Archive for July 2010

I am excited to reveal an extremely limited  exclusive giveaway, a sculpted maquette of Muthr – the robotic character from my upcoming illustrated novel, The Search for WondLa – that will be available at next week’s Comic Con in San Diego.  Take a look:

The maquette and signed books will be available at an auction to benefit The Comic Book Legal defense Fund. Here are the details:

From the mind of Tony DiTerlizzi, creator of The Spiderwick Chronicles comes The Search for WondLa, the start of a new trilogy that’s already been optioned for the screen!

This maquette, MUTHR is generously contributed by DiTerlizzi and Simon & Schuster Young Readers. MUTHR is Multi Utility Task Help Robot, and is brilliantly sculpted and painted by Martin Meunier, the award-winning sculptor/model maker and graphic designer whose film credits include Coraline, James and the Giant Peach, and The Spiderwick Chronicles the film on which he met author and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi. Martin has worked for FX Company as well as film studios Industrial Light and Magic, Pixar, Disney, and Universal.

Intricately crafted and cast in hard resin, MUTHR Maquette is a limited edition of 100 worldwide, signed by Tony DiTerlizzi.

The auction will be held next Saturday night at 7:30 in room 3 of the San Diego Convention Center.

I can tell you these maquettes are EXTREMELY exclusive. Of the 100 made for Simon & Schuster, most were given to early industry supporters of the book. Two have been raffled off so far (one at BookExpo and one at last month’s ALA conference), but this is the only time one will be available for purchase.

Best of luck to all attendees and happy bidding!

I’ll be doing a special signing event at Comic Con International next week in San Diego.

The signing will be next Thursday, (7/22) from 11:30 – 12:30 in the autographing area at table AA19. It will immediately follow the panel discussion and is limited to 100 attendees only.

The 100 attendees will receive a FREE advanced reader copy of The Search for WondLa as well as the limited edition sketchbook. Supplies are extremely limited so we are offering line tickets at 9:15 Thursday morning. Details can be found here.

Simon & Schuster reps will also be handing out line tickets at the panel discussion, so if you miss the ticket line in the morning, you may be able to nab one there…but remember, we’ve only got 100 books. Seeya there!

“THE SPARK OF IMAGINATION”

Thursday, July 22nd at 10-11am in Room 25ABC

Peek inside the minds of leading authors and filmmakers to explore how imagination informs the creative process. New York Times-bestselling children’s author Tony DiTerlizzi (The Spiderwick Chronicles) details the precedent-setting augmented reality used in his new Simon & Schuster novel The Search for Wondla; LAIKA President/CEO Travis Knight (lead animator, Coraline) explains his studio’s commitment to bold subject matter; artist/writer Mike Mignola (creator of Hellboy) pinpoints how and where inspiration strikes; director John Stevenson (Kung Fu Panda) explores how creativity is enhanced by artistic collaboration in moviemaking; and graphic novelist Doug TenNapel (Earthworm Jim) describes exactly how a blank page comes to be inhabited with his compelling imagery. Join moderator Geoff Boucher, reporter and HeroComplex.com blogger with The Los Angeles Times, for this fascinating panel discussion and Q&A.

PS – Simon & Schuster will be giving away signed advanced copies of WondLa and the limited edition sketchbooks at Comic Con. I’ll update with details soon.

Fellow illustrator Aaron Zenz and his hilarious kids ask all the right questions at his Bookie-Woogie blog. Enjoy!

Simon & Schuster has released a couple of finished illustrations from my upcoming illustrated novel, The Search for WondLa, so I thought I would post a few here.  You may even recognize the early versions of these images that were shown in the teaser which was posted last month.

These are shots of some of the color printer’s proofs that I received this past week. Wondla is printed in an old-fashioned manner with a second spot color throughout (in fact, the green is inspired from Alphonse Mucha’s palette). The book is printed on a heavy ivory-colored paper (the same paper we used for Spiderwick). The separation process on these was tough, but the end result is rich. I hope you like it.

The Search for WondLa will be available on September 21st, 2010. The book is 500 pages with 70 2-color illustrations. I will be touring the US and the UK this fall in support of it.