PS 347 and the Woodsies

Last month I had the privilege of reading Bernard to the awesome kids at P.S. 347 which is a school for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired as well as children with Deaf or Hearing Impaired parents.
I was invited by the gracious Gary Wellbrook, teacher at P.S. 347, enthusiast of children's literature and unabashed Joseph Campbell fan. So right way we had two things in common. He posted a lot of nice things on his blog about me and other kids book authors and illustrators, you can check out at his blog here.

One thing that Gary zeroed in on is my love for the work of Margret and H. A. Rey. Curious George is a big influence and I was reminded of another big influence over the holiday that I had forgotten about.Anyone remember these guys? The Woodsies?

My cousin got these from "Santa" in the early 80's and I remember pretty much frothing at the mouth in envy. I had had forgotten about these guys but after seeing them, I realized how much they made an imprint on my little brain back then. These guys are ALWAYS Fuzzy and Hopeful!

AFTER THE FLOOD

In an affort to fight off cabin fever during the Frankenstorm, Oskar and I made these wallets out of painted paper and cellophane tape. 

He and Teddy have become big TMNT fans so he wanted a Raphael wallet, Teddy's Michaelangelo wallet is in the works and in between, I made a Nilson and Amelia wallet, just cause.

The happy Nilsson wallet, for when he's nice and full of cash. But when its empty you get this guy.

Fortunately in the middle  you have Amelia to remind you to not have a fit.

It's been fun to see the guys getting into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was a little old for the real explosion of the Turtles in the 90's but I did get into the B+W comics from the late 80's. I even got to meet Eastman and Laird at one point. It was extra cool that they were from New Hampshire close to where I grew up. And they inspired me to start a short lived (thankfully) rip-off of TMNT and Sergio Aragones Groo the Wanderer that I called, ahem... Sly the Slaying Samurai Snail.

As it happens, a few weeks ago at a Memorial Service for my Grandmother my Aunt gave me a package of old stuff I had sent my Grandmother over the years and it included the first 2 pager comic of of Sly. Here it is in all its ball pen, unoriginal glory.

YIKES! That is Terrible.

In hind site it seems pretty obvious that I would be obsessed with Monty Python's The Holy Grail within a year or so of making this drivel.