World's Worst Wedgie

World's Worst Wedgie, Book 3 of the George Brown, Class Clown book series I'm illustrating is out now! It's my favorite of the series so far- full of slimy worms, a backyard circus, mischievous hamsters and a mega embarrassing/painful wedgie! I forgot to mention in the last post that the George Brown books are hilariously written by Nancy Krulik, author of the popular of Katie Kazoo series.

Check out the George Brown Website for more book info and to send a Super Burp to your friends!

Synopsis-

In his continuing but mainly disastrous efforts to be an upstanding, responsible ten-year-old, George Brown decides it's time to earn some money. (There's also an expensive remote-controlled toy that he's been coveting.) But no matter what he tries whether it's working at his mother's craft shop, opening a lemonade stand, or setting up a backyard circus for neighborhood kids the magic burps erupt at exactly the wrong times and wreak havoc on George's entrepreneurial plans.

Pick your own Wedgie at-

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Indie Bound
Borders
Penguin

Sample spreads from World's Worst Wedgie...

George Brown, Class Clown!

B-U-U-U-U-R-R-R-P!

Introducing George Brown, Class Clown- the new book series I'm illustrating for Grossett Dunlap (a division of Penguin)! The books center around George trying to fit into a new school and to behave himself despite his past reputation as a troublemaker and class clown. But he is victim to the Super Burp- a humongous belch that makes him do weird and crazy stuff at the worst possible times. The first two books Super Burp and Trouble Magnet are out now. The third book in the series, World's Worst Wedgie will be in bookshops next month. Check 'em out in all of their belchy (and Blecha) glory!

Email a Classic, Long, Frog, Ripper, or Super Burp to special someone at the George Brown, Class Clown website.

The book covers-
Synopsis-

The first day at a new school is always the hardest, right? No, not always as George finds out the hard way. On the second day at . . . Sugarman Elementary School, he is suddenly seized by uncontrollable burps, burps so loud they practically break the sound barrier, burps that make him do wild and crazy stuff and land him in trouble with a capital T. One thing is for sure: these are not normal burps, they are magic burps – and they must be stopped! But how?

Sample spreads from Book 2 of George getting in various forms of trouble, courtesy of his Super Burp!

Lunch Lady trouble...

Doing his best squirrel imitation...

Playing with his band, "The Runny Noses"....

Stage diving after an infamous Super Burp!

Zombiekins!

Unbelievable, Uncontrollable, Undead... FUN!

I'm thrilled to announce that a new book for Penguin I've illustrated, Zombiekins, has shambled to the bookshelves! It's been over year in the works and I'm very happy how it turned out. The zombie book for kids is hilariously written by Kevin Bolger, whom I worked with previously on Sir Fartsalot vs The Dragon cartoon.

You can check out book excerpt, news and more at at www.zombiekins.com.

The synopsis-

The little town of Dementedyville is as boring as they come--but a mysterious stuffed animal is about to liven things up . . . Stanley Nudelman buys Zombiekins at the yard sale of his neighbor, the Widow Imavitch. It looks cuddly and creepy-cute--but expose the TEDDY OF TERROR to moonlight, and strange things happen. . . . When Zombiekins gets loose at his school, Stanley finds himself in GRAVE danger. Because if his teacher Mr. Baldengrumpy discovers he turned the whole school into zombies, Stanley will be in detention till he's, like, 80! Can Stanley and his best friend Miranda save their schoolmates from eternal zombiefication? If not, will Mr. Baldengrumpy even notice?
A few early reviews for Zombiekins-

“A contemporary riff on Dahl, but perhaps even funnier”
- Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“A very lively zombie tale that will no doubt be gobbled up by readers”
- Quill and Quire
You can buy Zombiekins at-

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Indie Bound

Powell's

A few samples of zombie mayhem...

Illustration Pages

My work is now featured on the excellent Illustration Pages- a site dedicated to showcasing artist's Facebook pages. Check out the rest of their inspirational posts.

Illustration Pages on Facebook

Thanks Lou!

Paul Bunyan Characters

Character designs for the
Tall Tale of Paul Bunyan graphic novel.
You'll find them lurking in the dark woods of the ol' Midwest.

The Tall Tale of Paul Bunyan Graphic Novel!

Ol' Bunyan is so big I could barely fit him on the cover!

T-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-MBER!

The Tall Tale of Paul Bunyan, a new graphic novel I've illustrated has lumbered to the shelves! It's a classic American Tall Tale hilariously retold by Martin Powell.

In this story we discover the Paul and his blue ox, Babe are the cause of the Grand Canyon, Lake Superior, the Smokey Mountains and many more American landmarks. The giant twosome also have epic battle royales with Bee-skeeters, Giant Saber-Toothed Beavers and Old Man Winter himself!


This is the third graphic novel I've done in the Graphic Spin series for Stone Arch Books. First two were the The Three Little Pigs and The Ugly Duckling. But this story was especially close to me because I grew up in Paul Bunyan country and have heard his legend told around campfires and have spied him looming over diners and rest stops throughout the highways of Wisconsin.

Paul Bunyan was designed by the super talented Bob Lentz- an art director at Stone Arch. Here's the Olde Timey Northwoods Shoppe (and character page) in the front of the book...


The climatic ending with Ol' Man Winter...


Other "Big Men" Johnny Appleseed, Pecos Bill and John Henry round out the Graphic Spin Tall Tale series. Have a look at John Henry- beautifully illustrated by Nelson Evergreen.

You can buy Paul Bunyan at Amazon US, Amazon UK or a buncha other places!

Three Little Pigs Graphic Novel- Best Illustrated of 2009

Original Sketch of The Big Bad Wolf

Ashbooks, a book review and community website has named The Three Little Pigs Graphic Novel one of the fifteen best illustrated children's books of 2009. Wow!

Read more HERE.

Santa's Little Helpers

Happy Elfin' Holidays Blogcha Readers!
Here's the Blecha card for this year. Hope you all are filled with the holiday spirit (vodka)!

Yes, Virginia Animated Holiday Special

This summer I was hired to design some background characters for an already-in-production animated Christmas special of Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.

I'm not sure if any of my creations (below) made the final cut, but if you watch it, be on the lookout for any of these unsavory characters lurking in the background crowd scenes. It was a good exercise for me to keep my usual cartoony style to a minimum and try to keep clothing and facial features closer to realistic proportions.

The special is showing on CBS in the States on Friday, December 11th, , 8/7c. Sponsored by Macy's.

Directed by the talented Pete Circuitt.

Digital Arts Showcase

I'm one of the spotlight artists in the December issue of Digital Arts magazine. See my page below or I recommend buying one for tons of helpful tutorials and inspiring artwork.

Featured on Drawn!

My animation work on Kurfood and Leadwire has been featured on the awesome illustration and cartoon art blog, Drawn!

Check it out HERE!

Thanks Leif!

Interview with Ape on the Moon!

I was just interviewed by the contemporary illustration news site, Ape on the Moon, about my recent graphic novels, work process, and inspirations.

Read it here!


Thanks Alex!

The Ugly Duckling Graphic Novel

The Ugly Duckling Graphic Novel

QWACK!

The new graphic novel I've illustrated is flying off the shelves now! It's the tale of the Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Anderson. After briefly living in (and loving) Copenhagen, I was honored to illustrate one of Denmark's favorite son's creations. It was loads of fun to create some bizarre characters but have the story revolve around much a sweet, misunderstood creature. The book was designed and published by the talented peeps at Stone Arch Books.

It's part of their Graphic Spin series where different artists and authors retell fairy and folk tales, give them a modern, creepy twist and jam it all into an epic graphic novel format!

You can buy it at Amazon US- HERE

Or Amazon UK- HERE

Let me know what you think of it!

The Ugly Duckling Runs into some Unfriendly Fatness

My third book from series 3 will be out next year!

Unusual Zombie Vertebrates

Unusual Zombie Vertebrates

This is my one page contribution to Fat Chunk Volume 2...Zombies! This is a 144 page comic compiled and edited by the talented Jamie Smart and published by Slave Labor Graphics. 60 artists have contributed to the brain munching mayhem.

Fat Chunk website here.

You can find it in most comic shops. Available on Amazon too!

Fat Chunk Volume 2 Cover

Leadwire Animation

What's green, white and moves at 25 frames per second?

These three spots I designed and animated for Leadwire- a search marketing company! Music by the talented Sepia Productions.

You can view them larger here, on Vimeo.



Leadwire Spot- "What is Search?"




Leadwire Spot- "Tracking"



Leadwire Spot- "Time to Talk"

Wooha!

I've been recently hired to do a series of character designs and illustrations for Denmark -based, Wooha!

Wooha! is a new kind of media company offering people advertisements on your phone- but only for brands you are interested in! No spam, no annoying commercials, AND you get paid for every one you receive. You can keep the money or you can donate it to charity!

You can see my illustrations here-

WOOHA.DK

I've also animated the Wooha character for their first TV ad-



Buy your fitness cow today!

Translation- The first part of the commercial is a fake, annoying advertisement for Fitness Cow. It is interrupted by our man hammering down a sign saying "NO RIDICULOUS ADS". He then pulls out his friendly phone which pays him for receiving an ad he wants to see!

Commercial Produced by
Sweet Creative of Copenhagen DK

New Kur Animated Short

Hee Haw! We just wrapped the new cartoon for Kur Organic Superfoods! It's to promote the new Morning Glory Muesli that's hitting the shelves over in Denmark.

Again, the entire design is based on the Kur brand seed shape and style created by super talented Copenhagen-based design studio- Sweet Creative. Michael Adler Miltersen of Sepia Productions stirred up the knee slapping, toe tappin' tunes.

If you're on Facebook- check out Kur's Group or my Illustration Page.

Intitial character designs for the short-

The Three Little Pigs Graphic Novel

The Three Little Pigs Book Cover

I'm very happy to announce that a book I illustrated for a few months last year has finally hit the shelves! It's the familiar tale of the Three Little Pigs but told and drawn in a much darker and weirder way in a graphic novel. It was a lot of fun to create the manic characters and their world- especially the Big Bad Wolf. The book was designed and published by the talented folks at Stone Arch Books.

It's part of their Graphic Spin series where different artists and authors retell old tales, give them a modern, creepy twist and jam it all into an epic graphic novel format!

It's brand new online but you can buy it at Amazon US- Hardcover or Paperback

Amazon UK- Hardcover or Paperback

If you end up buying a copy, please let me know what you like, what you don't and your favorite part! Here's two sample spreads from the book-

Stay tuned there's another one on the way later this year!

Blah Blah Blah

If you would like to read my interview with HAI; where I yammer on about
casseroles, robots and burritos... please click HERE!

Thank you.

World of Kur!

Here's a new animated extended commercial I recently designed and animated for KUR- a Danish organic superfood company.

I had tons of fun working on this simple and sweet cartoon. The entire design is based on the Kur brand seed shape and style created by super talented design studio- Sweet Creative. Michael Adler Miltersen of Sepia Productions concocted the fun, upbeat music.

There's more Kur animation to come in 2009. See you there!

Join Kur's Facebook Group or the Aaron Blecha Illustration Fan Page!