Weird Al Tweets Picture Book

Weird Al Yankovic twitpicked (????) the cover of When I Grow Up, the forthcoming picture book penned by Al and illustrated by my buddy Wes Hargis.

Some of the comments from Al's tweet:

Ok, I admit it. I love the snail.


If the cover is that interesting then the book should be pretty good, I'll look for it next March.


aww ... how cute im gonna express my enthusiam for this book :D TOO it looks adorable!!


Great cover, my nephew will love it :D


Can't wait to buy it!!! Love the snail! :)


Nice cover by Wes Jarvis.


oops. Hargis. Sorry.


Now Al, that's sending a ba-a-a-a-d message to kids - standing up, steering w/his feet! J/k! Great!!


HarperCollins also publishes the Flat Stanley books! :)

I'll buy that...and I don't even have kids!


Looks good! Can't wait to read it!


If this is real, it's totally going on my blog next week in my Awesome Product feature. :)


The cover looks great. :)


I love that snail!


I'm really diggin' on the illustration style.


Why was this not out when I was a kid?!

Natural Influences

We just got back from San Diego.

The whole time I was there, I had Dr. Seuss-itis.
We were less than 20 miles away from where Dr. Seuss lived in La Jolla.
I had planned on going to La Jolla and hopefully finding the tower where Dr. Seuss lived, but on the day we had planned to go, there was a landslide in La Jolla and we thought it was best we stay away from all the hubbub.

Anyway....I kept seeing all these plants and trees in San Diego that reminded me of the trees and plants in Dr. Seuss drawings. It got me to thinking about the influence of our natural surroundings. Was Dr. Seuss just drawing from his natural surroundings? A little imagination and these wonderfully unique trees in Southern California became that much more wonderful!

Take a look at Wes' work and you don't see traditional trees, hills and grass in the background. You see desert. And that makes Wes' work so unique and so beautiful. Drawing from the desert and landscapes Wes knows and sees every day makes his work absolutely terrific!

Above are a bunch of photos I took of trees and plants I saw on our vacation.
Do they remind you of something you've seen in Dr. Seuss drawings?