that he was a big Benny Goodman fan and had taken up the clarinet in high school. But he said his music teacher was a “Nazi” about the “correct” way to play “correct” music, and quit. This was the first time he’d picked up a clarinet in 25 years! He was actually pretty good.

He had collected small combo jazz 78’s as a teenager but later in life, listened almost exclusively to classical music. He loved Mozart in particular.

W: About your siblings, are they also artists and/or musicians?

J: My twin brother Paul, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2004, followed in my father’s footsteps and was a graphic designer. My older brother Michael is actually a very talented musician but became the family rebel by becoming a businessman. He lives in Munich, Germany and has two children.

W: Tell us a little about yourself. Can you tell me what your earliest memory was in regards to music? Were there any songs, band, events or concerts that had a major impact on you and your musical upbringing?

J: My earliest musical memories are of my mother singing a made up song about being on the swing as she pushed me higher and higher and my father singing me to sleep. Oddly enough, the song was the old depression era song, “Hallelujah I’m A Bum”. And honestly, I can’t remember a time when I was not thinking about music.


Vivian & Abner, 1972.

W: I see that you've collaborated with a great number of people, such as Ryan Adams, David Byrne, Willie Nelson, Ben E. King, Jon Spencer, to name a few. Any particular collaborations stick out in your mind? How long have you been performing? I'd love to hear how you got involved with the music industry.

J: Music became an all-consuming passion for me and I left home when I was 16 years old to join a band. I’ve played with lots of remarkable musicians over the years… some more so than others, but I like to think that I learned something valuable in each and every time. I think maintaining the attitude that I don’t know it all, and I can glean something from every situation, is something that I got from my father. He was artistically and intellectually curious by nature and he was always saying things like, I wonder why… I think that he believed that when you stop asking why, when, where, and what’s next… it’s all over.


Last photo of Abner. 1986.

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This concludes my interview with Jon Graboff. I want to thank Jon for taking the time to talk with me about his father. I can't tell you how exciting this entire experience has been for me, a huge fan of Abner's work. It's one thing to enjoy a particular artist's work at face value, but it's quite a different experience once you know more about the artist and learn of his/her background. Thank you, Jon, for providing us the perfect opportunity to get to know your father, and for sharing with us your memories about his life & work.

It's unfortunate that Abner wasn't able to make much money off of his incredibly vibrant children's books. My hope is that there'd be enough interest in Abner Graboff's books that some publisher out there would be willing to reprint his titles, much like Rizzoli has done with M. Sasek's successful "This Is..." series. One can least hope, right?

More family photos:


A night out: Abner, Vivian, and Ira (Abner's brother). 1945.


Gift giving: Vivian & Abner at Christmastime, late 1940's

More images from Abner's books:




From 10 Little Indians, 1963.




From Old MacDonald Had a Farm, 1969.




From It's a Picnic!, 1969.


From The Abelard Folk Song Book, 1958.

Previously:
Who was Abner Graboff?
The Art & Life of Abner Graboff: Part 1 of my interview with his son, Jon.

More on Abner can be found here:
My Abner Graboff Flickr set
Abner Graboff in The Retro Kid
Abner Graboff on Biotope (Japanese site)

The Art & Life of Abner Graboff

Recently, I had the excellent opportunity of interviewing Jon Graboff, asking him if he could enlighten us about his father, illustrator and designer Abner Graboff. Jon was gracious enough to share some fascinating stories, as well as family photos! (All photos courtesy of Jon Graboff.)

So, who was Abner Graboff? Let's find out....

Ward: First of all, there's not much out there on your father and his career. For what little I've gathered, all I know is that he worked in the commercial art world (advertising, etc.) as a designer and art director, as well as an illustrator, and then he worked on children's books. I'd love to hear about Abner's early career: how he got into art and design. Did he go to school? If so, where?

Jon: My father, the first of two sons, was born on June 28, 1919 to a couple of Russian immigrants, Joseph and Sonia, who owned and operated a laundry business in East Orange, New Jersey. Ira, his younger brother who would later become a Cooper Union educated architect, was born 6 years later.


Date unknown, but possibly late-1930's.

Abner Graboff is in the back middle, with his parents on the left (his right). The other adults are unidentified. The boy in the shadow might be Abner's younger brother Ira, but it's hard to tell.

The family business, which had already been struggling through the depression, was dealt another blow by Joseph’s death of colon cancer at the age of 48… sometime during the mid 1930’s. Both my parents were heavily impacted by the depression and is some ways, were classic depression kids. When my father died, I found about a half dozen bank accounts with small amounts of money stashed in them. I guess he didn’t want to concentrate his wealth… in case any occurred… which it didn’t!

I’m not exactly sure when my father became interested in art, but he was apparently set on that path because he applied and was awarded a full scholarship to Parson’s School of Design in New York City after finishing high school. He told me that, at that time, Parson’s “wasn’t a very good school” and he transferred, with another full scholarship to another school where he completed his education. He told me that this school no longer exists and I don’t recall its name.

At the start of America’s involvement in WWII, dad took advantage of a draft deferment in light of the needs of the family business. He said that that was fine with him having no keen interest in entering the armed forces. However, as the war heated up and more and more men were being called into service, he told me that “it was a matter of time before he was drafted and thought that the best way to “have some control as to where he ended up”, was to enlist and request an area of service other than the infantry. He entered the army signal corps and, because of his background in art, was sent to drafting school and learned the “art” of drafting schematics for radios. After his army drafting school experience, he told me that it was his ambition for the duration, was “to never do anything army related again”. With the exception of being assigned the task of painting big white stars on the sides of jeeps for a day, he seemed to have successfully attained his service ambitions and a series of watercolor paintings, done overseas in England and France, resulted.

A side note to the star painting episode, my father said he couldn’t remember the formula for drafting a five pointed star and was scratching versions of it in the dirt when another soldier wandered by and asked what he was doing. This fellow knew how it was done and showed him, and Sergeant Eddie Rader of Brooklyn, New York would remain my father’s closest friend until the end of dad’s life.

After my father’s discharge, he met and three months later, married another East Orange native, Vivian Linde, started his career as a freelance graphic designer and raised 3 sons. Michael, born in 1951 and twins Paul and me in 1954.


Abner Graboff with wife Vivian (née Linde), 1945.


Brother Ira, wife Vivian, and Abner Graboff, 1945.


Abner created this card, announcing the arrival of their twins Jonathan & Paul in 1954. The top part is the front of the announcement, and the bottom part is the back.

By the way, this is the first time it's being shown outside the family. Many thanks to Jon Graboff for sharing it with us!


Abner Graboff in the Winter of '56. Looks like older son Michael in the shot (hard to see).


Abner with sons Michael (in back), and twins Jon & Paul.


W: Did he start in the commercial/advertising world right away, or did he do other types of jobs before working in that field?

J: I don’t believe that my father ever worked for anyone, preferring freelance work and I don’t recall my dad doing a lot of work in advertising. He was a bit of a left-winger and didn’t enjoy the corporate world… it reminded him too much of his army experience. I do remember a time when he had been offered a huge job for Dow Chemical in the late 1960’s. It was at the height of the Viet Nam war and Dow Chemical was the largest manufacturer of napalm which was being dumped in huge quantities all over southeast asia. He talked about feeling conflicted by his obligations as a breadwinner and his moral objections to war and warfare… he turned the job down.

He apparently did a lot of work in the early days of television when graphics were done on clear celluloid and scrolled in front of a camera lens. My brother Michael told me that dad mentioned to him that he had designed the CBS “eye” logo but didn’t receive credit for it. The credit went instead to the chief art director at the network. Perhaps I’m unduly influenced, but that logo does remind me of my father’s graphic style a great deal.

W: Are there any interesting stories that he'd tell you about his work?

J: Throughout my father’s career, he did hundreds of book jacket designs and I once asked him, in a slightly condescending way, if he enjoyed that kind of work? He said he loved it because he had to nail the vibe of the book in a single illustration and when he got it right, that it was very satisfying. There was a long period of time when I could walk into a bookstore, look around, pick up a book and look at the jacket design credit… and more often than not, find his name. Later on, I started to get fooled. Other designers were either copying or being heavily influenced by his style.


A collection of various dust jacket designs by Abner Graboff from 1957 to 1981. (Click on image to read details.)




From The Hamburger Cook Book by Esther K. Schwartz. 1950.






From The Abelard Folk Song Book, 1958.

W: How did he make the transition from commercial artist to children's book illustrator? Did he do both at the same time?

J: There never was a “transition” from one area of my father’s career to another… it was all simultaneous. He never compartmentalized his design interests. As he got into children’s book illustration, he carried on with all the other work he was doing. One has to remember that he was a freelance designer with a young family and couldn’t afford the luxury of doing just one thing. Knowing him, I don’t think he ever wanted to do just one thing… he enjoyed it all.

I asked him why he stopped illustrating children’s books. He said he “had a bad agent and never made any money” doing them! He continued drawing these characters and they would turn up in letters, and book treatment ideas that never went any farther. When he died, I found something fascinating as I was going through the stuff in his office. My mother had told me that dad’s annual income could fluctuate by as much as a third depending on how much self-promotion he did… something he never felt very comfortable doing. Going through a file cabinet, I discovered files labeled with the names of art directors. I realized that when he wasn’t particularly busy, he would stockpile personalized cartoons, which he would slip into an envelope from time to time and mail to remind people that he was around and thinking of them.

W: One thing I love about your father's children's books is how radical a departure he took from what was considered the "norm" at that time during the 50's: he definitely did not do your typical "Dick & Jane" style of illustration. I'm curious, did your father ever mention who his influences were?

J: My father seemed to dislike complicated work. He’d say “too fussy”. He was drawn more toward artists who worked in bold strokes like Picasso (he liked his sense of humor), Braque and Miro’s later collages… and abstract impressionists particularly Kline and Rothko. He adored Rockwell Kent and I have a Kent illustrated copy of Moby Dick that dad bought when he was in art school and is dated in my father’s hand, 1940.

It’s hard for me to access his style as a “radical departure”… they were the books that were around as we were growing up and he was far too modest to crow about these kinds of things. I do have a friend who was doing some work with Maurice Sendak quite a few years ago. He generally described Sendak as intentionally oblivious to any other illustrators and claimed to be unaware of even the most well known ones. My friend happened to mention that he was heading into the city to meet me for dinner, and Sendak asked if I was any relation to Abner Graboff? Sendak astonished my friend by saying, “I wonder what ever happened to Abner Graboff… he was really good”.





From Mr. Angelo, 1960.




From I Know an Old Lady, 1961.

W: I love the stylization of his characters, the way he used simple shapes and color to create sophisticated compositions. Do you happen to know what materials he used? Cut paper? Ink? Pencils?

J: Dad used just about every medium in his work. Pen and ink, felt markers, cut paper (even cut sandpaper), string, toothpicks, leaves and what ever else was on hand. He was the first illustrator that I know about who would build a character out of paper and let it float over a background and photograph it using a single, hard light source to cast shadows so it appeared three-dimensional on the printed page. “Do Catbirds Have Whiskers” is a good example of this.




From Do You Want to See Something?, 1965.

W: As mentioned before, I have what was listed as the first children's book he illustrated, "The Sun Looks Down", done in 1954. How many books did he illustrate that you know of?

J: Below is a list of my father’s books that I compiled from the Internet. I’m not sure if it’s complete or not:


Books Illustrated by Abner Graboff

1954 The Sun Looks Down, by Miriam Schlein, pictures. by Abner Graboff. Abelard-Schuman.

1956 Rainbow In The Morning, by Carl Withers, pictures. by Abner Graboff. Abelard-Schuman.

1957 A Tale Is A Tail, by Katherine Mace, pictures. by Abner Graboff. Abelard-Schuman.

1958 Abelard Folk Song Book, by Norman Cazden, pictures by Abner Graboff. Abelard-Schuman.

1958 I Want To Whistle, by Anne Alexander, pictures by Abner Graboff.

1958 The Daddy Days, by Norman Simon, pictures by Abner Graboff. Abelard-Schuman.

1959 Of Course, You’re A Horse!, by Ruth Shaw Radlauer, pictures by Abner Graboff. Stella Greenwald.

1959 Merry Ditties, (song book for piano and guitar), by Norman Cazden, pictures by Abner Graboff. Bonanza Books.

1960 Something For You, Something For Me, by Mabel Watts, pictures by Abner Graboff. Abelard-Schuman.

1960 Noise In The Night, by Anne Alexander, Pictures by Abner Graboff. Rand McNally & Company.

1960 Mr Angelo, by Marjory Schwalje, pictures by Abner Graboff. Abelard/Schuman.

1961 Please Don’t Feel Horace, by Miriam Young, pictures by Abner Graboff. A Dial Junior Book.

1961 I Know An Old Lady, by Alan Mills, pictures by Abner Graboff. Rand McNally. Scholastic Book Services.

1962 Weeks And Weeks, by Mabel Watts, pictures by Abner Graboff. Abelard-Schuman.

1963 A Fresh Look At Cats, by Abner Graboff. F. Watts

1964 The Hungry Goat, by Alan Mills, pictures by Abner Graboff. Rand McNally

1964 No Sort Of Animal, By Mary B. Palmer, pictures by Abner Graboff. Houghton Mifflin.

1965 Heat, by Howard Liss, pictures by Abner Graboff. Coward-McCann

1966 Mrs. McGarrity’s Peppermint Sweater, by Adelaide Holl, pictures by Abner Graboff. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co,, Inc.

1965 Do You Want To See Something?, by Eve Merriam, pictures by Abner Graboff. Scholastic Book Services.

1967 Do Cat Birds Have Whiskers? By Abner Graboff. G. P. Putnam’s Sons

1967 Willie & Winnie & Wilma The Wicked Witch, by David C. Whitney, pictures by Abner Graboff. Franklin Watts, Inc.

1968 Skippy The Skunk, by David C. Whitney. Pictures by Abner Graboff.

1968 Would You Put Your Money In A Sand Bank?, by Harold Longman, pictures by Abner Graboff. Rand McNally & Company.

1968 Crystal Magic, by Eugene David, Pictures by Abner Graboff. First Cadmus Edition.

1969 Limpy The Lion, (See and Say Sounds Series) by David C. Whitney. Pictures by Abner Graboff. F. Watts

1969 Old Macdonald Had A Farm, by Abner Graboff. Scholastic Book Series.

1969 It’s A Picnic!, by Nancy Fair McIntyre, pictures by Abner Graboff. NY Viking

1969 Ann’s Ann-imal, by David C. Whitney, pictures by Abner Graboff. Watts.

1975 Do You What I See? No! I See Something Else, by Abner Graboff. Scholastic Book Series.

1976 In A Cat’s Eye, by Abner Graboff. The Bookstore Press.

This is the end of Part 1 with my interview with Jon Graboff.

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Next: The Art & Life of Abner Graboff Part 2
Previously: Who was Abner Graboff?

You can see more of my scans of Abner's books in my Abner Graboff Flickr set.

Who Was Abner Graboff?

Abner Graboff is one of those artists who's fallen through the cracks of time. An enigma, if you want to call him that. Not a whole lot written about him, and what little there is, well, there's not much to glean from. I first found out about him through my Flickr group, The Retro Kid. On there, illustrator Eric Sturdevant had posted some fantastic pages from several of Graboff's books. I immediately made a mental note to remember this artist and his brilliant use of shapes and color, as well as overall design. Soon afterwards, I stumbled upon a book written by Miriam Schlein and illustrated by Graboff titled, "The Sun Looks Down". The dust jacket was literally falling apart, but still somewhat intact. Reading the inside back flap, I found a brief bio for the artist:

ABNER GRABOFF is a young artist, well-known in the field of commerical art, who makes his bow to the world of children's books with his pictures for "The Sun Looks Down".

When asked to tell the publisher something about his hobbies, Mr. Graboff said his only hobby was painting. The fact that he enjoys his work shows clearly in the humor and wit and careful attention to detail in these pictures.

Miss Schlein worked closely with Mr. Graboff when his pictures were still in the planning stage and feels that he has caught her mood perfectly.

The copyright for the book is dated 1954. Here are some spreads:









Notice how Graboff utilizes the space in each spread. I'd like to contribute this to his background in design. He was listed as designer and artist for a few notable ads featured in graphic design annuals around the time, but I couldn't find much more on him. There's no way of telling if Abner started in graphic design and then moved onto children's books, or did the books as an aside, or how long he illustrated children's books, etc. The inside dust jacket of "Sun Looks Down" didn't really tell me anything, save for the fact that he was known for his commercial work and that this was his first book.

Well, now we can know. Even though Abner passed away in 1986, I was able to contact his son, Jon, and ask him a few questions about his father's life and work. Jon Graboff is an established musician and producer, having played with Ryan Adam's band, The Cardinals, among a wide variety of artists. Jon took time out of his busy schedule to answer my questions, most of which probably bordered on fan boy obsession. I'm forever indebted to Jon for doing this for me, as well as for the multitude of current Abner Graboff fans who've longed for more information about this intriguing artist who's touched so many lives with his lively body of work.

Throughout this week I'll feature the interview as well as showcase some books that Abner had illustrated throughout his career. Stay tuned!

Next:
The Art & Life of Abner Graboff: Part 1 of my interview with Jon Graboff. Jon shares some fascinating stories, along with family photos.
The Art & Life of Abner Graboff Part 2

More on Abner can be found here:
My Abner Graboff Flickr set
Abner Graboff in The Retro Kid
Abner Graboff on Biotope (Japanese site)

Terrible Yellow Eyes

I'm sure you've heard of Terrible Yellow Eyes by now, right? If not, please click on the link to visit Cory Godbey's wonderful tribute site. His words:

Terrible Yellow Eyes is a collection of works inspired by the beloved classic, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak....We share a love and admiration for Sendak's work and the pieces we present here are done as a tribute to his life and legacy.

I want to thank Cory for coming up with this great idea. And I want to thank him for allowing me to be a part of it. Above is my submission.

And, of course, I want to thank Mr. Sendak for being so wild as to create such an inspirational bit of children's literature.

And the Winner Is...

#159: H. A. Weaselton


CONGRATULATIONS, H. A.! You win a signed copy of my new children's book How To Train With a T. Rex And Win 8 Gold Medals, as well as a 5x7 print of your choosing from The Ward-O-Matic Shop. Take a look around, see what you like. Choose wisely, my friend.

THANK YOU ALL for participating in this book giveaway, guys. Wish I could give a copy to each and every one of you all who commented here. I had a lot of fun working on the book—it's a great pleasure for me to finally share it with everyone out there. Be sure to come back to check out some work-in-progress stuff I did for the book, like rough sketches and drawings. I think you'll find it interesting. At least, I hope.

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Coming up: I'm very excited about this one post I've been working on, featuring an interview with the son of an influential illustrator from the 50's - 70's. Stay tuned!

Take a Look Inside the Book (and a Giveaway)

Now that the veil has been lifted, allow me to show off what I've been keeping under wraps since January. Yes, a bit of self-indulgence, but this is my very first children's book and I CAN'T HELP MYSELF! I'm extremely excited to share with you all some spreads of How To Train With a T.Rex and Win 8 Gold Medals. If you like what you see, why not click on the book title and order it? It'll make me happy. And my family. We're counting on you. No pressure.

(However, if you want a freebie, I'm offering a BOOK GIVEAWAY further down in this post!)

Allow me to take you on a visual tour of the book:


Holding up the cover, you can see the gold foil lettering and gold medals. Looks pretty cool, I think. Hard to photograph, though.


I like what my art director did with the back cover here. Lucy took what I had drawn for page 5 and put it on the back. Nice.




I like how this spread looked. Simple and basic.


The dog is Herman, Michael's very own pet bulldog. I looked at pictures and video that was available of Herman (not much actually) and tried to match the color patterns found on his coat.

The audience on the right was a pain. I didn't want it to look like I just drew 10 shapes of people and copy pasted the heck out of it. I really went in and drew and touched up almost every single "person".


This was a fun spread, showing the relative time it took for Michael to train leading up to the Olympics (it goes to 2003, but who's counting). We decided to go with a boy growing up, alongside his pet bulldog, from birth to six years old. Even though it's not really Michael here, I made it look like the kid's really into swimming (he reads a book called "How to Swim Like a Dolphin", for instance).


The whole eating up to 10,000 calories thing is fascinating to kids, so it was fun to visualize the fact that it would be like eating tons of pizza. Of course, eating just pizza would be sorta not healthy, so that's why you see a "I could never eat that much pizza!" line.

Easter Egg alert: the name of the pizza delivery service is "Ava's Pizza".


When in doubt, DINOSAURS! I had a blast drawing this spread—I mean, who doesn't love T. Rex's and Velociraptors?

I was *this* close to putting my graffiti tag on that subway car.


Wrapping it up. Getting near the end of our journey, as we recap all the things that Michael had to endure to reach his goal at Beijing.


Okay, one more shot.

------------ BOOK GIVEAWAY!!! ------------

Now that the book is officially released, I'm going to celebrate by offering a signed copy of the book! (Sorry, not signed by Michael, just me.) I'll make it even MORE worth your while by throwing a 5x7 print from my Etsy shop into the mix. How's that? Yeah? Yeah!

Okay, what you need to do is leave a comment on this blog post by midnight (PST) Wednesday, June 17 and I'll have one of my kids pick a number out of a hat. The winner will be announced this Friday, the 19th.

GOOD LUCK!

UPDATE: Comments are now closed. Thanks for participating, guys!

How To Train With a T. Rex and Win 8 Gold Medals

It's here!

It's official, guys: my very first children's book that I illustrated is now available: How To Train With a T. Rex and Win 8 Gold Medals. I had so much fun working on this book, thanks in part to art director Lucy Cummings and editor Alexandra Cooper at Simon & Schuster. Those two made the project worthwhile for me as I was neck-deep in deadlines and redos. It was a great pleasure to work with such fine people. Thank you, Lucy and Alex!

It feels so good to finally talk about this thing! I'll post a couple of shots of the inside of the book later on this weekend, so be sure to check back later. I'll even talk a bit about the making of some of the spreads, including sketches. I promise it'll be fun.

A big hug goes out to my wife Andrea, and to Ava & Ezra for being patient with me during the months it took to complete the book. I am nothing without you guys.

And one last thing: a big thanks to all of YOU for being so supportive of me! The love & support from family, friends and fellow artists goes a long, long way, believe me. Thank you.

FTW! WTF?

Just an idea I had hanging out in the confines of my brain. For the record, I had no idea what "FTW" meant until several months ago. And really, I thought it was just a funny way to say "WTF" but backwards. Oh, nevermind.

Forcing Myself to Contradict Myself

Realizing it's been a long time since I've posted anything from my sketchbooks. So here's a sampling of some pages below. You can click on each image to go to a slightly larger version on its Flickr page. If you'd like to see any one of these even larger, let me know and I'll put a link up for you. Sorry that I don't make these images large in the first place, I'm just a little wary of posting high res scans of my artwork. Hope you understand!















Andrea and I watched a documentary on photographer Annie Leibovitz last night. Here's a quote from her: "The camera makes you forget you're there. It's not like you are hiding but you forget, you are just looking so much."

When I draw and sketch people and places around me, I lose myself in the process. Even though I have a certain knowledge of how to start each sketch or drawing, it's still a surprise to me how it turns out. And when I look through my past sketchbooks, I'm constantly surprised by the results I see on each page, each drawing. And I can remember the process I took for each drawing: from how I approached the subject, all the way to its completion. It's a funny way of looking at your work, and I like it. It's good to be surprised by your own work—that way, you know you'll never do something the same way twice. At least, that's how I look at it.

I might've mentioned it here on the blog before, but it's worth the mention again: one of my favorite artists of all time is Marcel Duchamp and there's a quote that's attributed to him that pretty much sums it up for me and how I look at what I do as an artist:

"I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste."

I guess you could say that I have a fear of repeating myself. Even though I might approach each drawing differently, I know that my overall style comes through, creating an overall artistic signature, or 'voice', that can't be denied. The end result might look similar to the viewer, but, I know personally, I took the 'road less traveled', and that my artistic journey was one of newness and wonder with each page, each drawing.

New Update in The Shop: b-boys now in 5x7!

Until I can actually talk about the children's book I illustrated, thought I'd update The Ward-O-Matic Shop with all 7 prints of the b-boy series now available as 5"x7"s! I'd been meaning to do this long ago, but life got in the way, of course. Nice to have a less expensive option for these images, plus they look pretty cool in a smaller size.

Enjoy!

Box of Books

We found a package on our front doorstep the other day, addressed to me. It was a box, filled with several books, all the same book.

What does this mean? Hmmmm?

Willamette Weekly: This is Lents

Oh look! It's an actual post! And it's of something that I've actually drawn! The miracles never cease here on The Ward-O-Matic, I tell ya. Willamette Weekly is a weekly freebie newspaper here in Portland, OR. I did the cover for the May 27th, 2009 issue. Read article here, if you're curious. Lents is a neighborhood in the SE section of the city that's experiencing a possible re-birth. I actually went to the area to take photos of various buildings, parks, corners, etc. to get the look & feel of the neighborhood. Took the kids to Lents Park and had ice cream. It was a great day.

Got the call on Saturday, and had to turn it around by Tuesday -- yes, on Memorial Day weekend. So it goes.

Of course, this is based off those wonderful vintage large-letter postcards. What's in each letter? See below:

L - New Copper Penny: restaurant & bar on SE 92nd & Foster.
E - The new Beavers Minor League Baseball Park being proposed for Lents Park.
N - I-205: the highway split the neighborhood in two.
T - New MAX stop scheduled to open shortly.
S - Building near 92nd & Foster.

In case you're wondering how "Willamette" is pronounced, there's a saying that the locals say to any newbies: "It's Will-AM-ette, dammit!"

What you see here is the image I sent - the way they comp'ed it together looks rather nice, so i'll take some shots of the actual cover and post them here later on today.

Oh! Hey -- Andrea's got some new prints up in her Etsy shop. Check them out. Stunning images. By the way, I'm getting ready to update my Etsy with some 5x7 versions of the b-boy series. I think they look pretty stinkin' cool, but that's just me.

Coming soon: my children's book will be released on June 2nd!

Fun Greeting Cards

More vintage inspiration, this time from several cool mod cards, made by Sunshine Cards. The imprint on the back says "A Studio Card". No illustrator credit. No date, but probably late 60's-early 70's. I say "early 70's" because of the numerical code on the back suggests it might be 1971. But you can never tell with these things. These cards belong to a full set that feature the same looks and concept: fun stylized characters with a bit of real fabric or yarn, collage-like. The real bits of fabric (yarn for these two cards) are not actually on the cards themselves, but rather a photo. Adds a nice dimensionality to the cards, if you ask me. An extra bit of character to the characters.


"MINI HAPPY RETURNS!"


"But so is THE MORTGAGE, THE GROCERY BILL and the PAYMENT ON THE CAR!

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY anyway!"

Har har! Always with the corny jokes.

I'll have to scan the rest of the set. The box they came in is pretty cool as well.

Kretschmer Wheat Germ Recipes

More inspiration for you guys, this time from Kretschmer Wheat Germ, circa 1971. Even though it's dated a little later from what I normally post, the illustrations found in this little cookbooklet (yes, I made that word up) are fun, colorful and lively. It's an interesting group of illustrations here because they almost serve as a bridge from the cheerful & simplistic 50's cookbook illos to the more decorative and graphic, pen & ink style of spot illustrations seen in the late-60's and 1970's. I'm no expert on this, just a simple observation.