Fuzzy BaseBALLoween, that is. My fifth Fuzzy Baseball book combines baseball with everyone’s favorite spooky holiday. Generally, baseball season only overlaps with Halloween halfway through the World Series. But I wanted the Fuzzies to play a team full of monster-ish characters, so I needed to come up with a premise to make that happen.
The book has a prologue where the fictionalized version of my editor demands that the next Fuzzy Baseball book be a holiday book. The fictionalized version of me pitches a number of holiday titles (Gobble Gobble Grounder…Ho-Ho Home Run… Kwanza Kurveball…) but he rejects them all, until as a last resort I pitch a Halloween book.
As the story begins the Fuzzies are at the World Series, but they are spectators, not participants. As soon as they express a desire to play one last game a bat in a tuxedo appears (Count Flappula) and offers them the opportunity to play a game against his team, the Graveyard Ghastlies, on Halloween night.
The Ghastlies are not monsters, but they are based on animals that are less than cuddly. There is an aye-aye, a fanged dear, and fanged toad, an Egyptian vulture, a great auk (extinct), and a naked mole-rat (clothed). There is also a werewolf, a ghostly walrus and a creature that is a polar bear/panda hybrid. When I illustrated their “team photo” I tried to emulate the cross hatching style of Edward Gorey. The name of the team, “Ghastlies”, is also an homage to Gorey.
In addition to the Ghastlies I created around 2 dozen ghouls and goblins in striped footy pajamas. Their design is inspired more by Tim Burton and Monster’s Inc than by Gorey. Their appearance represents a major plot twist in the story, so I don’t want to give that away here. But I will say this, if you want a celebration of Halloween that's more silly than spooky, you should check out Fuzzy Baseball #5: Fuzzy BaseBALLoween.
My fourth Fuzzy Baseball graphic novel is Di-NO Hitters. I was excited to create a team consisting of dinosaurs and pterasaurs, the Triassic Park Titans. It was my first book with dinosaur characters since my debut picture book (as author and illustrator) Dinosaur Train.
I really wanted to have fun with the size difference between the two teams and play with the scale. Some members of the Triassic Park Titans are so large they don’t even fit on the pages! Is it necessarily an advantage to be so oversized in baseball? What are the pros and cons?
And, to develop that concept further, to get into position Hammy Sosa, the Fuzzies’ catcher, needs to climb up on various size ladders.
I also wanted to play with the idea that the dinosaurs are from a different time period. Their uniforms are extremely vintage, and there is a debate among the Fuzzies as to whether or not the Titans have kept up with the current developments of the game. Are they too “old school”? Or are they masters of certain fundamentals that haven’t changed with time?
One of the challenges in depicting dinosaurs in a book, (even in a comedic, non-fiction book) is that the scientific understanding of them always seems to be changing. Were they fast or slow? How many of them had feathers? What colors were they? In order to head off any such criticisms, I invented an antagonist, Professor Rufus DeTerrier. The professor keeps interrupting the story pointing out inaccuracies. As the author, I insert myself into the story to remind him that this is an imaginative work of non-fiction, and, as such, I am not obligated to be scientifically accurate in how I depict my characters.
Tuesday, January 24, 2023
Fuzzy Baseball #3: R.B.I. Hitters
It looks like I haven’t posted anything here in almost 4 years (I thought it was longer!) so I’ll try to catch up, a little bit at a time. Since my last post I’ve created two more Fuzzy Baseball books. Fuzzy Baseball #3: R.B.I. RobotsandFuzzy Baseball #4: DiNO Hitters, andFuzzy Baseball Triple Play, which consists of books #1-3. And, I just delivered all of the artwork to Papercutz forFuzzy Baseball #5: Fuzzy BaseBALLoween, which is due to be published in August of 2023. I’ll take this opportunity to write a little bit aboutR.B.I. Robots.
I wanted the Fuzzies to play a team full of robots, the Geartown Clankees. Designing the characters was particularly challenging. Typically, our image of a robot is a machine made to look human. But in the “universe” of Fuzzy Baseball, all of the characters are anthropomorphic (human-looking) animals, so the robots in the story need to look like mechanical anthropomorphic animals, rather than mechanical humans. And if that wasn’t complicated enough, when the Clankees arrive they are wearing animal disguises, to try to hide their robot identities. So, I needed to design the characters and their disguises.
Soon after the game begins it is revealed that the Clankees are robots. The Fuzzies are concerned that it won’t be a fair game because the robots will be too powerful. The robots explain that they are calibrated so that they can play as only well as organic life forms… but no better.
After the umps consult the rule book (there are no rules against robots) it is determined that the game can continue, but the robots are not allowed to recharge during the game. The Fuzzies realize that if they just keep playing their best they can outlast the robots and win.
One of the challenges I have with this series is that I don’t want to always make the opposing team the villains. These robots are very kind. They are playing baseball to experience the joy and comradery of teamwork. But, if it’s not a “Good Guys versus Bad Guys” situation I still need to give the readers something to care about. I decided that Blossom Honey-Possum would have an irrational, lifelong fear of robots. Manager Bo Grizzley lets her sit out the game, but her services might be needed if they go into extra innings (spoiler alert: they do… 38!).
Another twist is that Hammy Sosa is trying to plug his own graphic novel, Pigtown Detective. It’s an action packed story about a hard-boiled detective named Spam Spade. The reader gets a few pages of this pretend graphic novel interspersed within the pages of R.B.I. Robots.
A spread from Pigtown Detective
Fuzzy Baseball #3: R.B.I. Robots is published by Papercutz and is available from Amazon, or from your favorite local bookstore.
I am pleased to announce the publication of Ninja Baseball Blast, aka Fuzzy Baseball #2. I had to create a new team of opponents for the Fuzzies to play in the sequel to my graphic novel Fuzzy Baseball, and I thought it would be fun if they faced a team of baseball ninjas*.
On the surface, the story is about a bit of cross-cultural confusion. There are rumors that baseball played in the Manga Leagueis different, that the players “over there” have secret wisdom and ancient baseball knowledge. Bo Grizzly dismisses this as nonsense and arranges an away game with the Sashimi City Ninjas. Bo insists that “Baseball is baseball” and that there is no difference. Blossom Honey Possum is the only one who orders a book that can teach them the Manga League rules.
The Fuzzies travel to Sashimi City for the big game, and on the surface, the rules seem the same. Bo Grizzly’s advice for his team to play their own way seems to be working. But the Ninjas assume, correctly, that the Fuzzies won’t take the time to understand one major difference (the use of the MORFO BALL). The Ninjas use this to their advantage. It’s generally a safe bet that Americans might not take the time to understand all the cultural differences while traveling abroad.
Baseball was introduced to Japan from America around 1870. In Ninja Baseball BlastI wanted to celebrate many of the fun things that our culture has imported from Japan. The Fuzzies meet ninjas, try sushi, learn from a manga style textbook, and even encounter a giant kaiju (Godzilla is an example of a famous kaiju).
I also wanted to have some fun with the idea of transformation. In Japanese influenced shows cars transform in giant robots, rangers morph into mighty warriors, and little pocket monsters evolve into larger pocket monsters. In English literature Alice goes through many transformations in Wonderland, and Dr. Jekyll transforms into Mr. Hyde. In American movies people transform into werewolves and superheroes all the time. Even Bugs Bunny transforms (when he meets Dr. Jekyll).
As a child my drawing style was influenced by cartoons created by Walt Disney and Warner Brothers. Today the drawing style of American school children is often influenced by Japanese Manga comics, which were created Japanese artists who grew up watching those same American cartoons. It’s amazing the way a culture can absorb an influence from across the globe and transform it into something unique.
But, more than anything else, Ninja Baseball Blast is meant to be funny. As I continue this series ,(#3, RBI Robots, is in the works for next year), I’m hoping that librarians and young readers discover that this is a comedy series, not a sports series. I had a blast creating Ninja Baseball Blast, and it was a fun challenge to choreograph all of the craziness that ensues once the game descends into chaos.
*Purist may assert that the plural of “ninja” is “ninja”, but Merriam Webster and Co tell me that “ninjas” is an acceptable alternative.
I’m very excited to announce the publication of my third book as author and illustrator, The Bossy Pirate. It’s about a boy named Salty Jack who pretends that his bedroom is a pirate ship. His friends help him tie ropes and sheets to serve as rigging and sails. Instantly they are sailing an actual pirate ship on the high seas. Jack barks out orders as the ship sails through waves and past breeching whales. Jack's older sister, a mermaid, swims up to say hello, but refuses to take orders. Jack's friends also grow weary of being ordered about, and decide to abandon ship. Jack is furious. He tries to continue the fantasy by himself, but discovers that playing alone is somehow not as much fun. The next day he invites his friends back and welcomes their creative input, and allows them to give orders, and even steer the ship! The resulting adventure is even grander than before. It includes a purple sea monster, a velociraptor, and a treasure hunt.
There are many great books that explore the theme of bullying. I wanted to write a story about someone who was not exactly a bully, but more of a control freak. Jack is the kind of a child whose imagination is infectious and he is able to sweep his friends along in his vision. I wanted to capture the feeling one gets when one is truly caught up in imaginative play; the sensation of being fully absorbed by the fantasy.
Jack is not willing to let anyone else contribute ideas. He’s not comfortable unless he’s in charge. I have never studied improvisation, but I have heard that one of the golden rules is to never say “no” to someone else’s idea, but always to say “yes… and”, meaning to accept someone else’s idea, and build on it, rather than dismissing it. In the end Jack discovers this golden rule of improvisational play and says “yes” to his friends’ ideas.
The Bossy Pirate is a 48 page picture book. I was thinking that it would be a “reader” when I was writing it, but a librarian friend informed me that there are too many “pirate words” in it for it to truly be considered a reader So, I would say its a picture book for 5-6 year olds, but I still think it would make a good reader for a second grader who is interested in learning some nautical terminology. (Scuttlebutt, Mizzenmast, Scallywag, etc). There is a glossary of pirate words on the back page.
https://www.amazon.com/Bossy-Pirate-John-Steven-Gurney/dp/0764356259/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543289876&sr=1-1&keywords=bossy+pirateWatch the Bossy Pirate book trailer
I was playing around with making small, expressive faces to use as stickers, or emojis. My goal was to depict particular expressions with a bit more detail than we generally see. I also wanted to depict a variety of ethnicities, but to use the color creatively, so the color would be more about the lighting, rather than the skin tone. The project brought to mind an idea I had a few years back that I never developed. My idea was to create a series of "Santas", as he would appear in other cultures. I started to play with that idea, but I then I had second thoughts about imposing an icon of Christianity onto cultures that might not be. So, I altered my approach, and decided to depict Santa with a collection of other jolly old souls, from different cultures. With festive facial hair, and colorful accessories.
"Gurnimojis"
I am curious how small I can make these and still have them "readable".
A recent assignment for my University of Hartford MFA in Illustration program was to create an illustration in the style of a genre from a different era. I chose to create a science fiction cover from the 1950's. Director C. F. Payne stipulated that even though we were creating art from another era, he wanted us to communicate a contemporary idea for a contemporary usage. I chose to play with the idea of genetic engineering.
The illustration is for a (non-existing) story in which a mad scientist makes a fortune selling boutique genetically engineered pets, like miniature dinosaurs, created by altering parakeet DNA, and fluffy monkey-head boas that function as fashion accessories. He uses his fortune to pursue his somewhat more nefarious genetic experiments.
Initially I wanted to make the illustration an "Amazing Stories" cover, but I did not like the way the type covered so much of the illustration, so I chose the lesser known "If" magazine, so I had more room for the illustration. The illustration style pays homage to the master campy science fiction illustrator Frank Kelly Freas.
