In April of ’92 I had my third book assignment from Eerdmans Publishing. This was an ‘earth friendly’ kids book from a christian perspective (cherishing and honoring god’s creation etc, as opposed to just keeping the planet clean for its own sake, and for the future of the human race), paperback, with a color cover and back cover illustration and a whole bunch of inside spots, all done in a loose cartoon style (that was still rather primitive looking at this early stage in my career). The color illustration from the back cover is pictured below. (all the original art has been lost, so these have all been taken from a printed copy)

The book was laid out in a faux ‘newspaper style’ with articles and headlines and little factoids sprinkled around. Most of the illustrations inside were black and white line drawings with spot color added. I remember going in to see the designer, and her having a fondness for my ‘rats’ (which I used as a continuing motif throughout the book), and her having little cut out snippets of them sprinkled all over her desk (this was back in the days of ‘paste up’ before computer aided design).

I’m not going to bother sharing all the illustrations, as they were rather repetitive and very crudely drawn, but I’ll share a sampling of them to give you an idea of what the interior was like.

 

Also this month, I had a couple book cover assignments for Baker Book House. One was a caricature grouping for the cover of a book entitled 6000 Sermon illustrations (still available used on Amazon link here), and another was for the cover of a trade catalog. I found an image of the book cover online (pictured left), and I may or may not still have the original art for the trade catalog cover which I may post at a later date. I also had a pastel cover assignment from David C. Cook Publishing out of Colorado, but my records are spotty on this one, and don’t know the name of the book.