We really like monsters at Channel Frederator, so imagine our delight when the monsterously smart Sarah Szalavitz introduced us to the monsterously cool Daily Monster by Stefan G. Bucher. And then we found out he was publishing a monsterously (OK, I’ll stop now) cool book of his monsters.

Stefan filmed himself for 100 days drawing 100 monsters. The book has them all with 257 stories and all the videos on a DVD. Buy it now, you won’t be sorry.

My inspiration and friend Steven Heller has written what seems like his 1000th book on graphic design called Becoming a Digital Designer (with David Womack). He conducted a great interview with NNN founder Tim Shey. (Which was particularly inspirational to Tim, who’s been a Steve fan himself for years).

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Case Study: Small-screen Television

Timothy Shey, founder and head of network development at Next New Networks

Q: How did you get drawn into the digital world, and into design specifically? Did you train as a designer?

Tim: I grew up doing digital design, though I didn’t know it at the time.

As a kid in the 1980s, I would design and write software games on my Commodore 64, and was also pretty active on the BBSes (bulletin board systems) that were a precursor in many ways to the Web. Design then meant working in low-res pixel and ASCII art, but it was good training for what I’d end up doing in the nineties and beyond.

Design for me has always been about doing the best (more…)

Twelve hours ago: It’s 11:21pm, Friday, July 20, 39 minutes before the official release of the new Harry Potter. I’m in line at the Maine Coast Book Store in Damariscotta, Maine (”We’re not online yet — someday!). I’m with over 300 fans (including my two boys and my wife)–most of whom are well over 16– waiting for our reserved copies of Harry Potter + the Deathly Hallows. I’d never been in Maine until six hours ago and standing in this small town with all this excitement is a fantastic introduction to the state. I’ve never stood in line for the release of anything and it’s thrilling to see that a book can motivate all these folks as much as a movie star. I can’t believe I left my camera at the hotel.

“This 526 page book is told in both words and pictures. The Invention of Hugo Cabret is not exactly a novel, and it’s not quite a pitcure book, and it’s not really a graphic novel, or a flip book, or a movie, but a combination of all these things.”

I’m just starting this book by Brian Selznick because my son says it’s the best book he’s ever read and my wife agrees it’s one of the most amazing books she’s read (she says the unique approach to storytelling –a little prose interweaved with large format illustrations– makes it a cartoonist’s dream). A few more data points:

• TIOHC is #2 on the New York Times Children’s Best Sellers. And Harry Potter should be enough to make you realize the list doesn’t cater to just “kids’ books.”

• The illustrations (and the format) are amazingly great.

• Martin Scorcese is considering directing (more…)