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It's been fabulous seeing monsters popping up all over Dublin! Or, as Dubliners seem to say, it's 'deadly'. It was deadly getting to see the huge display Dublin's oldest bookshop, Hodges & Figgis (1768!), had made of the monsters I drew. Wow! (The Dublin Writers Festival posters are a combination of drawings by Niamh Sharkey, Hervé Tullet and me.)


Photo by CBI Director Mags Walsh

And I had a great time taking monster making to schoolkids yesterday, starting at Walkinstown Library.



The teachers at St Damian's School were absolutely brilliant, the kids had been so well prepared for my visit. They had read my books, thought of questions and were absolutely pumped up with enthusiasm when I came in. A real model of how teachers can help kids get the most out of an author visit.



I couldn't believe it; by the time I came back to my home at St Patrick's Lodge that day, they school had ALREADY posted a write-up and photos on their blog. I was absolutely astounded. St Damian's, you totally rock.



I couldn't help but laugh at what one kid said. He was asking about what writers and illustrators earn, and I replied that it could be anything from less than nothing (if they self-publish and have to print the books themselves) to a very modest advance like €2000 or even a rare €200,000. He nodded sagely when I gave this last figure and said, 'Ah. That's why you can afford that kind of hat'.

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Offline, still available in my online shop

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Working on commissions, getting ready for Heroes Con, trying to catch up while working on pitches. Some new drawings and sketch cards have been listed on eBay, others will be available at Heroes Con.

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So Dublin Writer's Festival has started off with a bang! Or should I say... a GROWL? Today I led a big pack of boys from Scoil Fhursa in reading Morris the Mankiest Monster and drawing their own awesome monsters.



To begin, here's the monster they helped me draw.



Then they were off! We had a huge roll of Fabriano paper, oil pastels and chunky crayons, and I encouraged them to draw big and bold. And they did!



Big thanks to the teachers, assistants and head librarian Mags Curley (far right), and Irma Grothius who escorted me there and back.



More monsters! If you want to get involved in the Get Drawn In programme this week, check out the programme here! More good news: Mountains to Sea Festival in Dún Laoghaire just announced their Schools Programme today! And special treat, my fabulous studio mate, Gary Northfield, will be doing a TEENYTINYSAURS event on Friday, 6 September. Find out about it on the Mountains to Sea website here!



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Swedish-Eritrean journalist  Dawit Isaak has been in an Eritrean prison since 23 September 2001 this is an image made for an ongoing campaign initiated by Swedish PEN och Kartago with Swedish illustrators. More information here: Dagens Nyheter

A couple images from today at the Children's Book Ireland Annual Conference: Here's my sketch of Jon Klassen, author of I Want My Hat Back, giving his talk. I love that book so much, how deadpan it all is. Jon said something about his characters in it being bad actors, just going through their lines. Which is terribly funny. Read it, if you haven't.



I'm not quite sure why this Vimeo version of it lists it as R-rated. I suppose it does have a disturbing element to it.



And Hervé Tullet with his book's gaping plot hole:



Herve's been introducing me to Leó Ferré this evening.

Lots of things happening! If you're getting a copy today of The Sunday Times, be sure to look out for my comic strip in The Funday Times section!



I actually did two comic strips, but the editor thought the first one was aimed at a bit older kids (and slightly crude - I'll keep it for another day), so I think we're both happy with this second one.



Here's a quick character sketch I sent her before I started it. The fat pink unicorn is partly inspired by fat rainbow pony. The shark, well, I've just finished a shark book. And the skinny pegasus might come in later.



And I noticed on Twitter that our Random House Children's Books publicist Lauren Bennett has shown off the covers for our paperback DFC Library books! I've made a completely new cover for Vern and Lettuce, and here it is. Ta-DAH!



And here's the set! I'm so excited to see Jamie Smart's Fish-head Steve; that one didn't come out in hardback so no-one's seen it in book form ever before. Find out more about the DFC Libary here!

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