This illustration, titled some kids have hobbies, was sketched for the New York Times Magazine around the time of the early school shootings in the mid 1990's, but before Columbine. James Victore and I had written a few humor pieces together for magazines and were casting about for a more ambitious (lucrative) project. I don't remember exactly, but I'm guessing we looked at the killed sketches hanging on my wall and little lightbulbs appeared over our heads. We wrote a proposal, did some sketches, and shopped it around. We got a lot of interest, and many, many exciting - and yet somehow interminable - meetings with editors and publishers. Meetings that went exactly nowhere. In 1999 we put together a dummy of the book and my agent Holly McGhee took it out to even more interest. Offers were made, offers were rejected. A very large offer was made. The very large offer was quickly withdrawn when the editor in question was informed in no uncertain terms by her boss that she was not allowed to publish this book. The dummy collected dust. Fast forward to late fall 2010 - dummy gets dusted off, editor David Cashion at Abrams digs dummy, inks contract, James and I furiously brainstorm, and over beers, jiu jitsu, and sessions at the local gun range, we somehow manage to write a book.

We cried 'Godspeed, little Hong Kong container ship!' and it brought the books over the stormy ocean and safely to our shores.  They were harried thence to the shelves of your favorite book retailer, where they await your timely attentions.