Wednesday, July 31, 2024 The Workshop of Yore: The Cat from Mars

When I was seventh or eighth grade, I learned an invaluable skill from my art teacher: how to bind pages for a book and create a book cover. Believe it or not, this is a skill I’ve used many a time over the years, primarily when making books for my children’s school projects.

But back in the day (1970), I wrote AND illustrated my very first book, a book that I had sewn together and created the cover for myself. Today seemed like a good day to share it on the blog. Don’t be too hard on it – I was only 11 or 12 at the time. A couple things to note: I had no concept of perspective. Also, I didn’t like to draw hands, which you’ll notice. You can tell the year by all the bell bottoms in the drawings. 😂

Now for the text. You will not be surprised, knowing me, that it’s in poem form – limericks, to be exact. Illustrations will follow the text.

There once was a cat from Mars
And his name just happened to be Lars.
He was going to earth,
Two months after birth,
But instead he landed on the stars.

Now he came to a planet named Flurple
And its surface was completely purple.
He decided to land
So he moved his hand,
And there was his old friend Murple!

Now Murple was as thin as air
And he was shaped like a weird pear.
So down he went,
Down the vent.
Where he went? Who knows where!

Well Lars decided to come to earth
As he landed, he was full of mirth.
He quickly jumped out
And looked all about.
At last he was looking at the planet earth.

He was soon the center of all attention.
His face was as red as I could mention.
But it was too late,
He was to meet his fate,
For his presence had added to the people’s tension.

Just then I happened to come along,
And I told the people they were very wrong.
I picked up Lars
And he thanked his stars.
He was so happy he sang a song.
P.S. Lars floats!

We did have a whole lot of fun
But it was time for Lars to run.
So off he went
And to me he sent
A smile that was a bright as the sun.

The part about the planet Flurple always cracks me up. (Let’s see – if I name it Flurple, I can make the color of it purple!). Same thing with good old Murple who went down the mysterious vent on the planet’s surface.

If I ever get a book published, this first effort will remind me of my humble roots.

I once had blog named Belete,
Which I constantly had to delete.