The rumors have been swirling, and now it can be confirmed:
The Book of Drew is happening! This all started last summer,
when, (within the storyline of the comic strip), it was revealed
that Drew had posed nude for a poetry book while he
was in college in Alabama. Which, (SPOILER ALERT, if you
haven't read the "Is Drew a Male Prostitute?" storyline. you may
not want to read this), explains how Lance's co-worker Floyd
Nelson knew about Drew's "Dixie Peach" tattoo on his backside.
That storyline generated a lot of reader comments and e-mails,
and, interestingly, I received a bunch of inquiries about whether
an actual poetry book filled with nude drawings of Drew was
going to be published. Initially, I laughed it off. But then, I real-
ized.... I do quite of bit of figure drawing on the side.... and it
might be kind of fun to devote a series of figure drawings to
Drew, who's already a fun character to draw.
At first, I was going to do it as described in the comic strip: a poetry
book featuring some nude pictures of Drew. Perhaps 15 or so drawings
interspersed amongst the poems. So, I spent a few months gathering
some classic poetry by the likes of Whitman, Dickinson, Frost and others
.... poems with a nature theme, to actually give the book a certain focus.
But as I began working on the drawings of Drew, I realized they needed
to be released in a large format book. The poetry book was only going to
be a 6' x 9" format book, and the drawings would really not be shown off
properly in that small of a size. Also, I was creating more drawings than
would be necessary to fill the poetry book. Thus, was the idea for
The
Book of Drew born.
The book will feature
50 new, never before published pencil drawings of
Drew. They're done in the classical style I use for my figure drawing....
in some ways, a little looser and rawer than my inked comic strip work,
yet, conversely, a bit more detailed in terms of shading and linework.
The book will be 8" x 10" format, and all of the drawings are sized to
fit the standard 8" x 10" matte/frame size. I really believe you'll find
these drawings to be worthy of framing, (also, the portion of the book
with the drawings will be "single-paged", meaning there won't be any
drawings that are back-to-back. Therefore, if there's any particular
drawing you want to frame, you don't need to worry about another
drawing being on the back of it).
Finally, in case you were wondering... there will NOT be any "fig
leaves" in the book.... it will feature full-frontal Drew throughout,
(done tastefully, of course). And there will be some other fun
items in the book, like Drew's own "Dixie Peach Pie" recipe. And
a personal message from Drew himself! Release date is set for
later this Spring.... details will be posted as they happen.
Oh, and if you're wondering about that Nature Poetry book... well.
yes, I went ahead with that, anyway, (once I started gathering
those poems, I kind of fell in love with the project). In place of
the nude drawings of Drew, I've put in some of my nature
photography from Vermont and Long Island. It's called
The Sugar Maple Press Anthology of Nature Poems
and it was published last month, (came out quite nicely,
I might add!). Now available at Amazon.
