SNEAK PREVIEW!

THE FOG MOUND is the title of a trilogy of graphic novels that we will publish with Simon and Schuster, beginning in 2006. This is from the copy that will be on the book jacket of the first volume:

In ancient times human beings ruled the Earth -- at least that's what the old legends claim. But is it true?

Thelonious Chipmunk is a Talker -- an animal who has inherited the gift of language from his ancestors -- and he, for one, believes in humans. Who else could have made the old paper postcard he treasures? Who else could have built the tall building shown on the postcard? His desire to know more about the humans is fulfilled in a surprising and dangerous way when Thelonious is swept down the river into a strange new world -- a world of architectural ruins and puzzling artifacts, where gangs and warlords prowl amongst the crumbling remains of civilization.

With three new companions -- a bear, a porcupine, and a small brown lizard -- Thelonious embarks on a search for the far-off Fog Mound. It is a journey that becomes nothing less than a quest to uncover the secrets of Earth's past.

We are now working on the first volume of these books, which are intended for kids eight to twelve, more or less. To see a sneak preview of three pages from chapter three, click here.

WHALE COMIX

Buller's latest job was painting cartoons on a five-foot long fiberglass whale. This is for a charity event in southeastern Connecticut called The Whale Trail. The idea is derived from the Cow Parade project started in Chicago several years ago, in which dozens of fiberglass cows were passed out to various artists. The cows were then painted or otherwise decorated by the artists, usually in a whimsical vein. The cows were displayed in front of the businesses or institutions that sponsored them for several months, and then auctioned off at some sort of gala blow-out, with all of the money taken in by the auction going to various charities. Since then the idea has been adapted to many other regions, using various other animals. In southeastern Connecticut, we are doing whales. Buller's whale was sponsored by the Old Lyme Marketplace, which is the shopping center in Old Lyme that is home to the A & P, the Bowerbird gift shop, and many other stores. The shopping center allowed Buller to work on his whale in the storefront recently vacated by Adelphia Cable. The whale is now finished and now sits in its summer location in front of the Old Lyme Marketplace. The whales will be auctioned off November 18, in an event at the Mystic Marriott, in Mystic, CT. There was an article about the Whale Trail project in the Connecticut section of The New York Times, with a photo of Buller and whale. The whale also had a conversation with Zippy the Pinhead in the syndicated comic strip of the same name.

OUR 47TH BOOK!

Or is it only our 46 and 1/4th, since we did this book as a team project, along with three other author-illustrators -- Dana Regan, Sally Warner, and Jill Weber? In any case, it is called SMART ABOUT THE FIRST LADIES, and has lots of information about the women who have been married to the presidents of the United States. It is another of those books that is supposedly written by kids, so we had to pretend we were nine years old while we were working on this one -- our specialty

Webmeister: Jon Buller