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Is it a Book?

speartoons — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:29:41 +0000

I read an interesting blog entitled, “I Declare the War is Over: We need a new word for the things we used to call books.” The premise is we are in an era where the traditional book doesn’t adequately describe the many ways we package book content.

The article complemented the Pew research study that says e-reader and tablet ownership nearly doubled over the holiday season.

This threatens many people within publishing. But should it? All these readers still need content. Without something to read or view, e-readers are useless. Authors and publishers need to come to grips with the fact we are in the content business, not the product business.

I’ve come to realize we’ve fooled ourselves over the millennia. Publishers claimed it was all about the content, but the profit came in the physical book. We claimed the ideas within the books were important, but we were really selling the pages and cover.

Now that we’ve entered a new age, the ideas within the “book” really will matter. Let’s start selling worthy content, and not worry about what form it could take. Leave that to the consumers.

The businesses that the most to lose are the printers, not the publishers. Heaven help them!

Locusts for Lunch

speartoons — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 13:41:30 +0000

This is an activity book cover I did for Warner Press entitled, Locusts for Lunch. This book holds a little place in my heart because it was one of the first I wrote, illustrated and designed. It was fun planning the word and graphic activities as well as telling the story.

I thought this title would be perfect for this week’s Illustration Friday word. The word is “swarm.”

No Atmosphere

speartoons — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:25:29 +0000

Cartoon of a couple looking inside a restaurant. Two diners are gasping for air while another wears an oxygen mask. The guy looking in the restaurant says, “I hear the food is great, but there isn’t much atmosphere.”

I drew this in 2007 for Apologia Educational Ministries for one of their science textbooks. It fit the bill for Illustration Friday this week. The word is “atmosphere.”

PC Album

speartoons — Wed, 19 May 2010 05:00:28 +0000

Cartoon of children, a dad and mom looking at photos. The mom is angry and says, “There isn’t one picture of me of the kids in here! It’s nothing but shots of your computer!”

If you find yourself taking more picture of your computer than your family, you have a problem. It’s time to go to Techies Anonymous and admit your addiction. I’d advice you not to take your Blackberry so you can check email during the meeting.

This is an illustration I did back in 1996 for the sixth edition of the “New Rider’s Internet Yellow Pages.” New Rider’s Publishing and me own the copyright to this image. Please do not use without permission.

Lavishly Illustrated

speartoons — Wed, 05 May 2010 05:00:59 +0000

Cartoon of a boy and a librarian. The boy asks, “How can you tell if a picture book is just illustrated or lavishly illustrated?”Most times, when a publisher describes their picture book, they say it’s lavishly illustrated. Does that mean it has real gold leaf and uses the most expensive dyes in the process? It could mean the illustrator used Photoshop Extended instead of the standard version!

I lavishly drew this in Adobe Illustrator with a little Photoshop thrown in.