Berger & Burger » illustration

Tuesday Mourning has the holiday spirit!

riddleburger — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 13:55:19 +0000

Tuesday Mourning the FANTASTIC illustrator who did the cover four next book, “Stonewall Hinkleman,” is giving away two incredible gifts/prizes.

First, a portrait of anyone you wish. Her nifty little portraits are simply splendid! I would be torn between getting one of a loved one or getting her to do me a little drawing of Stonewall.

The other prize is a portrait of a whole family. To enter that contest, you have to link to the contests, as I am doing here. By my calculations, within 53 hours the entire Internet will be noting but links to Tuesday Mourning’s page. Very clever.

Bee-Wigged Blog Tour is right here!

riddleburger — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 03:09:01 +0000

Welcome to Day One of the Bee-Wigged Blog Tour!

Since I’m going first, I’ve decided to do a little synopsis of this smashing picture book. That’ll also give me a chance to show some of my favorite pictures from the book:

“Bee-Wigged”

by Cece Bell (my lovely wife & co-conspirator)

Jerry Bee just wants to be nice. But he’s such a big bee that he scares everybody.

But then he finds a wig…

Now he can be nice to people without scaring them, plus since he looks like a boy he gets to go to school. He’s so nice that everybody loves him…

But then … a gust of wind exposes him for what he is … a giant stinging insect!

Oh, Jerry! Everyone runs! I don’t want to spoil it! There’s a shocking twist! But a good one! In the end, the power of being nice prevails!

This book is or could be about many things:

Being nice
Positive energy
Fitting In / Accepting people who are different
Doing well in school
Sticking up for your friends
Bees/Wigs/Sudden gusts of wind

But it’s also simply a good story about a character you’ll root for.

Head back to Cece Bell’s page for rest of the blog tour schedule…

Famous author or soon-to-be famous Bee?

riddleburger — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 23:40:48 +0000

Hey, that giant bee looks like famous author Sam Riddleburger if Sam was geeky looking instead of handsome!

You too can get your picture taken as Jerry Bee, star of “Bee-Wigged” by Cece bell, at the Bee-Wigged launch party Nov. 22. For more details (or to see Cece as jerry Bee) head to www.cecebell.com .

After that the Big Jerry Bee Photo Op will hit the road, traveling with Cece to schools and libraries!

Satan’s back … Emberley style

riddleburger — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:42:38 +0000

Here’s the third Ed Emberley devil … and I haven’t even looked in the Red and Orange books yet. (Alas, i don’t own them … yet.)

As a final salute to the Great One (and, again, I mean Mr. Emberley, not Lucifer) here’s Dracula in His Car…

Boy is it fun to draw Ed Emberley stuff on a computer … undo and floodfill make it groovy! But it sure is hard to draw a decent tire with a mouse.

Halloween with Tomie & the scary jumping red-leg bald guy!

riddleburger — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:58:04 +0000

Of course I know who Tomie de Paola is now, but I always thought that I had missed out on him when I was a kid. (Just like I mostly missed out on James Marshall. Who knows why?)

But recently, I discovered that a book that absolutely fascinated me as a kid — Monsters of the Middle Ages — had been illustrated by de Paola. Looking through the book again, the illustrations were as familiar as the weird stuff in the bottom of the Lego basket.

The inset above is a really weird picture that had really stuck with me. I’m sure you can see why … it’s creepy as all get out!

Anway, it’s a swell book and de Paola’s style was just right to make the monsters a little scary but still present them as folklore.

Halloween with Ed Emberley

riddleburger — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:35:37 +0000

Some readers may recall that a few weeks ago I had a post about Satan in books and as a little joke I made up an Ed Emberley-style devil:

It was meant to be a joke, but it did sort of ring a bell. Since then I’ve found two Ed Emberley devils. One, from “Make a World” is similar to mine.

But there’s a much more detailed one in Ed Emberley’s Little Drawing Book of Weirdos. To honor the great one — and I refer to Ed, not Satan — I’ve doodled up Satan, Dracula and a Werewolf as per his instructions. I particularly like the Werewolf. Nice job, Mr. Emberley!

Canada loves Jerry Bee!

riddleburger — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 20:00:24 +0000

Here’s a post from www.cecebell.com…

Someone up in Calgary must have a soft spot for big, friendly, wig-wearing bees…

The Calgary Public Library system has already ordered 12 copies of Bee-Wigged!

Sam’s (almost) Daily Kidlit Trivia Up Quark

riddleburger — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:36:42 +0000

Time for another round of Name that Poultry (illustrator).

I don’t think these little guys have names, so you just have to identify the illustrator for 100 points. For 100,000 points name the book.

Answer to the previous question: The book/album/show “Free To Be You and Me” was inspired when Marlo Thomas decided that every existing piece of kidlit was sexist but thought she could change that.

Judy Blume’s contribution was a set of two poems called ”The Pain and The Great One.” She must have liked the idea…

A Cece Bell foamdoodle…

riddleburger — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:37:14 +0000

Lots of craziness around here as we prepare for the Tomato Festival, work on books and I continue the weekly struggle to write my three newspaper columns and such. So, I haven’t been a’blogging much.

But, Cece found a moment to doodle with some sticky craft foam and here’s the happy result:

Blackhand Gang fans –> Gotten “Get a Clue” yet?

riddleburger — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 01:39:30 +0000

Two of the “Get a Clue” books are out now. I hope to have them in my possession soon. And two more will be out in Sept. (Somewhere around here there’s my review of the ARC for Get a Clue #1.)

I’ve been looking at some of Julian Press’ art on the German Amazon:

Here’s a Blackhand Gang cover by Julian’s dad, Hans Jurgen Press, to compare it to:

By the way, here’s a Google translation of a review exceprt of a HJP book on the German Amazon. I think it sums it all up nicely:

For children with brains who like rätseln, the solution to search images, the head of effort, a MUST!