My 2012 offerings (and more) at 7-Imp!

Please take a moment and head over to one of THE best kidlit blogs in the biz, 7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Today, Julie (Jules!) Danielson has posted an extensive interview that talks up and shows off the books I have coming out in 2012. As well as my road to publication, my process, my filthy cluttered studio, and a weird bit about turkey butts. Jules does an amazing job, and it always shows. Please have a look here and leave a comment if just to say, "what up, bruh?"!

TROUBLE GUM in Korea!

I'd heard about this some time ago and had been psyched to see a copy in print. Here it is! The Korean edition of TROUBLE GUM. I'm a big type dork, so it's a thrill to see it typeset in characters of another language. Of course, I have no idea what it says. I can only assume it basically translates the original text.... right?

Awesome!

TROUBLE at Warren Newport Public Library II

Julie and I forgot to bring our camera to the reading on Sunday. But luckily, WNPL's graphic artist, Nancy Matson, was on the scene and snapped some terrific pictures. Thanks, Nancy, for handing these over!





This one really captures the vibe of the day. Really nice, warm Moms and Dads there having fun with the kids.


I love this little guy. I had no idea anyone ever took me so seriously.

TROUBLE at Warren Newport Public Library

This past Sunday (March 14) I was a guest at Warren Newport Public Library in Gurnee, IL. Yours truly stood before a nice-sized (!) crowd of kids and parents to read TROUBLE GUM, talk pigs (my favorite thing to anthropomorphize) and do some drawing and what not. In a nutshell, I told the kids about how the pig is probably my favorite animal to draw. Because pigs are intelligent and funny, and just easy to hang human characteristics on. Then, I asked the kids what their favorite animals were, and I'd try to draw 'em. One by one, I fumbled through big (giant sketch pad on an easel, for all to see) sketches-on-command of a lion, a koala, a panda, a horse, and an ostrich. It was lots of fun.

The kids also had paper and could draw the same animals to play along. I asked if they would leave some of their drawings with me so I could share on the blog. A couple of the kiddos were kind enough to part with the following beauties.

Anika Agashe, 4 1/2 yrs old. I love this interpretation of Ruben from TROUBLE GUM. Complete with hand-lettered title type treatment in the corner!


Anika Agashe, 4 1/2 yrs old. Sweet renditions of a lion and a koala. Thanks, Anika!


Spencer, 5 yrs old. Spencer rocked this awesome cheetah, even though I didn't even draw one myself.


Spencer, 5 yrs old. Another very cool one of Ruben. Thank you, Spencer!


And thank you to Patty Sawin at WNPL for helping pull this together. I had a blast.

Interview at 100 Scope Notes

Please take a moment to head on over to the awesome children's lit blog, 100 Scope Notes, and check out this interview I just did with Travis Jonker. Travis found this weird website, Twiddla, that acts like a collaborative computer sketch pad. We did some interview-style mouse doodling together (alongside the more traditional q/a interview questions), and the results are something else. A cool idea, Trav. Drop a comment and let him know you stopped by!

Travis also just redesigned the blog and it looks great. The new home page, here.

Thanks for having me at 100 Scope Notes, Travis. Lots of fun.

From Korea with Love

Just got wind of this. TROUBLE GUM is gonna get a Korean edition, from one of their publishers, Forever Books! How awesome is that? I think it's especially cool since not too long ago, one of my earlier pic books, RIGHTY AND LEFTY (written by Ms. Rachel Vail) also got a pick-up from a Korean pub. Cool, cool.

(I did a quick online translation of TROUBLE GUM from English to Korean. Below. I doubt it's an accurate trans, seeing as TROUBLE GUM is my made up thing, and those online translators usually end up being wack. Hopefully this ain't nothing too vulgar, at least.)

TROUBLE GUM studies, etc. at new MacKids blog

Macmillan Children's has an awesome new blog up. It's a lot of behind-the-curtain type of stuff played out by various Macmillan Children's personnel. And for those not in the know, Macmillan is the great big pub that's home to imprints Feiwel and Friends, Henry Holt, Roaring Brook, Priddy, First Second, Roaring Brook, and Square Fish.

Already, I've read a cool piece by Nicole Moulaison, Production Manager for F+F and Squarefish, about color-correcting scanned art for print. And another cool piece by Reka Simonsen, Senior Editor, Henry Holt Books for Young Readers. A "what's on my desk" fun one.

For my part, I was asked to send in some early stuff I did for TROUBLE GUM. Not finished art, but just sketches, thought process, color study work I did before the final art came around (like the drawing I did way back when, below, as a color test). Please do have a look at this, and please do have a look at this hip new blog!

Bookpage: Best Picture Books of '09!

This just in! TROUBLE GUM was selected by BookPage for a short list of this year's best picture books. In case you missed it, I was in the magazine back in September for their supercool "Meet the Illustrator" column. Check that out here.

Thanks, BookPage!

TROUBLE GUM at 7-imp

I'm still in the thick of final art on a new book by Lauren Thompson, but wanted to drop a quick post. This morning, alongside Steve Jenkins and Scott Magoon, I'm featured (for TROUBLE GUM) on Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. We're rounding out a series of posts, by Jules, highlighting new books by illustrators who've been on the blog before. 7-imp remains one of my absolute favorite kid lit blogs (my go to for the best illo in kid books!), so I'm honored to be invited again. Check it out here.

One other bit of hot TROUBLE news, before I get back to work. Just found out that it's gone into its second printing! Say what??!

Pigs, pigs, pigs.

I've been meaning to post these since my reading at The Book Stall the other week. One thing I did, near the end of the presentation, was go on about how I love drawing and seeing other people draw because it's very much an extension of one's personality. Much like the way someone speaks, or laughs, or sneezes, or smells, dresses, walks, eats, etc. Everybody draws differently. Cause everybody's brain is different, hands are different and it all flows out just different. EVEN IF we draw the exact same thing. Different.

So I drew, step-by-step, a big drawing of TROUBLE GUM's main pig, Ruben. Kids and parents and grandparents and friends followed along. Unfortunately, a couple of my tiny guys got lost, but generally the experiment went well.



These were the only ones left laying around at the end. Everyone else took theirs home. And there are some real beauts here. Like I said, all very different. All very cool.

TROUBLE GUM inaugurates

On Saturday, last, I had my first solo author event ever (Julie and I have done a team show in years past, but I've never held the spotlight alone). And this was the first TROUBLE GUM event so far--complete with a reading, some awkward banter, a little drawing. It was a great success! Thanks to Robert McDonald and everyone at The Book Stall in Winnetka! Thanks to everyone who showed up, smiled, supported, bought books! And special thanks to Julie, Romy, and Grandma Janice for moral support and advice. Looking forward to doing this again--polishing, revising, getting better, and crushing this fear of public speaking once and for all. Now here's some pics. Thanks to my lovely wife and assistant for making with the digital camera.

Check our man out. Pretending to be all cool just before the start.


My first ever read-aloud to an audience. Complete with "voices".


Getting my draw on.


I did a bit of show-and-tell with drawings from the Cordell archives. Here I am telling my infamous "cabbit" story. Mental note: tighten up the "cabbit" story.


Giving a step-by-step drawing lesson of TROUBLE GUM's star pig, Ruben.


From the front.


The kiddos and adults did a bang-up job in the drawing lesson.


Signed some books and cooled down afterward. Here I am signing a big sketch of Lord Vader for a fellow fan.

Thanks again, everybody! I had a blast. More to come.

Stepping on my soapbox a sec here: Support your local independent bookstore, people! Even if you're maybe paying a tad bit more (I certainly know it's hard times) than the big corps and chains, you walk out with a squeaky clean conscience! And you can't put a price on that.

Oct 17--See Matt Draw.

This Saturday, October 17 at 3pm, I'll be headlining an event at one of my all-time favorite indie bookshops, The Book Stall in Winnetka, IL.




By headlining, I mean, I'm the main event... er, the only event. I'm doing a reading of my newest pic book, TROUBLE GUM. Then, I'm showing some semi-embarrassing drawings from my past. Then I'm doing a little drawing demo. Then wrapping up with some audience participation drawing. I'm very excited about it. Admittedly, a little nervous. Public speaking is not my forte, as I'm sure I have mentioned here before. But to quote Eleanor Roosevelt:

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

I have lived through this horror. Well, it's not "horror". Don't be silly.

Now that I've spilled all this, I hope, if you live in the area (or are willing to make the drive), that you will come and see me. I guarantee fun will be had by kiddo and adulto alike-o. See you there!

57th Birthday

Last weekend I had another birthday. Most birthdays just come and go, but this one really was the best birthday I've ever had.

(Why am I doing that with my finger?)

Friday, Julie totally blew me away by giving me the best b-day gift and surprise I've ever gotten. Saturday we had a nice dinner out with the fam. And Sunday, Julie, Romy and I trekked down to Chicago's beautiful Hyde Park neighborhood to partake in our first ever (but their 23rd annual) 57th Street Children's Book Fair. The whole shebang is organized every year by Hyde Park's very own 57th Street Books bookshop. President Obama's favorite bookstore (Hyde Park is the President's original pre-White-House home and stomping grounds).

I was signing copies of TROUBLE GUM in the early afternoon, right when the fair kicked off. When we got there, I was told that I would be giving away (not selling) my books to families that came to the table. Giving away. Because the Fair's head coordinator Angela Sherrill (of both 57th Street Books and 57th Street Children's Book Fair) had received a grant for the Fair which allowed them to purchase 25 copies of my books--as well as the other signing authors' books! I could just share the TROUBLE GUM love with fair attendees (limit one per family). Wow.

This was a great time. Children's books (and children) all over the place. Friendly faces, perfect weather. And our first visit to indie bookshop 57th Street Books. It's a sweet basement level store with a neat windy layout and LOTS of good books. A great kids section! We loved the store.

Hyde Park is a great place. Lots of amazing homes and architecture, great shops and restaurants. Lots of diversity in its residents--a cool and intellectual community. University of Chicago's right there. And lots of great big trees. Just good vibes all around.

On our ride home, Julie recorded a podcast of our day (she's been doing some hilarious podcasting on her blog for the last week or so). I reluctantly agreed to answer some questions into that digital voice recorder (reluctantly only cause I can't stand the sound of my own voice, and I'm perpetually afraid of having something dumb I've said be immortalized like this). I haven't listened (won't listen) to the recording, but it was a lot of fun in the making. Check this out here.

And here are some photos from the book fair and otherwise...

Here I am getting set up and ready to sign/draw. I'm putting out some of the bubble gum Feiwel and Friends made for promo opportunities. The kiddos seemed to enjoy.


People are coming at this point. For some reason, I ended up standing for the whole signing. It was kinda awkward drawing all hunched over, standing over the books, but I guess I got stuck that way. That's my table buddy on the right, Jeff Jarka (we both had the 1-2pm shift). It was his good idea to lay out the books like this. Seemed to work well, in drawing in some crowd (who might normally shy away from the likes of us). Jeff's a nice guy. He was signing copies of his new book, LOVE THAT PUPPY.


After the signing, we had a quick lunch at the park across the street with our friend Ali. Thanks to good pals Ali and Sam for showing up!


On our way out, we stopped for one last pic. They had all these cool hand-painted book-inspired wooden backdrops for kids to play in and have photos taken with. My best girls.


These last two are not my photos (I lifted them from someplace off of the internet). I wanted to show some pics of the front of the coolest 57th Street Books. Very great (and surprisingly large!) friendly neighborhood bookstore.


The cool old-school sign up close.


Thanks, 57th Street Children's Book Fair! We had a blast.

57th Street Children's Book Fair

On Sunday afternoon, September 13, from 1:00-2:00, I will be in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood at the 23rd annual 57th Street Children's Book Fair. I'll be signing copies of TROUBLE GUM. If you live in Chicago, or in the area, please do drop by.


I have not been to this event before, but it looks like a great deal of fun. The sort of thing that I would love. Lots of kid books, a parade, snacks, family activities, the whole deal. Take a look at the website and this year's press release for more info.

Hosted by Hyde Park's local bookshop, 57th Street Books. Thank you much for the invite!

TROUBLE GUM contest winners

In the previous post, I had the date wrong for the contest announce. My intention was to keep it open for one week, not two. Why drag it out? So the winners are announced here and now (as opposed to Sept 16 as I reported, wrongly, before).

Without further a-doo!

GRAND PRIZE winner (1 copy of TROUBLE GUM and two packs o' gum)--April D.!

RUNNERS-UP (winners of promo packs o' gum):
Kyle
Heather
Nissa
Christina
Joerg

Congrats to all winners, and thank you to everyone for playing along!

Winners, please email me your mailing address and I will send prizes out directly.

matthew@matthewcordell.com

TROUBLE GUM is here! You can win!

Dear readers,

TROUBLE GUM (in case I haven't made it clear--my first illustrated AND written picture book!) is officially released and out into the world. This baby's all growed up. And I'm pleased as punch, I believe that expression goes. To celebrate, I would like to open up a raffle to the good readers of this blog.


Please enter by simply submitting your name (or a pseudonym, if you wish) via the comments section of this particular blog post. On Wednesday, September 16, I will draw the names of 5 lucky winners.

FOUR Runners-up will each receive ONE package of nifty TROUBLE GUM bubble gum.


ONE GRAND PRIZE winner (the first name drawn) will receive ONE signed copy of TROUBLE GUM and TWO packages of TROUBLE GUM bubble gum.

The winners will be announced by end of day Wednesday, September 16 with a new blog post and in the comments section of this post. So please check back in!! (I will collect your names/addresses and ship prizes out directly--all on my buck.)

Good luck. Godspeed.

Sincerely,

M.T. Cordell

Thank you, San Francisco!

I don't typically like to blow my own horn, but I just read a super-cool review of TROUBLE GUM in the San Francisco Chronicle and wanted to share. Thanks a lot, Regan McMahon!

Maybe hard times inspire the imagination, but for whatever reason, the books that are leaping off the pile this month are wild and wacky.

First up is the irresistible Trouble Gum, by Matthew Cordell (Feiwel and Friends; 32 pages; 16.99; ages 2-6). Move over, Olivia, there's a new pig in town. His name is Ruben, and he, too, is headstrong. "You know the rules," his mom tells him after Grandma gives him some bubble gum. "Don't play with your gum. And don't blow big, sticky bubbles with your gum." Ruben does all three and makes a big mess, roping his little brother, Julius, into his crime spree.

The spare art is graphically dynamic, often featuring tiny pen-and-watercolor drawings of the pigs below a single line of type or a giant word like "THUMP" or "POP."

The other books featured are: Jeremy Draws a Monster, by Peter McCarty; Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem, by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Adam Rex; The Marshmallow Incident, written by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett; and The Calamitous Adventures of Rodney and Wayne, Cosmic Repairboys: The Age Altertron, by author-illustrator Mark Dunn.

TROUBLE in BookPage

TROUBLE GUM is the featured children's book in the September issue of BookPage magazine. They have a monthly column, "Meet the Illustrator", that promotes the selected illustrator's upcoming title. Please take a moment. Meet me.

They do an awesome job with this column. Featured illustrators always draw the answers. A lot of fun. Thanks, BookPage!

(Click on image to zoom.)

TROUBLE GUM recognized by Society of Illustrators

What?! Yesterday, I got some crazy-good news from Feiwel and Friends pal and creative director, Rich Deas. Apparently, TROUBLE GUM was chosen to be a part of the 29th Annual Exhibition at the Society of Illustrators! This is major. And I had no idea it was coming. I guess the pubs submit all their books to all kinds of things all over. This one stuck. The news was a complete surprise and pretty much floored this old boy.

Congratulations are in order to my fellow Macmillan honorees, Maria van Lieshout (PEEP!), Taeeun Yoo (ONLY A WITCH CAN FLY), and Wendy Wahman (DON'T LICK THE DOG)!

Deconstructing ALA Chicago

Just got home from ALA Chicago yesterday afternoon. All the bags and books and suitcases are still flopped down by the door we brought them in. It was a wild ride. A lot of fun. Just collecting thoughts and getting back into some routine again today.

Julie and I live only about an hour's drive north of Chicago, but we stayed at the place of some very generous friends over the weekend (thank you GENEROUS friends!). This saved us lots of time and headaches with driving back/forth. This also served as our first trial-run of traveling with Romy and having her sleep and live in a place that's not our home. It went off without a hitch! Thanks to Romy for being such an awesome baby!

Anyhow, as reported in an earlier blog post, I did a signing, Julie did a signing. Julie had a nice dinner with lots of librarians, lots of friends from Feiwel and Friends, and another YA author, Andrew Smith. Julie, Andrew, and myself also partied it up with a boatload of bloggers and various Macmillan personnel the following eve at the "Macmillan Suite", Omni Hotel. Yes.

My signing was mostly to plug good ol' MIGHTY CASEY (where, incidentally, I was given a cryptic James Preller message regarding cupcakes. New friend Travis Jonker-- capt. of the great kidlit blog 100 scope notes--was the deliverer of said message. My ol' pal Preller. His way of keeping me company at the signing.) Anyhow... the signing was awesome, and I unloaded, signed, and sketched in a good number of books. I was also able to unload a nice stack of TROUBLE GUM f+g's to the interested masses. 500 packs of Feiwel-produced TROUBLE GUM bubble gum were brought to the conference, and every last one was snatched up! Thanks to all who stopped by and said hi, or bought books, chatted, etc.

The blogger bash was later that eve. A very nice group of people. Travis turned up there too, along with ol' pal Esme Raji Codell, Esther Hershenhorn, Betsy Bird, Karen Romano Young... many more. These are just some of the people I talked to. Romy was the life of the party. She seemed to warm up to new pal, Andrew Smith the most. I mean, she let him hold her without totally freaking out. Sadly, we forgot to bring the camera to this event and came back with no pics. Dang.

Julie's signing was the next day. Also a very sweet success. Somewhere around all of these happenings, we managed to bounce around the exhibits floor and pick up books from some of our favorite kid book creators. Romy, strapped to Julie's chest, was front and center for the action.

Anyways... yeah. The weekend was a great time. Now, here are 19 pics to illustrate...


My signing is underway. That's Liz Szabla in the background, editor extraordinaire and pal. What a great smile!



Here I am signing a copy of MIGHTY CASEY for a special someone (not pictured).



I also signed a fat stack of F+G's of my forthcoming, TROUBLE GUM. Note the bin in front with the great F+F-created TROUBLE GUM bubble gum boxes. They were nearly gone at this point.



Uri Shulevitz was signing copies of HOW I LEARNED GEOGRAPHY next door at Roaring Brook. Same time as my signing (guess which line was bigger). Afterwards, he stopped by to talk to Jean Feiwel. I nabbed him so I could get a picture of him with Julie and Romy. A genuinely sweet guy.



Here's the great Jean Feiwel talking with Julie and Romy. Romy is reaching for something, no doubt, to try and eat it.



Here I am with good ol' pal, Jeff Newman. Jeff is a talented author/illustrator who lives up in Milwaukee. And he's tall!



Jeff met Julie and Romy for the first time. Later, Romy showed Jeff her famous spit-up-down-Mom's-arm routine.



Here I am changing a diaper on the conference floor. You know how we do.



Julie at her signing. Romy was a great cheerleader.



An old friend we hadn't seen in years, Liz Mason (manager of Chicago's greatest comic shop, Quimby's), turned up at Julie's signing. It was such a great surprise.



A very happy trio.



Lovely Julie. Lovely Romy. Mo Willems.



Our new pal, Feiwel and Friends novelist, Andrew Smith. He gives good, warm, fatherly vibe.



Kicking back at a display of original art being raffled off to conference attendees. One of which is mine, from TROUBLE GUM. I'm actually lumped in with Uri Shulevitz, Laura Vaccaro Seeger, Peter McCarty, and Danica Novgorodoff!



One more for posterity.



Julie and Romy pose with talented pic book author/illustrator, Peter Brown.



ALA pal, Nina Hess signs at Wizards of the Coast booth, her Practical Guide to Monsters. You should've seen the line she had! Nice, Nina.



Julie and Feiwel and Friends friend, Ksenia Winnicki. I learned that she actually had a part in production of one of my previous books, RIGHTY AND LEFTY.



In our final hours at the conference, Julie and I did a double-header signing. Well, triple header. Check out that scrumptious Romy smile!


And... That's it for another ALA conference.

Next stop... San Diego Comic-con! Yeah!