One day a year he is Santa Claus, but the other 364 days Dan Santat works as a children's book writer and commercial illustrator. He is also the creator of Disney's animated hit, The Replacements.
Dan graduated with honors from the Art Center, College of Design.
He lives in Southern California with his wife, two kids, a cat, a bird, and one rabbit
For some time I had been looking for a project that would be just right for Dan's sensibilities. Crazy giant rabbits from outer space fit that bill.
From the beginning our ideas for the direction of the cover were in sync, vintage monster movie posters! Here are some that we looked at.
Here is some photo research of a giant bunny.
Dan's first sketch
Here is Dan's first sketch. A pretty good start. But something isn't right yet. This book is about crazy giant bunnies. I want to see that bunny big and looming. Kinda like this.
Much better! We tweaked the title a bit and things seem to be going along just fine. But of course we still have some
meddling left to do.
After a cover meeting the group felt that the bunny might be too scary. I thought how can bunnies be scary?
Oh. That's how.
Solution shave down his teeth and lessen his angry brow.
Next step Dan then sent in the final art . Only those eye's need some Visine.
Aww moist eyes! With a couple of small tweaks our cover starts to come into focus.
Back cover art
Now it's time to place all that pesky type
Type placed!
About the book
When Joules and Kevin Rockman’s parents drop them off at Camp Whatsitooya on their way to an International Spamathon, the twins expect a summer of marshmallows, campfires, and canoe trips. What they do not expect is to defend the earth from an invasion of sugar-addicted, murderous, seven-foot-tall rabbits from another galaxy. Happily, the Rockman twins, veteran watchers of the Late, Late, Late Creepy Show for Insomniacs, are unusually well-prepared for dealing with monstrous beings from outer space. If only their fellow campers were so lucky.
Andrea Beaty, author of several very funny picture books and a mysterious novel, here reaches new heights of hilarity and verbal dexterity in a novel sure to become a camp—ba-dum-dum—classic.
About the author
Andrea Beaty was raised in a small southern Illinois town, where her family ran a tiny grocery store. When she
wasn’t roaming the nearby fields with her brothers and sisters, she was reading Nancy Drew mysteries up in the branches of a maple tree. Andrea now lives outside Chicago with her family. She is the author of
When Giants Come to Play, illustrated by Kevin
Hawkes, and
Iggy Peck, Architect, illustrated by David Roberts. Andrea blogs about funny books for kids at
www.ThreeSillyChicks.com. Learn more about her at
www.AndreaBeaty.com.
Dan Santat’s
Guild of Geniuses (2004) won the Marion
Vannett Ridgeway Award for best debut author/illustrator. He has since illustrated
The Secret Life of Walter Kitty, by Barbara Jean Hicks; the Otto Undercover series, by Rhea
Perlman;
The Ghosts of Luckless Gulch, by Anne
Isaacs; and
Chicken Dance, by Tammi
Sauer. He is also the creator of the Disney animated series
The Replacements, and is at work on a graphic novel,
The Domesticated Four. He lives with his wife and two children in Southern California. Visit him at
www.dantat.com.
Here is Dan's first sketch. A pretty good start. But something isn't right yet. This book is about crazy giant bunnies. I want to see that bunny big and looming. Kinda like this.
Much better! We tweaked the title a bit and things seem to be going along just fine. But of course we still have some meddling left to do.
After a cover meeting the group felt that the bunny might be too scary. I thought how can bunnies be scary?
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