This summer is going to be absolutely ploptacular as we celebrate the publication of the incredible Poo Crew Adventures: Journey to Poo-Topia illustrated by Steve May.
Written by James Turner, the Poo Crew Adventures are about to take the world by storm, overflowing with fun facts and side-splitting hilarity. This fabulous new educational series for 7–11 year olds will have readers absolutely captivated. Steve’s wonderful characterful illustrations fill each page, as we take a journey of discovery through all aspects of the digestive system. From nutrition to the sewage system, animal excretions to record breakers and everything in between, this book is brimming with information.
Publishing in August, we think that this book is Top of the Plops! It will undoubtably leap off the shelf into readers hands, cleverly uniting a fun reading experience with mind-boggling scientific facts. You'll discover answers to the most important Digestion Questions... Why do we chew? Why do we fart? Why do cows have so many stomachs? And much, much more.
Praise for Poo Crew Adventures:
"Poo Crew Adventures is fart-out-loud hilarious! An amazingly fascinating gross-out journey of poo from the food we eat to the sewer it lands in, an everywhere in between. What an amazingly poopalicious way to learn about poo! I loved every disgusting second of it!" - Jamie Smart, creator of BUNNY VS MONKEY.
We were lucky enough to spend some time with Steve to talk about this project.
Can you show us what you would look like as one of the poo characters?
You must have learnt a heap of fun poo facts working on this project, which was the most interesting or surprising?
The fact that wombats do SQUARE POOS! That's definitely one of my favourites.
How do you give each individual poo its own character?
A lot of it comes down to the way I approach drawing gestures, poses and facial expressions. Our protagonists Professor Poo and Ploppy have very distinct characters so they behave differently. Professor Poo is extremely cool, knowledgeable and fairly unflappable. She's seen it all before but exudes quiet authoritative enthusiasm and delight at introducing Ploppy (and the reader) to the wonderful fascintating Poo-niverse (think David Attenborough but made of poo!) Ploppy is like an excitable kid, prone to sudden outbursts of extreme enthusiasm or sudden deep sulks (often in quick succession), as he encounters the wonderful world of poo for the VERY FIRST TIME!!! His poses are a lot more extreme and exuberant than the Professor's - he's a ball of energy, one minute he's delighted and the next he's a stroppy tornado of poo!
Is this one of the strangest projects you’ve worked on?
I must admit, my first reaction was "you want me to draw a book about WHAT!?!? but I've thoroughly enjoyed it. It's been an extremely strange project, but very funny and fascination; it's given me a lot of opportunity to be very inventive, James' text is great to illustrate.
Do you ever sneak things into illustrations which aren’t in your original brief?
Always! It's half the fun! I think it's my job to tell the story along with suggesting extra things that maybe the author hasn't thought about. I often make cameos in my books too, if you look carefully in this book I turn up as a zombie and a 1950's teddy boy (having a poo) too!
What do you enjoy most about the comic / graphic novel format?
I enjoy the opportunity of creating interesting visually striking layouts. Ideally you want the reader to be dragged into the world you're creating and make them want to turn the pages to see what's going to happen next.
This is just a small selection of some of our favourite illustrations from Poo Crew Adventures, Journey to Poo-topia. We think you’ll agree these droppings are really popping! You can see more plop-tastic illustrations from the book over on Steve's portfolio.
Steve has an incredibly successful track record in creating illustrations for younger fiction and comically themed projects, including the Dennis the Menace titles; and for clients including Marks and Spencer, The Discover Story Centre, The BBC, and the Guardian. Born in Hastings on the south coast, Steve May trained as an illustrator before relocating to deepest darkest north London. Both a skilled musician and animator, Steve’s talent for working both digitally and with pen and ink, coupled with his distinctive style has led him to be one of the most sought after artists, collaborating with some of the country’s most respected authors including Francesca Simon and more recently comedian Harry Hill. His skill for translating characters into illustration in the most entertaining and approachable way is second to none, with even the inanimate objects coming to life in his comedic character creations.
You can grab a copy of Poo Crew Adventures, Journey to Poo-topia HERE it publishes this August with Farshore.
You can find Steve May on Instagram, you can also view his amazing online portfolio HERE.
For more information regarding collaborating with Steve please email info@arenaillustration.com
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