Rocket Boy
Preschool-3rd grade, 32 pages, David Godine Books, ISBN 978-1567925876
The inspiration behind the book:
Rocket Boy is the story of a child dreaming his way into maturity. His dream begins with childish drawings, but then he draws too well, and his rocket comes to life. He sees it fly out over the city and begins to worry, and a feeling of responsibility dawns on him. He draws a car, and chases his errant rocket down into an underworld of friendly animals and a lonely girl. They become friends and he draws pictures of the animals for her as gifts, and makes a portrait of her.
A light blinks on his car’s dashboard, a signal from his other life that it’s time to come home. He blasts off and lands back in his bed, where he wakes, rubs his eyes, and draws the memory of the girl on a new page.
Aphorisms
Limited edition illustrated woodcut book, The Bow and Arrow Press
The inspiration behind the book:
Aphorisms began as a project suggested to me by William Cole in 1991, then a Harvard University graduate student. Bill’s uncle was a well known print dealer, and Bill aspired to follow in his uncle’s footsteps and was looking for an artist to create an original book in the tradition of French illustrated books. During Bill’s years at Harvard, he had learned about the Bow and Arrow Press, and we utilized its great collection of Vandercook printing presses and old lead type to print 89 copies of this book.
Each month, for nine months, I produced one woodcut to match each of eight of Bill’s aphorisms, and one for a title page. These where loosely based on Albrecht Dürer’s and his compatriots’ woodcuts.
Unpublished story images and ideas:
This is a page from my unfinished book Mute Swan
This is another page from Mute Swan
Vera and her family (my family) 1939, a page from my ongoing memoir.
Drawing from my memoir; Vera helps me tell the story.
This is a page from my memoir, the most recent one I've drawn. You can see I've included figures from Tintin books. I hope this is allowed, because it makes sense to me for this French town in the early 1940's. The word "streem" is misspelled; I keep meaning to go back and fix it.
This is the first page from my book Rocket Boy.
This is later in Rocket Boy, when the rocket has flown the coop.
Here, boy meets girl in an underground world of animals.
Here the boy is about to wake from his dream, and be subtly different.
Pen and ink drawing of seagull against night sky. This drawing is an illustration for a poem I wrote called "The Night Whir."
Pen and ink drawing of boy looking at a moonlit sea. I'm not a poet but I once thought I might be.
Pen and ink drawing of an old-fashioned car driving next to the ocean. This also goes with my poem "The Night Whir."
Pen and ink drawing of a boy's head on a pillow. I think I wrote the poem when I was in High School. I'm an insomniac, and the night is very alive for me.
The sleeping brothers at the beginning of Persian Marbles.
Drawing of two boys from the unfinished book Persian Marbles
Drawing for unfinished book Persian Marbles
Drawing for unfinished book Persian Marbles
Graphite drawing of crows from the unfinished book Persian Marbles
Pen and ink sketch for an unfinished book