For many years I fancied myself a painter, but I was never really that good (I admit it now). I’ve been all over the map: games, music, a movie, a musical, a bunch of albums, two magazines, a puppet circus. Every single one a commercial failure. So I guess I’m lucky.
I love to learn, but I had a terrible formal education, or maybe I was just terrible during my formal education. Either way, I had a lot of catching up to do. I still remember bursting into tears IN PUBLIC when I read that men and women have the same number of ribs. Ugh.
So. Level 1: read a book. Level 2: read it twice (it’s never boring, try it). Level 3: after you’ve read it a few times, take it all the way apart and put it back together in a whole new style with all new illustrations. You really learn the book. I’ve done it about 16 times now, for a total of 26 books. I only do books that shake me.
I never meant to rerelease them. They’re a by-product of the process, I like how they turned out, and I send them to the authors as a thank you. Of course, if no one asked you to redesign their book, no one pays you, so there’s no financial plan behind any of this. The learning is the thing. Still, it would be great to share them. A number of them are in the public domain, so 2026 might be the year I find an editor and move forward. I just adopted kittens, so we’ll see.
The authors haven’t always understood. Most just ignore me, and one I couldn’t find. Chad Orzel, who wrote How to Teach Physics to Your Dog (OMG, what a book!), was super cool. He emailed to say it “made his day,” so, one success! Pema Chödrön got the last one. She’s amazing.
I’m done making books for a while. What fun. The journey is incredible.
