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Drew Aquilina  I have been a registered Landscape Architect for 13 years and a professional Cartoonist for over 20 years. Green pieces is naturally, the world's greenest and most environmentally friendly humor. My first book, Green Pieces: Green From the Pond Up, is a collection of the best daily cartoon strips. The collection is organized by seasons and features four main characters ~ protagonist Iggman, the claustrophobic turtle; antagonist Radic, an annoying dragonfly; Cabby, a highly intelligent bullfrog; and Roc, a dumpster diving raccoon. This feature showcases their wetland home and also includes the rest of the natural world to make you wonder, think and laugh. http://www.greenpiecescartoons.com http://greenpiecescartoons.blogspot.com/2010/05/green-pieces-merits-honorable-mention.html             Books-and-Authors.net: Where did you grow up and was reading and writing a part of your life? Who were your earliest influences and why? Drew Aquilina: I grew up in New Milford,Connecticut. I spent most of my time outside as most kids did at that time. My biggest influences during adolescence were the cartoon pages created by Charles Schulz, Mort Walker, Dik Browne and Johnny Hart. Later Gary Larson, Brian Walker, Berke Breathed and Bill Waterson became very influential. Every Sunday I would lay out the comics page and read the words and drink in the images. My mind back then, as it is today, always seemed to work better with images.   Books-and-Authors.net: Discuss your career as a cartoonist. Do you remember the first cartoon you created? Has any of your work ever been syndicated? Drew Aquilina: I started drawing cartoons to and for my friends including them at the end of letters during my first year of college. I had a 10-gallon fish tank that housedan Eastern Painted Turtle named Iggy and three Anoles named Nami, Cliffy and Carla. My friends knew them well so I would update the end of the letters with little cartoon updates of my pets’ exploits. After my first year of school, I returned home and decided that I really liked to draw cartoons and I should give it a try professionally. This goal was set without taking any drawing classes or knowing the first thing about how to create a cartoon. I kept Iggy as the main character and added Cabby the frog, Radic the dragonfly and a lizard named Clinster. My first cartoon was a strip that dealt with “art of a surprise attack” with Cabby pouncing out of a tree on Iggy’s head. It’s not much to look at and it took me the better part of the weekend to draw but I did it and the rest is history. I then transferred to University of Massachusetts Amherst and my cartoon was syndicated and ran in The Collegian newspaper as Iggman on Campus. Once I graduated with a degree in Landscape Architecture, I moved back to Connecticut. Soon after, my Dad told me the local paper was having a comic selection contest for two new comics and recommended I submit my work for consideration. I went down to the Danbury News-Times and submitted my cartoon and after heavy competition from various well-established syndicated material, my comic strip (now entitled) Green pieces© came in second place behind Brian Walker’s Hi and Lois. I was re-syndicated and all of sudden I was doing a daily strip in paper with a 30,000+distribution. My run in the News-Times ended in 1994 because my career as a Landscape Architect took center stage and it took me to Arizona to pursue that career fulltime. I continued to cartoon “on the side” until the end of 2008, when I shifted back to professional cartooning full time and Landscape Architecture full time.   Books-and-Authors.net: Discuss your new book GREEN PIECES GREEN FROM THE POND UP. How did this book come about? Drew Aquilina: After 15 years of drawing cartoons in various publications including the Newtown Bee, Western Connecticut State College Paper and the Arizona State newspaper, the State Press, I had over 500 cartoon boards in large boxes under a bed in the guestroom. My then girlfriend, now wife, Lisa, came across the boxes, looked at me and the work and said ‘you should put these in a book.’ Two years later after scanning, coloring and editing Green pieces©,Green Pieces: Green from the Pond Up was born. Books-and-Authors.net: GREEN PIECES GREEN FROM THE POND UP is an absolutely wonderful collection of cartoons with adorable characters (Iggy,Cabby, Radic, and Roc) -- What is your process when you sit down to create a story? Do you already have an illustrated idea? Drew Aquilina: Great question. For me and my characters, it really comes down to the premise or idea of what the strip will be about. When you have characters whose personalities are developed, you just have to create a situation, place the characters into that situation and have them react. The result is the strip that is Green pieces©. As far as the illustrations are concerned, once I get the idea for a story, the cartoon immediately runs in full color animation in my mind. Fortunately, all I have to do is pick out what scenes I need to make the strip as funny as possible, put ink to paper, edit the text and color the final product. Books-and-Authors.net: How is writing a cartoon like writing a short story or novel? What are the differences? Drew Aquilina: Creating a cartoon is different than a short story or novel in that the cartoonist has the ability to paint a picture using images in addition to words. As they say. a picture is worth a thousand words. The ultimate cartoon for me is one without any words that clearly communicates the intended message and still makes someone smile and/or laugh. In typical American-styled cartooning, you have four scenes, horizontally orientated, with the first scene introducing the idea, the next two sentences setting up the gag and the last scene revealing the gag and hopefully generating a laugh or smile. Conversely, there are many one-panel or one-strip cartoons that, when properly written, can relay a similar tone to a short story or an outline of a novel, even an outline of non-fiction. Green pieces© emphasizes exposing the reader to nature and natural happenings from the animals’ point of view. I use the strip to educate and compel the reader to explore real-life nature events.   Books-and-Authors.net: Discuss "Pacing" as it relates to writing cartoon stories. Drew Aquilina: Pacing is an interesting question when it comes to cartooning. The goal of any cartoon is to make people laugh. The challenge of a cartoon story is to reward both the loyal and first time reader. One valuable cartoon strip technique I learned from observing Berke Breathed and Bill Watterson was that when you are telling a story over several days and weeks, the first scene of each daily strip should be used to reintroduce the idea of the overall story. The goal is make each cartoon understandable and funny by itself while at the same time adding to the overall humorous conclusion of the story. This allows someone to pick up a newspaper a few days into a storyline and immediately know what was going on. You never want draw a cartoon that someone can’t understand if they read it as a stand-alone strip or draw a portion of a story that did not let the new reader in on overall story. This techniqueconsistently was seamlessly integrated into Bloom County and Calvin and Hobbes, two examples of brilliant writing and amazing art work, making these two cartoons the icons they are today.   Books-and-Authors.net: What do you hope to achieve with GREEN PIECES GREEN FROM THE POND UP? Drew Aquilina: The goal of Green Pieces© is two-fold. First, I live to make people laugh. Second, I am passionate about revealing and conveying to all readers the important relationship between people and nature. When we understand how closely tied we are to the environment, we will naturally want to protect and sustain the world around us. Everyone will benefit from the cartoon strip’s ability to draw on our natural instinct to protect the environment in a humorous and insightful way. Books-and-Authors.net: What was the last book you read? Drew Aquilina: The last book I read was the Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger. Most of my reading involves researching information for the cartoon strip. Being that it is about nature, I strive to create stories as accurately as possible. This gives the cartoon an underlying informative base that will leave the reader with much more than a good chuckle. Books-and-Authors.net: What's next? Drew Aquilina: Green pieces© is a daily cartoon strip and I continue to create new stories weekly. In between the marketing and promotion of Green From the Pond Up, signings, book festivals, radio and TV interviews, etc., I am back in the Studio producing new cartoons. My Studio, Green Pieces Cartoon Studio, plans to compile work from 2009 forward to my next compilation book, hopefully debuting the Winter of 2011-12. This next book of cartoons will take readers to the plains of Africa, to the under sea volcanic trenches and even to their own backyard, again, hopefully chuckling and laughing along the way.

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