Lucky lady

I had the great fortune, first of all, to grow up with the children's book Who Needs Donuts? a book that was miraculously republished. Stop what you're doing right now and buy a copy, it's brilliant and you won't regret it. I've been reading it over and over ever since I learned how to read (a helluva long time ago, my people!) and I still find things to crack up and marvel over in it. It's THAT amazing.

When it was ever so sadly and absurdly out of print back in the 90s, I was feeling guilty for sneaking off with the one copy we had as kids, and decided to track down a copy for my brother for his birthday. This hopeless and ultimately desperate search led me finally to the Village Voice, where the author of Donuts, Mark Alan Stamaty, was still doing his brilliant weekly cartoon Washingtoon. I left a note for him begging for one of his copies, thinking he must have a huge personal stash and perhaps he might feel sorry for me and sell me a copy. One day soon after I was sitting around at home and the phone rang — it was the dude himself, and we had a great conversation, but he told me to fuhgeddaboudit, he only had one box and no, he wouldn't part with any of the remaining copies, and yes, he got calls like this frequently from Donuts fanatics like me, but hey, that's life!

Soon after that, I received a copy of his new book of Washingtoon cartoons and an amazing personalized doodle in the mail (which I framed and have loved ever since). He was an exceptionally nice guy, in other words.

Then, this past summer, I went to a wedding where I met the awesome illustrator Nina Frenkel, whose mentor was none other than MARK ALAN STAMATY. "Do you want to go out to dinner with him? I'll set it up!" she asked me. "Well Hells Bells YES," was my answer.

So this past Monday night I had the incredible experience of being able to break bread with one of my favorite writer/illustrators in the whole world. I know! That's why I felt lucky this week. I knew I was pushing my crazy psycho fan luck by bringing a bunch of books for him to sign, but I couldn't help it. But check it out: Mark (I call him "Mark" now, ha ha), sat back and doodled away after dinner while Nina and I yapped over coffee. And when I mean doodled...will you look at the output from this doodler extraordinaire?

Here's my copy of the republished 2001 Who Needs Donuts? Check out the train on the nose and the fishbowl in his muscle and the bearded sun and...I'm in heaven.



Here's the original Who Needs Donuts? from the 70s. A horse having coffee and a donut!



And here's my brother Wolf's book: he finally has his own copy. (I bought him one for his birthday a few years ago, so that's my inscription you see partially in the bottom corner.)



Here's the front cover of another awesome strip of Mark's called MacDoodle St.



And now here's the inside cover.



That bow-tied rhino makes me so happy. Thank you, Mark! Thank you, Nina!