Trowbridge Research trip

I guess I'll go first...

My lunchtime read-and-look over the last couple days has been James Gurney's link on his blog, Gurney Journey, to Harry Anderson's amazing work. He was one of the 20th Century's great illustrators. I admired his work as a kid. Don't just look at the pictures...read the text too. It's fascinating.

I just finished a map of the Seattle area for the Union Gospel Mission. They wanted to show in a humorous way the ten different facilities that they maintain in the Seattle area. It will be posted on my Fun Maps USA web site real soon.

Just posted...I just finished a cartoon map for The Famous Radio Ranch in Los Angeles. Owner Dick Orkin is the creator and star of the renowned Chicken Man radio series ("He's everywhere! He's everywhere!"). I was a faithful Chicken Man listener on Armed Forces Radio when I was overseas in the army. Do you remember Chicken Man?

In a couple weeks I'll be leaving the Western Hemisphere with my faithful research assistant and wife, Jacquie. Our destination: a remote island in the South Seas, called Mangaia. In my Trowbridge shrew research I recently got a tip that there is strong evidence of ancient Trowbridge shrew colonization on this and other remote islands in Polynesia and Melanesia. I want to see if there is a connection between the shrew colonies in the Mongolian steppes (Shrew Khan) and those in the South Sea islands. This research will hopefully lend credibility to my theory that the Trowbridge shrews began in Asia and "leap-frogged" their way to the Americas. I'm sure the results of my research will be turning up in the Trowbridge Chronicles in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned.

So...as I'm preparing for the big trip last night, my office phone rings. "Uh-oh," I mutter, " I hope it's not a new project." It is...30 detailed Bible illustrations, due on January 3rd. Like a fool, I accepted the job. It looks like I'll be drawing on the plane to, and from the South Seas.

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Best Illustration Job

It would be hard to pick one "best" illustration job after all these years. But my Great Thistledown Flood comes to mind because it was the first kids' book that I wrote and illustrated, and I was honored to have it voted a Gold Medallion Honor Book at the CBA Convention. That book was day and night seven days a week for five months. I remember getting a call from a school principal one night...he told me that his daughter read to him for the first time that day...from my Thistledown book. And another call from California late one night...someone couldn't find the ladybug that I hid on a page from Thistledown, and she was deeply distressed.

And the Where's Dan Quayle? and Where's Charles and Di? books were an unforgettable memory. Because they sold into the hundreds of thousands I was getting constant calls from newspapers and radio stations all over the country for interviews, and featured in People Magazine, Time, Newsweek, USA Today and many other major mags. I was even booked onto David Letterman because of the Dan Quayle book (but they canceled out the day I was supposed to leave for New York because they thought the book might stir up too much controversy). So it was exciting, but again both books were day and night seven days a week for five months, and allowed me to attend the ABA Convention at the publisher's expense.

Sigh...it seems this day and night job never gets any easier. Now Mrs. Trowbridge is the cruel task mistress.

Best Illustration Job

Illustrating THE ADVENTURES OF CALI was sheer joy for me! The Publisher and author were fantastic to work with, and the story is touching without being sappy. The idea that a little boy actually carried a caterpillar all the way from California's countryside to an apartment in Flordia IN A SALAD was too much fun to pass up. To make the book even more fun the publisher had the printer make the cover illustration of the caterpillar all sparkly. A finger puppet and another toy are coming soon to partner with the book.

Best Illustration Job - Sort It Out

For me it seems that the current project I am working on is the best. Sort It Out just hit the spot for me. I have loved illustrating all the books I have had the honor to illustrate. But, so far this one has been such a great fit I can't even say how much fun I am having. Everything about it just works.