Fortunately, The Milk: Part 1

The story of illustrating a children's book by some guy named Neil Gaiman

FORTUNATELY, THE TWITTER

My oldest son will be 12 years old in November. It’s hard to see him now and think he was ever a tiny little baby. He’s about to outgrow his mom, and even at 6’4” he’ll surpass me someday soon. Thinking about his upcoming birthday had me thinking about all the things going on in my life in the days and weeks after he was born and, of all things, TWITTER came to mind.

What the fuck, right? Why would I think about the hot mess that Twitter has become when thinking about my first born’s first weeks on this earth? Guess what, I’m gonna tell ya!

I took a few weeks off work after Baxter was born. Just focused on getting to know my little guy, making sure Casey could get the rest she needed, and learning how to do this whole Dad job. After he’d eat, I’d rock him to sleep and stay there through his naps while scrolling through Twitter, which was really new at the time. It was so new the #protip was actual PROS GIVING TIPS on whatever they’re pros at. (Unlike today where #protip is someone passive aggressively being a sarcastic asshole.) I used my baby nap/rocking time to do Q&A’s on Twitter. It was mostly process questions and how to break in stuff. But then one came in that was different.

“Are there any writers out there that you’d love to work with?”

At this point, I was drawing the OZ books at Marvel and spending my free time writing my own projects, but this question stood out to me.

“Jason Aaron is my favorite comic writer, so he would be great. Neil Gaiman is my favorite novelist, and I would love to work with him.”

Jason Aaron

Jason reached out instantly and he has since become one of my best friends, even if we never actually got around to doing the project. We talked about a few projects but were both busy AF. Though we have collaborated on a many a Tiki Bar trips and late-night drinks and hotel lobby pizzas! (BTW, I’m currently in a hotel lobby waiting for a pizza as I finish up this post.)

Neil Gaiman

After many more replies to Neil and me, Neil reached out to me and said, “Let’s do it!” We slid into each other DM’s and talked about things a bit and agreed that when he had an idea that I’d fit with, he’d reach back out. I was thrilled, even thought I assumed this would never happen. This happens often. People meet, get excited in the moment, talk about collaborating, part ways, then…. nothing. Not because they didn’t mean it or truly want to. Just…well, just because. Life. I was happy enough to have THAT relationship with my favorite novel writer. I was content that we chatted and would never actually do a project. So, I went back to feeding and rocking my little guy and eventually went back to drawing OZ.

ONCE UPON A FEW YEARS LATER

I was still working on the OZ books in 2012 when I got an email from Neil. He told me he had sold a new project and suggested me as the illustrator, but they weren’t sure about me since my table was “comic book artist.” I think they were scared I would just draw big muscle people complete with BOOM POW BAM’s. You all know that’s never been my bag, and 4 years into illustrating the New York Times Best Selling OZ adaptations, it REALLY WASN’T MY BAG! (Do you like how I bragged about that NYT’s thing? Well, at least I didn’t brag about the 4 Eisners I won sooooo…oops.) Anyway, they were nervous, and Neil hesitantly asked if I could read his manuscript and draw a sample for them. He knew I was his guy, and I knew this was my book. So, I did the sample.

And just like that. I was the illustrator for Neil Gaiman’s FORTUNATELY, THE MILK.

This is a perfect place to take a break! Tune in next week for PART 2!

In the meantime, signup or upgrade to a premium subscription for some free art book downloads and some brand new comics debuting right here! And check out the process shots of my test piece I did.

You can see that it’s pretty similar to the final, published cover. I just added some book specific details as I read Neil’s manuscript multiple times. I’ll dive more into the actual art process in Part 2.