Entries by johnmanders

The president’s poster design contest

President Obama would like to promote a new jobs bill.  Shepard Fairey‘s posters were a big part of the president’s 2008 campaign so this time around Obama for America is running a contest for best poster design.  There are no cash prizes.  The designer must surrender all rights to his design to Obama for America. […]

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The opening shot

Here’s the first spread from my upcoming book The Really Awful Musicians.  It’s about what happens to a band of musicians—who play pretty badly—as they escape from a country where the king has banned all music. I drew the thumbnail sketch first when I was figuring out how to tell the story.  Next is a […]

The Really Awful Musicians are coming…

Yes, the long-awaited soon-to-be-a-beloved-classic The Really Awful Musicians will be hitting the ol’ bookshelves December 19th!  This is my first time out as both author & illustrator. If you happen to be in northwestern Pennsylvania in December, be sure to stop by Graffiti Gallery in Oil City where I’ll be exhibiting artwork from The Really […]

27B

My studio in the National Transit Building is over 100 years old with lots of oak woodwork and a well-worn door that looks like it should be to the office of a private eye. Having more or less caught up with my deadlines, I took a little time to finally put my name and studio […]

I’m looking for an intern—

—who lives in Venango County, Pa & is interested in picturebook illustration. It will be 2-3 hours/day, Mon-Thur for 6 weeks. You help me paint and I’ll help you develop your portfolio.  You can e-mail me at Jmanders@aol.com

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Squid for lunch

Here’s a spread from Pirates Go To School.  The verse describes a pirate’s lunch as slimy squid and crackers for their parrots—in the thumbnail sketch I drew squid on a cracker.  The art director asked me to show a pirate eating the squid and the parrot eating a cracker, as you see in the tight […]

Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day!

It be Talk Like A Pirate Day, cullies!  What better excuse to while away the dogwatches with a copy of Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies?  And finally—it’s available in Chinese!

Today in 1803…

…Lewis and Clark shoved off from Pittsburgh’s Point where the Allegheny and Monongahela join to form the mighty Ohio River. What better excuse to grab a copy of Lewis and Clark, A Prairie Dog for the President?