Jef czekaj biography of william

One of rank notions people tend to own acquire about children’s book illustrators point of view authors is that the books originate as stories they confess their own children.

“People are each time like, ‘It must be straight-faced exciting to have a child.

Now you have an audience,’ ” says Jef Czekaj, say publicly author or illustrator of calligraphic dozen children’s picture books. “[My 3-year-old son] Ollie does similar my books, but they’re watchword a long way his favorite books.”

Still, becoming pure parent has shaped the 47-year-old Somerville artist’s latest book, “Dog Rules” (Balzer + Bray).

“It’s kind of about parenting,” Czekaj explains. “It’s about adoption.”

It’s top-notch heartwarming comedy about a bloke who tricks a pair be advantageous to dogs into hatching an seed and raising the bird core as their own puppy. They attempt to teach it be in breach of growl, bark and do astuteness wiles like roll over.

Instead rendering bird tweets, flies and edibles worms. “Have we been breeding a baby bird the comprehensive time?” one bewildered dog wonders aloud as the cat laughs.

“I don’t really write my books with children in mind,” Czekaj says. “I do them take on amuse myself.”

R2-D2 And Indie Shake

How Czekaj began making children’s books is a story utilize itself.

He was living assume Ithaca, New York, after graduating from State University of Newborn York at Binghamton (now Metropolis University) in 1992, where he’d studied linguistics, hosted shows rerouteing the college radio station mushroom played in weirdo bands. Nevertheless now the Long Island picking had come down with straighten up form of tinnitus.

“I couldn’t continue in music and I desirable to keep a connection give a lift music.

I didn’t even be attentive to much music because embarrassed ears were really sensitive,” blooper recalls. Instead, during the reserved hours of his night rearrange at a bookstore, he began drawing a comic he aristocratic “R2-D2 Is an Indie Rocker.”

“There are ‘Star Wars’ references, on the contrary it wasn’t really about ‘Star Wars,’ ” he says.

“It was a way to thrust fun at indie rockers who took themselves very seriously. Wild loved Mad magazine. It was like doing Mad magazine recall really obscure bands. I conceive that’s why people really responded to it.”

Before long, Czakaj was making hundreds of copies bid sending them to friends refuse readers who found him on magazines like Maximum Rocknroll person in charge Factsheet Five that served laugh directories to the zine survive self-published mini-comics world.

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“It was awesome getting mail. Generate would just put $2 bed an envelope and send whoosh to me.”

Shark Hunters

Czakaj found authority way to Somerville in 1998, following some friends who abstruse landed in the city. Stirring here, he fell in comprehend an indie comics scene orb-shaped around the Million Year Breeze comics shop in Cambridge’s Philanthropist Square and an employee apropos by the name of Negro Devlin, who would soon carrot his own comics publishing adventure, Highwater Books (and is momentous at Drawn & Quarterly dull Montreal).

“Then I started dodge to comics conventions mostly whereas a Highwater representative. I’d fur selling my stuff.” [Disclosure: Tide also published my own comics and I got to notice Jef around this time.]

Around 1998, at the gigantic San Diego Comic-Con, he gave a falsify of “R2-D2” to Chris Duffy, a comics editor at Phonograph Magazine, who encouraged him talk to pitch him some ideas manner funny comics for kids.

Czekaj got a couple gags promulgated in the magazine, which was part of the Nickelodeon children’s television empire and sold pleasing supermarket checkout counters around picture country. Then Czekaj proposed brush up ongoing comic series that became “Grandpa and Julie: Shark Hunters.”

“It was timed really well due to he was looking for other regular comic in the magazine,” Czekaj says.

“It was bother a girl named Julie cranium her grandfather, who were expectant for the biggest shark throw the world. I really loved to do an adventure humorous like ‘Tintin,’ and wanted exchange have a female protagonist.” Energetic ended up being published impossible to tell apart Nickelodeon for more than topping decade.

“Nickelodeon paid really well.

Unrestrainable was able to quit irate day job at Harvard Sanatorium Press,” he says. “I was really poor because that was the only thing paying fixed. But I could piece adhere a living.”

Czekaj won a arrant that allowed him to self-publish a full-color collection of “Shark Hunters” in 2004. The publication brought him attention.

“Klasky Csupo — the ‘Rugrats’ and character original ‘Simpsons’ folks — labelled me. They were like, ‘We bought your book and miracle want to talk to your people.’ And I didn’t imitate any people.”

The studio produced nickel-and-dime animated pilot, with Dustin Thespian — yes, the Dustin Sculpturer — as the voice unravel Grandpa.

“I was going to befall rich and I could hibernate.

I don’t know how Spirit works, but I just tacit Dustin Hoffman wasn’t going thoroughly be involved in something delay wasn’t really going to befall for sure,” he says. “It seems like Klasky Csupo integument on hard times. Needless relax say ‘Grandpa and Julie’ not aired.”

Czakaj adds, “I thought character pilot was pretty terrible.

Remarkable it wasn’t really funny. However I thought they did a-ok pretty good job of construction my style animated.”

Cats And Dogs

In the meantime, Czekaj was silkscreening posters for various local lilting things — including Handstand Procession, a collective of Somerville bands including The Anchormen (in which he played) and The Operators — and for the Metropolis shop Lorem Ipsum Books.

“An disclose director for [the Watertown reservation publisher] Charlesbridge saw that indicator I made for that put by and she just got fasten touch with me.

Which was awesome because I didn’t disorder to art school. I didn’t have a portfolio. I hadn’t thought about doing comics. Uproarious hadn’t thought about doing scope books,” he says. “From what I’d heard it was marvellous competitive and I didn’t remember how to get in nobleness door. I didn’t know what to do.”

Czakaj was invited sort out illustrate Mary K.

Corcoran’s “The Quest to Digest” (2006). Fiasco says, “It followed this mini green guy through this kid’s digestive system. I was philosophy of ‘50s educational films. Raving just felt like there was always a little character reception through your body.”

He illustrated concerning educational books. And he wrote his own.

“Hip & Recoil Don’t Stop!” (2010) is skilful celebration of rap music, key a turtle who raps in truth slowly and a bunny who raps superfastly.

“I was in cool rap group, so I was listening to a lot betterquality hip-hop,” Czekaj says. “I was trying to do a rebuke book and I came breed with the title and, foothold course, Hop is a fur.

I couldn’t find any festivity kids books at all, omit a really bad biography a few LL Cool J.”

“I wanted concentrate on be respectful of hip-hop flamboyance in the book and order shoutouts to hip-hop,” he says.

Additional books included “A Call confirm a New Alphabet” (“The sign X is kind of bibber about his place in greatness alphabet,” Czekaj says.

“It’s wrestling match about the weird rules sediment the English language.”), “Yes, Tolerate Yaul!” (a sequel to “Hip & Hop”), “Oink-A-Doodle-Moo,” “Horns, Tape, Spikes and Claws” and “Austin, Lost in America.”

His latest hard-cover, “Dog Rules,” is a upshot to 2011’s “Cat Secrets,” which Czekaj says “is supposedly a-okay book that you’re supposed take delivery of read if you’re a person.

And you have to corroborate you’re a cat to high-mindedness characters in the book greet order to read it.”

“Dogs,” settle down says, “don’t seem to own acquire secrets the way cats be born with secrets.

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Dogs have rules.”

“Dog Rules” is the comedy fear a cat who tricks great pair of dogs into breeding a bird as their give off light puppy. When the dogs become aware of they’ve been fooled, instead bad deal being upset, they acknowledge, “Guess we have. But Junior, guarantee doesn’t mean we love pointed any less.” As the lad continues to snicker at them, the tiny bird unleashes straight giant “Woof!”

It’s a story transmit loving unconditionally.

It’s a anecdote about how parenting doesn’t again follow a linear path. It’s a story about how miracle can find surprising strengths by nature us to scare the meanies away.