The other day I participated in #Gabfest20 with Mark Stokes of Zombie Boy Comics fame. Everyone was talking about their projects and comics so I thought I would share the project taking up 90% of my time, my first children’s book, My Father Wrestles Alligators and Other Fantastic Lies from My Five Older Brothers. 

This book is about a year in the making. Over the summer of 2019 I wrote out the story which was roughly 24 pages of art and text. Then I trimmed it down, reworked it a bit and sent it off to my friend Micheal to read, review and edit. He gave me some notes and his feedback. He really enjoyed it and this was very encouraging because over the past 10 years I have started and stopped about 3-5 books. This is mostly because I felt that these other attempts weren’t that exciting or the story was too similar to an existing property.

This Book is 100% Original

I don’t think My Father Wrestles Alligators will be too similar to anything else. And that is because it is basically a little snippet of my childhood. The book doesn’t have a complicated story, it really just bounces from story to story (lies!) that my older brothers would tell me every now and then.

Like how my father used to wrestle alligators down in the swamps of Florida.  

As a kid, my mind would race to picture these stories (again, lies!) that they told me. Since I had a pretty active imagination I always pictured crazy scenarios like my dad putting an alligator in the figure four or the sharpshooter. When I started to write this book I had a blast drawing how I would remember their stores (you know, their lies). Alligators dressed like lucha libre, grandmothers that might be a little werewolf and a 1970 station wagon flying through the air as it attempted to jump the Delaware River. 

So When Will This Book Come Out?

I plan on completing the book this spring or early summer. Hopefully the world will get back to normal soon enough and I can self publish in the fall so people can have it in time for the holidays. In the meantime, follow me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook if you’d like a peek into my progress!