I had some trouble picking a book or character for "C." I've already done Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for "A," so the Cheshire Cat was out. My next thought was to illustrate Captain Bluebear from The 13 and 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers, who is my favorite untrustworthy narrator. I haven't met anyone else who's read it, (it is a large, thick book with a yellow cover, which gives it an unfortunate resemblance to a phone book). Bookstores and libraries seem to shelve it in the adult section, and since I decided to do an alphabet for children's literature, I decided to pick a different title. Coraline it is! I think Coraline was the first Neil Gaiman book I read, but it certainly wasn't the last. (I'm a big fan of The Graveyard Book.) I decided to keep things pretty simple and illustrate Chapter 2, when she's exploring in the white fog. I like Coraline's spunk. I also appreciate the little details, even in the opening chapters, that her world is off kilter. (For example, the neighbors who keep calling her "Caroline.") The nameless cat is fantastic - behaving and speaking just the way I imagine a cat would, if given the ability to converse with humans.

My favorite character from The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander is Fflewder Fflam, the wandering liar king who plays the lyre, but the image that stuck out in my memory from what I remember of the book is Eilowny leading Taran through the dungeons of the Spiral Castle with her glowing, golden bauble in hand. I also had to include Hen Wen, perhaps not as famous as Wilbur or Babe, but certainly one of the great pigs of children's literature.

For a long time, I've played around with the idea of a blog. I thought about illustrating a book in the public domain, but there are so many classics to choose from (Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz, The Jungle Book and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to name a few.) I may return to that idea in the future, but for now, partly inspired by one of my favorite novels, The Neverending Story, I've decided not to limit myself to one book, but take an "A to Z" approach. I'll illustrate one character and/ or book for each letter of the alphabet. My goal is to post once a week with a new illustration. Today's letter is "A" for "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." While I was making sketches, I realized I've never seen an Alice with curly hair. Alice should have crazy hair. Alice's crazy, curly hair should be just one more thing in wonderland that she can't control....