The in progress back cover art for "The Great Honeybee Heist"- a kids book I've been writing on and off (mostly off) since 2004.

Cleaning out the house and garage recently, I've unearthed quite a stash of original artwork.

Many years ago, my friend Mike Milo and I got the opportunity to write and draw Itchy and Scratchy for Matt Groening's line of comic books based on the Simpsons.

I & S is the cartoon that Bart Simpson watches- a bizarre ultra-violent parody of Tom and Jerry and the whole genre of cat vs. mouse chase cartoons. It was way too much fun dreaming of funny ways for Itchy (the mouse) to carve up hapless Scratchy, and we had a blast writing and drawing the series until parents actually started closely examining the 'funny book' they bought their little ones at the local 7-Eleven:

A flood of protest letters followed, and Fox pulled the plug. (Not to mention, how much can you really do with this concept?)

Weirder still: while I & S was still on the comic racks, not to be outdone, WB (now owners of Tom and Jerry) approached us to write and draw a slightly more violent version of the original cat and mouse team! Basically, the original was copycatting the parody.

Here's a couple of pages from the first issue. I believe the comic book was actually released in Asia, but not the states. Some editor at WB's comic division probably realized that it was a dreadful idea to begin with- and I & S got canned anyway.  But hey, it's what they asked for.

Leila and I are working together on a picture book. The above is a snippet from one of the page spreads. I'm really excited to be working with Leila on a project that we've wanted to do for some time now. It's definitely a very, very busy year for our own creative projects. 

I've really been wanting to restore some of the old comic books my friend Mike and I used to draw from 1986 to 1994. We did them mainly to amuse ourselves and practice writing and illustrating stories. Most of our stories were the misadventures of an amphomorphic Hippo named Charlie, and his pal Louie, a hedgehog. I've always liked animal characters to avoid any issues of what race the characters are; animals are just animals. Plus we were both always inspired by the old Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge comics of the 1940's and 50's.

A page from a 1993 issue of "Zaptoon Tales" penciled by my friend Mike Milo, and inked/lettered by me. I'm contemplating re-publishing some of our old comics, but it's a daunting task to sift through the hundreds of pages we cranked out, and ready them for publication.

A stack of original pages from a 1992 issue of Zaptoon Tales. I placed a nickel on the top page for a size comparison. These larger 11 x17 originals are tough to get in a scanner- basically to digitize for print I have to do them one panel-row at a time, per page.

47 pages from a 1992 issue. Over the years, some of art has yellowed considerably, and the original white-out and zip-a-tone in some cases is cracking.  Luckily scanning restores the art to crisp black and white. Mostly I want to preserve these for my own sake, not because I really think our comics were all that great for anyone else to read. It's just one of those things you hate to see turn to dust with the passage of time.

Okay, it's way too early, but I just can't resist sharing with family/friends a sneaky-peak at the tentative cover of a new book I'm working on with my friend Marcus. It's only a rough, but I think it captures a little of the spookiness of the unusual UFO tale we're currently concocting.  Of course, this won't be anywhere near ready for quite some time.

I just got my proof copies of my current book, Badhat from the printer today- I have to say, it looks great. I have merely to sign off on it and it should be available online very soon thereafter. It amazes me how fast the whole process of self-publishing has become even since I first delved into it in the early 2000's. The lightning speed of the Internet age has really taken over. Now if only the task of writing could happen at quad-core/multi-threaded/tri-channel/broadband speed.

Barring any as yet unforeseen problems, my next book will be out in a few weeks, available on Amazon.com and other online bookstores. This book is a western adventure story for kids. I wrote and illustrated it mainly to amuse myself after being stranded in a hotel in Barstow, California for several days with nothing to read but Louis L'Amour novels. I actually finished it about four years ago, but I've held off on publishing it. This book marks the first published directly under my own Zaptoons imprint.

Woot!

I've never liked the price point my other books have been set at, outside of my control,  so I set the price of this one at a more standard paperback rate of US $7.99.  So keep a look out: I'll post links as soon as it's 'live' at various online bookstores.

Watch Flavio!