A book I illustrated earlier this year has just been published. Day of the Field Trip Zombies was a project I did for Stone Arch Books. It’s a 32-page graphic novel designed to help elementary-aged boys improve their reading skills. It’s got everything a boy could want: action, humor, and zombie penguins!
I’ve illustrated seven children’s books, but until now the closest I’d come to comic books was inking two issues of Opposite Forces (a fun comic book mini-series created by Tom Bancroft), and illustrating a cartoon gospel tract. This was my first time actually pencilling and inking a full comic book on my own.
This project gave me a new appreciation for the work real comic book artists do. It’s one thing to illustrate a children’s book with just one image per page; it’s quite another thing to organize several images on the same page. Not only does each panel have to be well-composed, but you also have to think about the composition of the page as a whole and how the visual flow affects the pacing of the story. It’s a lot of work! Honestly I have to say I pulled it off with mixed results, but I sure learned a lot in the process.