Tony DiTerlizzi

Planet Meno update

April 15th, 2010 | Category: Meno!, Musings

Greetings Earthlings!

With the release of the next two Adventure of Meno books, Uh-Oh, Sick and Yummy Trip, we’ve updated the Meno website with more goodies, including get well e-cards that you can send to a friend. How cool is that?

If you aren’t familiar with the silly series that I created with my loverly wife, Angela, let me give you the shortest summaries possible:

Book 1: BIG FUN! Meno is a space elf whose best friend is a nearsighted farting jellyfish. Seriously. Meno thinks farts are the funniest thing in the universe…and I do too.

Book 2: WET FRIEND! Yamagoo longs for the sea and Meno summons his wish-granting friend, Wishi to create a new wet friend. Will it be plankton? David Hasselhoff? Or a talking goldfish? Hmmmm.

Book 3: UH-OH, SICK! Meno gets a head cold. Somehow Eddie Vedder shows up and ends up sick in bed with Yamagoo and an Irish setter. I’m not kidding.

Book 4: YUMMY TRIP! Meno and company go on on a picnic. Yamagoo rides on a bowling ball and Meno rides a carrot scooter through a cloud-filled sky.

These books were designed to instill silly fun while reading at a young age. All four titles are now available at your local bookstore. Please to enjoy!

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Snuggle up with MENO!

December 23rd, 2009 | Category: Blogroll, Contests, Meno!

Happy Holidays Dear Readers of My Blog!

I hope 2009 was a fine year for you, despite its economical ups-and-downs and scary amounts of unemployment. During times like this, I am reminded that support from my fans and friends for my books affords my family a comfortable life allowing me to keep creating. So thank you.

Angela and I have been promoting our silly toddler book series, Adventure of Meno, with a whole slew of what I like to call “Crafty Mom Blogs”. I like these blogs greatly because:

A. My mom was (and still is) a crafty mom.

B. Ang and I both love doing a craft with our daughter, Sophia.

Ang found a wonderful local seamstress to create custom Meno cloud blankets which are being given away at various Crafty Mom Blogs. All you have to do is leave a comment on their post and you could win a blanket of your choice, PLUS a signed copy of Meno books 1 and 2! Below are some of the sites participating, more will be posted soon as these contests will run into January…

Good luck Crafty Readers!

11 comments

…and now for something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.

October 05th, 2009 | Category: Blogroll, Meno!

Today, October 6th, 2009, is a mile-marker my friends. I am hammering down a flag right now. Two flags, actually.

You see, it is the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next in the as-of-yet-published-ever-ongoing art book of DiTerlizzi. Today, in fine bookstores everywhere, is The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Completely Fantastical Edition which I mentioned on the site before. I don’t think I could be more proud of a Spiderwick book (okay, save for Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide) as it contains one heckuva lot of work from both Holly and I.

However, today I am also celebrating the launch of a new series and a new collaboration. A silly collaboration. A risky collaboration.

Risky, because it is a HUGE stylistic departure for me. The art here serves truly to simply be a component of the book as a whole. in the truest sense of a picture book, the art cannot fully tell the story without the accompanying text – which was created and written by my loverly wife, Angela, and yours truly.

I’ve put considerable thought into these seemingly simple books. Why do them? I’ve worked so hard to perfect my drawing skills, develop my writing style, and yet here it seems I’ve gone in another direction entirely.

When Ang and I met artist/genius Mark Ryden this summer at Comic con, I handed him a copy of Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide and a copy of Meno.

TD: “Here ya go Mark, these are for you.”

MR: “Thanks! Who did these?”

AD: “Tony did them. He did the art for both.”

MR: flipping through pages of Spiderwick, then Meno. “Wait. You did BOTH of these.”

AD: “He did.”

TD: “Yup. I’m a bit schizophrenic.”

…now that I think back on it, that’s not the term I should have used. What I should of said was, “Yup. I’m constantly exploring. Evolving. Changing. Both as an artist and as a storyteller.” But I was nervous and giddy – all the things one feels when you are meeting someone you have admired from afar.

Adventure of Meno was born of our love of making people laugh. Ang and I created these stories without a big fancy book deal. We created them simply because we thought they would be fun to do – and they were. In fact, we had had so much fun that we were simply going to self-publish them and give them away to friends and family. But the fine folks at Simon & Schuster thought we should unleash this silliness into the world. So here we are.

If you can get to a local bookstore today, this weekend, or in the coming months, give them a read (it will take a whopping 5 minutes). I hope, if anything, they create a little laughter with an adult and child. And I also hope they entertain. After all, isn’t that what sharing a book with kids all about?

PS – In the spirit of The Little Golden Books, Ang and I got S&S to charge as little as possible while still retaining good production quality. We arrived at $9.99 – much lower than the usual $15-16 of your average picture book.

PPS – Here’s a link to find Adventure of Meno at a local bookshop near you…

…here’s a link at Barnes & Noble…

…and here’s a link to Amazon. Please to enjoy!

3 comments

Countdown to Meno’s Landing!

September 21st, 2009 | Category: Blogroll, Meno!, Musings

Visit PlanetMeno.com!

3 comments

San Diego Comic Con this weekend!

July 22nd, 2009 | Category: Blogroll, Meno!, Musings

I hope everyone attending Comic Con International this weekend is as excited as Angela and I. It is such an overwhelming representation of art, books, films, games and other fun stuff, that my head is spinning for days afterwards!

I’ve mentioned my schedule already, but here is a quick link to it again in case you missed it.

Also, Simon & Schuster will be giving all kinds of cool MENO giveaways like this collectible pin:

So stop by their booth(#1017) and say “Please to meet Meno!”

I hope you like the new books, Ang and I are super-excited to share Meno’s silliness with the world. You can see more tonight at Planetmeno.com when we launch with a sneaky-peek of the website.

2 comments

NEW Picture Book Series: MENO!

February 11th, 2009 | Category: Blogroll, Meno!, Musings

I’ve been terribly antsy to unveil my newest project, Adventure of Meno, which was created with my loverly wife, Angela!

The look and design is a departure from my usual style, but was inspired by all the little things that made Ang and I smile (including our kid):
Old Little Golden Books

Hello Kitty

KidRobot

Vintage cereal boxes

The first two titles, BIG FUN! and WET FRIEND! will debut this fall in bookstores everywhere, followed by two more next spring. I hope these little books put a smile on your face too:)

8 comments

Planet Meno update

Snuggle up with MENO!

…and now for something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.

Countdown to Meno’s Landing!

San Diego Comic Con this weekend!

NEW Picture Book Series: MENO!

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