Poetry Friday

My poem for this week is taken from the amazingly funny book Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich by Adam Rex. I absolutely adore all of Adam Rex's work. And this book, along with its sequel Frankenstein Takes the Cake, are my favorite Halloween books. They are filled with silly monster pictures and poems in all different styles. There's the poor Phantom of the Opera who keeps getting popular songs in his head. There's the Creature from the Black Lagoon who goes swimming to quickly after eating. In Takes the Cake, there is the Headless Horseman blogging about his edibility woes. There's Medusa talking about her problems in school. All of them unique and all very funny. Plus Adam is constantly throwing in little jokes on every portion of the book. His books are the only ones where I regularly read the copyright information. And laugh. I don't often push books but if you haven't read these you must.

Count Dracula Doesn't Know He's Been Walking Around All Night With Spinach In His Teeth.
by Adam Rex

Will someone please just tell him? It looks so undignified.
The zombies almost mentioned it. The Headless Horseman tried.
But when he said, "Vhat are you staring at?" they lost their nerve and lied

It's been stuck in there for hours now. It's getting kind of sick.
I would offer him a toothpick, but he gets this nervous tic
if you ever come too close with any kind of pointed stick.

Well, really. Can you blame us if we don't know what to say?
His castle has no mirrors, so I guess it's there to stay.
What was a vampire doing eating spinach anyway?

Idiot Box Art

For the last year or so (ever since reading The True Meaning of Smekday) I've been following Adam Rex's blog. He's great about putting up sketches and some of his conceptual art. He even puts up characters he's drawn that are waiting to be placed in a story. I love his art style and I love his sense of humor. 

The last couple weeks he has been showing his blog readers the stages of a painting he's working on. He started with conceptual drawings and we have gotten to follow it all the way up to finished piece. The painting is part of a show going on at Gallery 1988 and is an homage to 1980s television shows. The show is called Idiot Box. Rex's contribution is an image from the terrible TV show Small Wonders. So when he linked to the show this past week I had to check it out. And there were some great contributions. 

They had everything from The Snorks, Gumby, The "A" Team, Sesame Street, Alf, Saved By the Bell, Ren & Stimpy, and dozens more. I was in heaven. These are all shows I know and sadly all shows I watched. The art includes oils, watercolors, diorama, sculpture, screenprints, woodcuts, and collage. There is just a ton of artwork there, all for sale. I even thought about picking up one of the Fraggle Rock pieces. I'm sure I probably can't afford it though. (when I went back it had already sold for $2,500, well above my price range!) For anyone who's a child of the Eighties (like I am) you need to check it out. Here are a couple of my favorite pieces. 

McGyver by Wade Schin (and yes I had to check out his website after seeing this.) This piece has already sold.

The Fraggle Rock piece I wanted by Ewelina Ferruso. I love the texture on the trash. Already sold.

And the awesome Schoolhouse Rock collage by Patrick Gannon. Again already sold. 

Check out all the other pieces. A very cool gallery exhibit. 

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Okay by the time I'm actually writing this, it is Sunday morning. I've had family in town all weekend and have been busy with them. I figure I can sacrifice some sleep to write. Oh what am I talking about, I'm never in bed before 2 on weekends. 

As I've mentioned a couple times I'm a huge fan of animation. Originally that was simply Disney films but over the years I have developed a love for all types of animation. Perhaps the same part of my brain that adores children's books, is stimulated by a simple animated film. I had started reading Adam Rex's blogs a year ago or so. And Adam Rex led me to Irene Gallo at Tor. Tor is a wonderful fantasy/Sci-Fi publisher and Irene works with the art side of the business. Let me think, fantasy and artwork. A perfect combination for me. 

And then I found the Saturday Morning Cartoon segment of the blog. I spent a couple days watching each of the animated features. Irene adds a new pair either weekly or every other week. Recent addition Al Dente is classic animation telling the very disturbing and sweet story of a little girl outsmarting a giant. One Rat Short, posted back in October 2008, is one of the saddest, most emotionally complex 10 minutes I've ever seen. I has more personality than some full length features I've seen. How Wings Are Attached to the Backs of Angels is disturbing, dark, and oddly hypnotic. Space Alone is very sad but cute. And Wind Along the Coast or When the Day Breaks just make me happy for reasons I can't describe. Any of the films posted is wonderful in their own way. 

Adam Rex and Halloween

The leaves are falling fast now and the nights are getting pretty cold. I have pulled out my wool socks. All of this means that it's fall. And with fall comes Halloween. I'm actually in the mood for the season this year. Normally I dread fall because of what follows it. This year I'm really excited for the cool temperatures and the beautiful fall colors. And to celebrate the upcoming holiday I have purchased Adam Rex's books on monsters.

I make it no secret that I absolutely adore Adam Rex's work. I started by reading The True Meaning of Smekday and went out to buy everything he's illustrated or written. The next one that ended up in my home was Pssst, a cute little story about a little girl who's trip to the zoo turns into a shopping trip with an unusual ending. Rex tells the story through words and pictures but it is his fantastic illustration that keep you coming back for more. Everywhere you look on the page is a fun little detail. The humor is sometimes silly, sometimes dry but always fun.

Adam Rex has two books about Frankenstein filled with hilarious poems. In his first book in the series, Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich, he gives us poems about how the Phantom of the Opera can't get familiar tunes out of his head. Poems about the invisible man getting a haircut, the creature from the black lagoon who goes swimming too early after eating. My favorite is a wonderful poem about how Dracula has spinach in he teeth and no one knows how to tell him. All the poems are different but all of them are hilarious.

The new book is Frankenstein Takes the Cake. This is possibly even better than the first. In this one we follow Frankenstein as he gets married to his bride. My favorite pages have the Headless Horseman as he writes a blog about people wanting to eat his head, and why he wants people to stop copying his look. Please take note that those are not illustrations but pictures. Adam made the head and photographed it. Adam writes a wonderful little poem about Medusa and her problems in school. Even the dust jacket and the inside pages have jokes. They are everywhere. The thing about Adam is you have to read everything: signs, copyright information....

So here are two books that are perfect for the upcoming holiday. I recommend them to both kids and adults. Kids will love the humorous rhymes, and adults will love all the cute references and inside jokes in the pictures. I don't often tell people that you have to buy books, but you really do need to buy these. If you do pick up his books and enjoy them, also check out Adam Rex's blog at http://adamrex.blogspot.com.

P.S. The actual titles of the books are

Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich and Other Stories You're Sure to Like Because They're All About Monsters and Some of Them Are Also About Food. You Like Food, Don't You? Well Alright Then.

and

Frankenstein Takes the Cake Which is Full of Funny Stuff Like Rotting Heads and Giant Gorillas and Zombies Dressed Like Little Girls and Edgar Allen Poe. The Book, We Mean--Not the Cake.

Yeah even those are hilarious. I love this man's work.

To see how he made the Headless Horseman's head, check out this amazing blog entry on the always wonderful 7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast.

http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1398