Today on the site: Mark Newgarden and Megan Montague Cash sit down (virtually) with Philip Nel to talk about their long-awaited new children's book, Bow-Wow's Nightmare Neighbors, debuting Saturday at CAB. I'm a huge fan of these books and these artists, so all of this is a real treat.
Philip Nel: First there was Bow-Wow Bugs a Bug, and then the six Bow-Wow concept books (2007-2009). Now, five years later…Bow-Wow returns! Where has he been? (Since I know you both, I have some sense of why the long-awaited Bow-Wow’s Nightmare Neighbors [2014] was so many years in the making. However, on behalf of Bow-Wow fans everywhere, I had to ask…)
Mark Newgarden: There were several reasons for the gap between books. First, it took us awhile to come up with another long-form story that we felt was as strong about as Bow-Wow Bugs a Bug. Secondly, our original editor Tamson Weston (as well as the marketing and sales team) left Harcourt when that company was in flux and it made sense to move on to another publishing house. Fortunately Bow-Wow was adopted by Neal Porter and installed at his new kennel in the Flatiron building at Roaring Brook Press/ Macmillan. Thirdly, Bow-Wow’s Nightmare Neighbors grew into a much more involved and time-consuming project than any of our other books. At 64 pages, over 100 images and 0 words, this is far from a typical picture book.
Megan Montague Cash: And lastly, we have had some serious interruptions by some real-life nightmare neighbors. We live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which now seems to be ground zero for all the new “luxury housing” in the universe. Dealing with a troublesome development project next door stole a great deal time away from our book (as well as the rest of our lives). These problems are a lot worse than Bow-Wow’s and so far, there is no real-life resolution like the one that we were able to imagine for him and the ghost cat mob from across the street.
Nel: I hope your happy ending also involves a long nap.
Newgarden: It will!
Elsewhere:
On the other side of the spectrum, here's a lengthy profile of the upcoming Zap box set over at the NY Times.
And here's a good excerpt from TCJ-contributor Richard Gehr's excellent new book, I Only Read it for the Cartoons -- a chapter on Roz Chast.
This is a rather remarkable story, with accompanying visuals, of a trove of recently saved newspapers.
In honor of Steve Ditko's 87th birthday yesterday Tom Spurgeon posted links to various Warren stories by the great artist.
And finally, I enjoyed this article on Gilbert Hernandez and the depiction of time in comics.
