My mother is not a hoarder. She rarely saves anything. She gleefully throws stuff away or gives things to Goodwill whenever given a chance. All greeting cards, receipts, and flyers are torn into squares and used as note paper. However, she chose to save a lot of paperwork over the years that was related to my hearing loss. She saved the Phonic Ear, too. It was almost like she knew that all that stuff would be useful to me some day. It was! I looked back over all of it when trying to figure out various bits and pieces for El Deafo.
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El Deafo Extras: The George and Barbara Bell Show
26 AugI dedicated El Deafo to my parents, because they are awesome. They drive me crazy, but I’m crazy about them.
They’ve been married for over 50 years. They met at UVa. My mom felt sorry for the shy boy who was sitting at a table at the cafeteria all by himself. So she married him.
El Deafo Extras: Childhood photos through the ages
24 AugOne of the trickier things about illustrating El Deafo was that I had to age the main character as she journeyed through elementary school. Luckily, the main character in the book is me, so I had some good photo reference to use.
I featured a couple of these photos in a previous post, but here they are again, with their matching comic-Cece interpretation:
Preschool Cece, before illness and hearing aids and subsequent superpowers (unless you’re counting the superpowers of snot and cuteness)…
…and preschool Cece in the book.
El Deafo Extras: Childhood drawings from my time in the hospital, and superhero origin stories
22 AugThe beginning of my book El Deafo is about my 2-week stay in the hospital while I recovered from meningitis. My hearing loss was a direct result of this illness. I spent a lot of time drawing during those two weeks. My parents claim that I drew the same thing over and over and over again, and that by the time I got to leave the hospital, I had done over 100 drawings. My parents only kept three, probably because it wasn’t really a time they wanted to remember. Here’s how I imagined I looked as a kid drawing in a hospital bed:
El Deafo Extras: The Bell family looked a lot like the Addams Family back in the day…
22 AugEl Deafo is about hearing loss, of course, but it’s also about my family. Here’s an early scene from the book:
Sarah, Dad, Ashley, me, and Mom (1975)
El Deafo Extras: Don’t judge a book by its rejected covers! Plus Decatur Book Festival Stuff!
21 AugDuring the less-than-two-weeks-away countdown to El Deafo, I’ll be sharing some of the behind-the scenes stuff, like these covers that never saw the light of day:
Advance praise for El Deafo!
8 AugEl Deafo is coming out soon! Mark your calendars for September 2nd, to be exact. In the meantime, I have had the pleasure of reading some very generous and kind early reviews. The book has even gotten a couple of stars, one from Publishers Weekly and the other from Kirkus. Our old friend Jerry Bee likes the buzz:
Actually, he looks a little bit wary here…
El Deafo featured in Number 5 Bus and Robot6! Will numbers 7 and 8 be far behind?
2 JunWhat’s hot for summer and fall? Wearing too many layers, for one thing. The blog Robot6 (for Comic Book Resources) has deemed EL DEAFO pretty hot, too! And that’s kinda cool. Read what they have to say about the book here. What a treat to be on the same page as Lucy Knisley, who is unbelievably talented.
Also, if you have a little extra time, check out my conversation with Phil and Erin Stead on their new blog, Number 5 Bus Presents: Conversations with Book People. We talked about our favorite kids’ book authors and illustrators, about what it’s like to write and illustrate Early Readers, about spousal jealousy (!), and a little bit about EL DEAFO, too. We even compared stacks of books by our favorite authors/illustrators, and I think the Steads won. I had a great time typing with them!
More sneak peeks of EL DEAFO courtesy of 7 Imp!
1 JunHey Kids!
Want more sneak peeks of EL DEAFO, plus a few other sneak peeks of my upcoming picture book I YAM A DONKEY? Check it out here at Julie Danielson’s amazing blog, 7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast!
