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Boov Fashion

Working on SMEK FOR PRESIDENT!, I've been wondering what my alien J.Lo would be wearing after living on Earth for a while. He only had the one Boovish uniform, after all.

Winter Weather

Summery.

What Sort of Man Reads PlayBoov?

This seems right.

Filk Song!

Amazing song about THE TRUE MEANING of SMEKDAY by a teen named Rosie. Makes me so happy.

New Smek City

Fan Letter Fan

Everybody can stop writing fan letters now.  We've summited:

Hello Abraham Superlincoln,

My name is Gargantuan Space Scum. No. Actually, it’s Ian. Ian O. You can’t forget the O. Because I’m Ian O. and my friend is Ian K.. So we don’t get called Ian. We get called either Ian O. or Ian K.. Anyway. I am a 4^th grader and I live in Seattle, Washington.                             After I read your book Cold Cereal, my friends Adam and Kate read it. Then we started talking about Gorn, Weet, Noats, and Gorn-free, the Gornless Gorn substitute. Then we came up with a new type of Weet. Hole Weet. We thought it could be a new, healthier, type of ingredient that Goodco puts in their cereal. That’s my suggestion for a new ingredient called Hole Weet. If you like it or don’t like it or whatever, please write back.

Then also, one day I was eating cereal. I was thinking about your book because I was eating cereal. I thought of some new book titles for your next two books (if you make the Cold Cereal Saga a trilogy).

Frozen Oatmeal (or Frozen Porridge)

Sub-Zero Museli (or Sub-Zero Granola)

Those are my suggestions for book titles. If you like them or don’t like them or whatever, please write back.

               This letter has been written in crude handwriting by Gargantuan Space Scum.

P.S. Your book, The True Meaning of Smekday, has been officially proclaimed by me as my number one, all-time favorite book ever.

P.S.S. Your book, Cold Cereal, has been officially proclaimed by me as my number five, all-time favorite book ever.

Chocolate Rain, Redux

J.Lo, Painted

Recent painting of that recent drawing of J.Lo I posted earlier.

Come Along and Ride on a Smektastic Voyage

I mentioned a while back that the paperback edition of The True Meaning of Smekday is out in paperback, and features a new 2-page story that didn't appear in hardcover. Naturally, I wanted to entice people to buy the new edition. But it's been out for a couple months, so I'm now willing to give the new short story away to readers of this blog. I want those people who were kind enough to read Smekday in hardback to read these two pages, so if you know such a person, please send them here.
Click the image to enlarge.

Click image for larger view.

Happy Halloween!

An interior illustration from The True Meaning of Smekday.

Another Star!

The True Meaning of Smekday has earned a starred review from Publisher's Weekly, which writes, "Who knew the end of the world could be so hilarious?...Parallels between the Boov and European settlers and their treatment of Native Americans deepen the impact of the story, but the author goes well beyond delivering a single political message. Incorporating dozens of his weird and wonderful illustrations and fruitfully manipulating the narrative structure, Rex skewers any number of subjects, from Disney World to various fleeting fads."
I've also just learned that The True Meaning of Smekday is one of the New York Public Library Best Books of 2007! Hooha!

The True Meaning of Smekday – Making the Cover 3

So here's the cover we selected and I painted again, in case you didn't see it the first time. This is what the jacket will look like when the books ship in September:

But, waste not, want not. I still liked the flying car cover idea, so it became the book's title page:

And, finally, I used another of the concepts on the book's case–you'll have to lift the dust jacket to see this "alternate cover."

Incidentally, if you'd like to learn a little more about The True Meaning of Smekday, click here.

The True Meaning of Smekday – Making the Cover 2

So here are four cover ideas that I sort of settled on as my best bets. The story features, among other things, a road trip in a flying car, a theme park with the Snow Queen's castle at its center, and large spaceships that have fish bowl-like tops and hose-tentacled lower halves. This is hopefully enough information to understand why I liked these images.

The True Meaning of Smekday – Making the Cover

Here are a number of thumbnails and sketches of potential covers for my fall novel, The True Meaning of Smekday. I sketched out more ideas for this cover than I do for most–I was just really excited about this project, and the story is such that it didn't suggest an obvious solution to me early on as some do.

I had high hopes for something like the setch below, but on paper it didn't seem to work as well as it did in my head. In fact, I wonder if anyone other than me can even tell what's going on.

More soon.