The Next Big Thing is a global blog tour, started in Australia, to showcase authors and illustrators and their current work. I was tagged by the super rad Wilson Williams Jr! After I answer the interview questions, I’ll pass the Q&A along to some others who’ll pick up the tour and have their Next Big Thing’s posted by June 6th, 2013.

My Next Big Thing is actually an old idea that went through a bunch of changes over the years until now. So here’s what I’m working on…

1) What is the working title of your next book?
“Monsters Are Go!” (with the exclamation point intact)

2) Where did the idea come from for the book?

Simply put, the idea came out of the feelings I had when I was considered a freak by my peers, when I was a punk rock kid who didn’t conform to the status quo.

3) In what genre does your book fall?

Its a Rock-N-Roll fantasy picture book.

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

This would have to be an animated movie and since this is a fantasy question, here’s my fantasy answer for what I hear their voices sounding like:

He definitely sounds like Henry Winkler as The Fonz!

This character is voiced by a young Joan Jett.

This one was a no brainer! This character is voiced by Sterling Holloway.

This guy most definitely sounds like a very young Peter Robbins from back when he did the voice for Charlie Brown and hadn’t grown up to be a criminal.

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Kip Wilson, born with a tail, was the loneliest Rock-N-Roller in town until he met a band of totally rad monsters.

6) Who is publishing your book?

This is yet to be determined. I’m at the stage in this project where I’m ready to start work on a dummy book to submit to publishers. My agent has already done some ground work talking to some publishers about it, but I am prepared to self publish if need be.

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

I actually don’t remember. The first draft was written in 2005 as a 96 page all ages comic book (I hate the graphic novel term). Its been written and re-written so many times that I have lost count and has had many false starts since then as well. The final written story barely resembles the original version and is better for it. Its now a picture book akin to a Little Golden Book.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

That’s tough… “Where The Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak is all that’s coming to mind.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

My Dad.

10) What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

I didn’t just write this book for children, but also for Rock-N-Roll parents who are like me. I know they will be reading it multiple times with their kids and I don’t want it to be like a lot of the bland pap that clutters children’s book shelves at bookstores these days.

Additionally, I’ll be releasing some music to go along with the book as if the monster’s band played it. Click here for a preview of one of their instrumentals.

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That’s it! Now its time to tag some other rad and talented people. Please stop by the following blogs Thursday, June 6th, 2013 for their Next Big Thing:

• Joshua Kemble
• Krishna Sadasivam
• Mark Rudolph

Space Cowboy - The finished version and the digital sketch that started it.

Click images for a larger view.

Here’s a pin-up illustration, of Batgirl, I finished over the weekend.

Check out this interview I did for, my pal, Krishna Sadasivam’s site about artist’s workspaces and tools called Draw Me A Robot.

drawmearobot:

1. Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Kevin Cross and I’m a San Francisco Bay Area native currently living in Portland, Oregon with my rad wife and our super awesome one year old daughter. I’ve been working as an illustrator for…GASP…13 years. There are two styles I’m working in these days. One is a naive style that emphasizes a minimal approach through shape and color. The other style emphasizes brush and ink line work influenced by my favorite cartoonists from the Silver and Bronze Ages of comics. You can see what I’m talking about over at my website. I’ve been a podcaster for a few years now and have been a co-host on shows like Big Illustration Party Time, a show about the ins and outs of freelance illustration, Art & Story, a show about the craft of making comics, and I’m currently a co-host on Traveling Through The Bronze Age, a show that dissects comics from 1970-1985. Additionally, I’ve made and self published my own comic books, mini-comics, and zines. Right now, when client work is slow, I’m working on a children’s book that I’ve written, as well as turning one of my old mini-comics into a larger comic series that I hope will come out before I’m a senior citizen. Finally, I’ve been a skateboarder and guitar player for many punk bands since 1985. Some of my old bands include Big Rig (Lookout Records), The Nerve Agents (Revelation Records), and Pitch Black (Lookout and Revelation Records). I’m currently playing guitar in Barbarian Riot Squad and have a solo project, where I play everything, called Plastic Eyes.

2. What’s your hardware setup?

• Some sort of fancy iMac machine
• Yiynova MSP19U tablet monitor
• Epson Perfection V500 PHOTO scanner
• Epson Stylus PHOTO R1900 printer
• iPad that I use solely for writing with the “My Writing” and/or “Evernote” apps… also, for playing Mr. & Ms. PAC-MAN. (Its too bad those kids got a divorce. I thought they had a bright future together.)
• Line 6 UX1 for recording guitar, bass, and vocals for my sweet tunes, man.
• Western Digital My Book External HD with more memory than I’ll need in the foreseeable future.
• JVC 13” VCR/TV combo with a cheap Sony DVD player, one of those retro ATARI 2600s with 60 games inside, and a Retron 3 game console that plays NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis games attached to the TV. If I was a smarter man, these things wouldn’t be in my studio.
• ION USB Turntable because I love listening to records while I work.
• BLUE SnoBall Microphone for podcasting.

3. What’s your workspace look like?

My workspace is kind of small and narrow. It can get pretty messy pretty quickly, but I try to keep it tidy lest I go insane. Here’s a video tour of my workspace.

4. What tools do you use to make your cartoons?

When I’m working in the naive style, predominately for children’s book clients, I have started working completely digital from the initial sketches all the way through to the finished illustration. So I just use my computer, the Yiynova, and Photoshop for that.

For the comic book style, I use cheap computer paper and pencil for roughs, then I scan that into my computer and turn the lines to a non-photo blue, then I print the blue lines out onto Bristol, then go over to my drawing table to ink using Winsor Newton Series 7 brushes with Speedball ink, then its back to the scanner, then I clean up the inked piece and color it using Photoshop and the Yiynova tablet monitor, and then when its all finished, I grab my skateboard and leave the house.

Hey Illustrators! Wanna know how to to get clients without doing any promotion or marketing? Its easy! Here’s how I do it:

1. Pick a personal project that will take some time for you to finish. (i.e. children’s book, comic book, or animated short)
2. Get really excited about it. I mean the kind of excitement that makes you feel like you’re going to die if you don’t get to work on it.
3. Start the project and feel your excitement grow. Lose sleep over it because you can’t wait to work on it some more the following day.
4. After a couple days, happily walk into your studio intending to work on your masterpiece that is going to set the art world and pop culture on fire.
5. Instead, find yourself answering phone calls and emails from new clients or old clients with new projects.
6. Remember that rent is due and fill your schedule with paying client work.
7. Put your project back on the shelf.

See?! Easy.