Tag Archives: picture book

Mayor Sly and the Magic Bow Tie

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I seem to be in the habit of discussing my book projects on Tuesdays.

Last fall, I was contacted by my friends at Ascend Books to illustrate an exciting project for them. It was (drumroll, please) Mayor Sly and the Magic Bow Tie: A Kansas City Adventure.

The book was written by Aja James and Audrey Masoner with Kansas City’s current mayor Sly James. Mayor James is quite famous for his colorful bow ties. In this story, he wears a magic time-travel bow tie that allows him to travel through Kansas City history. This book required a LOT of visual research into the people and places Aja and Audrey wrote about. The scenes in modern day are in full color while the past sequences are in a limited color scheme. (And different colors for every time period.) Here are a few of my favorite images from the book:

Mayor Sly James admires the view from roof of his office. I was provided with photos of the rooftop view to get it as accurate as possible.

On the river with Lewis and Clark. The two faces and clothing of the men are based on old paintings of them.

 This historic building is now known as Kelly’s.

Mayor Sly meets Harry Truman and Walt Disney.  Notice that Walt has a mouse on his sketchpad. It’s not quite Mickey– I based it on a mouse I found on a movie poster from Disney’s Laugh-O-Gram studios to make it as period accurate as possible.

This is the first Plaza Christmas lighting. I made as certain as possible which Plaza building was lit and where they hung the lights. I couldn’t find a photo of the man’s face who hung the first lights so I obscured it from view.

If you’re interested in the book, you can find it on Amazon at the link below:

Go Cubs Go! Pages

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As promised, here are a few page spreads from my new picture book, “Go Cubs Go!” In it, Grandpa Bruno shows his grandkids his Cubs baseball scrapbook and mementoes. The book follows both the history of the Cubs and Bruno’s life.

If you like what you see, you can pre-order the book on Amazon (or at your local bookstore.)

Go Cubs Go!

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cubs-cover1

I just completed work on the picture book “Go Cubs Go!” which is the unauthorized history of the Chicago Cubs as seen through the eyes of Grandpa Bruno Bear. It’s written by Marv Levy with historical contribution by George Castle and published by Ascend Books.

This was the fastest turn-around I ever had on a picture book, completing all the illustrations in just 2 and 1/2 weeks! (I drank lots of caffeine to make that happen.) The publisher hopes to have the book out in time for Christmas

I’ll post more details and some images from the book later this week. Until then, here’s a link to the book on Amazon: