A very Happy Crockett Johnson’s Birthday to all who celebrate! The author of Harold and the Purple Crayon and the creator of Barnaby (and Mr. O’Malley) was born 120 years ago today in New York City. With thanks to Liam McCormack and the collection of the Albert Apartment Corporation, here’s something I’d never seen before
I was last at San Diego Comic-Con in 2017. For that and for previous visits, I covered the con like a journalist. I think I was trying to be of use to others, since relatively few people get to attend. In 2026, I don’t have the energy for that — indeed, I’m only getting this post
It is always a slightly strange feeling to be a nominee. Sitting in the hotel ballroom, as your category approaches and then arrives, there is a rise in nervous energy. If your book wins, you will need to take the stage, deep-breath your nerves down, remember to thank all the people you want to thank.
Take a break from calling your reps. For just a few minutes, stop doomscrolling and gloomposting. As you watch me open a box of books, you are also witnessing the successful completion of a 15-year-project… the publication in full and for the first time of Crockett Johnson’s classic comic strip Barnaby! That’s right, Barnaby Volume
Here are all of the 2024 MLA sessions devoted to Children’s Literature, Comics/Graphic Novels, or Childhood Studies. The conference will be held this year in person in Philadelphia — and on-line, as noted below. I’ll be there! I’m chairing one on-line session and one in-person session. If you’ll be there, too, stop by and say
Look what just arrived in the mail! This is Syd Hoff’s first book. But you probably don’t know it. It was published under a pseudonym in 1935. And it’s never been republished — until now. Also, Syd Hoff didn’t want you to know about it. I tell that story and others in my introduction to the
Here are all of the Children’s Literature and Comics/Graphic Novels sessions at the 2023 MLA, held this year in person in San Francisco — and on-line, as noted below. I’ll actually be there this year. (I’d planned to attend last year’s, but Omicron pushed most of the conference on-line. Here’s hoping any new variants prove
Here are all of the Children’s Literature and Comics/Graphic Novels sessions at the 2022 MLA, held this year in person in Washington, DC! Some of the conference will also be held on-line at [insert your location here]! I plan to be there in person, which will be my very first in-person conference or invited talk
The 2021 MLA is not in Toronto, as we thought it would be at this time last year – indeed, at this time even six months ago. The 2021 MLA is… wherever you are. Like everything else, it’s on Zoom! But it is happening! Questions about what this will look like? Check out the MLA’s Virtual
In which you get all the excitement of receiving a package… without the package itself! Yes, I have made an unboxing video. It’s my first. See what you think! I can tell you what I think: I should have shown more of the interior of the book! Crockett Johnson’s cartoons! If I were more energetic,
