It's Family Day in Ontario

One of my darker comics from the archives (NOT kidlit)

When I first heard that the third Monday in February was going to be known as “Family Day,” my first reaction was confusion. It seemed odd to me that this one day during the year should be focused on family, and I was motivated to create this comic. I thought it was funny but when I posted it, my kidlit followers didn’t know what to make of it. Can’t blame them, really; they were used to my kidlit-friendly, uplifting and happy posts.

The truth is that I am more than just my kidlit-friendly art, and it’s one reason I decided to create The Red Balloon.

While I am usually a glass-half-full type of person who usually likes to focus on the positive and hopeful, I also have a dark and twisty sense of humour, and I also enjoy reading horror.

Look, I have a hand-typed autographed letter from Stephen King!

The comic was also heavily influenced by a Ray Bradbury short story, “All Summer In A Day.” I fell in love with Ray Bradbury’s writing when I was a young reader. Bradbury was the first authors whose work made me realize how much voice in writing could influence reader experience. I also was drawn to the darker themes and scarier stories.

Any other horror fans out there?

But back to Family Day.

I have nothing against Family Day. I know it can be a great reminder to spend time with one’s family, and its creation by Dalton McGuinty in 2007 raised Ontario’s number of statutory holidays to nine per year (though this doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone gets that as a holiday).

But I digress.

Today is Family Day, which gave me an excuse to finally post this comic in a context where (I hope) my readers won’t be freaking out because I’m NOT posting something geared toward young readers.

I love creating picture books and always hope to help make picture books but I do find myself yearning to branch out into books for older readers, to feel more free to explore my dark and twisty side. 😜