Monday, April 09, 2012

Nursery Rhyme Comics: Little Boy Blue

I received great news from Chris Duffy the other day that Nursery Rhyme Comics has been nominated for Eisner Awards in two categories: Best Publication for Kids (age 7 and under) and Best Anthology. Wow! This is surely exciting news for everyone at First Second Books, and all of the 50 cartoonists whose comics are featured in the book.

A lot of you in the comics community should be eligible to vote. And congratulations to all of the nominees this year!

You may recall an earlier post from last fall, but this announcement reminded me that I never shared my full comic online. As mentioned, editor Chris Duffy assigned me the nursery rhyme "Little Boy Blue". Here is my initial pencil rough. (click both images to view much larger)


Chris always gives fantastic notes, and encouraged me to open the title panel and add a third image to the sleep sequence showing the little blue bird tucking the boy in to sleep.


I broke away from my typical color palette to try something a little more storybook comics vintage. It was definitely a fun assignment and an enormous honor to be invited into this book. My parents (being the BEST parents), purchased several copies to give out to the children they take care of as Christmas gifts. They were a huge hit—some of the kids still insist on having them read each night before they go to bed (several months later!). And one of the parents, a first grade teacher, said that a lot of her students aren't familiar with nursery rhymes. So, what a great way to introduce these stories to children for the first time.

It's fun to finally share my comic, and if for some reason you still haven't gotten your hands on this treasure of a book, you can find copies online and at your local book store.

1 comment:

Mike Rauch said...

Hoorah! Congrats to you and everybody else that contributed to the book. Your Little Boy Blue comic is really fun and inventive. Kinda makes me want to see it animated.