Hi everyone! I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I have been busy with many projects. One of those projects I worked on late last year has finally arrived in stores. Thumb Wars: The Ultimate Guide is a thumb wrestling activity book published by Klutz/Scholastic for which I created all of the illustrations, along with some of the text treatments and some page layouts. The team over at Klutz, Jill Turney (Art Director) and Eva Steele-Staccio (Writer & Editor), made this an amazingly fun project to work on. Officially the book hits stores in February, but it is already showing up with various online retailers. The book even comes with a really cool, unique glove for you and an opponent to wear while thumb wrestling. So go out and buy the book!

The book at Klutz

The book at Amazon.com

When you get your first award for writing or illustrating, it’s a big deal. A very big deal. A mega big deal. So you can imagine how proud I am that my daughter won her first book award!

Antonia took second place in the 2010 Wisconsin Association of School Boards’ Write and Illustrate Your Own Picture Book Contest! Her awesome creation, The Mummy Comes Moaning, was judged one of the best among 342 entries state-wide. She competed in the 4th & 5th grade division. Along with a certificate of commendation and a cash award, her book will travel the state to be displayed at the WASB Fall Regional Meetings and the State Education Convention held in Milwaukee in January of 2011.

Toni put so much thought and time into her project. She had to meet strict requirements and deadlines. She created her book from scratch, hand-binding it herself. She wrote and rewrote her story. She sketched and painted and added various media to creatively illustrate each scene. She devoted many evening and weekend hours to turn in the best book she could. In the end, it was a masterpiece, and she’s incredibly proud to see that work rewarded.

My wife, Silvia, and I couldn’t be happier for her. Congrats to you, Toni! Well done!

Hey everyone, my buddy Scott Fischer recently had his latest children’s book released by Simon & Schuster. The book is called JUMP! and is absolutely perfect for little ones from 4 to 8 years-old. The book is full of exciting, energetic illustrations (but then you’d expect no less from Scott, right?). It’s a perfect book for reading out loud and getting your kids to jump along with the animals in the book. They’ll absolutely love doing that! Buy the book from Amazon here.

Hey everyone,

A buddy of mine has a chance to have his children’s book, JUMP!, put into boxes of Cheerios in 2010 and needs our help to cast votes for him. Let’s do what we can to help make sure fans of Cheerios become fans of Scott! You can vote once per day and there are only a few days left. The top five books will get into Cheerios boxes.

Most of you that enjoy my work will no doubt be aware of Scott’s work. We both cut our teeth in the fantasy industry working on Magic, D&D, etc.

Vote for Scott’s book here.

“Welcome to Monster Isle” from publisher, Immedium, is now available! I created all of the illustrations for this children’s picture book and couldn’t be more happy with the way it turned out. Your kids will love this book. Being a parent of three children, one of them a boy, I am particularly happy that my son enjoys the book as much as he does (I attribute this more to the monsters than to my super cool illustrations). But he could be saying all the nice things about my book because he knows I did the illustrations. … nah

You can order the book from many different places, including your local, independent bookseller. The book is also available from Borders, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and many more online retailers.

If you want to buy a copy of the book directly from me (which will be signed and also include an original sketch), head over to monsterisle.net and visit the “Buy the Book” section. You can also choose to purchase a copy of the book signed by the author, Oliver Chin, or download FREE coloring pages and activity sheets for your children to enjoy.

For those of you in the Metro Milwaukee area, tune in to WTMJ-4 TV’s “The Morning Blend” this Thursday, October 30th at 9:00am as I sit down with hosts, Molly and Alison, to discuss my picture book.

To learn more about the book, visit monsterisle.net

Here’s another little taste of art from “Welcome to Monster Isle”, a new 36-page picture book from Immedium, Inc. written by Oliver Chin and illustrated by yours truly.

The book is now available for pre-order at Amazon, or you can wait until Sept. 2008, buy the book from me and I will sign it AND do an original drawing in the book for you.