Monster Trucks

Written by Joy Keller Publisher: Godwin Books (Henry Holt)

All monsters love the autumn air,
just right to sneak and spook and scare.
But other seasons of the year,
they shift into a different gear.

Monsters get to work—paving roads, plowing snow, hauling muck—with their monster trucks in this fun, rhyming picture book. With a gentle bedtime ending, this not-too-scary story is perfect for young monster and truck lovers.

Process

In the early sketch (above), I wanted to show that Halloween has passed by having children with candy-rotten teeth lining up at the dentist’s office. The monsters are underground in shadows, changing into their work gear. In the revised sketch (below), children are just returning from their Halloween stroll back into their respective households.

The first sketch (above) shows are very clumsy but carefree crew, but I revised it so that it doesn’t look like the asphalt is ruining the tombstones.

The first sketch (above) shows the skeleton of a mammoth and a small town above, but the revised sketch (below) is simpler in the composition with more details (jokes) in the skeleton.