Little known Jill Howarth Illustration fun fact: I actually did a power puff girls paperback (based on the classic episode, Bubble Trouble!) for Scholastic back when I was starting to try to transition from graphic designer to illustrator! This was back when I was fresh from Hasbro and one of my buddies in the illustration department (I worked in corporate design) had this job thrown at him by his rep and he didn't have the time nor inclination to work on it. I happily accepted not realizing at the time how much work it would really involve. I don't recall how much time I was given, but I wasn't the most accomplished vector artist, but by the time I was done, me and my trusty pen tool had become the best of friends. I wasn't given any parameters besides the obvious… keep 100% true to the brand and characters and tell the story in exactly 32 pages as told on the episode. I already loved the show, so that was a plus. I'm not sure if this is how most picture books go, since I haven't ever done another since, but it was totally up to me how best to edit the story visually on that set number of pages. I drew the characters to the best of my ability, but they still came back with multiple revisions, particularly to those giant eyeballs. I was pregnant with my twins at the time, but I managed to get it done. My only regrets are that they didn't let me do the type, (which ended up being the most heavy handed generic sans serif you can imagine) and they never gave me any credit for being the illustrator. And the cover sucked design-wise, but hey, I got paid!
So happy that they are bringing this show back. McCracken's stories and characters were smart and the styling, iconic. Can't wait to watch!! Long live Chemical X!
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