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The Bad Egg

SEPTEMBER 6, 2010
© Bill Mayer 2010

The Bad Egg © Bill Mayer 2010
I woke up Tuesday morning with a little idea for a story, I had thought about exploring the Goldfish / Death of Frogs style a bit and what better way to do it than in a sweet little story. I came into the studio and painted a few illustration’s . When I stuck those on the scanner at 11:30 I started writing the little story down. I finished it and printed it out at 12:00 just in time to read it to Lee over lunch. She liked it so when I got back from lunch I did a few more, then went for a walk up the mountain. I walk everyday , it’s a great way to clear the head. When I got back I showed the story to my grandson Forest and he edited it, we had our editor artist meeting around 4:30 when he got home from school, He suggested adding a few more frames to flush it out a bit. Wednesday  and Thursday morning I finished adding the new frames ,designed a cover title page and back cover. The last children’s book I did for Simon and Schuster took a year and a half of waiting drawing and revising this was a real treat to do the whole book in two and a half days. Thursday after noon I got some direction from the Harford Stage thumbnails I posted last may, you remember those? I barely did myself. But finally on to final sketches and hopefully finish. This little exorcize was pretty fun. Not sure if it would be a Caldecot winner but I hope you will enjoy it just the same.
Naturally © Bill Mayer 2010

 This story may not be for your kids ,I guess it's really more of an adult folk tale. It's a loving story about parenthood and how all of the love and caring will sometimes not keep the baby from eating the parents.And yes Yuko, been thinking about a name to use, maybe not Japanese name though, I was thinking Edgar Oddskin .Edgar for Edgar Allen Poe,it's the 200th anniversary and Odskin because it just sounded funny and Odd ....or maybe Sal Monelli...or Sal Monella? The End ?..... Well maybe for the parents.When I read this story to Lee she said...YES...when I showed it to  my niece in Los Angeles who has a one year old,she said "Oh no...., you don't have to kill the parents..." Let me know what you think. Many apologies for having to show these twenty inch sreads as  three inch spots but I think you can get an idea how it would go. right now rethinking some of the images seem a bit repetative and I could explore more of the size relationship to the ants and the objects compositions in the spreads.  Here is a link to Issue presentation love to here your suggestions or comments.
The Bad Egg

© 2024 Bill Mayer